fhall reap, if you faint not. The crown is before you, and it is an incorruptible one; fo run, that you may obtain it. Some there be that fet 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 fhot of the devil: You have not refifted unto blood, ftriving a gainst fin: Let the kingdom be always before you, and believe stedfaftly concerning things that are invifible: Let nothing that is on this fide the other world get within you: And above all, look well to your own hearts and to the lufts thereof, for they are deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked; fet your faces like a flint; you have all power in heaven and earth on your fide. John iv. 36. Gal. vi. 9. 1 Cor. ix. 24, 25, 26, 27. Rev. iii. 11.

Chr. Then Chriftian thanked him for his exhortation; but told him withal, that they would have him fpeak 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 how they might refift and overcome them. To which request Faithful alfo confented. So Evangelift began as followeth :

Evan. My fons, you have heard in the words of the truth of the gospel, that you must thro' 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

fhould

converts fo to run that they might obtain: and suggests, that though they had already paffed through many and great dangers, there were yet many more in the way; and that through variety of tribulation and diftrefs, and even death itself, they must be brought to inherit the kingdom: that

fhould go long on your pilgrimage without them, in fome fort or other: You have found fomething of the truth of thefe teftimonies upon you already, and more will immediately follow; for now, as you fee, you are almoft out of this wildernefs, and therefore you will foon come into a town that you will byand-by fee before you; and in that town you will be hard befet with enemies,' who will strain hard but they will kill you; and be you sure that one or both of you must feal the teftimony which you hold, with blood; but be you faithful unto death, and the King will give you a crown of life. He that fhall die there, altho' his death will be unnatural, and his pains perhaps great, he will yet have the better of his fellow; not only because he will be arrived at the coeleftial city fooneft, but because he will escape many miferies that the other will meet with in the reft of his journey. But when you are come to the town, and fhall find fulfilled what I have here rerelated, then remember your friend, and quit your felves like men, and commit the keeping of your fouls 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 faw a town before them, and the naine of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called VanityFair: 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 thither, is Vanity. As is the faying of the wife, All that cometh is vanity. Pfal. xl. 17. Ecclf. i. ch. ii. 11, 17.

This

this was not their lot only, but peculiar to faints in all ages. By the ftriking metaphor Vanity Fair, he points out to them the wretchedness of all creature-comforts; and that all the

riches

This fair is no new-erected bufinefs, but a thing of ancient standing: I will fhew you the original of it. Almost five thousand years agone, there were Pilgrims walking to the cœleftial city, as these two honeft 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 fhould be fold all forts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long; therefore, at this fair, are all fuch merchandizes fold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lufts, pleafures; and delights of all forts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, fervants, lives, blood, bodies, fouls, filver, gold, pearls, precious ftones, 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 feen 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 ftreets under their proper names, where fuch and fuch wares are vended: fo here likewise, you have the proper places, rows, streets, (viz. countries and kingdoms) where the wares of this fair are fooneft to be found. Here is the Britain row, the French row, the Italian row, the Spanish row, the German row, where feveral forts of vanities

riches, honours, pleasures and enjoyments of the world, are vanity itself.

Let us for a moment examine the several particular circumftances which happened at Vanity Fair, and their correspon

dent

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 the town where this lufty fair is kept; and he that will go to the city, and yet not go through this town, muft needs go out of the world. (1 Cor. v. 10.) 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 fuch a person of honour, Beelzebub had him from street to ftreet, and 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 vanities; but he had no. mind to the merchandize, and therefore left the town, without laying out fo much as one farthing, upon thefe vanities. This fair, therefore, is an ancient thing, of long ftanding, and a very great fair. (Matt. iv. 8. Luke iv. 5, 6.).

Now thefe pilgrimns, as I faid, muft 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 itfelf, as it were, in a hubbub about them; and that for feveral reafons: for,

dent fimilarity with the world in general. Chistian and Faithful enter the fair; and becaufe their raiment, fpeech and merchandize, differed from others, they were reproached and

can

First, The pilgrims were cloathed' with fuch kind of raiment, as was diverfe from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them: fome faid they were fools; (1 Cor. iv. 1o,) fome they were bedlams; and fome, they were outlandish 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: fo that from one end of the fair to the other, they feemed barbarians to each other.

Thirdly, But that which did not a little amufe the merchandizers, was that these pilgrims fet 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 bebolding vanity; and look upwards, fignifying, that their trade and traffick was in heaven.

One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages of the men, to fay unto them, What will ye buy? But they looking gravely upon him, said, We buy the truth. (Prov. xxiii. 23.) At that, there was an occafion taken to despise the men the more; fome mocking, fome taunting, fome speaking reproachfully, and fome calling upon others to fmite them. laft things came to an hubbub, and great ftir in the fair, infomuch that all order was confounded. Now

At

was

condemned. The true faints of God always differ from the world in their manner, lives and converfation. They are of a quite different complexion; being born from above, their affections are fet on things above; they love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; therefore the world hateth them. Profeffing to live by faith upon an unfeen Je

fus,