ready they sat down to meat. Now the
table was furnished with fat things, and wine that was well refined; and
all their talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill; as namely,
what he had done, and wherefore he did what he did, and why he had
builded that house; and by what they said, I perceived that he had been
a great warrior, and had fought with and slain him that had the power of
death, but not without great danger to himself, which made me love him
the more.

For, as they said, and as I believe, said Christian, he did it with the
loss of much blood. But that which put the glory of grace into all he
did, was, that he did it out of pure love to this country. And besides,
there was some of them of the household that said they had been and
spoke with him since he did die on the cross; and they have attested,
that they had it from his own lips, that he is such a lover of poor
pilgrims, that the like is not to be found from the east to the west.
They, moreover, gave an instance of what they affirmed, and that was, he
had stripped himself of his glory that he might do this for the poor;
and that they had heard him say and affirm, that he would not dwell in
the mountain of Zion alone. They said, moreover, that he had made many
pilgrims princes, though by nature they were beggars born, and their
original had been the dunghill.

Thus they discoursed together till late at night: and after they had
committed themselves to their Lord for protection, they betook
themselves to rest. The pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber,
whose window opened toward the sunrising. The name of the chamber was
Peace, where he slept till break of day, and then he awoke and sang:

Where am I now? Is this the love and care
Of Jesus, for the men that pilgrims are,
Thus to provide that I should be forgiven,
And dwell already the next door to heaven?

So in the morning they all got up; and after some more discourse, they
told him that he should not depart till they had showed him the
rarities of that place. And first they had him into the study, where
they showed him records of the greatest antiquity; in which, as I
remember my dream, they showed him the pedigree of the Lord of the hill,
that he was the Son of the Ancient of days, and came by that eternal
generation. Here also was more fully recorded the acts that he had done,
and the names of many hundreds that he had taken into his service; and
how he had placed them in such h