Pilgrim’s Progress text to follow along with
19EVANGELISTFINDETHCHRISTIANUNDERMOUNTSINAI,ANDLOOKETHSEVERELYUPONHIMAnd with that he saw Evangelist coming to meet him; at the sight also of whom he began to blush for shame. So Evan-gelist drew nearer and nearer; and coming up to him, he looked upon him with a severe and dreadful countenance, and thus began to reason with Christian.EVANGELIST. What dost thou here, Christian? said he: at which words Christian knew not what to answer; where-fore at present he stood speechless before him. Then said Evangelist further, Art not thou the man that I found crying without the walls of the City of Destruction?CHRISTIAN. Yes, dear Sir, I am the man.EVANGELIST. Did not I direct thee the way to the little wicket-gate?CHRISTIAN. Yes, dear Sir, said Christian.EVANGELIST. How is it, then, that thou art so quickly turned aside? for thou art now out of the way.CHRISTIAN. I met with a gentleman so soon as I had got over the Slough of Despond, who persuaded me that I 20ThePilgrim’sProgressmight, in the village before me, find a man that could take off my burden.EVANGELIST. What was he?CHRISTIAN. He looked like a gentleman, and talked much to me, and got me at last to yield; so I came hither: but when I beheld this hill, and how it hangs over the way, I suddenly made a stand, lest it should fall on my head.Evangelist. What said that gentleman to you?CHRISTIAN. Why, he asked me whither I was going? And I told him.EVANGELIST. And what said he then?CHRISTIAN. He asked me if I had a family? And I told him. But, said I, I am so loaden with the burden that is on my back, that I cannot take pleasure in them as formerly.EVANGELIST. And what said he then?CHRISTIAN. He bid me with speed get rid of my burden; and I told him it was ease that I sought. And, said I, I am therefore going to yonder gate, to receive further direction how I may get to the place of deliverance. So he said that he would show me a better way, and short, not so attended with difficulties as the way, Sir, that you set me in; which way, said he, will direct you to a gentleman’s house that hath skill to take off these burdens: so I believed him, and turned out of that way into this, if haply I might be soon eased of my burden. But when I came to this place, and beheld things as they are, I stopped for fear (as I said) of danger: but I now know not what to do.EVANGELIST. Then, said Evangelist, stand still a little, that I may show thee the words of God. So he stood trem-bling. Then said Evangelist, “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spa-ke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away 21EvangelistFindethChristianUnderMountSinaifrom Him that speaketh from Heaven”.31 He said, moreover, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him”.32 He also did thus apply them: Thou art the man that art running into this misery; thou hast begun to reject the counsel of the Most High, and to draw back thy foot from the way of peace, even almost to the hazarding of thy perdition!Then Christian fell down at his foot as dead, crying, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” At the sight of which, Evan-gelist caught him by the right hand, saying, “All manner of sin and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men”; “Be not faithless, but believing”.33Then did Christian again a little revive, and stood up trembling, as at first, before Evangelist.Then Evangelist proceeded, saying, Give more earnest heed to the things that I shall tell thee of. I will now show thee who it was that deluded thee, and who it was also to whom he sent thee.—The man that met thee is one World-ly-wiseman, and rightly is he so called; partly, because he savoureth only the doctrine of this world34, (therefore he always goes to the town of Morality to church); and partly because he loveth that doctrine best, for it saveth him best from the cross.35 And because he is of this carnal temper, therefore he seeketh to prevent my ways, though right. Now there are three things in this man’s counsel, that thou must utterly abhor.1. His turning thee out of the way. 2. His labouring to render the cross odious to thee. And, 3. His setting thy feet in that way that leadeth unto the administration of death.31Heb. 12:2532Heb. 10:3833John 20:27341 John 4:535Gal. 6:1222ThePilgrim’sProgressFirst, Thou must abhor his turning thee out of the way; yea, and thine own consenting thereto: because this is to reject the counsel of God for the sake of the counsel of a Worldly-wiseman. The Lord says, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate”36 the gate to which I send thee; for “strait is the gate which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”37From this little wicket-gate, and from the way thereto, hath this wicked man turned thee, to the bringing of thee almost to destruction; hate, therefore, his turning thee out of the way, and abhor thyself for hearkening to him.Secondly, Thou must abhor his labouring to render the cross odious unto thee; for thou art to prefer it “before the treasures in Egypt.”38 Besides, the King of glory hath told thee, that he that “will save his life shall lose it”39 And, “He that comes after Him, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple”40 I say, therefore, for man to labour to persuade thee, that that shall be thy death, without which, THETRUTH hath said, thou canst not have eternal life; this doctrine thou must abhor.Thirdly, Thou must hate his setting of thy feet in the way that leadeth to the ministration of death. And for this thou must consider to whom he sent thee, and also how unable that person was to deliver thee from thy burden.He to whom thou wast sent for ease, being by name Legality, is the son of the bond woman which now is, and is in bondage with her children;41 and is, in a mystery, this 36Luke 13:2437Matt. 7:1438Heb. 11:25, 2639Mark 8:35; John 12:25; Matt. 10:3940Luke 14:2641Gal. 4:21–2723EvangelistFindethChristianUnderMountSinaimount Sinai, which thou hast feared will fall on thy head. Now, if she, with her children, are in bondage, how canst thou expect by them to be made free?