And as he was
troubled thereabout, he espied two men come tumbling over the wall, on the left
hand of the narrow way; and they made up apace to him. The name of the one was
Formalist, and the name of the other Hypocrisy. So, as I said, they drew up
unto him, who thus entered with them into discourse.
Christian:
Gentlemen, whence came you, and whither do you go?
Formalist and
Hypocrisy: We were born in the land of Vain-glory, and are going, for praise,
to Mount Zion.
Christian: Why
came you not in at the gate which standeth at the beginning of the way? Know ye
not that it is written, that “he that cometh not in by the door, but climbeth
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber?”
Formalist and
Hypocrisy: They said, that to go to the gate for entrance was by all their
countrymen counted too far about; and that therefore their usual way was to
make a short cut of it, and to climb over the wall, as they had done.
Christian: But
will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of the city whither we are
bound, thus to violate his revealed will?
Formalist and
Hypocrisy: They told him, that as for that, he needed not to trouble his head
thereabout: for what they did they had custom for, and could produce, if need
were, testimony that would witness it for more than a thousand years.
Christian: But,
said Christian, will you stand a trial at law?
Formalist and
Hypocrisy: They told him, that custom, it being of so long standing as above a
thousand years, would doubtless now be admitted as a thing legal by an
impartial judge: and besides, said they, if we get into the way, what matter is
it 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 also are in the way, that came
tumbling over the wall: wherein now is thy condition better than ours?
Christian: I walk
by the rule of my Master: 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 come in by yourselves without his
direction, and shall go out by yourselves without his mercy.
To this they made
him but little answer; 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, save
that these two men told Christian, that as to laws and ordinances, they doubted
not but that they should as conscientiously do them as he. Therefore, said
they, we see not wherein thou differest from us, but by the coat that is on thy
back, which was, as we trow, given thee by some of thy neighbors, to hide the
shame of thy nakedness.
Christian: By
laws and ordinances you will not be saved, since you came not in by the door. 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 say, to cover my nakedness with. And I take it
as a token of kindness to me; for I had nothing but rags before. And besides,
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, since I have his coat on my back;
a coat that he gave me freely in the day that he stripped 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 associates 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 sealed, to comfort me by reading as I go on the way; I was
also bid to give it in at the celestial 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 all on, 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.
