FORMALITY AND HYPOCRISY. 59

thereabout ; for what they did they had custom for, and could produce, if need were,
testimony that could witness it for more than a thousand years.

Curis. “ But,” said Christian, “will it stand a trial at law?”

Form. and Hyp. 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 impuartial
judge. “And besides,” said they, “if we get into the way, what matter is it which
way we may 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 are also in the way, that came tumbling over
the wall: wherein, now, is thy condition better than ours?”

Curis. 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. Youcome in by yourselves without His
direction, and shall go out by yourselves with-
out His mercy.

To this they made him but little answer; NY
only they bid him look to himself. Then I i
saw that they went on every man in his way,

    
       

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without much conference one with another ;
save that these two men told Christian, that,

as to law 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
which is on thy back, which was, as we trow,
given thee by some of thy neighbors to hide

Hypocrisy.

the shame of thy nakedness.”

Curis. 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 to 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 His 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