CHR. We are going to the Mount Zion.
Then Atheist fell into a very great laughter.
CHR. What is the meaning of your laughter?
ATHEIST. I laugh to see what ignorant persons you are, to take upon you so tedious a journey, and yet 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.[265]
CHR. But there is in the world to come.
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 20 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.[266]