Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.”  Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden.  He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.  Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him with “Peace be to thee.”  So the first said to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;” the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate; so they went their way.

Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing: 

  Thus far did I come laden with my sin;
  Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
  Till I came hither; what a place is this! 
  Must here be the beginning of my bliss? 
  Must here the burden fall from off my back? 
  Must here the strings that bound it to me crack? 
  Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
  The man that there was put to shame for me.

I saw then in my dream, that he went on thus, even until he came at the bottom, where he saw, a little out of the way, three men fast asleep, with fetters upon their heels.  The name of the one was Simple, of another Sloth, and of the third Presumption.

Christian then, seeing them lie in this case, went to them, if peradventure he might awake them, and cried, You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast, for the Dead Sea is under you, a gulf that hath no bottom:  awake, therefore, and come away; be willing also, and I will help you off with your irons.  He also told them, If he that goeth about like a roaring lion, comes by, you will certainly become a prey to his teeth.  With that they looked upon him, and began to reply in this sort:  Simple said, I see no danger; Sloth said, Yet a little more sleep; and Presumption said, Every tub must stand upon its own bottom.

And so they lay down to sleep again, and Christian went on his way.

Yet was he troubled to think, that men in that danger should so little esteem the kindness of him that so freely offered to help them, both by awakening of them, counselling of them, and proffering to help them off with their irons.  And as he was troubled thereabout, he espied two men come tumbling over the wall on the left hand of the narrow way; and they made up apace to him.  The name of the one was Formalist, and the name of the other Hypocrisy.  So, as I said, they drew up unto him, who thus entered with him into discourse.

Chr. Gentlemen, whence came you, and whither do you go?

Form. and Hyp. We were born in the land of Vain-glory, and are going for praise to Mount Zion.