Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing:

Thus far did I come laden with my sin;
Nor could ought ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither. What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bind it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre ! blest rather be
The man that there was put to shame for me!

EXPLANATORY NOTES.

THIS short chapter contains one of the most important event in the whole work. Here we are figuratively shown," the happy effect of faith, as to the believer's conscience; or the way in which he obtains deliverance from guilt. The. pilgrim was certainly a christian when he entered the Wicketgate, but he was not a joyful and happy christian, till he arrived at the cross. The soul that sees Jesus as the only way to the Father, and walks in him as such, is in a safe condition, though destitute of assurance as to personal interest. Faith, or believing, has always respect to something revealed, but that Christ died for me in particular, is not revealed, and therefore the believing of it is not faith. Nevertheless, this blessed knowledge of personal interest in Christ, is both de sirable and attainable: and a real christian cannot be sati-fied without it. Reader, would you obtain this happiness, look to Jesus; consider the love of his heart in dying for the chief of sinners; remember that he fully satisfied for sin on the cross, and redeemed us from the curse of the law, being "made a curse for us," Gal iii. 13.

Here look till love dissolve your heart,
And bid invading fears depart.

Christian, now a strong believer, is favoured with three distinguishing blessings, which are the fruits of faith. First, The knowledge of forgiveness through the death of Christ. Secondly, The acceptance of his person, through the imputation of the Redeemer's righteousness: and, Thirdly, The Holy Spirit, as a sanctifier, impressing the holy image of Christ upon him, so as to be visible to all; and, as a Com-: forter, in giving him a roll, containing the evidences of his adoption. No wonder, that thus blessed, he gave three leaps for joy, for such a joy is " unspeakable, and full of glory!"

CHAP VII.

Christian finds Simple, Sloth, and Presumption fast asleep-Is despised by Formalist and Hypocrisy-Ascends the Hill Difficulty-Loses his Roll, and finds it again.

I SAW then in my dream, that he went on thus,

even until he came at the bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three men fast asleep, with fetters upon their heels. The name of the one was Simple, another Sloth, and the third Presumption.

Christian then seeing them lie in this case, went to them, if peradventure he night awake them; and cried, You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast (a), for the dead sea is under you, a gulph that hath no bottom: awake, therefore, and come away; be willing also, and I will help you off with your irons. He also told them, If he that gotth about like a roaring lion (b) comes by, you will certainly become a prey to his teeth. With that they looked upon him, and began to reply in this sort: Simple said, I see no danger: Sloth said, Yet a little more sleep and Presumption said, Every tub must stand upon its own bottom. And so they lay down to sleep again, and Christian went on his way.

Yet was he troubled to think, that men in that danger should so little esteem the kindness of him that so freely offered to help them, both by the awakening of them, counselling of them, and proffering to help them off with their irons. And as he was troubled thereabout, he espied two men come tumbling over the wall, on the left hand of the narrow way; and they made up apace to him. The name of the one was Formalist, and the name of the other Hypocrisy. So, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus entered with them into discourse.

Chr. Gentlenen, whence came you, and whither go you?

Form. and Hyp. We were born in the land of Vain-Glory, and are going for praise to Mount Sion.

Chr. Why came you not in at the gate which standeth at the beginning of the way? Know you not that it is written, "That he that cometh not in "by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber (c).”

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Form. and Hyp. They said, That to go to the gate of 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?

Form. and Hyp. They told him, That as for that, he needed not to 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.

Chr. But will your practice stand a trial at law?

Form. and Hyp. 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, say they, if we get into the way, what matter 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 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

(c) John x. 1.

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 two 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 (d), 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 on my back! a coat that he gave me freely on the day that he stript 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 coelestial gate, in token of my certain going in after it; all which things I doubt 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 went on all, save that Christian kept before, who had no more talk but with himself, and

(d) Gal. ii. 16.

that sometimes sighingly, and sometimes comfortably also he would be often reading in the rol!, that one of the Saining Ones gave him, by which he was refreshed.

I beheld then, 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 way going up to the side of the hill is called Difficulty. Christian now went to the spring (e), and drank thereof to refresh himself, and then began to go up the hill, saying,

The hill, tho' 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, tho' difficult, the right way to go,

Than wrong, tho' easy, where the end is woe.

The other two also came to the foot of the hill; but when they saw that the bill was steep and high ; and that there were two other ways to go; and supposing also that these two ways meet again with that up which Christian went, on the other side of the hill: therefore 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 bill, where I perceived he fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands.

(e) Isa. xlix. 10.