Mofes. Chr. That Man that overtook you, was The Temper of Mafes. He fpareth none, neither knoweth he how to fhew Mercy to thofe that tranfgrefs his Law. Faithful affaulted by Difcontent. car Laith. I know it very well; it was not the firft Time that he has met with me. It was he that came to me, when I dwelt fecurely at Home, and that told me he would burn my Houfe over my Head, if I ftaid there. Chr. But did you not fee the House that ftood there on the Top of the Hill, on the Side of which Mofes met you? Faith. Yes, and the Lions too, before I came at it; but for the Lions, I think they were afleep; for it was about Noon: And because I had fo much of the Day before me, I paffed by the Porter and came down the Hill. Chr. He told me indeed, That he faw you go by; but I wifh you had called at the House; for they would have fhewed you fo many Rarities, that you would fcarce have forgot them to the Day of your Death. But pray tell me, Did you meet no-body in the Valley of Humility? Faith. Yes, I met with one ‡ Difcontent, who would willingly have perfuaded 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 to difoblige all my Friends, as Pride, Arrogancy, Self-Conceit, Worldly-Glory, with others, who, he knew, as he faid, would be very much offended, if I made fuch a Fool of my felf as to wade through this Valley. Chr. Chr. Well, and how did you answer him? Faith. I told him,* That although all Faithful's these that he named might claim a Kind- Answer to red of me, and that rightly, (for indeed Difcontent. they were my Relations, according to the Flefb) yet fince I became a Pilgrim, they have difowned me, as I alfo have rejected them; and therefore they were 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 mifreprefented the Thing; for before Honour is Humility, and a haughty Spirit before a Fall. Therefore, faid I, I had rather go through this Valley to the Honour that was fo accounted by the Wifeft, than choose that which he esteemed moft worthy our Affections. Chr. Met you with nothing elfe in that Valley? Shame. Faith. Yes, I met with + Shame; but of † He is af all the Men that I met with in my Pilgri-Jaulted by mage, he, I think, bears the wrong Name. The other would be faid Nay, after a little Argumentation, and fomewhat elfe: But this bold-faced Shame would never have done. Chr. Why, what did he fay to you? Faith. What! why he objected against Religion itfelf; he faid, it was a pitiful, low, fneaking Bufinefs for a Man to mind Religion; he faid that a tender Confcience was an unmanly Thing; and that for a Man to watch over his Words and Ways, fo as to tie up himself from that hectoring Liberty that the brave Spirits of the Times accuftom themselves unto, would make G 4 1 Cor. 1. 26. Phil. 3. 7. 9. make him the Ridiclue of the Times. He objected alfo, That few of the Mighty, Rich, or Wife, were ever of my Opinion; nor any of them neither, before they were perfuaded to be Fools, and to be of a voluntary Fondness to venture the Lofs of all, for no-body elfe knows what. He moreover objected the bafe and low Eftate and Condition of thofe that were chiefly the Pilgrims of the Times in which they lived, alfo their Ignorance, and Want of Understanding in all natural Science. Yea, he did hold me to it at that Rate alfo, about a great many more Things than here I relate; as that it was a Shame to fit whining and mourning under a Sermon, and a Shame to come fighing and groaning Home: That it was a Shame to afk my Neighbour Forgivenefs for petty Faults, or to make Reftitution where I have taken from any. He faid alfo, That Religion made a Man grow ftrange to the Great, because of a few Vices, (which he called by finer Names) and made him own and respect the Bafe, becaufe of the fame religious Fraternity: And is not this, faid he, a Shame? Chr. And what did you fay to him? Faith. Say! I could not tell what to fay at firft. Yea, he put me fo to it, that my Blood came up in my Face; even this Shame fetched it up, and had almost beat me quite off. But, at laft, I began to confider, That that which is highly Luke 16. 15. efteemed among Men, is had in Abomination with God. And I thought again, this Shame tells me what Men are; but it tells me nothing what God or the Word of God is. And I thought moreover, That at the Day of Doom we fhall not be doomed to Death or Life, according to the hectoring Spirits of the World, but according to the Wisdom and Law of the Higheft. Therefore, thought I, what God fays, is beft, though all the Men in the World are against it: Seeing then that God prefers his Religion; feeing God prefers a tender Confcience; feeing they that make themselves Fools for the Kingdom of Heaven, are wifeft; and that the poor Man that loveth Chrift, is richer than the greatest Man in the World that hates him; Shame, depart, thou art an Enemy to my Salvation; fhall I entertain thee against my Sovereign Lord? How then fhall I look him in the Face at his Coming? Should I now be ashamed Matt. 8. 38. of his Ways and Servants, how can I expect the Bleffing? But indeed this Shame was a bold Villian; I could fcarce fhake him out of my Company: Yea, he would be haunting of me, and continually whifpering me in the Ear, with fome one or other of the Infirmities that attend Religion; but at last I told him, it was but in vain to attempt further in this Bufinefs for those Things that he difdained, in thofe did I fee moft Glory: And fo at laft I got past this importunate one. And when I had fhaken him off, then I began to fing: The Tryals that thofe Men do meet withal, Are Are manifold and fuited to the Flesh. O let the Pilgrims, let the Pilgrims then Chr. I am glad, Brother, that thou didft withftand this Villian fo bravely; for of all, as thou fayeft, I think he has the wrong Name; for he is fo bold as to follow us in the Streets, and to attempt to put us to Shame before all Men, that is, to make us afhamed of that which is good; but if he was not himself audacious, he would never attempt to do as. he does; but let us ftill refift him; for notwithstanding all his Bravado's, he promoteth the Fool, and none elfe. The Wife Prov. 3. 35. fhall inherit Glory, faid Solomon; but Shame fhall be the Promotion of Fools. Faith. I think we must cry to Him for Help against Shame, that would have us to be valiant for Truth upon the Earth. Chr. You fay true: But did you meet no-body elfe in that Valley? Faith. No, not 1; for I had Sun-fhine' all the Reft of the Way through that, and alfo through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Chr. It was well for you; I am fure, it fared far otherwife with me; I had for a long Seafon, as foon almoft as I entered into that Valley, a dreadful Combat with that fould Fiend Apollyon; yea, I thought verily he would have killed me, especially when he got me down, and crushed me under |