&c., will stand together. The proverb is true of you which is said of a whore, viz.: "That she is a shame to all women!" so are you a shame to all professors.

Talkative flings away from Faith

Talk. Since you are so ready to take up reports, and to judge so rashly as you do, I cannot but conclude you are some peevish or melancholic ful. man, not fit to be discoursed with; and so Adieu!

Then came up Christian, and said to his brother, I told you how it would happen; your words and his lusts could not agree. He had rather leave your company than reform his life. A good riddance. But he is gone, as I said; let him go; the loss is no man's but his own; he has saved us the trouble of going from him; for he continuing (as I suppose he will do) as he is, he would have been but a blot in our company; besides, the Apostle says, From such withdraw thyself."

Faith. But I am glad we had this little discourse with him; it may happen that he will think of it again: however, I have dealt plainly with him, and so am clear of his blood, if he perisheth.

Chr. You did well to talk so plainly as you did. There is but little of this faithful dealing with men now-a- -days, and that makes religion to stink in the nostrils of so many as it doth; for they are these talkative fools whose religion is only in word, and are debauched and vain in their conversation, that (being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly) do puzzle the world, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere. I wish that all men would deal with such as you have done; then should they either be made more conformable to religion, or the company of saints would be too hot for them.

Then did Faithful say:

How Talkative at first lifts up his plumes!

How bravely doth he speak! How he presumes
To drive down all before him! But so soon
As Faithful talks of heart-work, like the moon
That's past the full, into the wane he goes;
And so will all but he that heart-work knows.

Thus they went on, talking of what they had seen by the way; and so made that way easy, which would otherwise, no doubt, have been tedious to them for now they went through a Wilderness.

Now, when they were almost quite out of this Wilderness, Faithful chanced to cast his eye back, and espied one coming after them; and he knew him. Oh! said Faithful to his brother, who comes yonder? Then Christian looked, and said, It is my good friend

Evangelist takes them.

over

Evangelist. Ay, and my good friend too, said Faithful; for it was he that set me on the way to the Gate. Now was Evangelist come up unto them, and thus saluted them:

Evan. Peace be to you, dearly beloved, and peace be to your helpers.

Chr. Welcome, welcome, my good Evangelist; They are glad at the sight of thy countenance brings to my remembrance thy ancient kindness, and unwearied labours

the sight of him.

for thy eternal good.

And a thousand times welcome, said good Faithful; thy company, O sweet Evangelist, how desirable is it to us poor pilgrims! Then said Evangelist, How hath it fared with you, my friends, since the time of our last parting? What have you met with, and how have you behaved yourselves?

Then Christian and Faithful told him of all things that had happened to them on the way, and how, and with what difficulty, they had arrived to that place.

His exhortation to them.

Right glad am I, said Evangelist, not that you have met with trials, but that you have been victors; and for that you have, notwithstanding many weaknesses, continued in 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 time ye shall reap, if ye faint not. The crown is before you, and it is an incorruptible one: so run, that you may obtain it! 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. You are not yet out of the gunshot of the devil; you have not yet 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 him for his exhorta

tions.

Then Christian thanked him for his exhortation; but told him withal, that they would have him speak farther to them for their help the rest of the way; and the rather, for that they well knew that he was a Prophet, John iv. 36. Gal. vi. 9. 1 Cor. ix. 24, 27. Rev. iii. II.

troubles they shall meet with in Vanity-Fair, and courageth them to steadfastness.

He predicteth what

en

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 :— My sons, you have heard in the words of the truth of the gospel that you must, through many tribulations, enter into the kingdom of Heaven. And again, that, in every city, bonds and afflictions abide you; and therefore you cannot expect that you should long go on your pilgrimage without them, in some sort or other. You have found something of te 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. that shall die there, although his death will be unnatural, and his pain perhaps great, 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 God in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

He

He whose lot it 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."*

The antiquity of this Fair.

This Fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient standing. I will show you the original of it. Almost five thousand years ago, there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons are; and 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

Isaiah xl. 17. Eccl i. 2.-ii. 11. 17.

The merchandise of this Fair.

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, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts; as 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, jugglings, 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.

The streets of this
Fair.

And as, in other Fairs of less moment, there are 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 be found. Here is the Britain Row, the French Row, the 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 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.

Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this Town where this lusty Fair is kept; and he that would go to the City, and yet not go through this Town, must needs go out of the World. The Prince of princes himself, Christ went when, here, went through this Town to his own through this fair. 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 but have done him reverence as he went through the Town; yea, 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, that he might, if possible, allure that blessed One to cheapen and buy some of his vanities: but Christ bought nohe had no mind to the merchandise, and therefore thing in this Fair. left the Town, without laying out so much as one farthing upon these vanities. This Fair, therefore, is an ancient thing, of long standing and a very great Fair.*

The pilgrims enter the Fair. The Fair in a hubbub about

them.

Now, these Pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this Fair. Well, so they did; but behold, even as they entered into the Fair, all the people in the Fair were moved, and the Town itself, as it were, in a hubbub about them, and that for several reasons; for, First, The Pilgrims were clothed with such kind The first cause of of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any the hubbub. 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 were outlandish men.†

Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, The second cause so they did likewise at their speech; for few could of the hubbub. understand what they 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 Third cause of the the merchandisers was, that these Pilgrims set very hubbub.

light by all their wares; 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 upward, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven.

* 1 Cor. v. 10. Matth. vii. 8. Luke iv. 5-7.

† 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8.