{331} Now, after a while, they perceived, afar off, one coming
softly and alone, all along the highway to meet them. Then said
Christian to his fellow, Yonder is a man with his back towards
Zion, and he is coming to meet us.
HOPE. I see him; let us take heed to ourselves now, lest he should
prove a flatterer also. So he drew nearer and nearer, and at last
came up unto them. His name was Atheist, and he asked them whither
they were going.
CHR. We are going to Mount Zion.
Then Atheist fell into a very great laughter.
CHR. What is the meaning of your laughter?
{332} ATHEIST. I laugh to see what ignorant persons you are, to
take upon you so tedious a journey, and you are like to have nothing
but your travel for your pains.
CHR. Why, man, do you think we shall not be received?
ATHEIST. Received! There is no such place as you dream of in all
this world.
CHR. But there is in the world to come.
{333} ATHEIST. When I was at home in mine own country, I heard as
you now affirm, and from that hearing went out to see, and have
been seeking this city this twenty years; but find no more of it
than I did the first day I set out. [Jer. 22:12, Eccl. 10:15]
CHR. We have both heard and believe that there is such a place to
be found.
ATHEIST. Had not I, when at home, believed, I had not come thus far
to seek; but finding none, (and yet I should, had there been such
a place to be found, for I have gone to seek it further than you),
I am going back again, and will seek to refresh myself with the
things that I then cast away, for hopes of that which, I now see,
is not.
{334} CHR. Then said Christian to Hopeful his fellow, Is it true
which this man hath said?
Hopeful’s gracious answer
Hope. Take heed, he is one of the flatterers; remember what it hath
cost us once already for our hearkening to such kind of fellows.
What! no Mount Zion? Did we not see, from the Delectable Mountains
the gate of the city? Also, are we not now to walk by faith? Let
us go on, said Hopeful, lest the man with the whip overtake us
again. [2 Cor. 5:7] You should have taught me that lesson, which
I will round you in the ears withal: “Cease, my son, to hear
the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.”
[Prov. 19:27] I say, my brother, cease to hear him, and let us
“believe to the saving of the soul”. [Heb. 10:39]
{335} CHR. My brother, I did not put the question to thee for that
I doubted of the truth of our belief myself, but to prove thee,
and to fetch from thee a fruit of the honesty of thy heart. As
for this man, I know that he is blinded by the god of this world.
Let thee and I go on, knowing that we have belief of the truth,
“and no lie is of the truth”. [1 John 2:21]
HOPE. Now do I rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So they turned
away from the man; and he, laughing at them, went his way.
{336} I saw then in my dream, that they went till they came into
a certain country, whose air naturally tended to make one drowsy,
if he came a stranger into it. And here Hopeful began to be very
dull and heavy of sleep; wherefore he said unto Christian, I do
now begin to grow so drowsy that I can scarcely hold up mine eyes,
let us lie down here and take one nap.
CHR. By no means, said the other, lest sleeping, we never awake
more.
HOPE. Why, my brother? Sleep is sweet to the labouring man; we
may be refreshed if we take a nap.
CHR. Do you not remember that one of the Shepherds bid us beware
of the Enchanted Ground? He meant by that that we should beware
of sleeping; “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us
watch and be sober.” [1 Thess. 5:6]
{337} HOPE. I acknowledge myself in a fault, and had I been here
alone I had by sleeping run the danger of death. I see it is true
that the wise man saith, Two are better than one. Hitherto hath
thy company been my mercy, and thou shalt have a good reward for
thy labour. [Eccl. 9:9]
CHR. Now then, said Christian, to prevent drowsiness in this place,
let us fall into good discourse.
HOPE. With all my heart, said the other.
CHR. Where shall we begin?
HOPE. Where God began with us. But do you begin, if you please.
CHR. I will sing you first this song: –
When saints do sleepy grow, let them come hither,
And hear how these two pilgrims talk together:
Yea, let them learn of them, in any wise,
Thus to keep ope their drowsy slumb’ring eyes.
Saints’ fellowship, if it be managed well,
Keeps them awake, and that in spite of hell.
{338} CHR. Then Christian began and said, I will ask you a question.
How came you to think at first of so doing as you do now?
HOPE. Do you mean, how came I at first to look after the good of
my soul?
CHR. Yes, that is my meaning.
HOPE. I continued a great while in the delight of those things
which were seen and sold at our fair; things which, I believe now,
would have, had I continued in them, still drowned me in perdition
and destruction.
CHR. What things are they?
Hopeful’s life before conversion
HOPE. All the treasures and riches of the world. Also, I delighted
much in rioting, revelling, drinking, swearing, lying, uncleanness,
Sabbath-breaking, and what not, that tended to destroy the soul.
But I found at last, by hearing and considering of things that are
divine, which indeed I heard of you, as also of beloved Faithful
that was put to death for his faith and good living in Vanity Fair,
that “the end of these things is death”. [Rom.6:21-23] And that
for these things’ sake “cometh the wrath of God upon the children
of disobedience”. [Eph.5:6]
CHR. And did you presently fall under the power of this conviction?
{339} HOPE. No, I was not willing presently to know the evil
of sin, nor the damnation that follows upon the commission of it;
but endeavoured, when my mind at first began to be shaken with the
Word, to shut mine eyes against the light thereof.
CHR. But what was the cause of your carrying of it thus to the
first workings of God’s blessed Spirit upon you?
{340} HOPE. The causes were, 1. I was ignorant that this was the
work of God upon me. I never thought that, by awakenings for sin,
God at first begins the conversion of a sinner. 2. Sin was yet
very sweet to my flesh, and I was loath to leave it. 3. I could
not tell how to part with mine old companions, their presence and
actions were so desirable unto me. 4. The hours in which convictions
were upon me were such troublesome and such heart-affrighting hours
that I could not bear, no not so much as the remembrance of them,
upon my heart.
CHR. Then, as it seems, sometimes you got rid of your trouble.
HOPE. Yes, verily, but it would come into my mind again, and then
I should be as bad, nay, worse, than I was before.
CHR. Why, what was it that brought your sins to mind again?
