Now when they were got 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, Ai, and my good friend too, said Faithful; for 'twas he that set me the way to the Gate. Now was Evangelist come up unto them, and thus saluted them. Evangelist them again. overtakes Evan. Peace be with 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 labouring for my eternal good. They are glad at the sight of him. Faith. And a thousand times welcome, said good Faithful; thy company, O sweet Evangelist, how desireable is it to us poor Pilgrims! Evan. 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 your selves? Chr. 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 to that place. Evan. 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 Exhorta tion to them. mine own John 4. 36. Rev. 3. II. I say, right glad am I of this thing, and that for 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 Gun-shot of the Devil: : you have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Let the Kingdom be always before you, and believe stedfastly 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. Chr. Then Christian thanked him for his exhortation, but told him withal, that they would have him speak They do thank farther to them for their help the rest of the way; him for his exhortations. 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 - 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 on you; and therefore you cannot expect that you should go long on your Pilgrimage *He predicteth what troubles they shall meet with in Vanity-Fair, and encourageth them to stedfastness. You have without them in some sort or other. 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, 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 your selves like men; and it will be there to suffer will have the better of his brother. commit the keeping of your souls to your 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 there sold, or that cometh thither, is Vanity. As is the saying of the wise, All that cometh is Vanity. Isa. 40. 7. ch. 2. 11, 17. This Fair is no new erected business, but a thing of ancient standing; I will shew you the original of it. The Antiquity of this Fair. Almost five thousand years agone, there were Pilgrims, walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons are; and Belzebub, 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 of all sorts of Vanity, and that it should last 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? The Merchan dize of this Fair. And moreover, at this Fair there is at all times to be seen Jugglings, Cheats, Games, Plaies, 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 several Rows and Streets under their proper Names where 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 Brittan 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, The Streets of the Fair. some one Commodity is as 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. I Cor. 5. 10. Christ went through this Fair. Now as I said, the way to the Coelestial City lies just through this Town, where this lusty Fair is kept; and he that will 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 Countrey, and that upon a fair-day too : yea, and as I think, it was Belzebub, the chief Matth. 7. 8. Lord of this Fair, that invited him to buy of his Luk. 4. 5, Vanities; yea, would have made him Lord of the 6, 7. Fair, would he but have done him Reverence as he went through the Town. Yea, because he was such a person of honour Belzebub 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 Merchandice, 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. Christ bought nothing in this Fair. The Pilgrims enter the Fair. Now these Pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this Fair. Well so they did; but behold, even as they entred into the Fair, all the People in the Fair were moved, and the Town it self as it were in a Hubbub about them; and that for several reasons: For The Fair in a hubbub about them. The first cause of the hubbub. First, The Pilgrims were cloathed with such kind of Raiment, as was diverse from the Raiment 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. Secondly, and as they wondred at their Apparel, so they did I Cor. 2. 7, 8. 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 The second cause of the hubbub. Third cause of the hubbub. of the Fair to the other, they seemed Barbarians each to the other. Thirdly, But that which did not a 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 Turn away mine eyes from beholding Vanity; and look upwards, signifying that their Trade and Traffick was in Heaven. ears and cry, Psal. 119. 37. Phil. 3. 19, 20. Fourth cause Prov. 23. 23. They are mocked. The Fair in a hubbub. They are examined. One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages of the men, to say unto them, What will ye buy? but they looking gravely upon him, said, We buy the of the hubbub. Truth. At 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 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 Friends to take those men into examination, about whom the Fair was almost overturned. So the men were brought to examination; and they that sat upon them, asked them 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 they came. that they were going to their own Countrey*, which was the heavenly Jerusalem, and that they had given no occasion to the men of the Town, nor yet to the Merchandizers, thus to abuse them, 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 contusion in the Fair. Therefore they took them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and then put them into the Cage, that they might be made a * They tell who they are, Heb. II. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. and to let They are not in the cage. |