The Pilgrim's Progress - Part Two
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So supper came up, and first a heave shoulder and a wave breast was set on the table before them, to show that they must begin their meal with prayer and praise to God

"And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part. For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel."
~ Leviticus 7:32-34 ~

"And the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place; thou, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy due, and thy sons' due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel. The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the LORD; and it shall be thine, and thy sons' with thee, by a statute for ever; as the LORD hath commanded."
~ Leviticus 10:14, 15 ~

"Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul."
~ Psalms 25:1 ~



"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."
~ Hebrews 13:15 ~

With the heave shoulder David lifted up his heart to God; and with the wave breast, where his heart lay, with that he used to lean upon his harp when he played. These two dishes were very fresh and good; and they all ate heartily well thereof.

The next they brought up was a bottle of wine, red as blood. So GAIUS said to them, "Drink freely; this is the juice of the true vine, that makes glad the heart of God and man." So they drank and were merry.

"Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape."
~ Deuteronomy 32:14 ~

"And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?"
~ Judges 9:13 ~

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman."
~ John 15:1 ~

The next was a dish of milk well crumbed. But GAIUS said, "Let the boys have that, that they may grow thereby".

"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:"
~ 1 Peter 2:1, 2 ~

Then they brought up in course a dish of butter and honey. 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 shall he eat; that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good'".

"Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."
~ Isaiah 7:15 ~

Then they brought them up a dish of apples; and they were very good tasting fruit. Then said MATTHEW, "May we eat apples, since they were such by and with which the serpent beguiled first our mother?"

Then said GAIUS:

"Apples were they with which we were beguiled;
Yet sin, not apples, hath our souls defiled.
Apples forbid, if ate, corrupts 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 't was a dish of nuts.

"I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded."
~ Song of Solomon 6:11 ~

Then said some at the table, "Nuts spoil tender teeth, especially the teeth of 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 here are brought for you to crack and eat."

Then were they very merry, and sat at the table a long time, talking of many things. Then said the old gentleman, "My good landlord, while we are cracking your nuts, if you please, do you open this riddle:

"A man there was, though some did count him mad,
The more he cast away, the more he had."

Then they all gave good heed, wondering what good GAIUS would say; so he sat still awhile, and then thus replied:

"He that bestows his goods upon the poor,
Shall have as much again and ten times more."

Then said JOSEPH, "I dare say, sir, I did not think you could have found it out."

"Oh," said GAIUS, "I have been trained up in this way a great while. Nothing teaches like experience; I have learned of my Lord to be kind; and have found by experience that I have gained thereby. 'There is that scatters, yet increases; and there is that withholds more than is meet, but it tends to poverty.' 'There is that makes himself rich, yet hath nothing; there is that makes himself poor, yet hath great riches'".

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."
~ Proverbs 11:24 ~

"There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches."
~ Proverbs 13:7 ~

Then SAMUEL whispered to CHRISTIANA his mother, and said, "Mother, this is a very good man's house; let us stay here a good while, and let my brother MATTHEW be married here to MERCY, before we go any farther."

The which, GAIUS the host overhearing, said, "With a very good will, my child."

So they stayed there more than a month; and MERCY was given to MATTHEW to wife.

While they stayed here, MERCY, as her custom was, would be making coats and garments to give to the poor; by which she brought up a very good report about the pilgrims.

But to return again to our story. After supper, the lads desired a bed; for that they were weary with travelling. Then GAIUS called to show them their chamber; but said MERCY, "I will have them to bed." So she had them to bed, and they slept well, but the rest sat up all night; for GAIUS and they were such suitable company, that they could not tell how to part. Then, after much talk of their Lord, themselves, and their journey, old Mr. HONEST--he that put forth the riddle to GAIUS --began to nod. Then said GREAT-HEART, "What, sir! you begin to be drowsy! come, rub up; now here's a riddle for you."

Then said Mr. HONEST," Let's hear it."

Then said Mr. GREAT-HEART:

"He that will kill must first be overcome;
Who live abroad would, first must die at home."

"Ha," said Mr. HONEST, "it is a hard one: hard to expound, and harder to practise. But come, landlord," said he, "I will, if you please, leave my part to you; do you expound it, and I will hear what you say."

"No," said GAIUS, "'t was put to you, and 't is expected that you should answer it."

Then said the old gentleman:

"He first by grace must conquered be
That sin would mortify;
And who that lives would convince me,
Unto himself must die."

"It is right," said GAIUS; "good doctrine and experience teaches this. For, first, until grace displays itself, and overcomes the soul with its glory, it is altogether without heart to oppose sin. Besides, if sin is Satan's cords, by which the soul lies bound, how should it make resistance before it is loosed from that infirmity?

"2. Nor will any that knows either reason or grace believe that such a man can be a living monument of grace, that is a slave to his own corruptions.

"And now it comes in my mind, I will tell you a story worth the hearing. There were two men that went on pilgrimage; the one began when he was young, the other when he was old. The young man had strong corruptions to grapple with; the old man's were decayed with the decays of nature. The young man trod his steps as even as did the old one, and was every way as light as he: who now, or which of them, had their graces shining clearest, since both seemed to be alike?"

Honest. The young man's, doubtless. For that which heads it against the greatest opposition, gives best demonstration that it is strongest: especially when it also holds pace with that that meets not with half so much; as, to be sure, old age does not.

Besides, I have observed that old men have blessed themselves with this mistake: namely, taking the decays of nature for a gracious conquest over corruptions; and so have been apt to beguile themselves. Indeed, old men that are gracious, are best able to give advice to them that are young; because they have seen most of the emptiness of things. But yet, for an old and a young to set out both together, the young one has the advantage of the fairest discovery of a work of grace within him; though the old man's corruptions are naturally the weakest.

Thus they sat talking till break of day. Now when the family was up, CHRISTIANA bade her son JAMES that he should read a chapter: so he read the 53rd of Isaiah. When he had done, Mr. HONEST asked why it was said, "That the Saviour is said to come out of a dry ground; and also that he had no form nor comeliness in him?"

Great-heart. Then said Mr. GREAT-HEART, "To the first I answer, Because the Church of the Jews, of which Christ came, had then lost almost all the sap and spirit of religion. To the second I say, The words are spoken in the person of the unbelievers; who, because they want that eye that can see into our Prince's heart, therefore they judge of him by the meanness of his outside.

"Just like those that know not that precious stones are covered over with a homely crust; who, when they have found one, because they know not what they have found, cast it away again, as men do a common stone."

The Pilgrim's Progress - Part Two
The Author's Way of Sending Forth His Second Part of the Pilgrim | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26
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