Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

16

CHRISTIAN MET BY EVANGELIST;

What dost thou here, CHRISTIAN? said he. At which words CHRISTIAN knew not what to answer; wherefore at present he stood speechless before him. Then said EVANGELIST further, Art thou not the man that I found crying without the walls of the city of DESTRUCTION?

CHR. Yes, dear Sir, I am the man.

EVAN. Did not I direct thee the way to the little WICKET-GATE?

Yes, dear Sir, said CHRISTIAN?

EVAN. How is it then that thou art so quickly turned aside? for thou art now out of the way.

CHR. I met with a gentleman, so soon as I had got over the slough of DESPOND, who persuaded me that I might in the village before me find a man that could take off my burden.

EVAN. What was he?

CHR. He looked like a gentleman, and talked much to me, and got me at last to yield; so I came hither: but when I beheld this hill, and how it hangs over the way, I suddenly made a stand lest it should fall on my head.

EVAN. What said that gentleman to you?

CHR. Why he asked me whither I was going: and I told him.

EVAN. And what said he then?

CHR. He asked me if I had a family: and I told him. But, said I, I am so loaded with the burden that is on my back, that I cannot take pleasure in them as formerly.

EVAN. And what said he then?

WHO CONVINCES HIM OF HIS ERROR.

my

17

burden;

CHR. He bid me with speed get rid of and I told him it was ease that I sought. And, said I, I am therefore going to yonder gate to receive further directions how I may get to the place of deliverance. So he said that he would show me a better way, and short, not so attended with difficulties as the way, Sir, that you set me in; which way, said he, will direct you to a gentleman's house that has skill to take off these burdens: so I believed him, and turned out of that way into this, if haply I might be soon eased of my burden. But when I came to this place, and beheld things as they are, I stopped for fear, as I said, of danger: but now know not what to do.

Then, said EVANGELIST, stand still a little that I may shew thee the words of God. So he stood trembling. Then said EVANGELIST, "See that ye refuse

66

not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who “refused him that spake on earth, much more shall "not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh "from heaven'." He said moreover, "Now the just "shall live by faith; but if any man draw back my "soul shall have no pleasure in him." He also did thus apply them: Thou art the man that art running into this misery: thou hast begun to reject the counsel of the Most High, and to draw back thy foot from the way of peace, even almost to the hazarding of thy perdition.

Then CHRISTIAN fell down at his feet as dead, crying "Woe is me, for I am undone!" At the sight of which EVANGELIST caught him by the right hand, 2 Hcb. x. 38.

1 Heb. xii. 25.

18

THE FALLACIES OF WORLDLY-WISEMAN

saying, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be

[ocr errors]

forgiven unto men:" "be not faithless but believing." Then did CHRISTIAN again a little revive, and stood up trembling, as at first, before EVANGELIST.

Then EVANGELIST proceeded, saying, Give more earnest heed to the things that I shall tell thee of. I will now show thee who it was that deluded thee, and who it was also to whom he sent thee. The man that met thee is one WORLDLY-WISEMAN, and rightly is he so called; partly because he savoureth only the doctrine of this world', (therefore he always goes to the town of MORALITY to church;) and partly because he loveth that doctrine best, for it saveth him best from the cross2: and because he is of this carnal temper therefore he seeketh to pervert my ways, though right. Now there are three things in this man's counsel that thou must utterly abhor:-his turning thee out of the way; his labouring to render the cross odious to thee; -and his setting thy feet in that way that leadeth unto the ministration of death.

First, thou must abhor his turning thee out of the way, yea, and thine own consenting thereto; because this is to reject the counsel of God for the sake of the counsel of a worldly wise man. The Lord says, "Strive "to enter in at the strait gate," (the gate to which I send thee)" for strait is the gate that leadeth unto "life, and few there be that find it"." From this little WICKET-GATE, and from the way thereto, hath this wicked man turned thee, to the bringing of thee almost to destruction. Hate, therefore, his turning 1 1 John iv. 5. a Gal. vi. 12. 3 Luke xiii. 24. Matt. vii. 13, 14.

AND LEGALITY DETECTED.

19

thee out of the way, and abhor thyself for hearkening to him.

Secondly, thou must abhor his labouring to render the cross odious unto thee; for thou art to " prefer it "before the treasures in Egypt'." Besides, the King of Glory hath told thee, that he that will save his "life shall lose it:" and, "He that comes after me, " and hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and "children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own "life also, cannot be my disciple"." I say, therefore, for a man to labour to persuade thee that that shall be thy death, without which the TRUTH hath said thou canst not have eternal life: this doctrine thou must abhor.

Thirdly, thou must hate his setting of thy feet in the way that leadeth to the ministration of death. And for this thou must consider to whom he sent thee, and also how unable that person was to deliver thee from thy burden.

He to whom thou wast sent for ease, being by name LEGALITY, is "the son of the bond-woman which "now is, and is in bondage with her children3;" and is, in a mystery, this mount SINAI which thou hast feared will fall on thy head. Now if she with her children are in bondage, how canst thou expect by them to be made free? This LEGALITY, therefore, is not able to set thee free from thy burden. No man was as yet ever rid of his burden by him; no, nor ever is like to be. "Ye cannot be justified by the works

1 Heb. xi. 25, 26.

2 Matt. x. 37-39. Mark viii. 34, 35. Luke xiv. 26, 27. 3 Gal, iv, 21-27.

John xii. 25.

20

[ocr errors]

CHRISTIAN GREATLY TERRIFIED.

"of the law; for by the deeds of the law no man living" can be rid of his burden: therefore Mr. WORLDLY-WISEMAN is an alien, and Mr. LEGALITY a cheat and for his son CIVILITY, notwithstanding his simpering looks, he is but a hypocrite, and cannot help thee. Believe me, there is nothing in all this noise that thou hast heard of these sottish men, but a design to beguile thee of thy salvation by turning thee from the way in which I had set thee. After this EVANGELIST called aloud to the heavens for confirmation of what he had said; and with that there came words and fire out of the mountain under which poor CHRISTIAN stood, that made the hair of his flesh stand up. The words were thus pronounced: "As

[ocr errors]

many as are of the works of the law are under the

curse for it is written, Cursed is every one that " continueth not in all things which are written in the "book of the law to do them'."

- Now CHRISTIAN looked for nothing but death, and began to cry out lamentably; even cursing the time in which he met with Mr. WORLDLY-WISEMAN; still calling himself a thousand fools for hearkening to his counsel. He also was greatly ashamed to think that this gentleman's arguments, flowing only from the flesh, should have the prevalency with him as to cause him to forsake the right way. This done, he applied himself again to EVANGELIST in words and sense as follows:

Sir, what think you? Is there hope? May I now go back and go up to the WICKET-GATE? Shall I not

I Gal. iii. 10.

« ZurückWeiter »