
Part 28.
¶ I saw then in my dream, that Hopeful looked back, and saw Ignorance,
whom they had left behind, coming after. Look, said he to Christian,
how far yonder youngster loitereth behind.

Christian: Aye, aye, I see him: he careth not for our company.
Hopeful: But I trow it would not have hurt him, had he kept pace with
us hitherto.
Christian: That is true; but I warrant you he thinketh otherwise.
Hopeful: That I think he doth; but, however, let us tarry for him. (So
they did.)
¶ Then Christian said to him, Come away, man; why do you stay so behind?
Ignorance: I take my pleasure in walking alone, even more a great deal
than in company, unless I like it the better.
¶ Then said Christian to Hopeful, (but softly,) Did I not tell you he
cared not for our company? But, however, said he, come up, and let us
talk away the time in this solitary place. Then, directing his speech
to Ignorance, he said, Come, how do you do? How stands it between God
and your soul now?
Ignorance: I hope, well; for I am always full of good motions, that
come into my mind to comfort me as I walk.
Christian: What good motions? Pray tell us.
Ignorance: Why, I think of God and heaven.
Christian: So do the devils and damned souls.
Ignorance: But I think of them, and desire them.
Christian: So do many that are never like to come there. "The soul of
the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing." Prov. 13:4.
Ignorance: But I think of them, and leave all for them.
Christian: That I doubt: for to leave all is a very hard matter; yea, a
harder matter than many are aware of. But why, or by what, art thou
persuaded that thou hast left all for God and heaven?
Ignorance: My heart tells me so.
Christian: The wise man says, "He that trusteth in his own heart is a
fool." Prov. 28:26.
Ignorance: That is spoken of an evil heart; but mine is a good one.
Christian: But how dost thou prove that?
Ignorance: It comforts me in hopes of heaven.
Christian: That may be through its deceitfulness; for a man's heart may
minister comfort to him in the hopes of that thing for which he has yet
no ground to hope.
Ignorance: But my heart and life agree together; and therefore my hope
is well-grounded.
Christian: Who told thee that thy heart and life agree together?
Ignorance: My heart tells me so.
Christian: "Ask my fellow if I be a thief." Thy heart tells thee so!
Except the word of God beareth witness in this matter, other testimony
is of no value.
Ignorance: But is it not a good heart that hath good thoughts? and is
not that a good life that is according to God's commandments?
Christian: Yes, that is a good heart that hath good thoughts, and that
is a good life that is according to God's commandments; but it is one
thing indeed to have these, and another thing only to think so.
Ignorance: Pray, what count you good thoughts, and a life according to
God's commandments?
Christian: There are good thoughts of divers kinds; some respecting
ourselves, some God, some Christ, and some other things.
Ignorance: What be good thoughts respecting ourselves?
Christian: Such as agree with the word of God.
Ignorance: When do our thoughts of ourselves agree with the word of
God?
Christian: When we pass the same judgment upon ourselves which the word
passes. To explain myself: the word of God saith of persons in a
natural condition, "There is none righteous, there is none that doeth
good." It saith also, that, "every imagination of the heart of man is
only evil, and that continually." Gen. 6:5; Rom. 3. And again, "The
imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Gen. 8:21. Now,
then, when we think thus of ourselves, having sense thereof, then are
our thoughts good ones, because according to the word of God.
Ignorance: I will never believe that my heart is thus bad.
Christian: Therefore thou never hadst one good thought concerning
thyself in thy life. But let me go on. As the word passeth a judgment
upon our hearts, so it passeth a judgment upon our ways; and when the
thoughts of our hearts and ways agree with the judgment which the word
giveth of both, then are both good, because agreeing thereto.
Ignorance: Make out your meaning.
Christian: Why, the word of God saith, that man's ways are crooked
ways, not good but perverse; it saith, they are naturally out of the
good way, that they have not known it. Psa. 125:5; Prov. 2:15; Rom.
3:12. Now, when a man thus thinketh of his ways, I say, when he doth
sensibly, and with heart-humiliation, thus think, then hath he good
thoughts of his own ways, because his thoughts now agree with the
judgment of the word of God.
Ignorance: What are good thoughts concerning God?
Christian: Even, as I have said concerning ourselves, when our thoughts
of God do agree with what the word saith of him; and that is, when we
think of his being and attributes as the word hath taught, of which I
cannot now discourse at large. But to speak of him with reference to
us: then have we right thoughts of God when we think that he knows us
better than we know ourselves, and can see sin in us when and where we
can see none in ourselves; when we think he knows our inmost thoughts,
and that our heart, with all its depths, is always open unto his eyes;
also when we think that all our righteousness stinks in his nostrils,
and that therefore he cannot abide to see us stand before him in any
confidence, even in all our best performances.
