Anonymous

“ Poor pilgrims here may eat and sleep, Whilst them in safety their good Lord will keep. Fall to, fall to, poor man, and take thy fill, In nature’s plasure there can be no ill. In vain our king’s indulgent hand supplies What peevish man his longing soul denies.
This was enough to have stagger’d a stouter man than Tender-conscience, and he himself could not have resisted so powerful a temptation, had it not been for the remembrance of the thunder and the voice: Also he called to mind that saying of the holy Jesus, To do the will of my heavenly father, is both my meat and my drink. ”

“ But those by faith expell’d his soul again Clears up, and like the bow that paints the skies After a shower, (on which mankind relies As a sure pledge, the deluge shall no more Make all one boundless sea without a shore) Gives certain hopes that heaven’s anger’s past, And he his lot in a bless’d Land has cast. You write so plainly, that the weakest mind, Under similitudes may comfort find. A guide you give, that by the hand does lead Those pilgrims that the heavenly roads do tread, And tells them always where the danger is ”

“ A resolute and speedy flight is the only way to secure the victory. The soul may stand the battle against adversities, persecutions, crosses and the like; but pleasures of the flesh must be subdu’d by retreating from them. He that touches pitch shall be defil’d, says the Wise-man; And he that stands capitulating with the temptations of uncleanness is in danger to fall. The soul, like wax, is hardened by cold and stormy weather; but in the sun-shine of prosperity, and the heat of lusts, he melts and becomes effeminate and yielding. ”

“ We only retain some fragments or sparks of the original jewel; we can boast of nothing but some broken remnants of reason, escaped from that fatal shipwreck of human nature, which still float up and down in a sea of uncertainties. We grope as in the dark, and can hardly discern the things that are familiar to us. Our notions of things are liable to a thousand mistakes, our inferences loose and incoherent, and all our faculties turned upside down. ”

“ Faith is the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. This is that faith which thou, O Human-reason much contemned and vilified! This is that faith which the shepherds recommended to us; this is that perspective-glass thro’ which we saw the glories of the cœlestial Jerusalem; therefore cease henceforward to speak evil of the way of the Lord; cease to pervert the souls of such as seek the Lord in sincerity, and with an humble faith.
When he had made an end of these words, Tender-conscience burst out in tears for grief and joy ”

“ Reason may well at her own quarry fly, But finite cannot grasp infinity. Rest then, my soul, from endless anguish freed, Meer reason’s not thy guide, nor sense thy creed: Faith is the best insurer of thy bliss, The bank above must fail before the venture miss. [12]
Now as they went along, they came to the place where the Flatterer had seduced Christian and Hopeful out of the road into a By-way, which might easily be done; for tho’ it was a By-way, yet it seemed to lie as strait before them as the true way. ”

“ In our sighs we rejoice, and in our tears we smile, as it is written, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy: And the deepest of our groans are but fore-runners of the soul’s triumph over sin and death; and there is so near a neighbourhood betwixt this kind of grief, and the most exalted pleasure, that it is hard to distinguish between one and the other: Whilst our eyes rain tears, the clouds that cause them, are scatter’d from our hearts ”

“ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the hearts of fools is in the house of mirth. So he asked the young men, what that house was called, on the other side of the cross? And they told him it was called the House of Mourning. Moreover, they railed and scoffed at the people that lived in it, and told him that none but a few dull phlegmatic fools ever frequented it: but Tender-conscience weighed more the words of the wise man than their slanderous tongues; and told them he would go seek a lodging at the House-of-Mourning. ”

“ But being in the midst of summer, the sun arose within few hours, and so he enjoy’d the day-light, which was exceeding comfortable to him, tho’ he met with dismal and frightful objects; for the valley is of itself very dark, and there hangs perpetually over it such black and thick clouds of confusion, that what for them, and what for death, who spreads his wings over this valley, the sun gives but a very dim and faint light here: yet that which shined at this time, served to light Tender-conscience along the hollow dreadful way, where he heard, as he went along, a continual howling and yelling ”

