{ A Man with his back towards Zion }

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?

Ath. 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?

Ath. Received! There is no such place as you dream of in all
this world.

CHR. But there is in the world to come.

Ath. 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.

CHR. We have both heard and believe that there is such a place
to be found.

Ath. 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.

CHR. Then said Christian to Hopeful his fellow, Is it true which
this man hath said?

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. 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. I say, my brother, cease to hear him, and let us
believe to the saving of the soul.

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.

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.

---

{ The Enchanted Ground }

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.

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.

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.



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?

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. And that for these things' sake cometh the
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

CHR. And did you presently fall under the power of this
conviction?

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?

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?

HOPE. Many things; as:

1. If I did but meet a good man in the streets; or,

2. If I have heard any read in the Bible; or,

3. If mine head did begin to ache; or,

4. If I were told that some of my neighbours were sick; or,

5. If I heard the bell toll for some that were dead; or,

6. If I thought of dying myself; or,

7. If I heard that sudden death happened to others;

8. But especially, when I thought of myself, that I must quickly 
   come to judgment.

CHR. And could you at any time, with ease, get off the guilt of
sin, when by any of these ways it came upon you?

HOPE. No, not I, for then they got faster hold of my conscience;
and then, if I did but think of going back to sin, (though my
mind was turned against it,) it would be double torment to me.

CHR. And how did you do then?

HOPE. I thought I must endeavour to mend my life; for else,
thought I, I am sure to be damned.

CHR. And did you endeavour to mend?

HOPE. Yes; and fled from not only my sins, but sinful company
too; and betook me to religious duties, as prayer, reading,
weeping for sin, speaking truth to my neighbours, &c. These
things did I, with many others, too much here to relate.

CHR. And did you think yourself well then?

HOPE. Yes, for a while; but at the last, my trouble came
tumbling upon me again, and that over the neck of all my
reformations.

CHR. How came that about, since you were now reformed?

HOPE. There were several things brought it upon me, especially
such sayings as these: All our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. When
ye shall have done all those things, say, We are unprofitable;
with many more such like. From whence I began to reason with
myself thus: If ALL my righteousnesses are filthy rags; if, by
the deeds of the law, NO man can be justified; and if, when we
have done ALL, we are yet unprofitable, then it is but a folly
to think of heaven by the law. I further thought thus: If a man
runs a hundred pounds into the shopkeeper's debt, and after
that shall pay for all that he shall fetch; yet, if this old
debt stands still in the book uncrossed, for that the
shopkeeper may sue him, and cast him into prison till he shall
pay the debt.

CHR. Well, and how did you apply this to yourself? I thought
thus with myself.

HOPE. Why; I have, by my sins, run a great way into God's book,
and that my now reforming will not pay off that score; therefore
I should think still, under all my present amendments, But how
shall I be freed from that damnation that I have brought myself
in danger of by my former transgressions?

CHR. A very good application: but, pray, go on.

HOPE. Another thing that hath troubled me, even since my late
amendments, is, that if I look narrowly into the best of what I
do now, I still see sin, new sin, mixing itself with the best of
that I do; so that now I am forced to conclude, that
notwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties, I
have committed sin enough in one duty to send me to hell, though
my former life had been faultless.

CHR. And what did you do then?

HOPE. Do! I could not tell what to do, until I brake my mind to
Faithful, for he and I were well acquainted. And he told me,
that unless I could obtain the righteousness of a man that never
had sinned, neither mine own, nor all the righteousness of the
world could save me.

CHR. And did you think he spake true?

HOPE. Had he told me so when I was pleased and satisfied with
mine own amendment, I had called him fool for his pains; but
now, since I see mine own infirmity, and the sin that cleaves to
my best performance, I have been forced to be of his opinion.

CHR. But did you think, when at first he suggested it to you,
that there was such a man to be found, of whom it might justly
be said that he never committed sin?

HOPE. I must confess the words at first sounded strangely, but
after a little more talk and company with him, I had full
conviction about it.

CHR. And did you ask him what man this was, and how you must be
justified by him?

HOPE. Yes, and he told me it was the Lord Jesus, that dwelleth
on the right hand of the Most High. And thus, said he, you must
be justified by him, even by trusting to what he hath done by
himself, in the days of his flesh, and suffered when he did hang
on the tree. I asked him further, how that man's righteousness
could be of that efficacy to justify another before God? And he 
told me he was the mighty God, and did what he did, and died the
death also, not for himself, but for me; to whom his doings, and
the worthiness of them, should be imputed, if I believed on him.

