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Evangelist's Exhortation.

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

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:

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 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, 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.1

1 The able and faithful minister can foretell many things, from his knowledge of the scriptures, and enlarged experience and observation, of which his people are not aware. He knows

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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." (Isaiah xl. 17. Eccl. i. 2. and ii. 11, 17.)

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 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.2

And as, in other fairs of less moment, there are several rows and streets, under their proper names, where such and such wares are

beforehand, "That through much tribulation they must enter into the kingdom of God." When Christians are called forth to more public situations, they need peculiar cautions and instructions, for inexperience renders men inattentive to the words of scripture.

1 In general, Vanity-fair represents the wretched state of things, in those populous places especially where true religion is neglected and persecuted. Satan, the god and prince of this world, is permitted to excite fierce persecution in some places and on some occasions, while at other times he is restrained.

2 Mr. Bunyan, living in the country, had frequent opportunities of witnessing those fairs, which are held first in one town and then in another; and of observing the pernicious effects produced on the principles, morals, health, and circumstances of young persons especially, by thus drawing together a multitude, from motives of interest, dissipation, and excess.

78

An account of Vanity Fair.

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.1

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 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 to the merchandise, 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. (1 Cor. v. 10. Matt. iv. 8. Luke iv. 5-7.)

2

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

1 Our author evidently designed to exhibit in his allegory the grand outlines of the difficulties, temptations, and sufferings to which believers are exposed in this evil world; which, in a work of this nature, must be related as if they came upon them one after another in regular succession; though in actual experience several may meet together, many may molest the same person again and again, and some harass him in every stage of his journey. To this an allusion is made by the 'rows' in this fair. Writing at the time he did, he might well say the English nation had taken a dislike to the merchandise of Rome. It is to be hoped that dislike may continue.

1 Here are inserted the following lines,

'Behold Vanity-fair! The pilgrims there

Are chained and stoned beside:

Even so it was our Lord past here,

And on Mount Calvary died.'

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