{171} CHR. My honoured and well-beloved brother, Faithful, I am
glad that I have overtaken you; and that God has so tempered our
spirits, that we can walk as companions in this so pleasant a path.
FAITH. I had thought, dear friend, to have had your company quite
from our town; but you did get the start of me, wherefore I was
forced to come thus much of the way alone.
CHR. How long did you stay in the City of Destruction before you
set out after me on your pilgrimage?
FAITH. Till I could stay no longer; for there was great talk presently
after you were gone out that our city would, in short time, with
fire from heaven, be burned down to the ground.
CHR. What! did your neighbours talk so?
FAITH. Yes, it was for a while in everybody’s mouth.
CHR. What! and did no more of them but you come out to escape the
danger?
FAITH. Though there was, as I said, a great talk thereabout, yet
I do not think they did firmly believe it. For in the heat of the
discourse, I heard some of them deridingly speak of you and of your
desperate journey, (for so they called this your pilgrimage), but
I did believe, and do still, that the end of our city will be with
fire and and brimstone from above; and therefore I have made my
escape.
{172} CHR. Did you hear no talk of neighbour Pliable?
FAITH. Yes, Christian, I heard that he followed you till he came
at the Slough of Despond, where, as some said, he fell in; but he
would not be known to have so done; but I am sure he was soundly
bedabbled with that kind of dirt.
CHR. And what said the neighbours to him?
FAITH. He hath, since his going back, been had greatly in derision,
and that among all sorts of people; some do mock and despise him;
and scarce will any set him on work. He is now seven times worse
than if he had never gone out of the city.
CHR. But why should they be so set against him, since they also
despise the way that he forsook?
FAITH. Oh, they say, hang him, he is a turncoat! he was not true
to his profession. I think God has stirred up even his enemies to
hiss at him, and make him a proverb, because he hath forsaken the
way. [Jer. 29:18,19]
CHR. Had you no talk with him before you came out?
FAITH. I met him once in the streets, but he leered away on the
other side, as one ashamed of what he had done; so I spake not to
him.
{173} CHR. Well, at my first setting out, I had hopes of that man;
but now I fear he will perish in the overthrow of the city; for
it is happened to him according to the true proverb, “The dog is
turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her
wallowing in the mire.” [2 Pet. 2:22]
FAITH. These are my fears of him too; but who can hinder that which
will be?
CHR. Well, neighbour Faithful, said Christian, let us leave him,
and talk of things that more immediately concern ourselves. Tell
me now, what you have met with in the way as you came; for I know
you have met with some things, or else it may be writ for a wonder.
{174} FAITH. I escaped the Slough that I perceived you fell into,
and got up to the gate without that danger; only I met with one
whose name was Wanton, who had like to have done me a mischief.
CHR. It was well you escaped her net; Joseph was hard put to it by
her, and he escaped her as you did; but it had like to have cost
him his life. [Gen. 39:11-13] But what did she do to you?
FAITH. You cannot think, but that you know something, what a
flattering tongue she had; she lay at me hard to turn aside with
her, promising me all manner of content.
CHR. Nay, she did not promise you the content of a good conscience.
FAITH. You know what I mean; all carnal and fleshly content.
CHR. Thank God you have escaped her: “The abhorred of the Lord
shall fall into her ditch.” [Ps. 22:14]
FAITH. Nay, I know not whether I did wholly escape her or no.
CHR. Why, I trow, you did not consent to her desires?
FAITH. No, not to defile myself; for I remembered an old writing
that I had seen, which said, “Her steps take hold on hell.” [Prov.
5:5] So I shut mine eyes, because I would not be bewitched with
her looks. [Job 31:1] Then she railed on me, and I went my way.
CHR. Did you meet with no other assault as you came?