CHR. And what did you do then?

HOPE. I made my objections against my believing, for that I
thought he was not willing to save me.

CHR. And what said Faithful to you then?

HOPE. He bid me go to him and see. Then I said it was
presumption; but he said, No, for I was invited to come. Then he
gave me a book of Jesus, his inditing, to encourage me the more
freely to come; and he said, concerning that book, that every
jot and tittle thereof stood firmer than heaven and earth. Then
I asked him, What I must do when I came; and he told me, I must
entreat upon my knees, with all my heart and soul, the Father to
reveal him to me. Then I asked him further, how I must make my
supplication to him? And he said, Go, and thou shalt find him
upon a mercy-seat, where he sits all the year long, to give
pardon and forgiveness to them that come. I told him that I knew
not what to say when I came. And he bid me say to this effect:

"God be merciful to me a sinner, and make me to know and believe
in Jesus Christ; for I see, that if his righteousness had not
been, or I have not faith in that righteousness, I am utterly
cast away. Lord, I have heard that thou art a merciful God, and
hast ordained that thy Son Jesus Christ should be the Saviour of
the world; and moreover, that thou art willing to bestow him upon
such a poor sinner as I am, (and I am a sinner indeed;) Lord,
take therefore this opportunity and magnify thy grace in the
salvation of my soul, through thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen."

CHR. And did you do as you were bidden?

HOPE. Yes; over, and over, and over.

CHR. And did the Father reveal his Son to you?

HOPE. Not at the first, nor second, nor third, nor fourth, nor
fifth; no, nor at the sixth time neither.

CHR. What did you do then?

Hope: What! why, I could not tell what to do.

CHR. Had you not thoughts of leaving off praying?

HOPE. Yes; an hundred times twice told.

CHR. And what was the reason you did not?

HOPE. I believed that that was true which had been told me, to
wit, that without the righteousness of this Christ, all the
world could not save me; and therefore, thought I with myself,
if I leave off I die, and I can but die at the throne of grace.
And withal, this came into my mind, Though it tarry, wait for
it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. So I
continued praying until the Father shewed me his Son.

CHR. And how was he revealed unto you?

HOPE. I did not see him with my bodily eyes, but with the eyes
of my understanding; and thus it was: One day I was very sad, I
think sadder than at any one time in my life, and this sadness
was through a fresh sight of the greatness and vileness of my
sins. And as I was then looking for nothing but hell, and the
everlasting damnation of my soul, suddenly, as I thought, I saw
the Lord Jesus Christ look down from heaven upon me, and saying,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

But I replied, Lord, I am a great, a very great sinner. And he
answered, My grace is sufficient for thee. Then I said, But,
Lord, what is believing? And then I saw from that saying, He
that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on
me shall never thirst, that believing and coming was all one;
and that he that came, that is, ran out in his heart and
affections after salvation by Christ, he indeed believed in
Christ. Then the water stood in mine eyes, and I asked further.
But, Lord, may such a great sinner as I am be indeed accepted of
thee, and be saved by thee? And I heard him say, And him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Then I said, But how,
Lord, must I consider of thee in my coming to thee, that my
faith may be placed aright upon thee? Then he said, Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. He is the end of the law for 
righteousness to every one that believeth. He died for our sins,
and rose again for our justification. He loved us, and washed us
from our sins in his own blood. He is mediator betwixt God and
us. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. From all which
I gathered, that I must look for righteousness in his person,
and for satisfaction for my sins by his blood; that what he did
in obedience to his Father's law, and in submitting to the
penalty thereof, was not for himself, but for him that will
accept it for his salvation, and be thankful. And now was my
heart full of joy, mine eyes full of tears, and mine affections
running over with love to the name, people, and ways of Jesus
Christ.

CHR. This was a revelation of Christ to your soul indeed; but
tell me particularly what effect this had upon your spirit.

HOPE. It made me see that all the world, notwithstanding all the
righteousness thereof, is in a state of condemnation. It made me
see that God the Father, though he be just, can justly justify
the coming sinner. It made me greatly ashamed of the vileness of
my former life, and confounded me with the sense of mine own
ignorance; for there never came thought into my heart before now
that shewed me so the beauty of Jesus Christ. It made me love a
holy life, and long to do something for the honour and glory of
the name of the Lord Jesus; yea, I thought that had I now a
thousand gallons of blood in my body, I could spill it all for
the sake of the Lord Jesus.

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