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Formalist and Hypocrisy.

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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 also are in the way, that came tumbling over the wall. Wherein, now, is thy condition better than ours?

Chr. I walked 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 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 that 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, 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 in the day that he stripped 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 to 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 Celestial 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.' (Gal. ii. 16.)

1 The true Christian will always be troubled at the vain confidence of many professors: but he is more surprised by it at first than afterwards; for he sets out with the idea, that all apparently religious people sincerely seek the salvation of their souls. But at length experience

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To these things they gave him no answer; only they looked upon each other and laughed. Then I saw that they went all on, save that Christian kept before, who had no more talk but with himself, and that sometimes sighingly, and sometimes comfortably; also he would be often reading in the Roll that one of the Shining Ones gave him, by which he was refreshed.1

I beheld, then, that they all went on till they came at 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 going up the side of the hill is called Difficulty. Christian now went to the spring, and drank thereof to refresh himself (Isa. xlix. 10.), and then he began to go up the hill, saying,

The hill, though 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, though difficult, the right way to go,

Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.

The other two also came to the foot of the hill; but when they saw that the hill was steep and high, and that there were two other ways to go, and supposing also that these two ways might 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.2

draws his attention to those parts of Scripture which mention tares among the wheat, and foolish virgins among the wise.

1 True Christians, even when most assured of their acceptance, and competent to perceive the awful delusions of false professors, find cause for sighs amidst their comforts, while employed in serious retired self-reflection.

2 The hill Difficulty represents those seasons and situations which require peculiar selfdenial and exertion; and are suited to prove the believer's sincerity, after he has obtained "a good hope through grace." But there are also by-ways. The true believer however is

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