The Pilgrim's Progress Justice and Judgment Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Paragraph (P#) or Line (Line #)

Quote #4

"Yea, he put me so to it, that my blood came up in my face; even this Shame fetched it up, and had almost beat me quite off. But at last I began to consider, That that which is highly esteemed among Men, is had in abomination with God. And I thought again, this Shame tells me what men are; but it tells me nothing what God or the Word of God is. And I thought moreover, that at the day of doom, we shall not be doomed to death or life according to the hectoring spirits of the world, but according to the Wisdom and Law of the Highest." (P397)

"Hectoring spirits of the world"—wow. Great phrase, Bunyan. Quotes like this are a great example of how Bunyan puts worldly justice in contrast to the "higher" justice of God. There is also a tone of longing and relief with which he speaks of final judgment here. Why would he think of this as something to look forward to?

Quote #5

Then said Christian to his fellow, If these men cannot stand before the sentence of men , what will they do with the sentence of God? And if they are mute when dealt with by vessels of clay, what will they do when they shall be rebuked by the flames of the devouring fire? (P551)

Discussing By-ends and his cronies with Hopeful here, Christian is specifically referring to how they will fare on Judgment Day. In this part of the story, the questioning that Christian inflicts on these men acts as a kind of proto-judgment in itself, testing how their self-defenses stand against gospel-teaching. Evidently, not so well. The upshot of this is that, if you can't even stand the testing of fellow-mortals, how are you going to face God? This is particularly poignant for By-ends who, we know, lives for the way he's seen by fellow men. Christian's critique undercuts this motive pretty keenly.

Quote #6

Then he went to the Stile to see, and behold a Path lay along by the way on the other side of the fence. 'Tis according to my wish, said Christian, here is the easiest going; come good Hopeful, and let us go over.

Hopeful: But how if this Path should lead us out of the way?

Christian: That's not like, said the other; look, doth it not go along by the way-side? (P602-4)

This incident with By-Pass Meadow is a great example of how easy it is for judgment to go wrong. As Christian says, the meadow seems to be directly parallel with the road. So, what's the harm in simply walking on that side of the fence? Not only is this a moment when Christian's judgment is skewed, but Hopeful's as well. Christian's tone is very authoritative here (almost pompous?), which leads Hopeful to be easily swayed by him.