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and the parson of our parish, Mr. Two-tongues, was my mother's own brother by father's side: and, to tell you the truth, I am a gentleman of good quality, yet my great grandfather was but a waterman, looking one way and rowing another, and I got most of my estate by the same occupation. Chr. Are you a married man?

By. Yes, and my wife is a very virtuous woman, the daughter of a virtuous woman; she was my Lady Feigning's daughter, therefore she came of a very honourable. family, and is arrived to such a pitch of breeding, that she knows how to carry it to all, even to prince and peasant. It is true, we somewhat differ in religion from those of the stricter sort, but yet in two small points. First, we never strive against wind and tide. Secondly, we are always most zealous when religion goes in his silver slippers; we love much to walk with him in the street, if the sun shines, and the people applaud it. (p)

(/) The character of By-ends, and the group that attended him, forms a clear detection and merited condemnation of a large company of false professors; and is not at all inferior in importance to the preceding s. vere satire on open persecutors.-When rest is given to the church, hypocrites often multiply more than real Christians.-The name of this man, and those of his town and relations, do not merely describe his original character and situa tion, (as Christian was at first called Graceless of the City of Destruction;) but they denote the nature of his religious profession. Believers look back on their former principles and behaviour with shame and abhorrence; but hypocrites, when reproved for evident sins, excuse them, because Christ came to save the lost, and because he is merciful to the chief of sinners. Christian would readily have granted that ‘no good lived' at his native city; and on that very account he had renounced it with all his old connexions: but By-ends hoped better of Fair-speech, and gloried in his honourable relations there. Yet he was ashamed of his name; for men are unwilling to allow that they seek nothing more than worldly advantages by religion. The names here selected are most emphatically descriptive of that whole company of professed Christians, who, under various pretences, suppose "that gain is godliness." The polite simulation and dissimulation, which stone most courtly writers have inculcated, as the summit of good breeding, the perfection of a finish: d education, and the grand requisite for obtaining consequence in society, if introduced into region, and adopted by professors or preachers of the gospel, in connexion with fashionable accomplishments and an agreeable address, constitute the most versatile, refined, and insinuating species of hypocrisy that can be imagined: and a man of talents, of any occupation or profession, may render it very subservient to his interests; by insuring the patronage or custom of those to whom he attaches himself, without giving much umbrage to the world, which may indeed despise such a character, but will not deem him worthy of hatred. He may assume any of the names here provided for him, as may best suit his line in life; and may shape his course, in subserviency to his grand concern, with consid rable latitude; provided he has prudence enough to keep clear of scandalous vices: he will not be long in learning the beneficial art of using two tongues with one mouth, and of locking one way and rowing another: and perhaps he may improve his fortune by an honourable alliance, with some branch of the ancient family of the Feignings. The grand difference betwixt this whole tribe, and the body of true Christians, consists in these two things: Christians seek the sal

Christian detects By-ends.

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Then Christian stept a little aside to his fellow Hopeful,. saying, It runs in my mind that this is one By-ends of Fairspeech; and if it be he, we have as very a knave in our company, as dwelleth in all these parts. Then said Hopeful, Ask him; methinks he should not be ashamed of his name.. So Christian came up with him again, and said, 'Sir, you talk as if you knew something more than all the world doth, (q) and, if I take not my mark amiss, I deem I have half a guess of you: is not your name Mr. By-ends, of Fairspeech?

By. This is not my name, but indeed it is a nick-name that is given me by some that cannot abide me, and I must be content to bear it as a reproach, as other good men have borne their's before me.

Chr. But did you never give an occasion to men to call you by this name?

By. Never, never! the worst that ever I did, to give them an occasion to give me this name, was, that I had always the luck to jump in my judgment with the present way of the times, whatever it was; and my chance was to get thereby. But if things are thus cast upon me, let me count them a blessing; but let not the malicious load me therefore with reproach.

Chr. I thought indeed that you were the man that I heard of; and, to tell you what I think, I fear this name belongs to you more properly than you are willing we should think it doth.

By. Well, if you will thus imagine, I cannot help it: you shall find me a fair company-keeper if you will still admit me your associate.

