48

Apollyon tries to shake his faith.

Apol. Thou didst the same to me; and yet I am willing to pass by all, if now thou wilt yet turn and go back.

Chr. What I promised thee was in my nonage; and, besides, I count that the Prince under whose banner now I stand is able to absolve me; yea, and to pardon also what I did as to my compliance with thee: and besides, (0 thou destroying Apollyon!) to speak truth, I like his service, his wages, his servants, his government, his company, and country, better than thine; and therefore leave off to persuade me farther: I am his servant, and I will follow him.

Apol. Consider again, when thou art in cool blood, what thou art like to meet with in the way that thou goest. Thou knowest that, for the most part, his servants come to an ill end, because they are transgressors against me and my ways. How many of them have been put to shameful deaths! And, besides, thou countest his service better than mine, whereas he never yet came from the place where he is to deliver any that served him out of their hands; but as for me, how many times, as all the world very well knows, have I delivered, either by power or fraud, those that have faithfully served me, from him and his, though taken by them!-and so will I deliver thee.

Chr. His forbearing at present to deliver them is on purpose to try their love, whether they will cleave to him to the end; and as for the ill end thou sayest they come to, that is most glorious in their account; for, for present deliverance, they do not much expect it; for they stay for their glory, and then they shall have it, when their Prince comes in his, and the glory of the angels.'

Apol. Thou hast already been unfaithful in thy service to him, and how dost thou think to receive wages of him?

Chr. Wherein, O Apollyon, have I been unfaithful to him? Apol. Thou didst faint at first setting out, when thou wast almost choked in the gulph of Despond; thou didst attempt wrong ways to get rid of thy Burden; whereas thou shouldst have staid till thy Prince had taken it off. Thou didst sinfully sleep, and lose thy choice things. Thou wast also almost persuaded to go back at the sight of the Lions; and when thou talkest of thy journey, and of what thou

1 The true Christian has answers ready for every suggestion; even such answers as Christian had been furnished with at the house of the Interpreter.