with that he ftruck me another deadly blow on the breast, and beat me down backward; fo I lay at his foot as dead as before. When I came to myself again, I cried him mercy: but he faid, I know not how to fhew mercy; and with that knock'd me down again. He had doubtless made an end of me, but that one came by, and bid him forbear.

Chr. Who was that that bid him forbear?

Faith. I did not know him at firft; but as he went by, I perceived the holes in his hands and in his fide: then I concluded that he was our Lord. So I went up the hill.

Chr. The man that overtook you, was Mofes. He fpareth none, neither knoweth he how to fhew mercy to those that tranfgrefs his law.

Faith. I know it very well; it was not the first time that he has met with me. 'Twas he that came to me when I dwelt fecurely at home, and that told me he would burn my house over my head, if I ftaid there.

Chr. But did you not fee the house that stood there on the top of the hill, on the fide of which Moses met you?

Faith. Yes, and the lions too, before I came at it; but for the lions, I think they were asleep; for it was about noon: and because I had fo much of the day before me, I paffed by the Porter, and came down the hill.

Chr. He told me indeed, that he faw you go by; but I wish you had called at the house; for they would have fhewed you so many rarities, that you

would

mifed feed, bruifes the head of fatan, and rescues the prey from his hands. So likewife the law, lays hold of the believer as it were, and fays, Pay me what thou oweft; but the divine Jefus replies, Spare him, for I have found a ranfom.

would scarce have forgot them to the day of your death. But pray tell me, did you meet no body in the valley of Humility?

Faith. Yes, I met with one Discontent, who would willingly have perfuaded me to go back again with him his reafon was, for that the valley was altoge ther without honour. He told me moreover, that there to go, was to disoblige all my friends, as Pride, Arrogancy, Self-Conceit, Worldly-Glory, with others, who, he knew, as he faid, would be very much offended, if I made fuch a fool of myself as to wade through this valley.

Chr, Well, and how did you answer him?

Faith. I told him, That although all these that he named might claim a kindred of me, and that rightly, (for indeed they were my relations, according to the flesh) yet fince I became a pilgrim, they have disowned me, as I have also rejected them; and therefore they were to me now, no more than if they had never been of my lineage: I told him moreover, that as to this valley, he had quite mifrepresented the thing; for before honour is humility, and a haughty fpirit before a fall. Therefore, faid I,

I had rather go through this valley to the honour that was fo accounted by the wifeft, than choose that which he esteemed most worthy our affections.

Chr. Met you with nothing else in that valley? Faith. Yes, I met with Shame; but of all the men that I met with in my pilgrimage, he, I think, bears the wrong name. The other would be faid nay, after a little argumentation, and fomewhat elfe, but this boldfaced Shame would never have done?

Chr.

Faithful is next affaulted by Discontent and Shame. Difcontent is for perfuading him to return: and fuch is the language of all thofe who prefer the empty honours of this world, to the contempt and ignominy of the cross of Chrift. Shame is the

de

Chr. Why, What did he fay to you?

Faith. What! why he objected against religion itfelf; he said, 'Twas a pitiful, low fneaking bufinefs for a man to mind religion; he said that a tender confcience was an unmanly thing; and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, fo as to tie up himself from that hectoring liberty that the brave spirits of the times accuftom themselves unto, would make him the ridicule of the times. He objected also, that but few of the mighty, rich, or wife, were ever of my opinion; nor any of them neither, before they were perfuaded to be fools, and to be of a voluntary fondness to venture the lofs of all, for no body elfe knows what. (1 Cor. i. 26 ch. iii. 18. Phil. iii. 7, 9. John vii. 48.) He moreover objected the base and low eftate and condition of those that were chiefly the pilgrims of the times in which they lived; alfo their ignorance, and want of understanding in all natural fcience. Yea, he did hold me to it at that rate alfo, about a great many other things than here I relate; as that it was a fhame to fit whining and mourning under a fermon, and a shame to come fighing and groaning home: that it was a fhame to ask my neighbour forgiveness for petty faults, or to make restitution where I have taken from any. He faid alfo, that religion made a man grow ftrange to the great, because of a few vices, (which he called by finer names) and made

him

defcriptive and living character of thousands in our day. They are like the fpies of old, Numb. xiii. who fpread an evil report of the good land. They fpeak evil both of the ways and the people of God; account it the highest madness and folly, to forfake the world for the love of religion; and brand all its advocates with the nick-names of enthusiast, or methodist. The Chriftian is furnished both with an answer to all fuch gainfayers, and with proper matter for reflection, exemplified in the conduct of Faithful. He confults not with flesh and blood,

but

him own and respect the base, because of the fame religious fraternity: and is not this, faid he, a fhame? Chr. And what did you say to him?

Faith. Say! I could not tell what to say at first. Yea, he put me so to it, that my blood came up in my face; even this Shame fetch'd it up, and had almost beat me quite off. But, at laft, I began to confider, that that which is highly esteemed among men, is had in abomination with God, Luke xvi. 15. And I thought again, this Shame tells me what men are; but it tells me nothing what God or the word of God is. And I thought moreover, that at the day of doom we shall not be doomed to death or life, according to the hectoring spirits of the world, but according to the wisdom and law of the Highest. Therefore, thought I, what God fays, is beft, tho' all the men in the world are against it: feeing then that God prefers his religion; feeing God prefers a tender confcience; feeing they that make themselves fools for the kingdom of heaven, are wisest; and that the poor man that loveth Chrift, is richer than the greatest man in the world that hates him; Shame, depart, thou art an enemy to my falvation; fhall I entertain thee against my fovereign Lord? How then shall I look him in the face at his coming? (Mark viii. 38.) Should I now be afhamed of his ways and fervants, how can I expect the bleffing? But indeed this Shame was a bold villain; I could fcarce fhake him out of my company: yea, he would be haunting of me, and continually whispering

but compares the character of Shame with the word of God, by which it appears that the Lord condemns all fuch abusers of his mercy and grace; and though they may have the diftinction in this world for eminence, yet at the great day, the defpifed followers of Jefus will be owned and accepted, whilft the haughty and perfecuting of this world will be everlastingly rejected.

ing me in the ear, with fome one or other of the infirmities that attend religion; but at last I told him, it was but in vain to attempt further in this business; for those things that he difdained, in those did I fee most glory: and so at last I got past this importunate And when I had shaken him off, then I began

one.

to fing:

The trials that those men do meet withal,
That are obedient to the heavenly call,
Are manifold and fuited to the flesh,
And come, and come, and come again afresh;
That now, or fome time elfe, we by them may
Be taken, overcome, and caft away.
O let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then
Be vigilant and quit themselves like men.

Chr. I am glad, brother, that thou didst withstand this villain fo bravely; for of all, as thou fayeft, I think he has the wrong name; for he is fo bold as to follow us in the streets, and to attempt to put us to fhame before all men, that is, to make us ashamed of that which is good; but if he was not himfelf audacious, he would never attempt to do as he does; but let us still refift him; for notwithstanding all his bravado's, he promoteth the fool, and none else. The wife fhall inherit glory, faid Solomon; but fhame fhall be the promotion of fools, Prov. iii. 35.

Faith. I think we must cry to Him for help against Shame, that would have us to be valiant for truth upon the earth.

Chr. You fay true: but did you meet no body elfe in that valley?

all

Faith. No, not I, for I had fun-fhine all the rest of the way through that, and also through the valley of the fhadow of death.

Chr.