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out,

THEY FIND OLD HONEST, OF THE TOWN STUPIDITY.

What's the matter? Who are you? and what is your business here?'

-

GR.-H. Come, man, be not so hot, here is none but friends. Yet the old man gets up, and stands upon his guard, and will know of them what they were. Then said the guide, My name is GREAT, HEART; I am the guide of these pilgrims, which are going to the celestial country.

Then said Mr. HONEST, I cry your mercy; I feared that you had been of the company of those that sometime ago did rob LITTLE-FAITH of his money; but now I look better about me, I perceive you are honester people.

GR.-H. Why, what would or could you have done, or helped yourself, if we indeed had been of that company?

HON. Done! why I would have fought as long as breath had been in me; and had I so done, I am sure you could never have given me the worst on't; for a christian can never be overcome, unless he should yield himself.

Well said, father HONEST, quoth the guide; for by this I know thou art a cock of the right kind, for thou hast said the truth.

HON, And by this also I know that thou knowest what true pilgrimage is: for all others do think, that we are the soonest overcome of any.

GR.-H. Well, now we are happily met, let me crave your name, and the name of the place you came from?

HON. My name I cannot: but I came from the town of STUPIDITY; it lieth about four degrees be. yond the city of DESTRUCTION.

THE CAUSE OF HIS LEAVING THAT DREARY PLACE.

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GR.-H. Oh! are you that countryman then? I deem I have half a guess of you: your name is old HONESTY, is it not? So the old gentleman blush'd, and said, Not HONESTY in the abstract: but HONEST is my name, and I wish that my nature may agree to what I am called.

But, Sir, said the old gentleman, how could you guess that I am such a man, since I came from such a place.

GR.-H. I have heard of you before, by my Master; for he knows all things that are done on the earth: but I have often wondered that any should come from your place, for your town is worse than is the city of DESTRUCTION itself.

HON. Yes, we lie more off from the sun, and so are more cold and senseless; but was a man in a mountain of ice, yet if the Sun of Righteousness will arise upon him, his frozen heart shall feel a thaw. And thus it has been with me.

GR.-H. I believe it, father HONEST, I believe it; for I know the thing is true.

Then the old gentleman saluted all the pilgrims with a holy kiss of charity; and asked them of their names, and how they had fared since they had set out on their pilgrimage.

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Then said CHRISTIANA, My name, I suppose, you have heard of; good CHRISTIAN was my husband, and these four were his children. But can you think how the old gentleman was taken, when she told him who she was! He skipped, he smiled, and blessed them with a thousand good wishes; saying,

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HIS AFFECTIONATE BEHAVIOUR TO THE PILGRIMS.

I have heard much of your husband, and of his travels and wars, which he underwent in his days. Be it spoken to your comfort, the name of your husband rings all over these parts of the world; his faith, his courage, his enduring, and his sincerity under all, has made his name famous. Then he turned him to the boys, and asked of them their names, which they told him. And then said he unto them-MATTHEW, be thou like MATTHEW the publican, not in vice but in virtue. SAMUEL, saith he, be thou like SAMUEL the prophet, a man of faith and prayer. JOSEPH, said he, be thou like JOSEPH in POTIPHAR's house, chaste, and one that flees from temptation. And JAMES, be thou like JAMES the JUST, and like JAMES the brother of our Lord'. Then they told him of MERCY, and how she had left her town and her kindred to come along with CHRISTIANA and with her sons. At that the old honest man said, MERCY is thy name: by mercy shalt thou be sustained, and carried through all those difficulties that shall assault thee in thy way, till thou shalt come thither, where thou shalt look the fountain of mercy in the face with comfort.

All this while the guide, Mr. GREAT-HEART, was very well pleased, and smiled upon his companions.

Now, as they walked together, the guide asked the old gentleman if he did not know one Mr. FEARING, that came on pilgrimage out of his parts?

Yes, very well, said he. He was a man that had the root of the matter in him; but he was one of the

Matt. x. 3. Ps. XCIX. 6. Gen. xxxix. Acts, i. 13, 14.

THE TROUBLESOME PILGRIMAGE OF FEARING.

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most troublesome pilgrims that I ever met with in all my days.

GR-H. I perceive you knew him; for you have given a very right character of him.

HON. Knew him! I was a great companion of his : I was with him most an end; when he first began to think of what would come upon us hereafter, I was with him.

GR.-H. I was his guide from my master's house to the gate of the celestial city.

HON. Then you knew him to be a troublesome

one.

GR.-H. I did so; but I could very well bear it; for men of my calling are oftentimes intrusted with the conduct of such as he was.

HON. Well then, pray let us hear a little of him, and how he managed himself under your conduct.

GR.-H. Why, he was always afraid that he should come short whither he had a desire to go. Every thing frighted him that he heard any body speak of, that had but the least appearance of opposition in it. I hear that he lay roaring at the slough of DESPOND, for above a month together; nor durst he, for all he saw several go over before him, venture, though they many of them offered to lend him their hand. He would not go back again neither. The celestial city! he said, he should die if he came not to it; and yet was dejected at every difficulty, and stumbled at every straw that any body cast in his way.--Well, after he had lain at the slough of DESPOND a great while, as I have told you, one sun-shine morning, I don't know

100 HIS BEHAVIOUR AT THE SEVERAL PLACES HE CAME TO.

how, he ventured, and so got over: but when he was over, he would scarce believe it. He had, I think, a slough of despond in his mind, a slough that he carried every where with him, or else he could never have been as he was. So he came up to the gate (you know what I mean,) that stands at the head of this way; and there also he stood a good while, before he would venture to knock. When the gate was opened, he would give back, and give place to others, and say, that he was not worthy: for all he got before some to the gate, yet many of them went in before him. There the poor man would stand shaking and shrinking; I dare say it would have pitied one's heart to have seen him :-nor would he go back again. At last he took the hammer that hanged at the gate in his hand, and gave a small rap or two; then one opened to him, but he shrunk back as before. He that opened, stepped out after him, and said, Thou trembling one, what 'wantest thou?' With that he fell down to the ground. He that spake to him, wondered to see him so faint. He said to him, Peace to thee; up, for I have set ' open the door to thee; come in, for thou art blessed.' With that he got up, and went in trembling; and when that he was in, he was ashamed to show his face. Well, after he had been entertained there awhile, (as you know how the manner is,) he was bid go on his way, and also told the way he should take. So he went till he came to our house: but as he behaved himself at the gate, so he did at my master the INTERPRETER'S door. He lay thereabout in the cold a good while, before he would adventure to call; yet he

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