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

them.

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

CHR. Welcome, welcome, my good Evangelist; the sight of thy countenance brings to my remembrance thy ancient kindness, and unwearied labours for my eternal good.

They are glad at the sight of him. said good

FAITH. And a thousand times welcome, 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 in the way, and how, and with what difficulty, they had arrived at that place.

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.

His exhortation

to them.

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 soweth and he that reapeth 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 exhortations.

eth what troubles they shall

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, 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 : EVAN. My sons, you have heard in the words of the He predict 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 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,

meet with in

Vanity-fair,

and encou

rageth them to steadfast

ness.

He whose lot it will be there to

suffer, will

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,

have the

better of his brother.

*

John iv. 36; Gal. vi. 9; 1 Cor. ix. 24-27; Rev. iii. 11.

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 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

EVANGELIST POINTING OUT VANITY-FAIR.

there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity: as is the saying of the wise, 'All that cometh is vanity.'+

This Fair is no new erected business, but a thing of ancient standing. I will shew you the original The antiof it: Almost five thousand years ago, there quity of this were Pilgrims walking to the Celestial City Fair. 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 † Isaiah xl. 17; Eccl. i. 2; ii. 11, 17; xi. 8.

* Psalm lxii. 9.

The mer

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 merchandize sold, as chandize of 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.

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.

And as, in other Fairs of less moment, 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

The streets

wares of this Fair are soonest to be found. Here is the Britain Row, the French Row, the Italian of this Fair. 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,

Christ

went

through

this Fair.

must needs go out of the World.* The Prince of princes himself, when here, went through this Town to his own Country, and that upon a Fairday 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 kingI Cor. v. IO.

The Pilgrims enter The Fair in

the Fair.

doms 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 merchandize, and therefore 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.* 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 of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded The first in that Fair. The people, therefore, of the Fair cause of the made a great gazing upon them. Some said hubbub. they were fools; some, they were bedlams; and some, they were outlandish men.†

a hubbub about them.

The second

cause of the hubbub.

Secondly. And as they wondered 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 the

hubbub.

Thirdly. But that which did not a little amuse the merchandizers 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.§

One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, 'What will ye buy?' Fourth But they, looking gravely upon him, said, 'We cause of the buy the truth."|| At that there was an occa- hubbub. sion taken to despise the men the more some mocking, 1 Cor. iv. 9. || Prov. xxiii. 23.

Job xii. 4;

* Matt. iv. 8-10; Luke iv. 5-8. I Cor. ii. 7, 8. § Psalm cxix. 37; Phil. iii. 20, 21.