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by infidelity, is to debase him to a level with the devil himself, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

Shepherd. Excuse me, my dear sir: it is six o'clock, and it is high time for the flock to be watered. If I am not there, the poor sheep will be scattered an hundred ways: for the well is always pestered with false shepherds; and, if one of the King's shepherds be not there, they are sure to come and drive them away. For it is in our days, as it was in the days of old; if the son and heir of Abraham dig a well, the herdmen of Gerar are sure to strive for the water, Gen. xxvi. 20; or to stop up the well.

Steward. How long shall

How long shall you be gone?

Shepherd. About two hours.

Steward. I will meet you again at this spot at half past eight, if it be agreeable, as this is a leisure evening with me.

Shepherd. If nothing unforeseen prevent, I will surely be here. The presence of the King be with thee.

Steward. The Lord go with thee.

DIALOGUE THE THIRD.

Steward. Why, you return sooner than you expected: it is barely two hours since you went from hence.

Shepherd. When the stone is rolled away from the well's mouth, Gen. xxix. 3, I endeavour to fill all the troughs, if I can; and, when I have got plenty of water ready drawn, the watering work is soon done, both with ease and pleasure. The hardest work is to roll away the stone: and sometimes it is hard work to draw the water, for the well is deep; and most profoundly so when the springs are low. Pray, have you staid here ever since?

Steward. Ever since; and I am almost surprised that Little Faith has not found me out, for he sticks closer to my skirts than any of the family.

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Shepherd. I was thinking, as I ran along, about what you said of the wretched sin of infidelity, and the heinous nature of it; and I think this is the tap-root of the corrupt tree that got hold of the human mind when the adversary laid the axe to the heart of our first parents; for the human mind is never without natural faith: for if the king of the bottomless pit, or any of his

children, bring a thousand impossibilities, selfcontradictions, arrant and glaring falsehoods; if gilded or varnished over, they will gain credence. If one advance that Satan can cast out Satan, it is believed. If the common soldiers tell Herod that the disciples of the Saviour stole him away while they slept, Herod is persuaded, and credits the testimony of an eye witness fast asleep. Simon Magus gains the confidence and affections of a whole city, and passes for the great power of God; but, when the King comes, he is called Beelzebub. Thus the Lord came in his Father's name, and was not received: another comes in his own name, and him they all receive. Hence it appears that infidelity has only the God of truth for its object; it disdains to give the lie to any but God: for hypocrites, villains, witches, and devils, can find faith upon earth to receive all that can be hatched in hell; but a divine message hath no place in us till a divine power give it entrance and residence.

Steward. This is what I told you before; that unbelief makes God a liar: and it really is the first sin that ever pierced the mind, either of men or fallen angels. Devils believe in wrath to come, and tremble; but cannot exercise credence on divine clemency, for want of a divine warrant, or an offer made, or a promise published. But the children of men have a voice directed to them, but cannot receive it, for they are all concluded in unbelief: yet the heirs of promise shall surely

believe; for the promise brings not only the blessing, but credence also; and this poor Little Faith finds and feels at times, notwithstanding the bad hands that he hath fallen into, and the bad treatment that he hath met with.

Shepherd. I see the case of Little Faith more clearly now than ever: but I think those servants who brought the canting gossips from Sinai, at the queen's labour, were the most to blame; I mean those who hurried the birth of Little Faith; those who encouraged them, and nurtured them, about the palace; and those who procured the nurse; and the nurse herself, who let Hagar suckle the child; for any sensible person ought to know that, whatever infection a woman hath, infects her milk, and must unavoidably infect the child that subsists on it: and, I think, it would have been better for Little Faith to have lived upon the milk of the wild ass that is used to the wilderness, for in her mouth they might have found her, Jer. ii. 24, than upon the milk of that bondwoman; who, according to ancient records, was never either purified or cleansed.

Steward. Those servants are, doubtless, to blame: nor will their conduct pass unresented, nor themselves go without rebuke; for whatsoever is done for his Majesty's little ones, or to the injury of them, is all taken as done to himself; and were it possible, as it is not, for Little Faith even to die, his blood would be required at the servants' hands; they would be arraigned as mur

derers, for permitting his people to perish for lack of knowledge; and would be punished as such, either in this world or in the next.

Shepherd. So it was, in the days of old, with a famous one of my occupation, whose honest confession stands on the ancient records: "This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee, I bare the loss of it: of my hands didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night." And so it is also with the servants of his Majesty's household who are employed in building up the fraternity of Zion: “ Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward: if any man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss." Few are aware of this, who thrust themselves, or are by others thrust, into the King's service; who are the chief causes of the sufferings of such as Little Faith.

Steward. They are: yet, as was before observed, Little Faith himself is greatly to blame for stealing away from the rest of the King's children, when he knew better; and getting perpetually to play with Hagar's boys, where he learnt so much of their base language; and filled his head with

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