HUBBUB AT THE PILGRIMS IN THE FAIR.

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The streets of this

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 fair. 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 this town, "must needs go out of the world," 1 Cor. v. 10. The Prince of princes himself, when

Christ went

here, went through this town to his own country, and through this fair. 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, Christ bought noand, therefore, left the town without laying out so thing in this fair. 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.

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 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 several reasons: For,

The fair in a hubbub about them.

The first cause of the hubbub.

First, The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair (x). 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. Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few could understand what they said.

(x) The singularity of the Pilgrims.-(1.) Their peculiar dress represents the public and admirable manner in which they avowed themselves to be the disciples of Jesus, 1 Pet. ii. 9-11. "When courtiers come down into the country, the common homebred people possibly think their habit strange; but they care not for that; it is the fashion of the court. What need, then, that Christians should be so tender foreheaded as to be put out of countenance because the world looks on holiness as a singularity; it is the only fashion in the highest court; yea, of the King of kings himself." (2.) They spoke the language of Canaan, for in the saint's vocabulary not one evil word is to be found, and the terms common to the world and the church, such as faith, hope, charity, have a higher meaning, Prov. x. 20; Luke vi. 45; Col. iv. 6. (3.) They set very light by the wares of the fair, for they could only obtain them by conforming to the world, and being unfaithful to their King and their own souls, 2 Tim. ii. 4; 1 Pet. ii. 11. (4.) Therefore when asked what they would buy, they said, "We buy the truth." "Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding. Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life," Prov. iv. 5-13.

F

82

The second cause

of the hubbub.

HUBBUB AT THE PILGRIMS IN THE FAIR.

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, 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8. Thirdly, But that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers Third cause of the 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 ears, and cry, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity," Psa. cxix. 37, and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven, Phil. iii. 20, 21.

hubbub.

the hubbub

One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto They are mocked. them, "What will ye buy?" But they, looking gravely upon him, said, "We buy the truth," Prov. xxiii. 23. At that, there Fourth cause of 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 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 brought to examination (y); and they that sat upon them asked

They are examined.

(y) The Pilgrims examined.-Their treatment by their examinators, and the populace, is a true description of what many have suffered in persecution.

We extract from Bunyan's account of his own trial. His indictment was, "That John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, labourer, devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear divine service, and is a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conventicles. The justice before whom he was brought, told him he would discharge him if he would give security that he would not preach. He answered, "I will not leave speaking the word of God. My conscience will not suffer me to do it." When afterwards examined, he tells us one of them said, "Who is your God? Beelzubub ?" "Moreover, they often said that I was possessed with the spirit of delusion and of the devil." Bunyan seems to have been very ready with his answers. He relates that one said to him

"I remember that I have read of one Alexander, a coppersmith, who did much oppose and disturb the Apostles;' aiming, it is like at me, because I was a tinker.

To which I answered that I had also read of very many priests and pharisees that had their hands in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Aye,' saith he, and you are one of these scribes and pharisees; for you, with a pretence, make long prayers, to devour widows' houses.'

"I answered that if he got no more by preaching and praying than I had done, he would not be so rich as he now was."

Judge Jeffries, before whom the venerable Richard Baxter was tried, addressed him from the bench in the following terms, when he attempted to speak in his own defence:

"Richard! Richard! dost thou think we will let thee poison the court? Richard! thou art an old knave. Thou hast written books enough to load a cart, and every book as full of sedition as an egg is full of meat. Hadst thou been whipped out of thy writing trade forty years ago, it had been happy."

"So great was the severity of these times, and the arbitrary proceedings of the justices, that many were afraid to pray in their families if above four of their acquaintances, who came only to visit them, were present. Some families scrupled asking a blessing on their meat if five strangers were present."

THE PILGRIMS PUT INTO THE CAGE.

83 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 that they were going to They tell who their own country, which was the heavenly Jerusalem, they came. they are, and whence 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 They are not bebelieve them to be any other than bedlams and mad, lieved. 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 then put them into the cage, that they They are put in 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 befell them. But the men being patient, and "not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise Their behaviour in blessing," and giving good words for bad, and kindness the cage. 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 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

They are made

chains, for a terror to others.

84 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 this these two poor men brought before their examiners disturbance. again, and there charged as being guilty of the late hubbub that had been in the fair. So they beat them pitifully, and They are led up hanged irons upon them, and led them in chains up and down the fair in 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 Some men of the but few in comparison of the rest) several of the men in the fair. This put the other party yet into a greater rage, insomuch that they concluded the death of these two Their adversaries men. Wherefore they threatened, that neither cage resolve to kill them. nor irons should serve their turn, but that they should die for the abuse they had done, and for deluding the men of the fair.

THE PILGRIMS MUCH PERSECUTED.

fair won over to

them.

put into the cage,

They are again Then were they remanded to the cage again, until and afterwards further orders should be taken with them. So they brought to trial. put them in, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

Here, therefore, they called again to mind what they had heard from their faithful friend Evangelist, and were the more confirmed in their way and sufferings, by what he told them would happen to them. They also now comforted each other, that whose lot it was to suffer, even he should have the best of it; therefore each man secretly wished that he might have that preferment. But committing themselves to the all-wise disposal of Him that ruleth all things, with much content they abode in the condition in which they were, until they should be otherwise disposed of.

Then a convenient time being appointed, they brought them forth to their trial, in order to their condemnation. When the time was come, they were brought before their enemies, and arraigned. The judge's name was Lord Hate-good; their indictment was one and the same substance, though somewhat varying in form; the contents whereof was this: "That they were enemies to, and Their indictment. disturbers of, the trade; that they had made commotions and divisions in the town, and had won a party to their own most dangerous opinions, in contempt of the law of their prince."

Then Faithful began to answer, that he had only set himself against Faithful answers that which had set itself against Him that is higher for himself. than the highest. And, said he, as for disturbance, I make none, being myself a man of peace: the parties that were won to us, were won by beholding our truth and innocence, and they are only turned from the worse to the better. And as to the king you talk of, since he is Beelzebub, the enemy of our Lord, I defy him and all his angels.

THE WITNESSES AGAINST FAITHFUL.

85

Then proclamation was made, that they that had aught to say for their lord the king against the prisoner at the bar, should forthwith appear, and give in their evidence. So there came in three witnesses, to wit, Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank. They were then asked, if they knew the prisoner at the bar; and what they had to say for their lord the king against him.

Then stood forth Envy, and said to this effect: My lord, I have known this man a long time, and will attest upon oath before this honourable bench, that he is

JUDGE. Hold-give him his oath.

Envy begins.

So they sware him. Then he said, My lord, this man, notwithstanding his plausible name, is one of the vilest men in our country; he neither regardeth prince nor people, law nor custom, but doth all that he can to possess all men with certain of his disloyal notions, which he in the general calls principles of faith and holiness. And in particular, I heard him once myself affirm, that Christianity and the customs of our town of Vanity were diametrically opposite, and could not be reconciled. By which saying, my lord, he doth at once not only condemn all our laudable doings, but us in the doing of them. Then did the judge say to him, Hast thou any more to say? ENVY. My lord, I could say much more, only I would not be tedious