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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, "He that cometh not in by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber"?

They said, "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?

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

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

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 an impartial Judge; and, besides," said they, "if we get into the way, what matters it which way we get in? If we are in, we are in: thou art but in the way, who, as we perceive, came in at the gate; and we are also in the way, that came tumbling over the wall; wherein now is thy condition better than ours?"

CHR. I walk by the rule of my Master; you walk by the

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FORMALIST AND HYPOCRISY.

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rude working of your fancies. You are counted thieves already by the Lord of the way; therefore I doubt you will not be found true men at the end of the way. You came in by yourselves, without His direction; and shall go out by yourselves, without His mercy.

To this they made him but little answer; only they bid him look to himself. Then I saw that they went on every man in his way, without much conference one with another; save that these men told Christian, that as to laws and ordinances, they doubted not but they should as conscientiously do them as he; "Therefore," said they, "we see not wherein thou differest from us, but by the coat that is on thy back, which was, as we trow, given thee by some of thy neighbours, to hide the shame of thy nakedness."

CHR. By laws and ordinances you will not be saved, since you came not in by the door. And as for this coat that is on my back, it was given me by the Lord of the place whither I go; and that, as you say, to cover my nakedness with. And I take it as a token of kindness to me; for I had nothing but rags before; and besides, thus I comfort myself as I go: Surely, think I, when I come to the gate of the city, the Lord thereof will know me for good, since I have His coat upon my back-a coat that He gave me freely in the day that He stripped me of my rags. I have, moreover, a mark in my forehead, of which, perhaps, you have taken no notice, which one of my Lord's most intimate associates fixed there in the day that my burden fell off my shoulders. I will tell you, moreover, that I had then given me a roll, sealed, to comfort me by reading as I go on the way; I was also bid to give it in at the Celestial Gate, in token of my certain going in after it: all which things, I trow, you want, and want them because you came not in at the gate.

To these things they gave him no answer; only they looked upon each other and laughed. Then I saw that they all went on, save that Christian kept before, who had no more talk but with himself, and that, sometimes sighingly, and sometimes comfortably; also, he would often read in the roll that one of the shining ones gave him, by which he was refreshed.

I beheld that they all went on till they came to the foot of the hill Difficulty, at the bottom of which was a spring. There were also in the same place, two other ways, besides that which came straight from the gate; one turned to the left hand, and the other to the right, at the bottom of the hill; but the narrow way lay right up the hill, and the name of the going up the side of the hill is called Difficulty. Christian now went to the spring and drank thereof to refresh himself, and then began to go up the hill, saying

"This hill, though high, I covet to ascend,
The difficulty will not me offend;
For I perceive the way to life lies here:
Come, pluck up heart, let's neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe."

The other two also came to the foot of the hill; but when they saw that the hill was steep and high, and that there

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were two other ways to go (supposing also that these two ways might meet again with that up which Christian went, on the other side of the hill), they were resolved to go in those ways. Now the name of one of those ways was Danger, and the name of the other Destruction. So the one took the way which is called Danger, which led him into a great wood; and the other took directly up the way to Destruction, which led him into a wide field, full of dark mountains, where he stumbled and fell, and rose no more.

I looked then after Christian, to see him go up the hill, where I perceived he fell from running to walking, and from walking to clambering upon his hands and knees, because of the steepness of the place. Now about the midway to the top of the hill was a pleasant arbour, made by the Lord of the hill for the refreshment of weary travellers: thither, therefore, Christian got, where he also sat down to rest him. Then he pulled his roll out of his bosom, and read therein to his comfort; he also now began afresh to take a review of the coat or garment that was given him as he stood by the cross. Thus pleasing himself awhile, he at last fell into a slumber, and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night: and in his sleep his roll fell out of his hand. Now as he was sleeping, there came one to him, and awakened him, saying, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:" and with that Christian suddenly started up, and sped on his way; and went apace till he came to the top of the hill.

Now when he had got to the top of the hill, there came two men running to meet him amain; the name of the one was Timorous, and of the other Mistrust; to whom Christian said, "Sirs, what is the matter? You run the wrong way." Timorous answered, that "they were going to the City of Zion, and had got up that difficult place; but" said he, "the farther we go, the more danger we meet with; wherefore we turned, and are going back again."

"Yes," said Mistrust; "for just before us lie a couple of lions in the way (whether sleeping or waking we know not); and we could not but think, if we came within reach, that they would presently pull us in pieces."

Then said Christian, "You make me afraid; but whither shall I flee to be safe? If I go back to my own country, that is prepared for fire and brimstone, and I shall certainly perish there: if I can get to the Celestial City, I am sure to be in safety there: I must venture. To go back is nothing but death; to go forward is fear of death, and life everlasting beyond it: I will yet go forward." So Mistrust and Timorous ran down the hill, and Christian went on his way. But, thinking again of what he had heard from the men, he felt in his bosom for his roll, that he might read therein, and be comforted: he felt, yet found it not. Then was Christian in great distress, and knew not what to do; for he wanted that which used to relieve him, and that which should have been his pass into the Celestial City. Here, therefore, he began to be much perplexed, and knew not what to do; at last he bethought himself that he had slept in the arbour on the side of the hill; and falling down upon

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