410 THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS.

asked what he could say for their lord the king against him. Then they sware him:
so he began:

Super. My lord, I have no great acquaintance with this man, nor do I desire to
have further knowledge of him. However, this I know, that he is a very pestilent
fellow, from some discourse the other day that I had with him in this town; for then,
talking with him, I heard him say that our religion was naught, and such by which a
man could by no means please God. Which saying of his, my lord, your lordship very
well knows what necessarily thence will follow; to wit, that we still do worship in
vain, are yet in our sins, and finally shall be damned: and this is that which I have
to say.

Then was Pickthank sworn, and bid say what he knew, in behalf of their lord the
king, against the prisoner at the bar. .

Pick. My lord, and you gentlemen all, this fellow I have known a long time, and
have heard him speak things that ought not to be spoken, for he hath railed on our
noble Prince Beelzebub, and hath spoken contemptuously of his honorable friends,
whose names are, the Lord Old-man, the Lord Carnal-Delight, the Lord Luxurious,
the Lord Desire-of-Vain-Glory, my old Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, with ail
the rest of our nobility ; and he hath said, moreover, that, if all men were of hig mind,
if possible there is not one of these noblemen should have any longer a being in this
town. Besides, he has not been afraid to rail on you, my lord, who are now appointed
to be his judge, calling you an ungodly villain, with many other such-like vilifying
terms, with which he hath bespattered most of the gentry of our town.

Jupée. When this Pickthank had told his tale, the judge directed his speech to the
prisoner at the bar, saying, “Thou runagate, heretic, and traitor! hast thou heard what
these honest gentlemen have witnessed against thee?”

Farrn. May I speak a few words in my own defense ?

JupGe. Sirrah, sirrah, thou deservest to live no longer, but to be slain immediately
upon the place; yet, that all men may see our gentleness towards thee, let us hear
what thou, vile runagate, hast to say.

Hairy. 1. I say, then, in answer to what Mr. Envy hath spoken, I have never said
aught but this, that what rule, or laws, or custom, or people were flat against the
Word of God, are diametrically opposite to Christianity. If I have said amiss in this,
convince me of my error, and I am ready here before you to make my recantation.

2. As to the second, to wit, Mr. Superstition and his charge against me, I said only
this, that in the worship of God there is required a divine faith. But there can be no
divine faith without a divine revelation of the will of God. Therefore, whatever is