means be perfuaded either by the tears or entreaties of Christian, yet fecond thoughts have wrought wonderfully with them; they have packed up all, and are gone after him.

Better and better, quoth I: But, what? Wife and children, and all?

Sag. It is true: I can give you an account of the matter, for I was upon the spot at the instant, and was thoroughly acquainted with the whole affair. Then, faid I, I may report it for a truth.

Sag. You need not fear to affirm it. I mean, that they are all gone on pilgrimage, both the good woman and her four boys. And, as I perceive that we are going fome confiderable way together, I will give you an account of the whole matter.

This is the way in which Chriftiana (for that was her name), with her children, betook themselves to a pilgrim's life. After her husband was gone over the river, and she could hear of him no more, then fhe began to think within herself, firft, That fhe had lost her husband, and that the loving bond of that relationship was utterly broken betwixt them. (And you know, faid he to me, natural affection can do no lefs but raife in the living many a heavy cogitation at the remembrance of the lofs of loving relations.) The remembrance therefore of her hus

Till the fet time is come, till the Lord puts forth his fovereign and almighty power, nothing can work a faving change on the finner's heart; but when he opens, none can shut; and if he works, none can hinder.

band

band did coft her many a tear.

But this was not all: Chriftiana did alfo begin to confider with herfelf, Whether her unbecoming behaviour towards her husband was not one caufe that she saw him no more; and that he was taken away from her in fuch fort: upon this, all her unkind, unnatural, and ungodly carriage to her dear friend, came into her mind by fwarms; this did clog her confcience, and load her with guilt. Her heart was moreover much broken when the called to remembrance the reftlefs groans, the brinish tears, and the self-bemoaning of her husband; and how fhe had hardened her heart against all his entreaties, and loving perfuafions, to prevail upon her and her fons to go with him: yea, there was not any thing which Chriftian either had faid to her, or had done before her, all the while his burden did hang on his back, but it returned upon her like a flash of lightning, and rent. the caul of her heart afunder: especially that bitter outcry of his, What fhall I do to be faved! did now ring in her ears moft dolefully.

Then faid fhe to her children, Sons, we are all undone. I have finned away your father, and he is gone: he would have had us have gone with him, but I would not go myfelf, and I alfo hindered you from going. With that the boys fell into tears, and cried to go after their father. Oh! faid Chriftiana, that it had been but our lots to have gone with him, then it had fared better with us than it is like to do now. Though I formerly foolishly imagined concerning

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cerning the troubles of your father, that they proceeded from a foolish fancy which he had, or from melancholy humours, with which he was overrun; yet now it is for ever in my mind, that they sprang from another caufe, to wit, from the light of life which was given him; by the help of which, as I perceive, he has efcaped the fnares of death. Ther they all wept again, and cried out, Oh, Wo worth the day!

The next night, Chriftiana had a dream; and behold, fhe faw as it were a broad parchment opened before her, in which was recorded the fum of her ways; her crimes, as she thought, looked very black upon her. She cried out aloud in her fleep, Lord have mercy upon me, a finner; fo that the little children heard her.

After this, fhe thought that fhe faw two very illfavoured ones ftanding by her bedfide, and faying, What fhall we do with this woman, for fhe cries out for mercy waking and fleeping? If the be fuffered to go on as fhe begins, we fhall lofe her as

f It is one thing to cry out for grace to mend them, to make them better, to fubdue their finful lufts and paffions. This cry may proceed from a fpirit of felf-righteoufnefs, from the fear of being damned, and from the natural awakenings of confcience, without any true and fpiritual conviction of fin. It is another thing to cry out for pardoning grace and mercy. No doubt, where there is a fenfe of pardoning grace and mercy, there will be a hatred to fin; but there may be an awful dread of the confequences of fin, without the leaft hatred to

we have loft her husband. Wherefore we must, by fome way or other, feek to take her mind off from the thoughts of what shall be hereafter, elfe all the world cannot hinder it, but fhe will become a pilgrim.

Now she awoke in a great fweat; alfo a trembling was upon her; but after a while fhe fell asleep again. And then she thought the faw Chriftian her husband in a place of blifs among many immortals, with a harp in his hand, standing and playing upon it before one who fat on a throne, with a rainbow about his head. She faw alfo as if he bowed his head with his face to the paved-work which was under his prince's feet, faying, I heartily thank my Lord and King for bringing me into this place. Then a company of them who ftood round about and harped with their harps fhouted: but no man living could tell what they faid, but Chriftian and his companions.

Next morning, when fhe was up, and had prayed to God, and talked with her children for a while, one knocked hard at the door; to whom she spake aloud, faying, If thou comeft in God's name, come in. He faid, Amen; and opened the door, and faluted her with, Peace be to this house. Which when he had done, he faid, Chriftiana, knowest thou wherefore I am come? Then fhe blushed and trembled; alfo her heart began to wax warm with defires to know from whence he came, and what his errand was to her. He then 'faid unto her, My

name