Giant Despair catches them asleep. 101 Then said the asleep. Now there was not far from the place where they lay, a castle, called Doubting Castle, and the owner whereof was Giant Despair, and it was in his grounds they now were sleeping; wherefore he getting up in the morning early, and walking up and down in his fields, caught Christian and Hopeful asleep in his grounds. Then, with a grim and a surly voice, he bid them awake, and asked them whence they were, and what they did in his grounds? They told him they were pilgrims, and that they had lost their way. Giant, you have this night trespassed on me, by trampling in and lying on my grounds, and therefore you must go along with me. So they were forced to go, because he was stronger than they. They also had but little to say, for they knew themselves in a fault. The Giant therefore drove them before him, and put them into his Castle, in a very dark dungeon, nasty and stinking to the spirits of these two Here then they lay, from Wednesday morning till Saturday night, without one bit of bread, or drop of drink, or light, or any to ask how they did. They were therefore here in evil case, and were far from friends and acquaintance. Now, in this place, Christian had double sorrow, because 'twas through his unadvised counsel that they were brought into this distress. 1 2 Now Giant Despair had a wife, and her name was Diffidence. So, when he was gone to bed, he told his wife what he had done, to wit, that he had taken a couple of prisoners, and cast them into his dungeon, for trespassing on his grounds. Then he asked her also, What he had best to do further with them? So she asked him, What they were, whence they came, and whither they were bound? and he told 1 Repeated sins and mistakes bring believers into deep distresses. Growing more and more heartless in religion, and insensible in a most perilous situation, they are led habitually to infer that they are hypocrites; that the encouragements of scripture belong not to them; that prayer itself will be of no use to them: and, when they are at length brought to reflection, they are taken prisoners by Despair, and shut up in Doubting-castle. These lines are here inserted, 2 "The pilgrims now, to gratify the flesh, Will seek its ease; but, O! how they afresh Do thereby plunge themselves new griefs into! Perhaps the exact time, from Wednesday morning till Saturday night, was mentioned under the idea that it was as long as life can generally be supported in such a situation. The believer may be brought by wilful sin to such a condition, that, to his own apprehension, destruction is inevitable. |