The Pilgrims make themselves known.

Gaius, what hast thou for supper? For these pilgrims have come far to day, and are weary.

Gaius. It is late, said Gaius, so we cannot conveniently go out to seek food; but, such as we have, you shall be welcome to, if that will content you.

Great-heart. We will be content with what thou hast in the house; forasmuch as I have proved thee, thou art never destitute of that which is convenient.

Then he went down and spake to the cook, whose name was Taste-that-which-is-good, to get ready supper for so many pilgrims.

This done, he comes up again, saying, Come, my good friends, you are welcome to me, and I am glad that I have a house to entertain you; and while supper is making ready, if you please, let us entertain one another with some good discourse; so they all said, Content. (f)

Gaius. Then said Gaius, Whose wife is this aged matron? and whose daughter is this young damsel?

Great-heart. The woman is the wife of one Christian, a pilgrim in former times; and these are his four children. The maid is one of her acquaintance; one that she has persuaded to come with her on pilgrimage. The boys take all after their father, and covet to tread in his steps; yea, if they do but see any place where the old pilgrim hath lain, or any print of his foot, it ministereth joy to their hearts, and they covet to lie or tread in the same.

Gaius. Then said Gaius, Is this Christiana, and are these Christian's children? I knew your husband's father; yea, also his father's father. Many have been good of this stock: their ancestors first

(f) How does this reprove many professors of this day, who can meet together, and that about every trifle, but have not one word to speak for precious Christ, his glorious truths, and holy ways!

Gaius's eulogy on the female sex.

dwelt at Antioch. Christian's progenitors (I suppose you have heard your husband talk of them) were very worthy men. They have above, any that I know, shewed themselves men of great virtue and courage, for the Lord of the pilgrims, his ways, and them that loved him. I have heard of many of your husband's relations, that have stood all trials for the sake of the truth. Stephen, that was one of the first of the family from whence your husband sprang, was knocked on the head with stones, Acts vii. 59, 60. xii. 8. James, another of his generation, was slain with the edge of the sword. To say nothing of Paul and Peter, men anciently of the family from whence your husband came; there was Ignatius, who was cast to the lions; Romanus, whose flesh was cut to pieces from his bones; and Polycarp that played the man in the fire. There was he that was hanged up in a basket in the sun, for the wasps to eat; and he who they put into a sack, and cast him into the sea to be drowned. It would be utterly impossible to count up all that family that have sufferred injuries and death for the love of a pilgrim's life. Nor can I but be glad, to see that thy husband has left behind him such boys as these. I hope they will bear up their father's name, tread in their father's steps, and come to their father's end.

Great-heart Indeed, sir, they are likely lads; they seem to choose heartily their father's ways.

Gaius. That is that I said; wherefore Christian's family is like still to spread abroad upon the face of the ground, and yet to be numerous upon the face of the earth: wherefore let Christian look out some damsels for her sons, to whom they may be betrothed, &c. that the name of their father and the house of his progenitors may never be forgot in the world.

Gains's eulogy on the female sex.

Hon. It is pity his family should fall and be extinct.

Gaius. Fall it cannot, but be diminished it may: but let Christiana take my advice, and that is the way to uphold it.

And Christiana, said this inn-keeper, I am glad to see thee and my friend Mercy together here, a lovely couple. And may I advise, Take Mercy into a near relation to thee: if she will, let her be given to Matthew thy eldest son: it is the way to preserve a posterity in the earth: so this match was concluded. and process of time they were married; but more of that hereafter.

Gaius also proceeded, and said, I will now speak, on the behalf of women, to take away their reproach. For as death and the curse came into the world by a woman, Gen. iii. so also did life and health; "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman," Gal. iv. Yea, to shew how much those that came after did abhor the act of the mother, this sex in the Old Testament coveted children, if haply this or that woman might be the mother of the Saviour of the world. I will say again, that when the Saviour was come, women rejoiced in him, before either man or angel, Luke ii. viii. 2, 3. vii. 37-50. John xi. 2. ii. 3. Luke xxiii. 27. Matt. xxvii. 55--60. Luke xxiv. 22, 23. read not, ever man did give unto Christ so much as one groat; but woman followed him, and ministered to him of their substance. It was a woman that washed his feet with tears, and a woman that anointed his body to the burial. They were women that wept when he was going to the cross; and women that followed him from the cross, and that sat by his sepulchre when he was buried. They were women that were first with him at the resurrection morn; and women that brought tidings first to his

I

disciples, that he

The supper described.

was risen from the dead. Women therefore are highly favoured, and shew by these things that they are sharers with us in the grace of life.

Now the cook sent up to signify that supper was almost ready and sent one to lay the cloth, and the trenchers, and to set the salt and bread in order.

Then said Matthew, the sight of this cloth, and of the forerunner of the supper, begetteth in me a greater appetite to my food than I had before.

Gaius. So let all ministering doctrines to thee in this life, beget in thee a greater desire to sit at the supper of the great King in his kingdom; for all preaching, books and ordinances here, are but as the laying of the trenchers, and the setting of salt upon the board, when compared with the feast that our Lord will make us when we come to his house.

So supper came up, and first a heave shoulder, and wave breast, were set on the table before them, to shew that they must begin the meal with prayer and praise to God. The heave shoulder, David lifted his heart up to God with; and with the wave breast, where his heart lay, that he used to lean upon his harp, when he played. These two dishes were very fresh and good, and they all eat heartily thereof.

The next they brought up was a bottle of wine as red as blood.

So Gaius said to them, drink freely, this is the true juice of the vine, that makes glad the heart of God and man. So they drank and were merry.

The next they brought was a dish of milk well crumbled; so Gaius said, Let the boys have that, that they may grow thereby. I Pet. ii. 1, 2.

Then they brought up in a course, a dish of butter and honey.

Various riddles.

Then said Gaius, Eat freely of this, for this is good to cheer up and strengthen your judgments and understandings. This was our Lord's dish when he was a child; "Butter and honey should he eat, that ye may know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good."

Then they brought him up a dish of apples, and they were very good tasted fruit.

Then said Matthew, May we eat apples, since they were such, by and with which the serpent beguiled our first mother?

Then said Gaius,

"Apples were they with which we were beguil'd,
"Yet sin, not apples, hath our souls defil'd;
"Apples forbid, if eat, corrupt the blood;
"To eat such, when commanded, does us good;
"Drink of his flagons, then, thou church, his dove,
"And eat his apples, who are sick of love."

Then said Matthew, I made the scruple, because I awhile since, was sick with eating of fruit.

Gaius. Forbidden fruit will make you sick, but not what our Lord has tolerated.

While they were thus talking, they were presented with another dish, and it was a dish of nuts.

Then said some at the table, Nuts spoil tender teeth, especially the teeth of the children; which, when Gaius heard, he said:

"Hard texts are nuts, (I will not call them cheaters,)
"Whose shells do keep their kernels from the eaters;
"Ope then the shells, and you shall have the meat;
"They are here brought, for you to crack and eat."

Then they were very merry, and sat at the table a long time, talking of many things; then said the old gentleman, My good landlord, while ye are here cracking your nuts, if you please do you open this riddle. (g)

(g) Observe here, the feast of pilgrims was attended with mirth.