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other will meet with in the reft 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 fouls to your God (in well-doing), as unto a Faithful Creator.

Then I faw in my dream, that when they were got out of the Wilderness, they presently faw 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 alfo, because all that is there fold, or that cometh ch. 2. 11,17. thither, is Vanity. As is the faying of the Wise, All that cometh is Vanity.

Ifa. 40. 17.
Ecclef. 1.

The Antiquity

This Fair is no new erected business, but a thing of ancient standing: I will fhew you the original of it.

Almost five thousand years agone, there were of this Fair. Pilgrims walking to the Cœleftial City, as these two honest perfons 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 fet up a Fair; a Fair, wherein should be fold all Sorts of Vanity, and that it should laft all the year long; therefore, at this Fair, are all fuch merchandizes fold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lufts, pleasures; and delights of all

The merchandize of this Fair.

Behold Vanity-Fair! the Pilgrims there
Are chain'd, and fton'd befide:
Even fo it was our LORD pafs'd here,
And on Mount Calvary dy'd.

forts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, mafters, fervants, lives, blood, bodies, fouls, filver, 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, falfe-fwearers, and that of a blood-red colour.

And as in other fairs of lefs moment, there are the several rows and streets under their proper names, where fuch and fuch wares are vended: So here likewise, you have the proper places, rows, ftreets, (viz. Countries and Kingdoms) where the wares of this Fair are fooneft to be found: Here The Streets of is the Britain row, the French row, the Italian this Fair. row, the Spanish row, the German row, where feveral forts of vanities are to be fold. But as in other fairs, fome one commodity is as the chief of all the fair, fo the ware of Rome and her merchandize is greatly promoted in this Fair: Only our English nation, with fome others, have taken a dislike thereat.

Now, as I faid, the Way to the Cœleftial City lies just through this Town, where this lufty 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 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

1 Cor. 5. 10. Chrift went through this Fair.

Mat. 4. 8.
Luke 4. 5, 6,

7.

fhewed him all the Kingdoms of the World in a little time, that he might, (if poffible) allure that Bleffed One, to cheapen and buy fome of his Christ bought Vanities; but he had no mind to the merchandize, nothing in this and therefore left the Town, without laying out fo much as one farthing upon these Vanities. This Fair, therefore, is an ancient thing, of long standing, and a very great Fair.

Fair.

The Pilgrims

enter the Fair.

The Fair in a bubbub about

them.

The First caufe of the bubbub.

Now these Pilgrims, as I faid, must needs go through this Fair. Well, fo 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 feveral reasons: For,

First, The Pilgrims were cloathed with fuch 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 1 Cor. 2. 7.8. them: Some faid they were fools; fome they were bedlams; and fome they were outlandish

The Second caufe of the bubbub.

Third caufe of the bubbub.

men.

Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, fo they did likewise at their speech; for few could understand what they faid; 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.

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 fo 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, fignifying, That their trade and traffick was in Heaven.

One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages Fourth caufe of the men, to fay unto them, What will ye buy? of the bubbub. But they looking gravely upon him, faid, We buy Prov. 23. 23. the Truth. At that, there was an occafion taken

The Fair in a

bubbub.

They tell who

they are, and whence they

came.

to despise the men the more; fome mocking, fome They are taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and fome mocked. calling upon others to fmite them. others to fmite them. At last things came to an hubbub, and great stir in the Fair, infomuch that all order was confounded. Now was word presently brought to the Great One of the Fair, who quickly came down and deputed fome of his most trusty Friends to take these men into examination, about whom the Fair was almost overturned. They are exSo the men were brought to examination; and they amined. that fat upon them, asked them, Whence they came, whither they went, and what they did there in fuch 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 Jerufalem; and that they had given none occafion to the men of the Town, nor yet to the merchandizers, thus to abuse them, and to let them in their Journey: Except it was for that, when one afked them what they would buy, they faid, 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 confufion in the Fair. Therefore they took them and beat them, and befmeared believed. ift 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 fome 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 befell them:

Heb. 11, 13,

14, 15, 16.

They are

taken for
[They are not

Madmen.

Edit.]

They are put in the Cage.

Their bebaviour in the Cage.

The men of the Fair do

themselves

about thefe

two men.

yea,

But, the men being patient, and not rendring railing for railing, but contrariwife bleffing, and giving good words for bad, and kindness for injuries done; fome men in the Fair that were more observing, and less prejudiced than the reft, began to check fall out among and blame the bafer fort for their continual abuses done by them to the men: They therefore in 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 fhould be made partakers of their misfortunes. The other replied, that for ought they could fee, the men were quiet and fober, 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, and Pillory too, than were the men that they had abused. Thus, after divers words had passed on both fides, (the men behaving themselves all the while very wifely and foberly before them) they fell to fome blows among themselves, and did harm one to another. Then were these two poor men brought before their examiners again, and there charged as being guilty of the late hubbub that had been in the Fair. So they beat them pitifully, and hanged irons upon them, and led them in chains up and down the Fair, for an example and a terror to others, left any should further speak in their behalf, or join themselves unto them. But Chriftian and Faithful behaved themselves yet more wifely, and received the ignominy and shame that was cast upon them, with fo much meekness and patience, that it won to their fide (though but few in comparison of the rest) several of the men in the Fair. This put the other Party yet into a greater rage, infomuch that they concluded the death of these Wherefore they threatned, that neither

They are made the Authors

of this dif turbance.

They are led up and down the Fair in chains, for a

terror to others.

Some men of the Fair won

over to them.

Their adverfaries refolve

to kill them.

two men.

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