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am weary of my inward fickness: I would fain be where I fhall die no more, and with the company that shall continually cry, Holy, Holy, Holy.

Then faid Charity to Chriftian, Have you a family? Are you a married man?

Chr. I have a wife and four fmall children. Char. And why did you not bring them along with you?

Chr. Then Chriftian wept, and said, Oh! how willingly would I have done it! but they were all of them utterly averfe to my going on pilgrimage.

Char. But you should have talked to them, and have endeavoured to have fhewn them the danger of staying behind.

Chr. So I did; and told them alfo what God had fhewn to me of the deftruction of our city; but I feemed to them as one that mocked, and they believed me not.

Char. And did you pray to God that he would blefs your counsel to them?

Chr. Yes, and that with much affection; for you must think that my wife and poor children were very dear to me.

that we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. Abftractedly from Jefus Chrift there is no God, for He is the true God, and eternal life Little children, keep yourselves from idols; for the Lord has faid, by his prophet Ifaiah,"There is no God elfe, befides me, a juft God and a Sa"viour; there is none befides me."

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Char. But did you tell them of your own forrow, and fear of destruction? For I fuppofe that deftruction was visible enough to you.

Chr. Yes, over, and over, and over. They might also see my fears in my countenance, in my tears, and alfo in my trembling under the apprehenfion of the judgment which did hang over our heads: but all was not fufficient to prevail with them to come with me.

Char. But what could they fay for themselves why they came not?

Chr. Why, my wife was afraid of lofing this world; and my children were given to the foolish delights of youth fo, what by one thing and what by another, they left me to wander in this manner alone.

Char. But did you not with your vain life damp all that you faid by words in the way of perfuafion 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 converfation, may foon overthrow what by argument or perfuafion he doth labour to fasten upon others for their good. Yet, this I can fay, I was very wary of giving them occafion, by any unseemly action, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage. Yea, for this very thing, they would tell me I was too precife, and that I denied myself things (for their fakes) in which they faw no evil. Nay, I think I may say, that if what

they

they faw in me did hinder them, it was my great tenderness in finning against God, or of doing any wrong to my neighbour.

Char. Indeed Cain hated his brother, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous; and if thy wife and children have been offended with thee for this, they thereby fhew themselves to be implacable to good; and thou haft delivered thy foul from their blood.

Now I faw in my dream, that thus they fat talking together until fupper was ready. So when they had made ready, they fat down to meatd. Now the table was furnished with fat things, and with

This fupper represents the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, which was inftituted by our bleffed Lord, and is to be continued in the visible church until he comes again. Melchifedeck, when he met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, gave him bread and wine, which are the elements to be received in the Lord's Supper. The end of this ordinance is, to difcern the Lord's body; in the mystery of his perfon, God and Man; in the mystery of his incarnation, fufferings, and death, as being made fin for us who knew no fin, and as putting away fin by the facrifice of himself; and in the mystery of that myftical union, whereby, as being members of the fame body, we are members one of another, and, as being united to Jefus our living head, we are united one to another. St. Paul fays, in his first epistle to the Corinthians," The cup of bleffing which we blefs, is it not "the communion of the blood of Chrift? The bread which "we break, is it not the communion of the body of Chrift? "For we, being many, are one bread and one body; for we "are all partakers of that one bread." F 2

wine

wine well refined: and all their talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill; as, namely, about what He had done; and wherefore He did what He did; and why He had built that house; and, by what they faid, I perceived that he had been a great warrior, and had fought with and flain him that had the power of death, but not without great danger to himself, which made me love him the more. For, as they faid, and, as I believe, he did it with the lofs of much blood; but that which put glory of grace into all he did, was, that he did it of pure love to his country. Befides, there were fome of them of the household who faid that they had been with him, and had spoken with him fince he did die on the cross; and they have attefted, that they had it from his own lips, that he is fuch a lover of poor pilgrims, that 'the like is not to be found from the eaft to the west. They moreover gave an inftance of what they affirmed, which was, that he had stript himself of his glory, that he might do this for the poor; and they heard him fay and affirm, That he would not dwell in the mountain of Zion alone. They faid moreover, That he had made pilgrims princes, though by nature they were beggars born, and their original had been the dunghill.

Thus they difcourfed together till late at night; and after they had committed themselves to their Lord for protection, they betook themselves to reft. The pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber,

whofe

whose window opened towards the fun-rifing: the name of the chamber was Peace, where he flepttill break of day, and then he awoke and fang,

Where am I now! Is this the love and care
Of Jefus, for the men who pilgrims are,
Thus to provide! That I fhall be forgiven,

And dwell already the next door to heaven.

So, in the morning, they all got up; and, after fome more discourse, they told him that he fhould not depart till they had fhewed him the rarities of that place.

First they had him into the ftudy, where they shewed him records of the greatest antiquity f: as I remember my dream, they fhewed him the pedigree of the Lord of the hill, that he was the fon of the Ancient of Days, and came by that eternal generation. Here also were more fully recorded the acts which he had done; and the names of many hundreds whom he had taken into his fervice; and

This peace is the fruit of the fpirit by the revelation of Chrift to the foul; for there is all joy and peace in believing: the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of Chrift's righteoufnefs, revealed by the spirit and received by faith, is quietnefs and affurance for ever.

f Thefe records of the greatest antiquity mean the Scriptures, which were given by the infpiration of God. Thefe were kept in the ftudy, fignifying, that they are not only to be read, but studied; not only to be ftudied, but to be prayed over, that the Lord would give us an infight into the meaning and mystery, whereby we may be enabled to understand what the will of the Lord is.

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