The Pilgrim’s Progress. John Bunyan

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       CHAPTER 3

      Now, I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall that was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

      He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a Cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a tomb. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the tomb, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

      Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by His sorrow, and life by His death.” Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the water down his cheeks. Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him with “Peace be to thee.” So the first said to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;” the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with a change of garments; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the heavenly gate; so they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on, singing:

      “Thus far did I come laden with my sin;

      Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,

      Till I came hither; what a place is this!

      Must here be the beginning of my bliss?

      Must here the burden fall from off my back?

      Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?

      Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be

      The Man that was there put to shame for me!”

       SIMPLE, SLOTH, PRESUMPTION

      I saw then in my dream that he went on thus, even until he came to the bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three men fast asleep, with fetters upon their heels. The name of one was Simple, of another Sloth, and of the third Presumption.

      Christian, then, seeing them lie in this case, went to them, if perhaps he might awake them, and cried, “You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast; for the deep sea is under you, a gulf that hath no bottom: awake, therefore, and come away; be willing, also, and I will help you off with your irons.” He also told them, “If he that goeth about like a roaring lion comes by, you will certainly become a prey to his teeth.” With that they looked upon him, and began to reply in this sort: Simple said, “I see no danger.” Sloth said, “Yet a little more sleep.” And Presumption said, “Every tub must stand upon his own bottom.” And so they lay down to sleep again, and Christian went on his way.

       FORMALIST AND HYPOCRISY

      Yet was he troubled to think that men in that danger should so little care for the kindness of him that so offered to help them, both by awakening of them, advising them, and offering to help them off with their irons. And, as he was troubled thereabout, he espied two men come tumbling over the wall on the left hand of the narrow way; and they made up apace to him. The name of one was Formalist, and the name of the other was Hypocrisy. So, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus began talking with them:

      CHRIS. Gentlemen, whence came you, and whither go you?

      FORM. and HYP. We were born in the land of Vain-glory, and are going for praise to Mount Zion.

      CHRIS. Why came you not in at the gate which standeth at the beginning of the way? Know ye not that it is written, “He that cometh not in by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber?”

      FORM. and HYP. They said that to go to the gate for entrance was, by all their countrymen, counted too far about; and that therefore their usual way was to make a short cut of it, and to climb over the wall as they had done.

      CHRIS. But will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of the city whither we are bound, thus to disobey His will?

      FORM. and HYP. They told him, that as for that, he needed not trouble his head thereabout; for what they did they had custom for, and could show, if need were, testimony that could prove it for more than a thousand years.

      CHRIS. “But,” said Christian, “will it stand a trial at law?”

      FORM. and HYP. They told him that custom, it being of so long standing as above a thousand years, would doubtless now be admitted as a thing according to law by a fair judge. “And besides,” said they, “if we get into the way, what matter is it which way we may get in? If we are in, we are in: thou art but in the way, who, as we perceive, came in at the gate; and we are also in the way, that came tumbling over the wall: wherein, now, is thy condition better than ours?”

      CHRIS. I walk by the rule of my Master; you walk by the rude working of your fancies. You are counted thieves already by the Lord of the way; therefore I doubt you will not be found true men at the end of the way. You come in by yourselves without His word, and shall go out by yourselves without His mercy.

      To this they made him but little answer; only they bid him look to himself. Then I saw that they went on every man in his way, without much talking one with another; save that these two men told Christian, that, as to law and rules, they doubted not but that they should as carefully do them as he. “Therefore,” said they, “we see not wherein thou differest from us, but by the coat which is on thy back, which was, as we believe given thee by some of thy neighbors to hide the shame of thy nakedness.”

      CHRIS. By laws and rules you will not be saved, since you came not in by the door. And as for this coat that is on my back, it was given to me by the Lord of the place whither I go; and that, as you say, to cover my nakedness with. And I take it as a token of His kindness СКАЧАТЬ