,transcribed from the #ahhh ,walter     
,scott edition by ,david ,price1 email  
ccx#jgd;coventry4ac4uk            ,,the 
,,life ,,of ,,john ,,bunyan  by ,edmund 
,venables1 ,m4,a4      ,,chapter ,i4    
,john ,bunyan1 the author of the book   
which has probably passed through  more 
editions1 had a greater number of       
readers1 and been translated into  more 
languages than any other book in the    
,english tongue1 was born in the  parish
 of ,elstow1 in ,bedfordshire1 in the   
latter part of the year #afbh1  and was 
baptized in the parish church of the    
village on the last day of  ,november of
 that year4    ,the year of ,john       
,bunyan's birth was a momentous one both
 for the nation  and for the ,church of 
,england4  ,charles ,i41 by the extorted
 assent to the  ,petition of ,right1 had
 begun reluctantly to strip himself of  
the  irresponsible authority he had     
claimed1 and had taken the first step in
  the struggle between ,king and        
,parliament which ended in the ,house of

  ,commons seating itself in the place  
of the ,sovereign4  ,wentworth 7better  
known as ,lord ,strafford7 had finally  
left the ,commons1 baffled in his       
nobly-conceived but vain hope of        
reconciling the monarch and his people1 
and having accepted a peerage and the   
promise of the ,presidency of the       
,council of the ,north1 was             
foreshadowing his policy of ,thorough1  
which  was destined to bring both his   
own head and that of his weak master to 
the block4  ,the ,remonstrance of       
,parliament against the toleration of   
,roman ,catholics and the growth of     
,arminianism1 had been presented to the 
indignant king1 who1 wilfully blinded1  
had replied to it by the promotion  to  
high and lucrative posts in the ,church 
of the very men against whom it  was    
chiefly directed4  ,the most outrageous 
upholders of the royal  prerogative and 
the irresponsible power of the          
sovereign1 ,montagu and  ,mainwaring1   
had been presented1 the one to the see  

of ,chichester1 the  other--the         
impeached and condemned of the          
,commons--to the rich living  ,montagu's
 consecration had vacated4  ,montaigne1 
the licenser of  ,mainwaring's          
incriminated sermon1 was raised to the  
,archbishopric of  ,york1 while ,neile  
and ,laud1 who were openly named in the 
,remonstrance as  the troublers of the  
,english ,israel1 were rewarded         
respectively with  the rich see of      
,durham and the important and           
deeply-dyed ,puritan diocese  of        
,london4  ,charles was steadily sowing  
the wind1 and destined to reap  the     
whirlwind which was to sweep him from   
his throne1 and involve the  monarchy   
and the ,church in the same overthrow4  
,three months before  ,bunyan's birth   
,buckingham1 on the eve of his departure
 for the  beleaguered and               
famine-stricken city of ,rochelle1      
sanguinely hoping to  conclude a peace  
with the ,french king beneath its walls1
 had been struck  down by the knife of a

 fanatic1 to the undisguised joy of the 
majority of  the nation1 bequeathing a  
legacy of failure and disgrace in the   
fall of  the ,protestant stronghold on  
which the eyes of ,europe had been so   
long  anxiously fixed4    ,the year was 
closing gloomily1 with ominous forecasts
 of the coming  hurricane1 when the babe
 who was destined to leave so           
imperishable a name  in ,english        
literature1 first saw the light in an   
humble cottage in an  obscure           
,bedfordshire village4  ,his father1    
,thomas ,bunyan1 though styling  himself
 in his will by the more dignified title
 of brazier1 was more  properly what is 
known as a tinker2 a mender of pots and 
kettles1  according to ,bunyan's        
contemporary biographer1 ,charles ,doe4 
,he was not1  however1 a mere tramp or  
vagrant1 as travelling tinkers were and 
usually  are still1 much less a         
disreputable sot1 a counterpart of      
,shakespeare's  ,christopher ,sly1 but a
 man with a recognized calling1 having a

 settled  home and an acknowledged      
position in the village community of    
,elstow4  ,the  family was of long      
standing there1 but had for some        
generations been  going down in the     
world4  ,bunyan's grandfather1 ,thomas  
,bunyan1 as we  learn from his still    
extant will1 carried on the occupation  
of a petty  chapman1 or small retail    
dealer1 in his own freehold cottage1    
which he  bequeathed1 with its          
appurtenances1 to his second wife1 ,ann1
 to  descend1 after her death1 to her   
stepson1 his namesake1 ,thomas1 and her 
own son ,edward1 in equal shares4  ,this
 cottage1 which was probably ,john      
,bunyan's birthplace1 persistent        
tradition1 confirmed by the testimony of
  local names1 warrants us in placing   
near the hamlet of ,harrowden1 a mile   
to the east of the village of ,elstow1  
at a place long called ,bunyan's  ,end1 
where two fields are still called by the
 name of ,bunyans and  ,further         
,bunyans4  ,this small freehold appears 

