EVAN. Right glad am I, said Evangelist, not that you have met His exhortation with trials, but that you have been victors; and for that you have, notwithstanding many weaknesses, continued in

to them.

the way to this very day.

I say, right glad am I of this thing, and that for mine own sake and yours. I have sowed, and you have reaped: and the day is coming, when both he that sowed and they that reaped shall rejoice together; that is, if you hold out: "for in due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not." (John iv. 36; Gal. vi. 9.) The crown is before you, and it is an incorruptible one; so run, that you may obtain it." (1 Cor. ix. 24-27.) Some there be that set out for this crown, and, after they have gone far for it, another comes in, and takes it from them: hold fast, therefore, that you have; let no man take your crown. (Rev. iii. 11.) 85 You are not yet out of the gun-shot of the devil; you have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin; let the kingdom be always before you, and believe steadfastly concerning things that are invisible. Let nothing that is on this side the other world get within you; and, above all, look well to your own hearts, and to the lusts thereof, "for they are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" set your faces like a flint; you have all power in heaven and earth on your side.

They do thank

tation.

CHR. Then Christian thanked him for his exhortation; but told him, withal, that they would have him speak further to him for his exhor- them for their help the rest of the way, and the rather, for that they well knew that he was a prophet, and could tell them of things that might happen unto them, and also how they might resist and overcome them. To which request Faithful also consented. So Evangelist began as followeth :

Vanity Fair, and

EVAN. My sons, you have heard, in the words of the He predicteth what troubles they truth of the gospel, that you must, through many tribulashall meet with in tions, enter into the kingdom of heaven. And, again, that encourageth them in every city bonds and afflictions abide in you; and therefore you cannot expect that you should go long on your pilgrimage without them, in some sort or other. You have found some

to steadfastness.

He whose lot it

thing of the truth of these testimonies upon you already, and more will immediately follow; for now, as you see, you are almost out of this wilderness, and therefore you will soon come into a town that you will by and by see before you; and in that town you will be hardly beset with enemies, who will strain hard but they will kill you; and be you sure that one or both of you must seal the testimony which you hold, with blood; but be you faithful unto death, and the King will give you a crown of life. He that shall die there, although his death will be unnatural, and his pain perhaps great, he will yet have the better of his fellow; not only because he will be arrived at the Celestial City soonest, but because he will escape many miseries that the other will meet with in the rest of his journey. But when you are come to the town, and shall find fulfilled what I have here related, then remember your friend, and quit yourselves like men, and commit the keeping of your souls to your God in well-doing, as unto a faithful. Creator.86

will be there to

suffer, will have

the better of his

brother.

Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair it is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity; and also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity. As is the saying of the wise, "all that cometh is vanity." (Eccles. i.; ii. 11, 17; xi. 8. Isa. xi. 17.)

This fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient standing; I will show you the original of it.

this fair.

Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons are: and The antiquity of Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long; therefore at this fair are all such merchandise.

sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, The merchandise kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as

of this fair. whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not.

And, moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen juggling, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind.

Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false swearers, and that of a blood-red colour.

And as in other fairs of less moment,87 there are the several rows and streets, under their proper names, where such and such wares are vended; so here likewise you have the proper places, rows, streets (viz. countries and kingdoms), where the wares of this fair are soonest to The streets of be found. Here is the Britain Row, the French Row, the this fair. Italian Row, the Spanish Row, the German Row, where several sorts of vanities are to be sold. But, as in other fairs, some one commodity is as the chief of all the fair, so the ware of Rome and her merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair; only our English nation, with some others, have taken a dislike thereat.

Christ went

Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this town where this lusty fair is kept; and he that will go the City, and yet not go through this town, must needs "go out of the world." (1 Cor. v. 10.) The Prince of princes himself, when here, through this fair. went through this town to his own country, and that upon a fair day too; yea, and as I think, it was Beelzebub, the chief lord of this fair, that invited him to buy of his vanities; yea, would have made him lord of the fair, would he have but done him reverence as he went through the town. (Matt. iv. 8. Luke iv. 5-7.) because he was such a person of honour, Beelzebub had him from street to street, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time, Christ bought no- that he might, if possible, allure the Blessed One to cheapen. thing at the fair. and buy some of his vanities; but he had no mind to the merchandise, and therefore left the town, without laying out so much

Yea,

as one farthing upon these vanities.

This fair, therefore, is an ancient

thing, of long standing, and a very great fair. Now these Pilgrims, as I

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said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did: The Pilgrims enter the fair. but, behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the people in the fair were moved, and the town itself as hubbub about it were in a hubbub about them; and that for several

The fair in a

them.

the hubbub.

reasons: for

First, The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was The first cause of diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them some said they were fools, some they were bedlams, and some they are outlandish men. (1 Cor. ii. 7, 8.)

Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likeSecond cause of wise at their speech; for few could understand what they the hubbub. said; they naturally spoke the language of Canaan, but they that kept the fair were the men of this world; so that, from one end of the fair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.

Thirdly, But that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers Third cause of was, that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares; the hubbub. they cared not so much as to look upon them; and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity," and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven. (Ps. exix. 37; Phil. iii. 19, 20.)

One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say Fourth cause of unto them, What will ye buy? But they, looking gravely the hubbub. upon him, answered, "We buy the truth." (Prov. xxiii. 23.) At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more; some mocking, some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling upon others to smite them. At last things came to a hubbub and great stir in the fair, insomuch that all order was confounded. Now was word presently brought to the great one of the fair, who quickly came down, and deputed some of his most trusty friends to take these men into examination,

They are mocked.

The fair in a hubbub.