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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.

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 Vanityfair 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."2

This Fair is no new-erected business, THE ANTIQUITY but a thing of ancient standing. I will OF THis fair. shew you the original of it: Almost five thousand years ago, there were pilgrims walking to the Celes2 Isaiah, xl. 17. Eccl. i. 2. chap. ii. 11. 17.

tial 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 contrived here to set up a Fair; a Fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last THE MERCHANDIZE all the year long. Therefore, at this fair, are all such merchandize 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.

OF THIS FAIR.

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

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 OF THIS FAIR. 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 merchandize, 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, when

CHRIST WENT

FAIR.

here, went through this Town to his THROUGH THIS 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 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 shewed 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 he had no mind to the mer- CHRIST BOUGHT NOchandize, and therefore left the THING IN THIS FAIR. 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.3 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,

THE PILGRIMS

ENTER THE FAIR.

THE FAIR in a
HUBBUB ABOUT

THEM.

First, The Pilgrims were clothed THE FIRST CAUSE with such kind of raiment as was di- OF THE HUBBUB. verse from the raiment of any that traded in that 3 1 Cor. v. 10. Matth. vii. 8. Luke, iv. 5—7.

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.4

THE SECOND CAUSE

Secondly, And as they wondered OF THE HUBBUB. at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few could 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.

THIRD CAUSE OF Thirdly, But that which did not a THE HUBBUB. little amuse the merchandisers was, that these Pilgrims set very 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 upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in Heaven.

FOURTH CAUSE

THEY ARE

One chanced mockingly, beholding OF THE HUBBUB. the carriage of the men, to say unto them, "What will ye buy?" But they, looking gravely upon him, said, "We buy the truth."5 At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more: some mocking, some taunting, some speakMOCKED. ing reproachfully, and some calling upon others to smite them. At last, things came to an 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 4 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8.

5 Prov. xxiii. 23.

THEY ARE

THEY TELL WHO

THEY ARE AND
WHENCE THEY

friends to take those men into examination, about whom the Fair was almost overturned. So the Men were brought to examination; and EXAMINED. they that sate upon them asked, Whence they came ? whither they went? and what they did there in such an unusual garb? The Men told them that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the World, and that they were going to their own country, which was the Heavenly Jerusalem; and that they had given no occasion to the Men of the Town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them, and to lett them in their journey; except it was for that, when one asked them what they would buy, they said they would “ buy the truth.”6 But they that

CAME.

THEY ARE NOT

BELIEVED.

THEY ARE TAKEN

PUT IN THE CAGE.

were appointed to examine them did not believe them to be any other than Bedlams and mad, or else such as came to put all things into a confusion in the Fair. Therefore they took them, and beat them, and be- FoR MADMEN, AND smeared them with dirt, and then put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all the men of the Fair. There, therefore, they lay for some time, and were made the objects of any man's sport, or malice, or revenge, the Great One of the Fair laughing still at all that befel them. But the Men being patient, and not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing, and giving good words for bad, and kindness for injuries done, some men in the Fair, that were more observing and less prejudiced than

6 Heb. xi. 13-16.

THEIR BEHAVIOUR
IN THE CAGE.

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