The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can ReadBunyan, John
Religion
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read
Bunyan, John
Christian life -- Juvenile literature; Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- Juvenile literature
Then stood forth Envy, and said to this effect: "My lord, I have known
this man a long time, and will attest upon my oath before this honorable
bench that he is--"
JUDGE. Hold! Give him his oath.
ENVY. So they sware him. Then said he, "My lord, this man,
notwithstanding his name, Faithful is one of the vilest men in our
country. He cares for neither prince nor people, law nor custom, but
doth all that he can to possess all men with certain of his disloyal
notions, which he in the general calls principles of faith and holiness.
And in particular, I heard him once myself affirm that Christianity and
the customs of our town of Vanity were opposite, and could not be
reconciled. By which saying, my lord, he doth at once not only condemn
all our laudable doings, but us in the doing of them."
JUDGE. Then did the judge say to him, "Hast thou any more to say?"
ENVY. My lord, I could say much more, only I would not be tiresome to
the court. Yet, if need be, when the other gentlemen have given in their
evidence, rather than anything shall be wanting that will dispatch him,
I will have more to speak against him. So he was bid stand by.
Then they called Superstition, and bade him look upon the prisoner. They
also 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 destroyed: 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 Lust, Sir Having Greedy, with all the
rest of our nobility and he hath said, moreover, that, if all men were
of his 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 abusive terms, with which he
hath bespattered most of the gentry of our town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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