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Evan. How hath it fared with you, my friends, fince the time of our laft parting? What have you met with? And how have you behaved yourselves?

Then Christian and Faithful told him all things which had happened to them in the way; and in what manner, and with what difficulty, they had arrived to that place.

Evan. Right glad am I, not that you have met with trials, but that you have been victors: and, for that you have, notwithstanding many weakneffes, continued in the way to this very day, I fay, I am right glad of this thing, and that for mine own fake as well as yours: I have fowed, and you have reaped; and the day is coming, when both he that fowed, and they who reaped, fhall rejoice together; that is, if you hold out; for in due time ye shall reap, if you faint not. The crown is before you, and it is an incorruptible one; incorruptible one; fo run, that you may obtain it. Some there be, who fet out for this crown, and after they have gone far for it, there comes in one who takes it from them; therefore, hold faft 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 against fin. Let the kingdom be always before you; and believe stedfastly concerning the things which are invifible, that nothing which is on this fide the other world may get within you. Above all things, look well to your own hearts, and to the lufts thereof, for they are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;

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wicked; and fet your faces like a flint, for you have all power in heaven and earth on your fide.

Christian thanked him for his exhortation; and told him withal, that they begged of him to speak further to them, for their help the reft of the way; and the rather, because they well knew that he was a prophet, and could tell them of things which might happen unto them, and how they might refift and overcome them. To this request Faithful also confented. So Evangelift began as followeth :

Evan. My fons, 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; therefore you cannot expect that you fhould go long on your pilgrimage without them, in fome fort or other. You have found fomething of the truth of these teftimonies upon you already, and more will follow immediately; for now, as you fee, you are almost out of this wilderness, and therefore you will foon come into a town which by and by you will fee before you: in that town you will be hard befet with enemies, who will ftrain hard but they will kill you: and be fure that one, or both of you, must seal the testimony which you hold with blood2;

z How seasonably does Evangelift meet thefe pilgrims! He prepares their minds by forewarning them of their fufferings. Thus our Lord forewarned his difciples, and added moreover, "When these things come to pass, remember that I told you of them,"

but

but be you faithful unto death, and the King will give you a crown of life. He who fhall die there, although his death will be unnatural, and his pains perhaps great, yet will have the better of his fellow; not only because he will arrive at the celestial city fooneft, but because he will efcape many miferies which the other will meet with in the rest of his journey. But when you are come to the town, and fhall find that fulfilled which I have here related, then remember your friend; 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 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.

This fair is no new erected business, but a thing

a There is a triple alliance formed against the Christian by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Christian had been sharply afsaulted by the devil all his journey through; Faithful had fuffered much from the flesh from Mrs. Wanton, Discontent, and Shame. Now they are both to meet with perfecutions from the world.

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of ancient standing: I will fhew you the original of

it.

Almost five thousand years ago, there were pilgrims walking to the celeftial 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, contrived to fet up a fair here; a fair, wherein fhould be fold all forts of vanity, and that it fhould laft all the year long; therefore, at this fair are all fuch merchandifes fold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lufts, pleafures; and delights of all forts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, mafters, fervants, lives, blood, bodies, fouls, filver, gold, pearls, precious ftones, and what not. Moreover, at this fair there are to be seen at all times 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 those of a blood-red colour. And as in other fairs of lefs moment there are feveral rows and ftreets under their proper names, where fuch and fuch wares are vended: fo here likewife you have the proper places, rows, ftreets (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 Ger

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man 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 merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair: only our English nation, with fome others, have taken a diflike thereto.

Now, as I faid, the way to the celeftial city lies juft through the town where this lufty fair is kept; and he who 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 fairday too: yea, and I think, it was Beelzebub, the chief lord of this fair, who invited him to buy of his vanities; yea, would have made him lord of the fair, if he would but have done him reverence as he went through the town. Yea, because he was fuch a perfon of honour, Beelzebub had him from street to street, and fhewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time, that he might, if poffible, allure that Blessed One to cheapen and buy some of his vanities; but he had no mind to the merchandife, 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.

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,

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