to have been all that  remained1 at the 
death of ,john ,bunyan's grandfather1 of
 a property once  considerable enough to
 have given the name of its possessor to
 the whole  locality4    ,the family of 
,buingnon1 ,bunyun1 ,buniun1 ,boynon1   
,bonyon1 or ,binyan 7the  name is found 
spelt in no fewer than thirty-four      
different ways1 of which  the           
now-established form1 ,bunyan1 is almost
 the least frequent7 is one  that had   
established itself in ,bedfordshire from
 very early times4  ,the  first place in
 connection with which the name appears 
is ,pulloxhill1  about nine miles from  
,elstow4  ,in #aaii1 the year of ,king  
,john's  accession1 the ,bunyans had    
approached still nearer to that parish4 
,one  ,william ,bunion held land at     
,wilstead1 not more than a mile off4    
,in #acbg1  the first year of ,edward   
,,iii41 one of the same name1 probably  
his  descendant1 ,william ,boynon1 is   
found actually living at ,harrowden1    
close  to the spot which popular        

tradition names as ,john ,bunyan's      
birthplace1  and was the owner of       
property there4  ,we have no further    
notices of the  ,bunyans of ,elstow till
 the sixteenth century4  ,we then find  
them greatly  fallen4  ,their ancestral 
property seems little by little to have 
passed  into other hands1 until in #aedb
 nothing was left but a messuage and    
pightell #a with the appurtenances1 and 
nine acres of land4  ,this small        
residue other entries on the ,court     
,rolls show to have been still further  
diminished by sale4  ,the field already 
referred to1 known as ,bonyon's  ,end1  
was sold by ,thomas ,bonyon1 of ,elstow1
 labourer1 son of ,william  ,bonyon1 the
 said ,thomas and his wife being the    
keepers of a small  roadside inn1 at    
which their overcharges for their       
home-baked bread and  home-brewed beer  
were continually bringing them into     
trouble with the  petty local courts of 
the day4  ,thomas ,bunyan1 ,john        
,bunyan's father1 was  born in the last 

days of ,elizabeth1 and was baptized    
,february #bd1 #afjc1  exactly a month  
before the great queen passed away4     
,the mother of the  immortal ,dreamer   
was one ,margaret ,bentley1 who1 like   
her husband1 was a  native of ,elstow   
and only a few months his junior4  ,the 
details of her  mother's will1 which is 
still extant1 drawn up by the vicar of  
,elstow1  prove that1 like her husband1 
she did not1 in the words of ,bunyan's  
latest and most complete biographer1 the
 ,rev4 ,dr4 ,brown1 come of the  very   
squalid poor1 but of people who1 though 
humble in station1 were yet  decent and 
worthy in their ways4  ,john ,bunyan's  
mother was his father's  second wife4   
,the ,bunyans were given to marrying    
early1 and speedily  consoled themselves
 on the loss of one wife with the       
companionship of a  successor4          
,bunyan's grandmother cannot have died  
before ,february #bd1  #afjc1 the date  
of his father's baptism4  ,but before   
the year was out his  grandfather had   

married again4  ,his father1 too1 had   
not completed his  twentieth year when  
he married his first wife1 ,anne        
,pinney1 ,january #aj1  #afbc4  ,she    
died in #afbg1 apparently without any   
surviving children1 and  before the year
 was half-way through1 on the #bcrd of  
the following ,may1  he was married a   
second time to ,margaret ,bentley4  ,at 
the end of  seventeen years ,thomas     
,bunyan was again left a widower1 and   
within two  months1 with grossly        
indecent haste1 he filled the vacant    
place with a  third wife4  ,bunyan      
himself cannot have been much more than 
twenty when  he married4  ,we have no   
particulars of the death of his first   
wife4  ,but  he had been married two    
years to his noble-minded second wife at
 the time  of the assizes in #affa1 and 
the ages of his children by his first   
wife  would indicate that no long       
interval elapsed between his being left 
a  widower and his second marriage4     
,elstow1 which1 as the birthplace of the

 author of ,the ,pilgrim's  ,progress1  
has gained a world-wide celebrity1 is a 
quiet little village1  which1 though not
 much more than a mile from the populous
 and busy town  of ,bedford1 yet1 lying 
aside from the main stream of modern    
life1  preserves its old-world look to  
an unusual degree4  ,its name in its    
original form of ,helen-stow1 or        
,ellen-stow1 the stow or stockaded      
place of ,st4 ,helena1 is derived from a
 ,benedictine nunnery founded in  #ajgh 
by ,judith1 niece of ,william the       
,conqueror1 the traitorous wife of  the 
judicially murdered ,waltheof1 ,earl of 
,huntingdon1 in honour of the  mother of
 the ,emperor ,constantine4  ,the parish
 church1 so intimately  connected with  
,bunyan's personal history1 is a        
fragment of the church of  the nunnery1 
with a detached campanile1 or           
steeple-house1 built to  contain the    
bells after the destruction of the      
central tower and choir of  the         
conventual church4  ,few villages are so

 little modernized as ,elstow4  ,the old
 half-timbered cottages with overhanging
 storeys1 peaked dormers1  and gabled   
porches1 tapestried with roses and      
honeysuckles1 must be much  what they   
were in ,bunyan's days4  ,a village     
street1 with detached  cottages standing
 in gardens gay with the homely flowers 
,john ,bunyan knew  and loved1 leads to 
the village green1 fringed with         
churchyard elms1 in  the middle of which
 is the pedestal or stump of the        
market-cross1 and at  the upper end of  
the old ,moot ,hall1 a quaint brick and 
timber building1  with a projecting     
upper storey1 a good example of the     
domestic  architecture of the fifteenth 
century1 originally1 perhaps1 the       
,guesten-  ,hall of the adjacent        
nunnery1 and afterwards the ,court      
,house of the manor  when lay-lords had 
succeeded the abbesses--the scene1      
writes ,dr4 ,brown  of village          
festivities1 statute hirings1 and all   
the public occasions of  village life4  

