Pilgrim's Progress

An amazing section of Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan) A man named Christian is comparing notes on the journey of faith with a man named Faithful:

FAITH. But, good brother, hear me out. So soon as the man overtook me, he was but a word and a blow, for down he knocked me, and laid me for dead. But when I was a little come to myself again, I asked him wherefore he served me so. He said, because of my secret inclining to Adam the First; and with that he struck me another deadly blow on the breast, and beat me down backward; so I lay at his foot as dead as before. So, when I came to myself again, I cried him mercy; but he said, I know not how to show mercy; and with that he knocked me down again. He had doubtless made an end of me, but that one came by, and bid him forbear.
CHR. Who was that that bid him forbear?
FAITH. I did not know him at first, but as he went by, I perceived the holes in his hands and in his side; then I concluded that he was our Lord. So I went up the hill.
{178} CHR. That man that overtook you was Moses. He spareth none, neither knoweth he how to show mercy to those that transgress his law.
FAITH. I know it very well; it was not the first time that he has met with me. It was he that came to me when I dwelt securely at home, and that told me he would burn my house over my head if I stayed there.


We must take refuge in Christ. The law will kill us surely. It is good for telling us of the coming flames, but we must not walk in the way of the law, or it must kill us because it is good and holy and our flesh is not. This section is so poignant and vivid to me, because it assures me that I didn't make up my view of grace from recent bible trends, but that for hundreds of years, the gospel has been apparent and preached.