“ My soul like a bird, from fowler’s snare, Escaped is, while after me they stare: Their ways are pleasant, but they sting at last: Woe be to them that in their nets are cast. They spread their gins on e’ery side for men, Seducing souls to their enchanted den: All’s fair without, but rotten is within; Fair is the form, but black the guilt of sin. ”

“ It refines the understanding, and subdues the passions; it regulates the will, and sublimates the whole man to a more spiritual state of life. It is the life of angels, the animater of the soul, the great advantage of religion, the best opportunity for retirements of devotion. Whilst the smoak of carnal appetites is suppressed and extinguished, the heart breaks forth with holy fears, till it be burning like the cherubim, and the most extasy’d order of pure and unpolluted souls. ”

“ Our reason and understanding may sometimes snatch a glimpse, but cannot make a steady and adequate prospect of things so far above their reach and sphere. Thus by the help of natural reason I may know there is a God, the first cause and original of all things; but his essence, attributes, and will, are hid within the veil of inaccessible light, and can’t be discerned by us, but thro’ faith in his divine revelation. He that walks without this light, walks in darkness, tho’ he may strike out some faint and glimmering sparkles of his own. ”

“ Human-reason. Then Human-reason putting on a grave and serious countenance, spoke as follows: Gentlemen, it is not manly to fall into a passion, and abuse a stranger, before you have a just cause given you, especially when you are ignorant of, or mistake his quality. I am sprung of a right noble and illustrious family, and as antient as any in the World, by my father’s side: Understanding is my father, who is a prince and courtier, and of near king to the royal family of heaven. ”

“ Now I am fully satisfied that Human-reason is but an ignis fatuus to the mind, a false light, a deceiver, and therefore let us leave him to his den of shadows, and prosecute our journey.
Now I saw in my dream that they went forward, while Tender-conscience sang,
Vain Human-reason boasts himself a light, Tho’ but a wand’ring meteor of the night, Bred in the bogs and fens of common earth, A dunghill was the place of his high birth ”

“ How to step over, or to wisely miss The stumbling-blocks that satan daily lays To overthrow them that mind not their ways: So being bruis’d against rocks of despair, Or doubt, or fear they know not how nor where, They faint and languish in the middle way, Or back to Egypt haste without delay, Preferrring darkness to the glorious day They were approaching. ”

“ They run the risqué of more temptations than we. For here one spirit and soul (as it were) animates us all; holiness and purity are all that we aim at, and we mutually encourage one another, assist one another, and forward one another in the practice of it. We have no cares to imbitter us, nor vain pleasures to debauch us; we have no honours to tempt us to ambition, nor riches to make us covetous. All our ambition is to approve ourselves blameless in the sight of God; and all the riches we covet, are those which never fade away, the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost.
Tender-cons [cience] . ”

“ Now I saw in my dream, that the pilgrims by this time were got over the Inchanted-Ground, and entered into the country of Beulah, whose air was sweetened with all manner of aromatick perfumes; which revived their drooping spirits, grown heavy, and almost stupefied, with walking over the Inchanted-Ground. Here were trees growing, whose fruits never fade away, and whose leaves are always green. In this place there is a perpetual spring, the birds always singing, the meadows adorned with flowers, and all things abounding that are delightful. ”

“ These are emblems of moderation and riot in eating and drinking. The soul of man is a lamp, which will burn and shine with great splendor, if the body be kept clean and purified by temperance, abstinence and fasting: But if a man by excessive eating and drinking does pollute and stain his body, his spirits (which are the crystal of his soul) are clouded and thickned with vapours and smoak, so that he neither shines in good works to others, nor has much light to himself ”