,the whole spot and its surroundings can
 be but little  altered from the time   
when our hero was the ringleader of the 
youth of  the place in the dances on the
 greensward1 which he tells us he found 
it  so hard to give up1 and in tip-cat1 
and the other innocent games which  his 
diseased conscience afterwards regarded 
as ungodly practices4  ,one  may almost 
see the hole from which he was going to 
strike his cat that  memorable ,sunday  
afternoon when he silenced the inward   
voice which  rebuked him for his sins1  
and returned desperately to his sport   
again4  ,on the south side of the green1
 as we have said1 stands the church1 a  
fine though somewhat rude fragment of   
the chapel of the nunnery curtailed  at 
both ends1 of ,norman and ,early        
,english date1 which1 with its detached 
bell tower1 was the scene of some of the
 fierce spiritual conflicts so  vividly 
depicted by ,bunyan in his ,grace       
,abounding4  ,on entering every  object 
speaks of ,bunyan4  ,the pulpit--if it  

has survived the recent  restoration--is
 the same from which ,christopher ,hall1
 the then ,parson  of ,elstow1 preached 
the sermon which first awoke his        
sleeping conscience4  ,the font is that 
in which he was baptized1 as were also  
his father and  mother and remoter      
progenitors1 as well as his children1   
,mary1 his dearly-  loved blind child1  
on ,july #bj1 #afej1 and her younger    
sister1 ,elizabeth1  on ,april #ad1     
#afed4  ,an old oaken bench1 polished by
 the hands of  thousands of visitors    
attracted to the village church by the  
fame of the  tinker of ,elstow1 is      
traditionally shown as the seat he used 
to occupy  when he went to church twice 
a day1 and that1 too1 with the foremost 
counting all things holy that were      
therein contained4  ,the five bells     
which hang in the belfry are the same in
 which ,bunyan so much delighted1  the  
fourth bell1 tradition says1 being that 
he was used to ring4  ,the  rough       
flagged floor1 all worn and broken with 

the hobnailed boots of  generations of  
ringers1 remains undisturbed4  ,one     
cannot see the door1  set in its solid  
masonry1 without recalling the figure of
 ,bunyan standing  in it1 after         
conscience1 beginning to be tender1 told
 him that such  practice was but vain1  
but yet unable to deny himself the      
pleasure of  seeing others ring1 hoping 
that1 if a bell should fall1 he could   
slip  out safely behind the thick walls1
 and so be preserved  notwithstanding4  
,behind the church1 on the south side1  
stand some  picturesque ivy-clad remains
 of the once stately mansion of the     
,hillersdons1 erected on the site of the
 nunnery buildings in the early  part of
 the seventeenth century1 with a porch  
attributed to ,inigo ,jones1  which may 
have given ,bunyan the first idea of the
 very stately ,palace1  the name of     
which was ,beautiful4    ,the cottage   
where ,bunyan was born1 between the two 
brooks in the fields  at ,harrowden1 has
 been so long destroyed that even the   

knowledge of its  site has passed away4 
,that in which he lived for six years   
7#afdi-afee7  after his first marriage1 
and where his children were born1 is    
still  standing in the village street1  
but modern reparations have robbed it of
  all interest4    ,from this           
description of the surroundings among   
which ,bunyan passed the  earliest and  
most impressionable years of his life1  
we pass to the  subject of our biography
 himself4  ,the notion that ,bunyan was 
of gipsy  descent1 which was not        
entirely rejected by ,sir ,walter       
,scott1 and which  has more recently    
received elaborate support from writers 
on the other  side of the ,atlantic1 may
 be pronounced absolutely baseless4     
,even if  ,bunyan's inquiry of his      
father whether the family was of        
,israelitish  descent or no1 which has  
been so strangely pressed into the      
service of  the theory1 could be        
supposed to have anything to do with the
 matter1 the  decided negative with     

which his question was met--he told me1 
',no1 we  were not'--would1 one would   
have thought1 have settled the point4   
,but  some fictions die hard4  ,however 
low the family had sunk1 so that in his 
own words1 his father's house was of    
that rank that is meanest and most      
despised of all the families in the     
land1 of a low and inconsiderable       
generation1 the name1 as we have seen1  
was one of long standing in  ,bunyan's  
native county1 and had once taken far   
higher rank in it4  ,and  his parents1  
though poor1 were evidently worthy      
people1 of good repute  among their     
village neighbours4  ,bunyan seems to be
 describing his own  father and his     
wandering life when he speaks of an     
honest poor labouring  man1 who1 like   
,adam unparadised1 had all the world to 
get his bread in1  and was very careful 
to maintain his family4  ,he and his    
wife were also  careful with a higher   
care that their children should be      
properly  educated4  ,notwithstanding   

the meanness and inconsiderableness of  
my  parents1 writes ,bunyan1 it pleased 
,god to put it into their hearts to  put
 me to school1 to learn both to read and
 write4  ,if we accept the  evidence of 
the ,scriptural ,poems1 published for   
the first time twelve  years after his  
death1 the genuineness of which1 though 
questioned by ,dr4  ,brown1 there seems 
no sufficient reason to doubt1 the      
little education he  had was gained in a
 grammar school4  ,this would have been 
that founded  by ,sir ,william ,harpur  
in ,queen ,mary's reign in the          
neighbouring town of  ,bedford4         
,thither we may picture the little lad  
trudging day by day along  the mile and 
a half of footpath and road from his    
father's cottage by the  brookside1     
often1 no doubt1 wet and miry enough1   
not1 as he says1 to go  to school to    
,aristotle or ,plato1 but to be taught  
according to the rate  of other poor    
men's children4  ,the ,bedford          
schoolmaster about this time1  ,william 

