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CHR. Nay, she did not promise you the content of a good conscience.

FAITH. You know that I mean all carnal and fleshly content.

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CHR. Thank God you have escaped her: "the abhorred of the Lord shall fall into her ditch'.' FAITH. Nay, I know not whether I did wholly escape her or no.

CHR. Why, I trow you did not consent to her de

sires.

FAITH. No, not to defile myself, for I remembered an old writing that I had seen, which said, "her steps take hold on hell" So I shut mine eyes because I would not be bewitched with her looks:-then she railed on me, and I went my way.

CHR. Did you meet with no other assault as you came ?

FAITH. When I came to the foot of the hill called DIFFICULTY, I met with a very aged man, who asked me what I was, and whither bound? I told him that I was a pilgrim going to the Celestial City. Then said the old man, Thou lookest like an honest fellow; wilt thou be content to dwell with me, for the wages that I shall give thee? Then I asked him his name, and where he dwelt? He said, His name was ADAM THE FIRST, and that he dwelt in the town of DECEIT I asked him then what was his work? and what the wages that he would give? He told me, that his work was many delights; and his wages, that I should be his heir at last. I further asked what house he kept, and what 1 Prov. xxii. 14 - 2 Prov. v. S. Job, xxxi. x. ♦ Ephes, iv. 22.

other servants he had? So he told me, that his house was maintained with all the dainties in the world: and that his servants were those of his own begetting. Then I asked how many children he had? He said, that he had but three daughters, "the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life";" and that I should marry them if I would. Then I asked how long time he would have me to live with him? And he told me, as long as he lived himself.

CHR. Well, and what conclusion came the old man and you to at last?

FAITH. Why, at first I found myself somewhat inclinable to go with the man, for I thought he spake very fair; but looking in his forehead as I talked with him, I saw there witten, ". Put off the old man with "his deeds"

CHR. And how then?

FAITH. Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his house, he would sell me for a slave. So I bid him forbear to talk, for I would not come near the door of his house. Then he reviled me, and told me, that he would send such a one after me that should make my way bitter to my soul. So I turned to go away from him; but just as I turned myself to go thence, I felt him take hold of my flesh, and gave me such a deadly twitch back, that I thought he had pulled part of me after himself: this made me cry, O wretched man!-So I went on my way up the hill. Now, when I had got about John, ii. 16.

half way up, I looked

2 Rom. vii, 24.

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78 WAS ALMOST SLAIN BY MOSES, BUT SAVEN BY CHRIST.

behind me, and saw one coming after me, swift as the wind; so he overtook me just about the place where the settle stands.

Just there, said CHRISTIAN, did I sit down to rest me; but being overcome with sleep I there lost this roll out of my bosom.

FAITH. But, good brother, hear me out: so soon as the man overtook me, he was but a word and a blow, for down he knocked me, and laid me for dead. But when I was a little come to myself again, I asked him wherefore he served me so? He said, because of my secret inclining to ADAM THE FIRST: and with that he struck me another deadly blow on the breast, and beat me down backward: so I lay at his foot as dead as before. When I came to myself again I cried him mercy but he said, I know not how to show mercy; and with that knocked 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 first, but as he went by I perceived the holes in his hands and in his side: then I concluded that he was our LORD. So I went up the hill.

CHR. That man that overtook you was MOSES. He spareth none, neither knoweth he how to show mercy to those that transgress his law.

FAITH. I know it very well; it was not the first time that he has met with me. It was he that came to me when I dwelt securely at home, and that told me he would burn my house over my head if I staid there.

CHR. But did you not see the house that stood there on the top of the hill on the side 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 so much of the day before me, I passed by the PORTER and came down the hill.

CHR. He told me, indeed, that he saw you go by; but I wish you had called at the house, for they would have showed you so many rarities, that you would scarce have forgot them to the day of your death. But pray tell me, did you meet nobody in the valley of HUMI

LITY?

FAITH. Yes, I met with one DISCONTENT, who would willingly have persuaded me to go back again with him his reason was, for that the valley was altogether without honour. He told me moreover, that there to go was the way to disoblige all my friends, as PRIDE, ARROGANCY, SELF-CONCEIT, WORLDLY. GLORY, with others, who he knew, as he said, would be very much offended if I made such 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 kindred of me, and that rightly, (for indeed they were my relations according to the flesh;) yet since I became a pilgrim they have dis owned me, and I also have rejected them, and therefore they are 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 misrepresented the thing; for "before honour is humility," " and a haughty spirit "before a fall." Therefore, said I, I had rather go through this valley to the honour that was so accounted by the wisest, 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 said nay after a little argumentation and somewhat else: but that bold-faced SHAME Would never have done.

CHR. Why, what did he say to you?

FAITH. What! why he objected against religion itself; he said, It was a pitiful, low, sneaking business for a man to mind religion; he said, that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing; and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, so as to tie up himself from that hectoring liberty that the brave spirits of the times accustom themselves unto, would make him the ridicule of the times.. He objected also, that but few mighty, rich, or wise, were ever of my opinion; nor any of them neither, before they were persuaded to be fools, and to be of a voluntary fondness to venture the loss of all for nobody knows what', He moreover objected the base and low estate and condition of those that were chiefly the pilgrims of the times in which they lived; also their ignorance, and want of understanding in all natural science. Yea, he did hold me to it at that rate also about a great many more things than

John, vii. 48. 1 Cor. i, 26. iii, 18, Phil. iii. 7-9.

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