, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous,
therefore, and repent." [2 Chron. 6:26,27, Rev. 3:19] This
done, he bid them go on their way, and take good heed to the other
directions of the shepherds. So they thanked him for all his
kindness, and went softly along the right way, singing--

Come hither, you that walk along the way;
See how the pilgrims fare that go astray.
They catched are in an entangling net,
'Cause they good counsel lightly did forget:
'Tis true they rescued were, but yet you see,
They're scourged to boot. Let this your caution be.

{331} Now, after a while, they perceived, afar off, one coming
softly and alone, all along the highway to meet them. Then said
Christian to his fellow, Yonder is a man with his back towards
Zion, and he is coming to meet us.

HOPE. I see him; let us take heed to ourselves now, lest he should
prove a flatterer also. So he drew nearer and nearer, and at last
came up unto them. His name was Atheist, and he asked them whither
they were going.

CHR. We are going to Mount Zion.

Then Atheist fell into a very great laughter.

CHR. What is the meaning of your laughter?

{332} ATHEIST. I laugh to see what ignorant persons you are, to
take upon you so tedious a journey, and you are like to have nothing
but your travel for your pains.

CHR. Why, man, do you think we shall not be received?

ATHEIST. Received! There is no such place as you dream of in all
this world.

CHR. But there is in the world to come.

{333} ATHEIST. When I was at home in mine own country, I heard as
you now affirm, and from that hearing went out to see, and have
been seeking this city this twenty years; but find no more of it
than I did the first day I set out. [Jer. 22:12, Eccl. 10:15]

CHR. We have both heard and believe that there is such a place to
be found.

ATHEIST. Had not I, when at home, believed, I had not come thus far
to seek; but finding none, (and yet I should, had there been such
a place to be found, for I have gone to seek it further than you),
I am going back again, and will seek to refresh myself with the
things that I then cast away, for hopes of that which, I now see,
is not.

{334} CHR. Then said Christian to Hopeful his fellow, Is it true
which this man hath said?

Hopeful's gracious answer

Hope. Take heed, he is one of the flatterers; remember what it hath
cost us once already for our hearkening to such kind of fellows.
What! no