,barnes by name1 was a negligent sot1   
charged with night-walking  and haunting
 taverns and alehouses1 and other evil  
practices1 as well  as with treating the
 poor boys when present with a cruelty  
which must  have made them wish that his
 absences1 long as they were1 had been  
more  protracted4  ,whether this man was
 his master or no1 it was little that   
,bunyan learnt at school1 and that      
little he confesses with shame he soon  
lost almost utterly4  ,he was before    
long called home to help his father  at 
the ,harrowden forge1 where he says he  
was brought up in a very mean  condition
 among a company of poor countrymen4    
,here1 with but little to  elevate or   
refine his character1 the boy contracted
 many bad habits1 and  grew up what     
,coleridge somewhat too strongly calls a
 bitter blackguard4  ,according to his  
own remorseful confession1 he was filled
 with all  unrighteousness1 having from 
a child in his tender years1 but few    
equals both for cursing1 swearing1 lying

 and blaspheming the holy name of  ,god4
  ,sins of this kind he declares became 
a second nature to him2 he  delighted in
 all transgression against the law of   
,god1 and as he  advanced in his teens  
he became a notorious sinbreeder1 the   
very  ringleader1 he says1 of the       
village lads in all manner of vice and  
ungodliness4  ,but the unsparing        
condemnation passed by ,bunyan1 after   
his  conversion1 on his former self1    
must not mislead us into supposing him  
ever1 either as boy or man1 to have     
lived a vicious life4  ,the  wickedness 
of the tinker1 writes ,southey1 has been
 greatly overrated1  and it is taking   
the language of self-accusation too     
literally to  pronounce of ,john ,bunyan
 that he was at any time depraved4  ,the
 justice  of this verdict of acquittal  
is fully accepted by ,coleridge4        
,bunyan1  he says1 was never in our     
received sense of the word 'wicked4'    
,he was  chaste1 sober1 and honest4  ,he
 hints at youthful escapades1 such1     

perhaps1 as orchard-robbing1 or when a  
little older1 poaching1 and the  like1  
which might have brought him under the  
stroke of the laws1 and  put him to open
 shame before the face of the world4    
,but he confesses  to no crime or       
profligate habit4  ,we have no reason to
 suppose that he  was ever drunk1 and we
 have his own most solemn declaration   
that he was  never guilty of an act of  
unchastity4  ,in our days1 to quote ,mr4
  ,froude1 a rough tinker who could say 
as much for himself after he had  grown 
to manhood1 would be regarded as a model
 of self-restraint4  ,if in  ,bedford   
and the neighbourhood there was no young
 man more vicious than  ,bunyan1 the    
moral standard of an ,english town in   
the seventeenth century  must have been 
higher than believers in progress will  
be pleased to  allow4  ,how then1 it may
 be asked1 are we to explain the        
passionate  language in which he        
expresses his self-abhorrence1 which    
would hardly  seem exaggerated in the   

mouth of the most profligate and        
licentious8  ,we  are confident that    
,bunyan meant what he said4  ,so        
intensely honest a  nature could not    
allow his words to go beyond his        
convictions4  ,when he  speaks of       
letting loose the reins to his lusts1   
and sinning with the  greatest delight  
and ease1 we know that however          
exaggerated they may  appear to us1 his 
expressions did not seem to him         
overstrained4  ,dr4  ,johnson marvelled 
that ,st4 ,paul could call himself the  
chief of  sinners1 and expressed a doubt
 whether he did so honestly4  ,but a    
highly-  strung spiritual nature like   
that of the apostle1 when suddenly      
called  into exercise after a period of 
carelessness1 takes a very different    
estimate of sin from that of the world1 
even the decent moral world1 in         
general4  ,it realizes its own offences1
 venial as they appear to others1  as   
sins against infinite love--a love unto 
death--and in the light of the          

sacrifice on ,calvary1 recognizes the   
heinousness of its guilt1 and while  it 
doubts not1 marvels that it can be      
pardoned4  ,the sinfulness of  sin--more
 especially their own sin--is the       
intensest of all possible  realities to 
them4  ,no language is too strong to    
describe it4  ,we may not  unreasonably 
ask whether this estimate1 however      
exaggerated it may appear  to those who 
are strangers to these spiritual        
experiences1 is altogether  a mistaken  
one8    ,the spiritual instinct was very
 early awakened in ,bunyan4  ,while     
still a  child but nine or ten years    
old1 he tells us he was racked with     
convictions of sin1 and haunted with    
religious fears4  ,he was scared with   
fearful dreams1 and dreadful visions1   
and haunted in his sleep with           
apprehensions of devils and wicked      
spirits coming to carry him away1  which
 made his bed a place of terrors4  ,the 
thought of the ,day of  ,judgment and of
 the torments of the lost1 often came as