“ Have patience, my brethren, whilst this man and I discourse this point farther, for the sake of Tender-conscience, who seems to be stagger’d at his first words, and has an itching desire to hear what he can say for himself: Perhaps he will have a better opinion of the man, if we should refuse to converse with him, he might think that we are ashamed or afraid to stand the brunt of his boasted demonstration, and so would conclude the truth on his side. ”

“ He runs with patience the race that is set before him: He practices sobriety, righteousness, and godliness toward God, man, and himself: His soul is the receptacle of goodness, the center of piety, in which all virtues delight to inhabit. In all things he has a holy tenderness, and acts even to the curiosity and niceness of divine love. Tho’ his body dwells on earth, his soul lives in heaven ”

“ And he that out of the gross and wooden dictates of his natural reason, carves out a religion to himself, is but a more refined idolator than those who worship stocks and stones, hammering an idol out of his fancy, and adoring the work of his vain imagination. ”

“ Now in my dream, I saw that the pilgrims went forward till they came to the river of God, their way lying along by the river-side, where grew trees bearing all manner of delightful fruits, which the pilgrims tasted to their wonderful refreshments: They also drink of the waters of the river, whose virtue is to rejoice the heart more than wine; and there being pleasant green pastures all along the banks of the river, they laid down sometimes to repose themselves there, and then rose up to prosecute their journey ”

“ This weak read was all the staff that Tender-conscience leaned upon in his journey; till such time as Good-will, bidding him throw it away, gave him the aforesaid crutch, which he bid him be sure not to part with, for that it would be of singular use to him all the way, and especially now he was wounded; for it had a particular virtue to stay the bleeding of wounds. So Good-will having given Tender-conscience ample directions to find the way, bid him farewel, and left him to go forward on his journey. ”

“ In my opinion, said Tender-conscience, the farmer on the left-hand is very much to blame, in neglecting so fair an opportunity of raising himself: Had he but followed the steps of his opposite neighbour, and done something every day toward the cleansing of his farm, he might by this time have reaped the benefit of it, and had the return of plentiful crops, besides the continuation and increase of the king’s favour, who would, no doubt, in time have been as good as his word, and preferred him to higher dignity. ”

“ Without doubt, there is a discreet choice to be made in our diet, as to the qualities of the things we eat and drink, and every one in this is left to his own conduct; only this general rule ought to be observed, that we forbear eating and drinking such things as we find by experience, or know by common observation to be prejudicial to health, impediments of virtue and devotion, spurs to the vice and passion, by intoxicating the brain, heightening the blood, disordering the spirits, or by any other ways being subservient to the works of the flesh, or the temptations of the devil. ”

“ Death is a debt we all owe to God and nature, and it must be paid one time or other, earlier or later. There is an appointed time for all men once to die, and after death to come to judgment; therefore be not afraid of that which cannot be avoided.
Tender-cons [cience] . I am not so much afraid of death, as of what will come after; I fear I shall never see the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, whose glittering wall and turrets ravished my eyes, when we passed through the land of Beulah. I fear I am going down into a land of darkness, where my feet will stumble on the dark mountains ”

“ How do we lay aside our senses and our reason, when we use both in a due subordination to our faith? Faith itself comes by hearing, which is one of our senses: We hear the glad tidings of the gospel preached to us, and our hearts are brought into subjection to the power thereof! ”

“ Who sell the world for this great pearl of price, Which, once procur’d, will purchase Paradise: He who in such a bark does spread his sails, Need never fear at last those prosp’rous gales, That will conduct him to a land where he Shall feel no storms, but in a calm shall be ”

“ For my friends names were Seek-truth and Weary-o’th’-World, whom we have in our company now. So when Tender-conscience came by, and was looking on the pillar of History, Seek-truth happen’d to see him, and knowing by his habit that he was a pilgrim, he presently struck up a bargain with him to bear him company, and called the rest of us out of the cave, a little way off which we overtook Spiritual-man, and so we all joined company, and came along together, not one of us but Yielding being lost. ”