The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
Chapter 9
{ Evangelist travels with Christian and Faithful for a time }
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." "Ay, and my good friend too," said
Faithful, for it was he that set me in the way to the gate."
Now was Evangelist come up to them, and thus saluted them:
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.
FAITH. And a thousand times welcome, said good Faithful. Thy
company, O sweet Evangelist, how desirable it is 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 yourselves?
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 at 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.
I say, right glad am I of this thing, and that for mine own 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 season 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 steadfastly 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 further 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 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 in you; and therefore you cannot expect that
you should go long on your pilgrimage without them, in some sort
or other. You have 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 yourselves like men, and commit
the keeping of your souls to your God in well-doing, as unto a
faithful Creator.
{ Vanity Fair }
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.
This fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient
standing; I will shew you the original of it.
Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims walking to
the Celestial City, as these two honest persons 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
set up a fair; a fair wherein, should be sold all sorts of
vanity, and that it should last all the year long: therefore at
this fair are all such merchandise 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.
And, moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen
juggling 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 that of a bloodred colour.
And as in other fairs of less moment, there are the several rows
and streets, under their proper names, where such and 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 Britain 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, some one commodity is as the chief of all the fair, so
the ware of Rome¹ and her merchandise is greatly promoted in
this fair; only our English nation, with some others, have taken
a dislike thereat. [¹A reference to Roman Catholicism. Note that
Bunyan obviously understood that Britain/England was no less
sinful as a nation than any other, simply that it had far less
Roman Catholics than other nations.]
Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial 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 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
shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time, that
he might, if possible, allure the Blessed One to cheapen and buy
some of his vanities; but he had no mind to the merchandise, 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. 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:
First, The pilgrims were clothed 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 are outlandish men.
Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did
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
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 ears, and
cry, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity" and look
upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven.
One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say
unto them, What will ye buy? But they, looking gravely upon him,
answered, We buy the 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 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 these
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 that they
were going to their own country, which was the heavenly
Jerusalem, 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
believe them to be any other than bedlams and mad, 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 might be made
a spectacle to all the men of the fair.
Behold Vanity Fair! the pilgrims there
Are chain'd and stand beside:
Even so it was our Lord pass'd here,
And on Mount Calvary died.
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, blessing, and giving good words for bad, and
kindness 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 other 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 pillory
too, than were the men 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 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, 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 but few in comparison of the
rest, several of the men in the fair. This put the other party
yet into greater rage, insomuch that they concluded the death of
these two men. Wherefore they threatened, that the cage 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.
Then were they remanded to the cage again, until further order
should be taken with them. So they 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 in substance, though somewhat varying in form, the
contents whereof were this:
'That they were enemies to and disturbers of their 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.'
Now, Faithful, play the man, speak for thy God:
Fear not the wickeds' malice; nor their rod!
Speak boldly, man, the truth is on thy side:
Die for it, and to life in triumph ride.
Then Faithful began to answer, that he had only set himself
against that which hath set itself against Him that is higher
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."
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 my oath
before this honourable bench that he is "
Judg. "Hold! Give him his oath." (So they sware him.) Then he
said:
Envy. 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.
Judg. 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 to the court. Yet, if need be, when the other gentlemen
have given in their evidence, rather than anything shall be
wanting that will despatch him, I will enlarge my testimony
against him. So he was bid to stand by.
Then they called Superstition, and bid him look upon the
prisoner. They also asked, what he could say for their lord the
king against him. Then they sware him; so he began.
Supr. My Lord, I have no great acquaintance with this man, nor
do I desire to have further knowledge of him; however, this I
know, that he is a very pestilent fellow, from some discourse
that, the other day, I had with him in this town; for then,
talking with him, I heard him say, that our religion was naught,
and such by which a man could by no means please God. Which
sayings of his, my Lord, your Lordship very well knows, what
necessarily thence will follow, to wit, that we do still worship
in vain, are yet in our sins, and finally shall be damned; and
this is that which I have to say.
Then was Pickthank sworn, and bid say what he knew, in behalf
of their lord the king, against the prisoner at the bar.
Pick. My Lord, and you gentlemen all, This fellow I have known
of a long time, and have heard him speak things that ought not
to be spoke; for he hath railed on our noble prince Beelzebub,
and hath spoken contemptibly of his honourable friends, whose
names are the Lord Old Man, the Lord Carnal Delight, the Lord
Luxurious, the Lord Desire of Vain Glory, my old Lord Lechery,
Sir Having Greedy, with all the rest of our nobility; and he
hath said, moreover, That if all men were of his mind, if
possible, there is not one of these noblemen should have any
longer a being in this town. Besides, he hath not been afraid to
rail on you, my Lord, who are now appointed to be his judge,
calling you an ungodly villain, with many other such like
vilifying terms, with which he hath bespattered most of the
gentry of our town.