 a dark cloud over  his mind in the     
midst of his boyish sports1 and made him
 tremble4  ,but  though these fevered   
visions embittered his enjoyment while  
they lasted1  they were but transient1  
and after a while they entirely ceased  
as if  they had never been1 and he gave 
himself up without restraint to the     
youthful pleasures in which his ardent  
nature made him ever the  ringleader4   
,the thoughts of religion became very   
grievous to him4  ,he  could not endure 
even to see others read pious books2 it 
would be as a  prison to me4  ,the awful
 realities of eternity which had once   
been so  crushing to his spirit were    
both out of sight and mind4  ,he said to
  ,god1 depart from me4  ,according to  
the later morbid estimate which         
stigmatized as sinful what were little  
more than the wild acts of a  roystering
 dare-devil young fellow1 full of animal
 spirits and with an  unusually active  
imagination1 he could sin with the      
greatest delight and  ease1 and take    

pleasure in the vileness of his         
companions4  ,but that the  sense of    
religion was not wholly dead in him even
 then1 and that while  discarding its   
restraints he had an inward reverence   
for it1 is shown by  the horror he      
experienced if those who had a          
reputation for godliness  dishonoured   
their profession4  ,once1 he says1 when 
,i was at the height  of my vanity1     
hearing one to swear who was reckoned   
for a religious man1  it had so great a 
stroke upon my spirit that it made my   
heart to ache4    ,this undercurrent of 
religious feeling was deepened by       
providential  escapes from accidents    
which threatened his life--judgments    
mixed with  mercy he terms them1--which 
made him feel that he was not utterly   
forsaken of ,god4  ,twice he narrowly   
escaped drowning2 once in ,bedford      
river--the ,ouse2 once in a creek of the
 sea1 his tinkering rounds  having1     
perhaps1 carried him as far northward as
 the tidal inlets of the  ,wash in the  

neighbourhood of ,spalding or ,lynn1 or 
to the estuaries of the  ,stour and     
,orwell to the east4  ,at another time1 
in his wild contempt of  danger1 he tore
 out1 while his companions looked on    
with admiration1 what  he mistakenly    
supposed to be an adder's sting4        
,these providential deliverances bring  
us to that incident in his brief  career
 as a soldier which his anonymous       
biographer tells us made so deep  an    
impression upon him that he would never 
mention it1 which he often  did1 without
 thanksgiving to ,god4  ,but for this   
occurrence1 indeed1 we  should have     
probably never known that he had ever   
served in the army at  all4  ,the story 
is best told in his own provokingly     
brief words--,when ,i  was a soldier ,i 
with others were drawn out to go to such
 a place to  besiege it4  ,but when ,i  
was just ready to go1 one of the company
 desired  to go in my room2 to which    
when ,i consented1 he took my place1 and
 coming  to the siege1 as he stood      

sentinel1 he was shot in the head with a
 musket  bullet and died4  ,here1 as is 
so often the case in ,bunyan's          
autobiography1 we have reason to lament 
the complete absence of details4  ,this 
is characteristic of the man4  ,the     
religious import of the  occurrences he 
records constituted their only value in 
his eyes2 their  temporal setting1 which
 imparts their chief interest to us1 was
 of no  account to him4  ,he gives us   
not the slightest clue to the name of   
the  besieged place1 or even to the side
 on which he was engaged4  ,the date of 
the event is left equally vague4  ,the  
last point however we are able to       
determine with something like accuracy4 
,november1 #afdd1 was the earliest      
period at which ,bunyan could have      
entered the army1 for it was not till   
then that he reached the regulation age 
of sixteen4  ,domestic  circumstances   
had then recently occurred which may    
have tended to  estrange him from his   
home1 and turn his thoughts to a        

military life4  ,in  the previous ,june 
his mother had died1 her death being    
followed within a  month by that of his 
sister ,margaret4  ,before another month
 was out1 his  father1 as we have       
already said1 had married again1 and    
whether the new  wife had proved the    
proverbial injusta noverca or not1 his  
home must  have been sufficiently       
altered by the double1 if we may not say
 triple1  calamity1 to account for his  
leaving the dull monotony of his native 
village for the more stirring career of 
a soldier4  ,which of the two  causes   
then distracting the nation claimed his 
adherence1 ,royalist or                 
,parliamentarian1 can never be          
determined4  ,as ,mr4 ,froude writes1   
,he does  not tell us himself4  ,his    
friends in after life did not care to   
ask him  or he to inform them1 or else  
they thought the matter of too small    
importance to be worth mentioning with  
exactness4  ,the only evidence is       
internal1 and the deductions from it    

vary with the estimate of the           
counter-balancing probabilities taken by
 ,bunyan's various biographers4  ,lord  
,macaulay1 whose conclusion is ably1    
and1 we think1 convincingly  supported  
by ,dr4 ,brown1 decides in favour of the
 side of the ,parliament4  ,mr4 ,froude1
 on the other hand1 together with the   
painstaking ,mr4 ,offor1  holds that    
probability is on the side of his having
 been with the  ,royalists4             
,bedfordshire1 however1 was one of the  
,associated ,counties  from which the   
,parliamentary army drew its main       
strength1 and it was shut  in by a      
strong line of defence from any         
combination with the ,royalist  army4   
,in #afdc the county had received an    
order requiring it to furnish  able and 
armed men to the garrison at ,newport   
,pagnel1 which was then  the base of    
operations against the ,king in that    
part of ,england4  ,all  probability    
therefore points to ,john ,bunyan1 the  
lusty young tinker of  ,elstow1 the     