{175} FAITH. When I came to the foot of the hill called Difficulty,
I met with a very aged man, who asked me what I was, and whither
bound. I told him that I am a pilgrim, going to the Celestial
City. Then said the old man, Thou lookest like an honest fellow;
wilt thou be content to dwell with me for the wages that I shall
give thee? Then I asked him his name, and where he dwelt. He
said his name was Adam the First, and that he dwelt in the town
of Deceit. [Eph. 4:22] I asked him then what was his work, and
what the wages he would give. He told me that his work was many
delights; and his wages that I should be his heir at last. I further
asked him what house he kept, and what other servants he had. So
he told me that his house was maintained with all the dainties in
the world; and that his servants were those of his own begetting.
Then I asked if he had any children. He said that he had but three
daughters: The Lust of the Flesh, The Lust of the Eyes, and The
Pride of Life, and that I should marry them all if I would. [1
John 2:16] Then I asked how long time he would have me live with
him? And he told me, As long as he lived himself.
CHR. Well, and what conclusion came the old man and you to at last?
FAITH. Why, at first, I found myself somewhat inclinable to go
with the man, for I thought he spake very fair; but looking in his
forehead, as I talked with him, I saw there written, “Put off the
old man with his deeds.”
CHR. And how then?
{176} FAITH. Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he
said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his house,
he would sell me for a slave. So I bid him forbear to talk, for
I would not come near the door of his house. Then he reviled me,
and told me that he would send such a one after me, that should
make my way bitter to my soul. So I turned to go away from him;
but just as I turned myself to go thence, I felt him take hold of
my flesh, and give me such a deadly twitch back, that I thought he
had pulled part of me after himself. This made me cry, “O wretched
man!” [Rom. 7:24] So I went on my way up the hill.
Now when I had got about half-way up, I looked behind, and saw one
coming after me, swift as the wind; so he overtook me just about
the place where the settle stands.
CHR. Just there, said Christian, did I sit down to rest me; but
being overcome with sleep, I there lost this roll out of my bosom.
{177} FAITH. But, good brother, hear me out. So soon as the man
overtook me, he was but a word and a blow, for down he knocked
me, and laid me for dead. But when I was a little come to myself
again, I asked him wherefore he served me so. He said, because of
my secret inclining to Adam the First; and with that he struck me
another deadly blow on the breast, and beat me down backward; so
I lay at his foot as dead as before. So, when I came to myself
again, I cried him mercy; but he said, I know not how to show mercy;
and with that he knocked me down again. He had doubtless made an
end of me, but that one came by, and bid him forbear.
CHR. Who was that that bid him forbear?
FAITH. I did not know him at first, but as he went by, I perceived
the holes in his hands and in his side; then I concluded that he
was our Lord. So I went up the hill.
{178} CHR. That man that overtook you was Moses. He spareth none,
neither knoweth he how to show mercy to those that transgress his
law.
FAITH. I know it very well; it was not the first time that he has
met with me. It was he that came to me when I dwelt securely at
home, and that told me he would burn my house over my head if I
stayed there.
CHR. But did you not see the house that stood there on the top of
the hill, on the side of which Moses met you?
FAITH. Yes, and the lions too, before I came at it: but for the
lions, I think they were asleep, for it was about noon; and because
I had so much of the day before me, I passed by the porter, and
came down the hill.
CHR. He told me, indeed, that he saw you go by, but I wish you
had called at the house, for they would have showed you so many
rarities, that you would scarce have forgot them to the day of
your death. But pray tell me, Did you meet nobody in the Valley
of Humility?
{179} FAITH. Yes, I met with one Discontent, who would willingly
have persuaded 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 the way to disobey all my friends, as Pride,
Arrogancy, Self-conceit, Worldly-glory, with others, who he knew,
as he said, would be very much offended, if I made such a fool of
myself as to wade through this valley.
CHR. Well, and how did you answer him?
{180} Faithful’s answer to Discontent
FAITH. I told him, that although all these that he named might claim
kindred of me, and that rightly, for indeed they were my relations
according to the flesh; yet since I became a pilgrim, they have
disowned me, as I also 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 misrepresented
the thing; for before honour is humility, and a haughty spirit
before a fall. Therefore, said I, I had rather go through this
valley to the honour that was so accounted by the wisest, than
choose that which he esteemed most worthy our affections.
CHR. Met you with nothing else in that valley?
