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rationally concluded, that we fhall be more glad to see them there, than to fee that they are wanting?

Valiant. Well, I perceive whereabouts you are as to this point. Have you any more things to ask me about my beginning to come on pilgrimage?

Great-heart. Yes; Was your father and mother willing that you should become a pilgrim?

Valiant. Oh! no: they ufed all means imaginable to perfuade me to stay at home.

Great-heart. What could they fay against it? Valiant. They faid it was an idle life; and if I myfelf had not been inclined to floth and laziness, I fhould never have countenanced a pilgrim's condition.

Great-heart. And what did they fay else?

Valiant. Why, they told me that it was a dangerous way; yea, faid they, the most dangerous way in the world is that which the pilgrims go.

Great-heart. Did they fhew you wherein this way was dangerous?

Valiant. Yes; and that in many particulars.
Great-heart. Name some of them.

Valiant. They told me of the Slough of Defpond, where Chriftian was well-nigh fmothered: they told me that there were archers ftanding ready in Beelzebub-Castle, to fhoot them who fhould knock at the Wicket-Gate for entrance: they told me alfo of the wood and dark monuments; of the hill Difficulty; of the lions; and alfo of the three giants, Bloody-man, Maul, and Slay-good: they faid,

moreover,

moreover, that a foul fiend haunted the valley of Humiliation; and that Christian was by them almost bereft of life. Befides, faid they, you must go over the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where the hobgoblins are, where the light is darkness, where the way is full of fnares, pits, traps, and gins. They told me of giant Despair, of Doubting-Castle, and of the ruin which the pilgrims met with there. Farther, they faid, I muft go over the enchanted ground, which was dangerous. And, after all this, that I fhould find a river, over which I fhould find no bridge; and that that river did lie betwixt me and the celeftial country.

Great-heart. And was this all?

Valiant. No: they alfo told me, that this way was full of deceivers, and of perfons who lay in wait there to turn good men out of their path.

Great-heart. But how did they make that out? Valiant. They told me, that Mr. Worldly-wifeman did lie there in wait to deceive. They also said, that there was Formality and Hypocrify continually on the road. They faid alfo, that By-ends, Talkative, or Demas, would go near to gather me up: that the flatterer would catch me in his net; or that, if I fhould meet with the fame fate as Green-headed Ignorance, if I fhould prefume to go on to the gate, from whence he was fent back to the hole which was in the fide of the hill, and made to go the by-way to hell.

Great

Great-heart. I promise you, this was enough to discourage thee; but did they make an end

here?

Valiant. No; ftay. They told me also of many who had tried that way of old, and who had gone a great way therein, to fee if they could find fomething of the glory that fo many had fo much talked of from time to time; but that they came back again, and called themselves fools for fetting a foot out of doors in that path: their account gave great fatisfaction to the country. And they named several who had done fo; as Obftinate and Pliable, Miftruft and Timorous, Turnaway and old Atheist, with feveral more; who, they said, had some of them gone far, to fee what they could find, but not one of them found fo much advantage by going as amounted to the weight of a feather.

Great-heart. Said they any thing more to discourage you?

fo

Valiant. Yes; they told me of one Mr. Fearing, who was a pilgrim; and how he found his way folitary, that he never had a comfortable hour therein: alfo that Mr. Despondency had like to have been ftarved therein; yea, and alfo (which I had almost forgot) Chriftian himself, about whom there has been fuch a noise, after all his ventures for a celeftial crown, was certainly drowned in the Black river, and never went a foot farther, however it was fmothered up.

Great

Great-heart. And did none of these things dif courage you?

me.

Valiant. No; they feemed as fo many nothings to

Great-heart. How came that about?

Valiant. Why I still believed what Mr. Tell-true had faid, and that carried me beyond them all. Great-heart. Then this was your victory, even your faith?

Valiant. It was fo; I believed, and therefore came out, got into the way, fought all that fet themselves against me, and by believing am come to this place.

Who would true valour fee,

Let him come hither;

Here's one will conftant be,

Come wind, come weather:
There's no difcouragement
Shall make him once relent
His firft avow'd intent
To be a pilgrim.

Who fo befet him round

With difmal ftories,

Do but themselves confound,
His ftrength the more is.
No lion can him fright;
He'll with a giant fight,
But he will have a right
To be a pilgrim.

Hobgoblin,

Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend,
Can daunt his fpirit;

He knows he at the end

Shall life inherit.

Then fancies fly away,

He'll not fear what men say,

But labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.

By this time they were got to the Enchanted Ground, where the air naturally tended to make one drowsy; and that place was all grown over with briars and thorns, excepting here and there: here was an enchanted arbour, upon which if a man fits, or in which if a man fleeps, it is a queftion, fay fome, whether he shall ever rife or wake again in this world. Over this forest therefore they went, both one and another, and Mr. Great-heart went before, for he was the guide, and Mr. Valiant-for-truth came behind, being rear-guard, for fear left peradventure some fiend, or dragon, or giant, or thief, fhould fall upon their rear, and fo do mischief.

Various are the enemies we are to meet with in our Chriftian warfare. The world, with its enchantments, has a tendency to stupify and bring on a fatal lethargy. How many profeffors receive Antinomian principles, by which they harden themselves in carnal pursuits and sensual gratifications; and others, ftill preserving a religious name and character, are as dead in their fouls, as devoted to the world, as these, though contending for legal principles, and high in their religious pretenfions!

They

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