leader in all manly sports and          
adventurous enterprises among  his      
mates1 and probably caring very little  
on what side he fought1 having  been    
drafted to ,newport to serve under ,sir 
,samuel ,luke1 of ,cople1 and  other    
,parliamentary commanders4  ,the place  
of the siege he refers to is  equally   
undeterminable4  ,a tradition current   
within a few years of  ,bunyan's death1 
which ,lord ,macaulay rather rashly     
invests with the  certainty of fact1    
names ,leicester4  ,the only direct     
evidence for this is  the statement of  
an anonymous biographer1 who professes  
to have been a  personal friend of      
,bunyan's1 that he was present at the   
siege of  ,leicester1 in #afde1 as a    
soldier in the ,parliamentary army4     
,this  statement1 however1 is in direct 
defiance of ,bunyan's own words4  ,for  
the  one thing certain in the matter is 
that wherever the siege may have been1  
,bunyan was not at it4  ,he tells us    
plainly that he was drawn to go1 and    

that when he was just starting1 he gave 
up his place to a comrade who  went in  
his room1 and was shot through the head4
  ,bunyan's presence at  the siege of   
,leicester1 which has been so often     
reported that it has  almost been       
regarded as an historical truth1 must   
therefore take its  place among the     
baseless creations of a fertile fancy4  
,bunyan's military career1 wherever     
passed and under whatever standard1  was
 very short4  ,the civil war was drawing
 near the end of its first  stage when  
he enlisted4  ,he had only been a       
soldier a few months when the  battle of
 ,naseby1 fatal to the royal cause1 was 
fought1 ,june #ad1 #afde4  ,bristol was 
surrendered by ,prince ,rupert1 ,sept4  
#ajth4  ,three days later  ,montrose was
 totally defeated at ,philiphaugh2 and  
after a vain attempt to  relieve        
,chester1 ,charles shut himself up in   
,oxford4  ,the royal garrisons  yielded 
in quick succession2 in #afdf the armies
 on both sides were  disbanded1 and the 

first act in the great national tragedy 
having come to  a close1 ,bunyan        
returned to ,elstow1 and resumed his    
tinker's work at the  paternal forge4   
,his father1 old ,thomas ,bunyan1 it may
 here be mentioned1  lived all through  
his famous son's twelve years'          
imprisonment1 witnessed  his growing    
celebrity as a preacher and a writer1   
and died in the early  part of #afgf1   
just when ,john ,bunyan was passing     
through his last brief  period of       
durance1 which was to give birth to the 
work which has made him  immortal4      
,,chapter ,,ii4      ,it cannot have    
been more than two or three years after 
,bunyan's return  home from his short   
experience of a soldier's life1 that he 
took the step  which1 more than any     
other1 influences a man's future career 
for good or  for evil4  ,the young      
tinker married4  ,with his              
characteristic disregard  of all facts  
or dates but such as concern his        
spiritual history1 ,bunyan  tells us    

nothing about the orphan girl he made   
his wife4  ,where he found  her1 who her
 parents were1 where they were married1 
even her christian  name1 were all      
deemed so many irrelevant details4      
,indeed the fact of his  marriage would 
probably have been passed over          
altogether but for the  important       
bearing it hid on his inner life4  ,his 
mercy1 as he calls it1  was to light    
upon a wife whose father was counted    
godly1 and who1  though she brought him 
no marriage portion1 so that they came  
together  as poor as poor might be1 as  
poor as howlets1 to adopt his own       
simile1  without so much household stuff
 as a dish or a spoon betwixt them1 yet 
brought with her to the ,elstow cottage 
two religious books1 which had  belonged
 to her father1 and which he had left   
her when he died4  ,these  books were   
,the ,plain ,man's ,pathway to ,heaven1 
the work of ,arthur ,dent1  the puritan 
incumbent of ,shoebury1 in              
,essex--wearisomely heavy and           

theologically narrow1 writes ,dr4       
,brown--and ,the ,practise of ,piety1 by
  ,dr4 ,lewis ,bayley1 ,bishop of       
,bangor1 and previously chaplain to     
,prince  ,henry1 which enjoyed a wide   
reputation with puritans as well as with
  churchmen4  ,together with these      
books1 the young wife brought the still 
more powerful influence of a religious  
training1 and the memory of a holy      
example1 often telling her young        
graceless husband what a godly man her  
father was1 and how he would reprove and
 correct vice both in his house  and    
amongst his neighbours1 and what a      
strict and holy life he lived in  his   
days both in word and deed4  ,much as   
,bunyan tells us he had lost of  the    
little he had learnt at school1 he had  
not lost it utterly4  ,he  was still    
able to read intelligently4  ,his wife's
 gentle influence  prevailed on him to  
begin sometimes to read her father's    
legacy with  her4  ,this must have been 
entirely new reading for ,bunyan1 and   

certainly  at first not much to his     
taste4  ,what his favourite reading had 
been up  to this time1 his own nervous  
words tell us1 ,give me a ballad1 a     
news-  book1 ,george on ,horseback1 or  
,bevis of ,southampton2 give me some    
book  that teaches curious arts1 that   
tells of old fables4  ,but as he and his
  young wife read these books together  
at their fireside1 a higher taste  was  
gradually awakened in ,bunyan's mind2   
some things in them he found  somewhat  
pleasing to him1 and they begot within  
him some desires to  religion1 producing
 a degree of outward reformation4  ,the 
spiritual  instinct was aroused4  ,he   
would be a godly man like his wife's    
father4  ,he  began to go to church     
twice a day1 and that too with the      
foremost4  ,nor  was it a mere formal   
attendance1 for when there he tells us  
he took his  part with all outward      
devotion in the service1 both singing   
and saying  as others did2 yet1 as he   
penitently confesses1 retaining his     

