Page:The Pilgrim's Progress, the Holy War, Grace Abounding Chunk3.djvu/20

20 door. And now, thought I, I am safe enough; for if a bell should then fall, I can slip out behind these thick walls, and so be preserved notwithstanding.

34. So after this I would yet go to see them ring, but would not go any further than the steeple door. But then it came into my head, "How if the steeple itself should fall?" And this thought (it may, for ought I know, when I stood and looked on) did continually so shake my mind that I durst not stand at the steeple door any longer, but was forced to ﬂee, for fear the steeple should fall upon my head.

35. Another thing was my dancing. I was a full year before I could quite leave that, But all this while, when I thought I kept that or this commandment, or did by Word or deed anything I thought was good, I had great peace in my conscience, and Would think with myself God cannot choose but be now pleased with me; yea, to relate it in my own way, I thought no man in England could please God better than I.

36. But, poor wretch I was, I was all this while ignorant of Jesus Christ, and going about to establish my own righteousness; and had perished therein, had not God been merciful unto me.

37. But upon a day the good providence of God called me to Redford to work at my calling, and in one of the streets of that town I came where there were three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun. talking about the things of God; and being new willing to hear their discourse, I drew near to hear What they said, for I was now a brisk talker in matters of religion: but they were far above my reach. Their talk was about a new birth, the work of God in their hearts, as also how they were convinced of their miserable state by nature. They talked how God, had visited their souls with his love, in the Lord Jesus, and with What words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations of the devil. Moreover, they reasoned of the suggestions and temptations of Satan in, particular, and, told