When this Pickthank had told his tale, the Judge directed his
speech to the prisoner at the bar, saying, "Thou runagate,
heretic, and traitor, hast thou heard what these honest
gentlemen have witnessed against thee?"
FAITH. May I speak a few words in my own defence?
Judg. Sirrah! sirrah! thou deservest to live no longer, but to
be slain immediately upon the place; yet, that all men may see
our gentleness towards thee, let us hear what thou, vile
runagate, hast to say.
FAITH.
1. I say, then, in answer to what Mr. Envy hath spoken, I
never said aught but this, That what rule, or laws, or
customs, or people, were flat against the Word of God, are
diametrically opposite to Christianity. If I have said amiss
in this, convince me of my error, and I am ready here before
you to make my recantation.
2. As to the second, to wit, Mr. Superstition, and his charge
against me, I said only this, That in the worship of God there
is required a Divine faith; but there can be no Divine faith
without a Divine revelation of the will of God. Therefore,
whatever is thrust into the worship of God that is not agreeable
to Divine revelation, cannot be done but by a human faith, which
faith will not be profitable to eternal life.
3. As to what Mr. Pickthank hath said, I say (avoiding terms, as
that I am said to rail, and the like) that the prince of this
town, with all the rabblement, his attendants, by this gentleman
named, are more fit for a being in hell, than in this town and
country: and so, the Lord have mercy upon me!
Then the Judge called to the jury (who all this while stood by,
to hear and observe): Gentlemen of the jury, you see this man
about whom so great an uproar hath been made in this town. You
have also heard what these worthy gentlemen have witnessed
against him. Also you have heard his reply and confession. It
lieth now in your breasts to hang him or save his life; but yet
I think meet to instruct you into our law.
There was an Act made in the days of Pharaoh the Great, servant
to our prince, that lest those of a contrary religion should
multiply and grow too strong for him, their males should be
thrown into the river. There was also an Act made in the days
of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, another of his servants, that
whosoever would not fall down and worship his golden image,
should be thrown into a fiery furnace. There was also an Act
made in the days of Darius, that whoso, for some time, called
upon any god but him, should be cast into the lion's den. Now
the substance of these laws this rebel has broken, not only in
thought (which is not to be borne), but also in word and deed,
which must therefore needs be intolerable.
For that of Pharaoh, his law was made upon a supposition, to
prevent mischief, no crime being yet apparent; but here is a
crime apparent. For the second and third, you see he disputeth
against our religion; and for the treason he hath confessed, he
deserveth to die the death.
Then went the jury out, whose names were, Mr. Blind-man, Mr.
No-good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady,
Mr. High-mind, Mr. Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr.
Hate-light, and Mr. Implacable; who every one gave in his
private verdict against him among themselves, and afterwards
unanimously concluded to bring him in guilty before the Judge.
And first, among themselves, Mr. Blind-man, the foreman, said,
"I see clearly that this man is a heretic." Then said Mr.
No-good, "Away with such a fellow from the earth." "Ay," said
Mr. Malice, "for I hate the very looks of him." Then said Mr.
Love-lust, "I could never endure him." "Nor I," said Mr.
Live-loose, "for he would always be condemning my way." "Hang
him, hang him," said Mr. Heady. "A sorry scrub," said Mr.
High-mind. "My heart riseth against him," said Mr. Enmity.
"He is a rogue," said Mr. Liar. "Hanging is too good for him,"
said Mr. Cruelty.
"Let us despatch him out of the way," said Mr. Hate-light. Then
said Mr. Implacable, "Might I have all the world given me, I
could not be reconciled to him; therefore, let us forthwith
bring him in guilty of death." And so they did; therefore he was
presently condemned to be had from the place where he was, to
the place from whence he came, and there to be put to the most
cruel death that could be invented.
They, therefore, brought him out, to do with him according to
their law; and, first, they scourged him, then they buffeted
him, then they lanced his flesh with knives; after that, they
stoned him with stones, then pricked him with their swords; and,
last of all, they burned him to ashes at the stake. Thus came
Faithful to his end.
Now I saw that there stood behind the multitude a chariot and a
couple of horses, waiting for Faithful, who (so soon as his
adversaries had despatched him) was taken up into it, and
straightway was carried up through the clouds, with sound of
trumpet, the nearest way to the Celestial Gate.
Brave Faithful, bravely done in word and deed;
Judge, witnesses, and jury have, instead
Of overcoming thee, but shewn their rage:
When they are dead, thou'lt live from age to age.
But as for Christian, he had some respite, and was remanded back
to prison. So he there remained for a space; but He that
overrules all things, having the power of their rage in his own
hand, so wrought it about, that Christian for that time escaped
them, and went his way; and as he went, he sang, saying:
Well, Faithful, thou hast faithfully profest
Unto thy Lord; with whom thou shalt be blest,
When faithless ones, with all their vain delights,
Are crying out under their hellish plights:
Sing, Faithful, sing, and let thy name survive;
For though they kill'd thee, thou art yet alive!
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