wicked  life1 the wickedness of which1  
however1 did not amount to more than a  
liking for the sports and games of the  
lads of the village1 bell-ringing1      
dancing1 and the like4  ,the prohibition
 of all liturgical forms issued in      
#afde1 the observance of which varied   
with the strictness or laxity of the    
local authorities1 would not seem to    
have been put in force very rigidly  at 
,elstow4  ,the vicar1 ,christopher      
,hall1 was an ,episcopalian1 who1 like  
,bishop ,sanderson1 retained his        
benefice unchallenged all through the   
,protectorate1 and held it some years   
after the ,restoration and the  passing 
of the ,act of ,uniformity4  ,he seems1 
like ,sanderson1 to have kept  himself  
within the letter of the law by making  
trifling variations in the  ,prayer     
,book formularies1 consistent with a    
general conformity to the old  order of 
the ,church1 without persisting to his  
own destruction in the  usage of the    
entire liturgy4  ,the decent dignity of 

the ceremonial of  his parish church had
 a powerful effect on ,bunyan's freshly 
awakened  religious susceptibility--a   
spirit of superstition he called it     
afterwards--and helped to its fuller    
development4  ,i adored1 he says1  with 
great devotion1 even all things1 both   
the ,high ,place--altars then  had not  
been entirely broken down and levelled  
in ,bedfordshire--,priest1  ,clerk1     
,vestment1 ,service1 and what else      
belonging to the church1 counting  all  
things holy that were therein contained1
 and especially the ,priest  and ,clerk 
most happy1 and without doubt greatly   
blessed because they were  the servants 
of ,god and were principal in the ,holy 
,temple1 to do ,his work  therein1 4 4 4
 their name1 their garb1 and work1 did  
so intoxicate and  bewitch me4  ,if it  
is questionable whether the ,act        
forbidding the use of  the ,book of     
,common ,prayer was strictly observed at
 ,elstow1 it is certain  that the       
prohibition of ,sunday sports was not4  

,bunyan's narrative shows  that the     
aspect of a village green in            
,bedfordshire during the  ,protectorate 
did not differ much from what ,baxter   
tells us it had been in  ,shropshire    
before the civil troubles began1 where1 
after the ,common  ,prayer had been read
 briefly1 the rest of the day even till 
dark night  almost1 except eating time1 
was spent in dancing under a maypole and
 a  great tree1 when all the town did   
meet together4  ,these ,sunday sports   
proved the battle-ground of ,bunyan's   
spiritual experience1 the scene of  the 
fierce inward struggles which he has    
described so vividly1 through  which he 
ultimately reached the firm ground of   
solid peace and hope4  ,as  a           
high-spirited healthy athletic young    
fellow1 all kinds of manly sports  were 
,bunyan's delight4  ,on week days his   
tinker's business1 which he  evidently  
pursued industriously1 left him small   
leisure for such  amusements4  ,sunday  
therefore was the day on which he did   

especially  solace himself with them4   
,he had yet to learn the identification 
of  diversions with all manner of vice4 
,the teaching came in this way4  ,one   
,sunday1 ,vicar ,hall preached a sermon 
on the sin of ,sabbath-breaking1 and    
like many hearers before and since1 he  
imagined that it was aimed  expressly at
 him4  ,sermon ended1 he went home with 
a great burden upon  his spirit1        
sermon-stricken and sermon sick as he   
expresses it  elsewhere4  ,but his      
,sunday's dinner speedily drove away his
  self-condemning thoughts4  ,he shook  
the sermon out of his mind1 and  went   
out to his sports with the ,elstow lads 
on the village green1 with as  great    
delight as ever4  ,but in the midst of  
his game of tip-cat or  sly1 just as he 
had struck the cat from its hole1 and   
was going to  give it a second blow--the
 minuteness of the detail shows the     
unforgetable reality of the crisis--he  
seemed to hear a voice from heaven      
asking him whether he would leave his   

sins and go to heaven1 or keep his  sins
 and go to hell4  ,he thought also that 
he saw ,jesus ,christ looking  down on  
him with threatening countenance4  ,but 
like his own ,hopeful he  shut his eyes 
against the light1 and silenced the     
condemning voice with  the feeling that 
repentance was hopeless4  ,it was too   
late for him to  look after heaven2 he  
was past pardon4  ,if his condemnation  
was already  sealed and he was eternally
 lost1 it would not matter whether he   
was  condemned for many sins or for few4
  ,heaven was gone already4  ,the only  
happiness he could look for was what he 
could get out of his sins--his  morbidly
 sensitive conscience perversely        
identifying sports with sin--so  he     
returned desperately to his games1      
resolved1 he says1 to take my fill  of  
sin1 still studying what sin was yet to 
be committed that ,i might  taste the   
sweetness of it4    ,this desperate     
recklessness lasted with him about a    
month or more1 till  one day as he was  