Chr. If you will go with us, you must go against wind and tide, the which, I perceive, is against your opinion; you

vation of their souls, and at the same time aim to glorify God, and be useful to their neighbours; but hypocrites profess to be religious in order to obtain friends, patrons, customers, or applause: those follow the Lord habitually, whatever tribulations arise because of the word; but these conceal or deny their profession, when, instead of gaining by it, they are exposed to reproach or persecution.

(9) The people of the world, who avow their real character, know how to serve Mammon by neglecting and despising God and religion; and the disciples of Christ can serve God by renouncing the world and its friendship: but time-servers talk as if they had found out the secret of uniting these two discordant interests, and thus of 'knowing something more than all the world.'-This is the most prominent feature in this group of portraits, which in other respects exhibits various dissimilarities, and contains the faces of persons belonging to every division of professed Christians on earth.

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Christian and Hopeful part from him.

must also own religion in his rags as well as when in his silver slippers and stand by him too when bound in irons, as well as when he walketh the streets with applause.

By. You must not impose, nor lord it over my faith; leave me to my liberty, and let me go with you.

Chr. Not a step further, unless you will do in what I propound, as we.

Then said By-ends, I shall never desert my old principles, since they are harmless and profitable. If I may not with you, I must do as I did before you overtook me, even go by myself, until some overtake me that will be glad of my company. (r)

go

Now I saw in my dream that Christian and Hopeful forsook him, and kept their distance before him; (s) but one of them looking back, saw three men following Mr. By-ends, and behold as they came up with him he made them a very low congee; and they also gave him a compliment. The men's names were Mr. Hold-the-world, Mr. Money-love, and Mr. Save-all; men that Mr. By-ends had formerly been acquainted with; for in their minority they were school-fellows, and were taught by one Mr. Gripeman, a school-master in Love-Gain, which is a market-town in the county of Coveting, in the north. This school-master taught them the art of getting, either by violence, cozenage, flattery, lying, or by putting on a guise of religion; and these four gentlemen had attained much of the art of their master, so that they could each of them have kept such a school themselves.

Well, when they had, as I said, thus saluted cach other, Mr. Money-love said to Mr. By-ends, Who are they upon

(r) When hypocrites are charged with their double-dealing and obvious crimes, they commonly set it down to the account of persecution, and class themselves with that blessed company, of whom "all manner of evil is spoken falsely, for the name of Christ :" as if there were no difference between suffering as a Christian, and being a scandal to the very name of Christianity! Thus they endeavour to quiet their minds, and keep up their credit; deeming themselves at the same time very prudent and fortunate, in shifting about so as to avoid the cross, and secure their temporal interests. The Apostle says concerning these men, "from such turn away ;" and the decided manner in which Christian warns By-ends, and renounces his company, though perhaps too plain to be either approved or imitated in this courtly candid age, is certainly warranted and required by the Holy Scriptures.

(s) In the second Edition, printed 1678, all the subsequent part of this episode is wanting; till Christian and Hopeful enter the plain Ease but there can be no doubt of its having been added by the Author himself, for it is his manner entirely. This induces a doubt, whether some other alterations from that edition were not made by the Author; and on this ground, it has been necessary to exercise a discretionary power in admitting or rejecting them.

By-ends and his Party censure Christian.

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the road before us? for Christian and Hopeful were yet within their view.

By. They are a couple of far countrymen, that after their mode are going on pilgrimage.

Money. Alas! why did they not stay, that we might have had their good company? for they, and we, and you, Sir, I hope, are all going on pilgrimage. (t)

By. We are so indeed: but the men before us are so rigid, and love so much their own notions, and do also so lightly esteem the opinions of others, that let a man be ever so godly, yet if he jumps not with them in all things, they thrust him quite out of their company.

