The Pilgrim's Progress Religion Quotes

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

Quote #4

"So soon as the man overtook me, he was but a word and a blow, for down he knocked me, and laid me for dead. But when I was a little come to myself again, I asked him wherefore he served me so? He said, Because of my secret inclining to Adam the First: and with that he struck me another deadly blow on the breast, and beat me down backward, so I lay at his foot as dead as before. So when I came to myself again I cried him mercy; but he said, I know not how to shew mercy; and with that knocked me down again. He had doubtless made an end of me, but that one came by, and bid him forbear." (P381)

As Christian himself deciphers, Faithful is here retelling his encounter with Moses. This is a significant place where Bunyan distinguishes the "new" law of the spirit in Christ's teachings from the "old" letter of the law of the Hebrew Bible. As Moses was the original law-bearer, bringing the ten commandments down from Mt. Sinai in Exodus, he's a perfect figure for Bunyan to use. His statement "I know not to show mercy" reflects the stern emphasis on justice from the Hebrew Bible.

Quote #5

"[...] why he Shame objected against Religion itself; he said it was a pitiful low sneaking business for a man to mind Religion; he said that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing; and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, so as to tie up himself from that hectoring liberty that the brave spirits of the times accustom themselves unto, would make him the ridicule of the times." (P395)

Here, Faithful is recounting to Christian his run-in with Shame. Similar to Mr. Worldly-Wiseman's complaints against Christian living, Shame emphasizes that religion is "unmanly." His interest in his appearance to those "of the times" also shows how Bunyan is (once again) putting real religious living in contrast with a life lived for worldly interests.

Quote #6

"You did well to talk so plainly with him as you did; there is but little faithful dealing with men nowadays, and that makes religion stink in the nostrils of many, as it doth: for they are these talkative fools , whose religion is only in word, and are debauched and vain in their conversation, that being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly do stumble the world, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere." (P428)

This is one of the clearest articulations of Bunyan's beef with the everyday practice of Christianity in his time. Rather than living it—that is, actually acting on the teachings of Christ and the Gospels—the majority of people, like Talkative, merely talk the talk and get pretty vague when asked to walk the walk.