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Part I. Chr. But will your practice stand a trial at law? Form. and Hyp. They told him, That custom, it being of fo long standing as above a thousand years, would doubtless now be admitted as a thing legal by an impartial judge: and besides, say they, if we get into the way, what matter which way we 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 alfo in the way, that came tumbling over the wall: Wherein now is thy condition better than ours?

Chr, I walk by the rule of my mafter, 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 came in by yourselves without his direction; and fhall go out by yourfelves, without his mercy.

To this they made him but little anfwer; only they bid him look to himself. Then I saw that they went on every man in his way, without much conference one with another; fave that these two men told Chriftian, that as to laws and ordinances, they doubted not but they should as conscientiously do them as he. Therefore, faid they, we fee not wherein thou differeft from us, but by the coat that is on thy back, which was, as we trow, given thee by fome of thy neighbours to hide the fhame of thy nakednefs.

Chr. By laws and ordinances you will not be faved (Gal. ii. 16.) fince you came not in by the door.

And

delufive hopes of happiness, are miferably mistaken, and, without divine interpofition, everlastingly undone. None will gain admiffion into the heavenly city, but those who are clothed with the Redeemer's robe of righteoufnefs, and bear the evident marks of the children of God; and though mean in their own eyes, and defpicable in the view of the world, they are nevertheless precious in the fight of God.

And as for this coat that is on my back, it was given me by the Lord of the place whither I go; and that, as you fay, to cover my nakednefs with. And I take it as a token of kindness to me; for I had nothing but rags before; and befides, thus I comfort myself as I go: Surely, think I, when I come to the gate of the city, the Lord thereof will know me for good, fince I have his coat on my back! a coat that he gave me freely in the day that he ftript me of my rags. I have moreover a mark in my forehead, of which perhaps you have taken no notice, which one of my Lord's most intimate affociates fixed there in the day that my burden fell off my shoulders. I will tell you, moreover, that I had then given me a roll fealed, to comfort me by reading, as I go on the way; I was alfo bid to give it in at the cœleftial gate, in token of my certain going in after it; all which things I doubt you want, and want them, because you came not in at the gate.

To these things they gave him no answer, only they looked upon each other, and laughed. Then I saw that they went on all, fave that Chriftian kept before, who had no more talk but with himself, and that fometimes fighingly, and fometimes comfortably alfo he would be often reading in the roll, that one of the shining Ones gave him, by which he was refreshed.

I beheld then, that they all went on 'till they came to the foot of the hill Difficulty, at the bottom of which was a fpring. There were also in the fame place two other ways befides that which came ftraight from the gate; one turned to the left hand,

and

The road which leads to glory, is a difficult and thorny road. Believers, confidered in themfelves, are fcarcely faved, i.e. with peculiar diftreffing difficulties; but confidered in

Chrift,

and the other to the right, at the bottom of the hill, but the narrow way lay right up the hill, and the name of the way going up the fide of the hill is called Difficulty. Chriftian now went to the spring (Ifa. xlix. 10.) and drank thereof to refresh himself, and then began to go up the hill, faying:

The bill, tho' high, I covet to afcend,
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, tho' eafy, where the end is woe.

The other two alfo came to the foot of the hill; but when they faw that the hill was steep and high; and that there were two other ways to go; and fuppofing also that these two ways might meet again with that up which Chriftian went, on the other fide of the hill therefore they were refolved to go in those ways. Now the name of one of those ways was Danger, and the name of the other Destruction. So the one took the way which is called Danger, which led him into a great wood, and the other took directly up the way to deftruction, which led him into a wide field, full of dark mountains, where he ftumbled and fell, and rofe no more.

I looked then after Christian, to fee him go up the hill, where I perceived he fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and his knees, because of the steepness of the place.

Now

Chrift, they are completely and everlaftingly faved. The chriftian afcends the hill of Difficulty, with fainting steps and flow; but he is comforted under all, by the confolations which are afforded him on the way. The Lord the Spirit, leads him to springs, to fountains of living waters, whereby his foul is refreshed, comforted, and ftrengthened. He has a

word

Christian afcends the hill Difficulty.

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