Save. That's bad: but we read of some that are righteous overmuch, (u) and such men's rigidness prevails with them

(t) It might have been supposed that the persons, here introduced, were settled inhabitants of the Town of Vanity, or the City of Destruction: but indeed they professed themselves Pilgrims, and desired during the sun-shine to associate with Pilgrims; provided they would allow them, to hold the world, love money, and save all, whatever became of faith and holiness, of honesty, piety, truth, and charity !-Covetousness, whether it consist in rapaciously trying to get money, to hoard, or to lavish, in purchasing consequence, power, or pleasure, or in supporting magnificence and the pride of life; or in parsimony as to the ordinary proportion of expenditure; or in tenacity, when duty requires a man to part with it; is a vice not so easily defined as many others. At the same time it enables a man, in various ways, to reward those who can be induced to connive at it, and to render it dangerous to oppose him: so that it is not wonderful that it generally finds more quarter, even among religious persons, than other vices, which are not marked with so black a brand in the Holy Scriptures. Too many professing to be the disciples of Christ, "bless the covetous, whom God abhorreth," and speak to them as if they were doubtless true Christians; because of their steadiness in the profession of a doctrinal system, and a mode of worship; attended by morality, where money is not concerned and scandal might be incurred; and a narrow disproportionate contribution from their abundance, to support the interest of a society or a party. Thus the "vile person is called liberal, and the churl is said to be bountiful :" and the idolatry of worshipping money has seldom been execrated equally with that of them, "whose god is their belly;" unless when so enormous as to become a kind of insanity.The most frugal support of religious worship, with the most disinterested pastors and managers, is attended with an expense that the poor of the flock are utterly unable to defray: by this opening, Hold-the-world and Money-love frequently obtain admission, and acquire undue influence among Pilgrims. And when the effect of remaining selfishness in the hearts of true believers, insinuating itself under the specious plea of prudence and necessity, and the ill consequences of specious hypocrites associating with them, are duly consid ered; with the censure that must fall upon a few obscure individuals who attempt to stem the torrent; it will appear evident that the rich, and they who are growing rich have more need of self-examination and jealousy over their own hearts than any other persons; be cause they will be less plainly warned and reproved, in public and private, than their inferiors.

(u) This expression of Solomon was probably intended to caution us against excessive zeal for some detached parts of religion to the neglect of others, or against superstitious austeritis and enthusiastical delusions, or any extremes, which always kad men off' from

M

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They applaud their own Principles.

to judge and condemn all but themselves: but I pray what and how many were the things wherein you differed?

By. Why they, after their headstrong manner, conclude, that it is their duty to rush on their journey all weathers; and I am for waiting for wind and tide. They are for hazarding all for God at a clap, and I am for taking all advantages to secure my life and estate. They are for holding their notions though all other men be against them; but I am for religion in what, and so far as, the times and my safety will bear it. They are for religion when in rags and contempt; but I am for him when he walks in his golden slippers, in the sun-shine, and with applause.

Hold. Ay, and hold you there still, good Mr. By-ends: for my part, I can count him but a fool, that having the liberty to keep what he has shall be so unwise as to lose it. Let us be "wise as serpents ;" it is best to make hay when the sun shines;' you see how the bee lieth still in winter, and bestirs her only when she can have profit with pleasure. God sends sometimes rain and sometimes sun-shine: if they be such fools as to go through the first, yet let us be content to take fair weather along with us. For my part, I like that religion best that will stand with the security of God's good blessings unto us: for who can imagine, that is ruled by his reason, since God has bestowed upon us the good things of this life, but that he would have us keep them for his sake? Abraham and Solomon grew rich in religion. And Job says that a good man "shall lay up gold as dust." But he must not be such as the inen before us, if they be as you have described them.

Save. I think that we are all agreed in this matter, and. therefore there needs no more words about it.

Money. No, there needs no more words about this matter indeed; for he that believes neither scripture nor reason, (and you see we have both on our side,) neither knows his own liberty, nor seeks his own safety. (w)

vital godliness: or, as some think, it is the objection of an opponent, which he afterwards answers: but it is the constant plea of those, who neglect the most essential duties of their place and station, to avoid the cross, and preserve their worldly interests; and thus "they wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction."

(w) This dialogue is not in the least more absurd and selfish, than the discourse of many who attend on the preaching of the gospel, and expect to be thought believers. They connect "the wisdom of the serpent" with his craft and malice, not with the harmlessness of the dove: if worldly lucre be the honey, they imitate the bee, and only attend to religion when they can gain by it: they cut and shape their creed and conduct to suit the times,

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