Then I saw in my dream that Christian and Hopeful forsook him, and
kept their distance before him; but one of them looking back, saw
three men following Mr. By-ends; and behold, as they came up with
him he made them a very low congee, and they also gave him a
compliment. The men's names were, Mr. Hold-the-world, Mr,
Money-love, and Mr. Save-all; men that Mr. By-ends had formerly been
acquainted with, for in their minority they were schoolfellows, and
were taught by one Mr. Gripe-man, a schoolmaster in Love-gain, which
is a market-town in the county of Coveting, in the North. This
schoolmaster taught them the art of getting, either by violence,
cozenage, flattery, lying, or by putting on a guise of religion; and
these four gentlemen had attained much of the art of their master,
so that they could each of them have kept such a school themselves.
The Interpreter takes them out into his garden, and had them to a
tree whose inside was all rotten and gone, and yet it grew and had
leaves. Then said Mercy, "What means this?" "This tree," said he,
"whose outside is fair and whose inside is rotten, is it which may
be compared to them that are in the garden of God, who with their
mouths speak high in behalf of God, but in deed will do nothing for
him; whose leaves are fair, but their heart good for nothing but to
be tinder for the devil's tinder-box.
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