Page:The Pilgrim's Progress, the Holy War, Grace Abounding Chunk1.djvu/97

Rh upon them: some said they were fools (1 Cor. iv. 9, 19); some, they were bedlams; and some they were 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 ban barians 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" (Ps. cxix. 37 ); and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven (Phil. iii. 20, 21).

One chanced, mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, What will you buy? But they, looking gravely upon him, said, We "buy the truth." (Prov. xxiii. 23.) 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 those men into examination, about whom the fair was almost overturned. So the men were brought to examination; and they that sat upon them asked 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 (Heb. xi. 13–16); and that they had given no occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to