which request Faithful also consented. began as followeth.

what troubles

Fair, and en

So Evangelist

EVAN. My sons, you have heard in the word of the He predicteth truth of the gospel, that you must "through they shall meet many tribulations enter into the kingdom with in Vanity of heaven;" and again, that, "in every courageth them city, bonds and afflictions abide you ;" and to steadfastness. therefore you cannot expect that you should go long 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 He whose lot shall die there, although his death will be it will be there unnatural, and his pains, 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 God in welldoing, as unto a faithful Creator."

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, Ps. lxii, 9; 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," Eccl. xi. 8: see also i. 2-14, ii. 11-17; Isa. xl. 17.

This fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient standing. I will show you the ori- The antiquity ginal of it.

of this fair.

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 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,

The merchan

trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, dise of this fair. countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures; and delights of all sorts, as harlots, 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 bloodred 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, (namely, 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 The streets of Spanish Row, the German Row, where this fair. 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.

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

92

this town,

Christ went

fair.

Hubbub at the Pilgrims in the Fair.

66

must needs go out of the world,” 1 Cor. v. 10. The Prince of princes himself, when through this here, 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 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 he had no mind Christ bought nothing in this to the merchandise, and, therefore, left the town without laying out so much as one farthing upon these vanities, Matt. iv. 8-10; Luke iv. 5-8. This fair, therefore, is an ancient thing of long standing, and a very great fair.

fair.

The pilgrims

Now these pilgrims, as I said, must needs enter the fair. 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 hubbub about itself, as it were, in a hubbub about them, and that for several reasons: For,

The fair in a

them.

The first cause

First, The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of the hubbub. 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 were outlandish men, Job xii. 4; 1 Cor. iv. 9.

The second

hubbub.

They

Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few cause of the could understand what they said. 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, 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8.

Thirdly, But that which did not a little amuse the

The Pilgrims put into the cage.

93

merchandisers was, that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares. They cared not so much Third cause as to look upon them; and if they called of the hubbub. upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity," Ps. cxix. 37, and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven, Phil. iii. 20, 21.

One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, "What will ye buy?" But they, looking gravely upon him, said,

Fourth cause

They are

"We buy the truth," Prov. xxiii. 23. At of the hubbub. 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 mocked. 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 those men into examination, about whom the fair was almost overturned. So the men were They are exbrought to examination; and they that sat amined. 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 they are, and pilgrims and strangers in the world, and whence that they were going to their own country, which was the heavenly Jerusalem, Heb. xi. 13-16; and that they had given no occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them, and to let them in their journey, except it was for that, when one asked them what they would buy, they said they would buy the truth. But they that 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 besmeared them with dirt, and in the cage.

They tell who

came.

they

They are not believed.

They are put

94

The Pilgrims much persecuted.

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

Their behavi- the men being patient, and "not rendering our in the cage. 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 the rest, began to check and blame the baser sort for their continual abuses done by them to the men. They therefore in an angry manner let fly at them again, counting them as bad as the men in the cage, and telling them that they seemed confederates, and should be made partakers of their misfortunes. The others replied, that, for aught they could see, the men were quiet and sober, and intended nobody any harm; and that there were many that traded in their fair, that were more worthy to be put into the cage, yea, and pillory too, than were the men that they had abused. Thus after divers words had passed on both sides, (the men behaving themselves all the while very wisely and soberly before them,) they fell to some blows, and did harm one to another. Then were the authors of these two poor men brought before their this disturbance. examiners again, and there charged as being guilty of the late hubbub that had been in the So they beat them pitifully, and up and down the hanged irons upon them, and led them in for a terror to chains up and down the fair, for an example and terror to others, lest any should speak in their behalf, or join themselves unto them. But Christian and Faithful behaved themselves yet more wisely, and received the ignominy and shame that was cast upon them, with so much meekness and patience, that it won to their side (though the fair won over but few in comparison of the rest) several of the men in the fair. This put the other party into a greater rage, insomuch that they concluded

They are made

They are led

fair in chains,

others.

Some men of

to them.

fair.