The Pilgrim's Progress

He told him, as to thy burden be content to bear it, until thou comest to the place of deliverance; for there it will fall from thy back of it self.

The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil: but in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that: so he had him about to the backside of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast (but secretly) into the fire. Then said Christian, What means this? The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually with the oil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart...

He ran this till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a Cross, and a little below in the bottom, a sepulchre. 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 sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then I saw that they went on all, save that Christian kept before, who had no more talk but with himself, and that sometimes sighingly, and sometimes comfortably: also he would be often reading in the roll, that one of the shining ones gave him, by which he was refreshed.

The hill, though high, I covet to ascend, The difficulty will not me offend. For I perceive the way to life lies here; Come, pluck up, heart, let's neither faint nor fear. Better, tho' difficult, the right way to go, Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.

Charity: But what could they say for themselves, why they came not? Christian: Why, my wife was afraid of losing this world; and my children were given to foolish delights of youth: so what by one thing and what by another, they left me to wander in this manner alone.

Christian: All this is true, and much more, which thou has left out; but the prince whom I serve and honour, is merciful, and ready to forgive...

Christian: My honoured and well beloved Brother Faithful, I am glad that I have overtaken you, and that God has tempered our Spirits, that we can walk as companions in this so pleasant a Path.

Christian [to Faithful regarding Talkative]: Remember the Proverb, They say, and do not: but the Kingdom of God is not in Word, but in Power. He talketh of Prayer, of Repentance, of Faith, and of the New birth but he knows only to talk of them...His house is as empty of Religion, as the white of an Egg is of savour. There is there neither Prayer, nor sign of Repentance for sin: Yea, the brute in his kind serves God far better than he.

Christian [to Faithful]: Pure Religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the World. This Talkative is not aware of, he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian: and thus he deceives his own Soul. Hearing is but the sowing of the Seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life; and let us assure our selves, that at the day of Doom men shall be judged according to their fruit. It will not be said then, Did you believe? But were you Doers, or Talkers only?

Talkative: Why, what difference is there between crying out against, and abhorring of sin? Faithful: Oh! a great deal; a man may cry against sin of policy, but he cannot abhor it, but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it: I have heard many cry out against sin in the Pulpit, who yet can abide it well enough in the heart, house and conversation.

Faithful: When Christ said, Do you know all these things? And the disciples had answered, Yes: He added, Blessed are ye if ye do them. He doth not lay the Blessing in the knowing of them, but in the doing of them.

Faithful: There is therefore knowledge and knowledge.

This sight and sense of things worketh in him sorrow and shame for sin; he findeth moreover revealed in him the Saviour of the World, and the absolute necessity of closing with him for life; at the which he findeth hungerings and thirstings after him, to which hungerings, etc. the Promise is made. Now according to the strength or weakness of his faith in his Saviour, so is his joy and peace, so is his love to holiness, so are his desires to know him more, and also to serve him in this World.

Evangelist: ...and above all look well to your own hearts, and to the lusts thereof; for they are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: set your faces like a flint, you have all power in heaven and earth on your side.

Now as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this Town, where this lusty Fair is kept; and he that will go to the City and yet not go through this Town must needs go out of the World. The Prince of Princes himself, when here, went through this Town to his own Country, and that upon a fair-day too.

By-ends: We are so indeed, but the men before us [Christian and Hopeful] are so rigid, and love so much their own notions and do also lightly esteem the opinions of others; that let a man be never so godly, yet if he jumps not with them in all things, they thrust him quite out of their Company.

Christian: ...for so surely as Judas designed the world in becoming Religious, so surely did he also sell religion and his Master for the same.

Hopeful: I am sorry that I was so foolish, and am made to wonder that I am not now as Lot's Wife: for wherein was the difference 'twixt her sin and mine? She only looked back, and I had a desire to go see; let Grace be adored and let me be ashamed, that ever such a thing should be in mine heart.

Thus by Shepherds Secrets are reveal'd, Which from all other men are kept conceal'd: Come to the Shepherds then, if you would see Things deep, things hid, and that mysterious be.

Christian: Nay, (if I was not misinformed) [Little-Faith] was forced to beg as he went, to keep himself alive (for his jewels he might not sell). But beg and do what he could he went (as we say) with many a hungry belly the most part of the rest of the way.