Ignorance: Do you think that I am such a fool as to think that God can
see no further than I; or that I would come to God in the best of my
performances?
Christian: Why, how dost thou think in this matter?
Ignorance: Why, to be short, I think I must believe in Christ for
justification.
Christian: How! think thou must believe in Christ, when thou seest not
thy need of him! Thou neither seest thy original nor actual
infirmities; but hast such an opinion of thyself, and of what thou
doest, as plainly renders thee to be one that did never see the
necessity of Christ's personal righteousness to justify thee before
God. How, then, dost thou say, I believe in Christ?
Ignorance: I believe well enough, for all that.
Christian: How dost thou believe?
Ignorance: I believe that Christ died for sinners; and that I shall be
justified before God from the curse, through his gracious acceptance of
my obedience to his laws. Or thus, Christ makes my duties, that are
religious, acceptable to his Father by virtue of his merits, and so
shall I be justified.
Christian: Let me give an answer to this confession of thy faith.
1. Thou believest with a fantastical faith; for this faith is nowhere
described in the word.
2. Thou believest with a false faith; because it taketh justification
from the personal righteousness of Christ, and applies it to thy own.
3. This faith maketh not Christ a justifier of thy person, but of thy
actions; and of thy person for thy action's sake, which is false.
4. Therefore this faith is deceitful, even such as will leave thee
under wrath in the day of God Almighty: for true justifying faith puts
the soul, as sensible of its lost condition by the law, upon flying for
refuge unto Christ's righteousness; (which righteousness of his is not
an act of grace by which he maketh, for justification, thy obedience
accepted with God, but his personal obedience to the law, in doing and
suffering for us what that required at our hands;) this righteousness,
I say, true faith accepteth; under the skirt of which the soul being
shrouded, and by it presented as spotless before God, it is accepted,
and acquitted from condemnation.
Ignorance: What! would you have us trust to what Christ in his own
person has done without us? This conceit would loosen the reins of our
lust, and tolerate us to live as we list: for what matter how we live,
if we may be justified by Christ's personal righteousness from all,
when we believe it?
Christian: Ignorance is thy name, and as thy name is, so art thou: even
this thy answer demonstrateth what I say. Ignorant thou art of what
justifying righteousness is, and as ignorant how to secure thy soul,
through the faith of it, from the heavy wrath of God. Yea, thou also
art ignorant of the true effects of saving faith in this righteousness
of Christ, which is to bow and win over the heart to God in Christ, to
love his name, his word, ways, and people, and not as thou ignorantly
imaginest.
Hopeful: Ask him if ever he had Christ revealed to him from heaven.
Ignorance: What! you are a man for revelations! I do believe, that what
both you and all the rest of you say about that matter, is but the
fruit of distracted brains.
Hopeful: Why, man, Christ is so hid in God from the natural
apprehensions of the flesh, that he cannot by any man be savingly
known, unless God the Father reveals him to him.
Ignorance: That is your faith, but not mine, yet mine, I doubt not, is
as good as yours, though I have not in my head so many whimsies as you.
Christian: Give me leave to put in a word. You ought not so slightly to
speak of this matter: for this I will boldly affirm, even as my good
companion hath done, that no man can know Jesus Christ but by the
revelation of the Father: yea, and faith too, by which the soul layeth
hold upon Christ, (if it be right,) must be wrought by the exceeding
greatness of his mighty power, Matt. 11:27; 1 Cor. 12:3; Eph.
1:17-19; the working of which faith, I perceive, poor Ignorance, thou art
ignorant of. Be awakened, then, see thine own wretchedness, and fly to
the Lord Jesus; and by his righteousness, which is the righteousness of
God, (for he himself is God,) thou shalt be delivered from
condemnation.
Ignorance: You go so fast I cannot keep pace with you; do you go on
before: I must stay a while behind.
¶ Then they said,
"Well, Ignorance, wilt thou yet foolish be,
To slight good counsel, ten times given thee?
And if thou yet refuse it, thou shalt know,
Ere long, the evil of thy doing so.
Remember, man, in time: stoop, do not fear:
Good counsel, taken well, saves; therefore hear.
But if thou yet shalt slight it, thou wilt be
The loser, Ignorance, I'll warrant thee."
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