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get out from among them. Then said Christian, What means this?

The Shepherds then answered, Did you not see, a little below these mountains, a stile that led into a meadow, on the left hand of this way? They answered, Yes. Then said the Shepherds, From that stile there goes a path that leads directly to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, and these men (pointing to them among the tombs) came once on pilgrimage, as you do now, even till they came to that same stile. And, because the right way was rough in that place, they chose to go out of it into that meadow, and there were taken by Giant Despair, and cast into Doubting Castle; where, after they had a while been kept in the dungeon, he at last did put out their eyes, and led them among those tombs, where he has left them to wander to this very day, that the saying of the wise man might be fulfilled, "He that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead." Then Christian and Hopeful looked upon one another, with tears gushing out, but yet said nothing to the Shepherds.*

Then I saw in my dream, that the Shepherds had them to another place, in a bottom, where was a door in the side of a hill; and they opened the door, and bid them look in. They looked in, therefore, and saw that within it was very dark and smoky; they also thought

y Prov. xxi. 16.

* Do we see others fall into perdition by the very same sins and follies from which God has reclaimed us; what must we resolve this into, but his superabounding, discriminating grace? one shall be taken, and another left. And surely it is enough to make one's eyes gush out with tears, and to melt our hard hearts into fervent love, to look back upon the many singular instances of God's distinguishing favour to us! O call them to mind, and be thankful!

that they heard there a rumbling noise, as of fire, and a cry of some tormented; and that they smelt the scent of brimstone. Then said Christian, What means this?

A BY-WAY TO HELL.

The Shepherds told them, This is a by-way to hell, a way that hypocrites go in at; namely, such as sell their birthright, with Esau; such as sell their Master, with Judas; such as blaspheme the gospel, with Alexander; and that lie and dissemble, with Ananias, and Sapphira his wife

HOPE. Then said Hopeful to the Shepherds, I perceive that these had on them, even every one, a show of pilgrimage, as we have now; had they not?

SHEP. Yes, and held it a long time too.

HOPE. How far might they go on in pilgrimage in their days, since they, notwithstanding, were thus miserably cast away?

SHEP. Some further, and some not so far as these mountains.*

Then said the pilgrims one to the other, We had need to cry to the Strong for strength.

SHEP. Ay, and you will have need to use it when you have it too.

By this time the pilgrims had a desire to go forwards, and the Shepherds a desire they should; so they walked together towards the end of the mountains. Then said the Shepherds one to another, Let us here show the pilTHE SHEPHERDS grims the gates of the Celestial City, if they have skill to look through our per

PERSPECTIVE-GLASS.

Thus we read of some who were once enlightened, and had tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost; who had tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, Heb. vi. 4. It is hard to say how far, or how long a person may carry on a profession, and yet fall away, and come short of the kingdom at last. This should excite to diligence, humility, and circumspection, ever looking to Jesus to keep us from falling.

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spective-glass. The pilgrims lovingly accepted the motion: so they had them to the top of a high hill, called Clear, and gave them the glass to look.

THE FRUITS ОР SERVILE FEAR.

Then they tried to look, but the remembrance of that last thing that the Shepherds had shown them made their hands shake; by means of which impediment they could not look steadily through the glass;* yet they thought they saw something like the gate, and also some of the glory of the place. Then they went away, and sang this song:

Thus by the Shepherds secrets are reveal'd,
Which from all other men are kept conceal'd:
Come to the Shepherds then, if you would see
Things deep, things hid, and that mysterious be.

When they were about to depart, one of the Shepherds gave them a a note of the way.

Another of them bid them beware of the

A TWO FOLD CAUTION.

flatterer. The third bid them take heed that they slept not upon enchanted ground. And the fourth bid them God speed. So I awoke from my dream.

And I slept, and dreamed again, and saw the same two pilgrims going down the mountains along the highway towards the city. Now, a little below these mountains, on the left hand, lieth the country of Conceit, from which country there comes into the way in which the pilgrims walked NORANCE.

THE COUNTRY OF CONCEIT, OUT OF WHICH CAME IG

The glass of God's word of grace and truth held up by the hand of faith to the eye of the soul. So Paul speaks: "beholding as in a glass (the gospel) the glory of the Lord," &c. 2 Cor. iii. 18. But unbelieving doubts and fears will make the hand tremble and the sight grow dim.

This country we are all born in, and are all ignoramuses by nature. Some live long in the country of Conceit, and many end their days in it. Are you come out of it? So was Ignorance; but

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