standing at a neighbour's shop-window1  
cursing and  swearing and playing the   
madman after his wonted manner1 the     
woman of the  house1 though a very loose
 and ungodly wretch1 rebuked him so     
severely  as the ungodliest fellow for  
swearing that ever she heard1 able to   
spoil  all the youth in a whole town1   
that1 self-convicted1 he hung down his  
head in silent shame1 wishing himself a 
little child again that he might        
unlearn the wicked habit of which he    
thought it impossible to break  himself4
  ,hopeless as the effort seemed to him1
 it proved effectual4  ,he  did leave   
off his swearing to his own great       
wonder1 and found that he  could speak  
better and with more pleasantness than  
when he put an oath  before and another 
behind1 to give his words authority4    
,thus was one  step in his reformation  
taken1 and never retraced2 but1 he adds 
sorrowfully1 all this while ,i knew not 
,jesus ,christ1 neither did ,i leave  my
 sports and plays4  ,we might be        

inclined to ask1 why should he leave    
them8  ,but indifferent and innocent in 
themselves1 an overstrained             
spirituality had taught him to regard   
them as sinful4  ,to indulge in them    
wounded his morbidly sensitive          
conscience1 and so they were sin to him4
    ,the next step onward in this       
religious progress was the study of the 
,bible1 to which he was led by the      
conversation of a poor godly neighbour4 
,naturally he first betook himself to   
the historical books1 which1 he  tells  
us1 he read with great pleasure2 but1   
like ,baxter who1 beginning  his ,bible 
reading in the same course1 writes1 ,i  
neither understood nor  relished much   
the doctrinal part1 he frankly          
confesses1 ,paul's ,epistles  and such  
like ,scriptures ,i could not away with4
  ,his ,bible reading  helped forward   
the outward reformation he had begun4   
,he set the keeping  the ,ten           
,commandments before him as his way to  
,heaven2 much comforted  sometimes when1

 as he thought1 he kept them pretty     
well1 but humbled  in conscience when   
now and then he broke one4  ,but then1  
he says1 ,i  should repent and say ,i   
was sorry for it1 and promise ,god to do
 better  next time1 and then get help   
again2 for then ,i thought ,i pleased   
,god as  well as any man in ,england4   
,his progress was slow1 for each step   
involved a battle1 but it was steadily  
onwards4  ,he had a very hard  struggle 
in relinquishing his favourite          
amusements4  ,but though he had  much   
yet to learn1 his feet were set on the  
upward way1 and he had no  mind to go   
back1 great as the temptation often was4
  ,he had once  delighted in            
bell-ringing1 but his conscience        
beginning to be  tender--morbid we      
should rather say--he thought such      
practise to be  vain1 and therefore     
forced himself to leave it4  ,but       
hankering after it  still1 he continued 
to go while his old companions rang1 and
 look on at  what he durst not join in1 

until the fear that if he thus winked at
  what his conscience condemned1 a bell1
 or even the tower itself1 might  fall  
and kill him1 put a stop even to that   
compromise4  ,dancing1 which  from his  
boyhood he had practised on the village 
green1 or in the old  ,moot ,hall1 was  
still harder to give up4  ,it was a full
 year before ,i  could quite leave that4
  ,but this too was at last renounced1  
and  finally4  ,the power of ,bunyan's  
indomitable will was bracing itself for 
severe trials yet to come4    ,meanwhile
 ,bunyan's neighbours regarded with     
amazement the changed life of  the      
profane young tinker4  ,and truly1 he   
honestly confesses1 so they  well might 
for this my conversion was as great as  
for ,tom of ,bedlam to  become a sober  
man4  ,bunyan's reformation was soon the
 town's talk2 he  had become godly1     
become a right honest man4  ,these      
commendations  flattered is vanity1 and 
he laid himself out for them4  ,he was  
then but a  poor painted hypocrite1 he  

says1 proud of his godliness1 and doing 
all  he did either to be seen of1 or    
well spoken of by man4  ,this state of  
self-satisfaction1 he tells us1 lasted  
for about a twelvemonth or more4        
,during this deceitful calm he says1 ,i 
had great peace of conscience1 and      
should think with myself1 ',god cannot  
choose but now be pleased with me1'     
yea1 to relate it in mine own way1 ,i   
thought no man in ,england could  please
 ,god better than ,i4  ,but no outward  
reformation can bring lasting  inward   
peace4  ,when a man is honest with      
himself1 the more earnestly he          
struggles after complete obedience1 the 
more faulty does his obedience  appear4 
,the good opinion of others will not    
silence his own inward  condemnation4   
,he needs a higher righteousness than   
his own2 a firmer  standing-ground than 
the shifting quicksand of his own good  
deeds4  ,all  this while1 he writes1    
poor wretch as ,i was1 ,i was ignorant  
of ,jesus  ,christ1 and going about to  

establish my own righteousness1 and had 
perished therein had not ,god in mercy  
showed me more of my state by  nature4  
,this revolution was nearer than he     
imagined4  ,bunyan's self-satisfaction  
was rudely shaken1 and his need of      
something deeper in the way of  religion
 than he had yet experienced was shown  
him by the conversation of  three or    
four poor women whom1 one day1 when     
pursuing his tinker's  calling at       
,bedford1 he came upon sitting at a door
 in the sun1 and  talking of the things 
of ,god4  ,these women were members of  
the  congregation of the holy ,mr4 ,john
 ,gifford1 who1 at that time of         
ecclesiastical confusion1 subsequently  
became rector of ,st4 ,john's  ,church1 
in ,bedford1 and master of the hospital 
attached to it4  ,gifford's  career had 
been a strange one4  ,we hear of him    
first as a young major in  the king's   
army at the outset of the ,civil ,war1  
notorious for his loose  and debauched  
life1 taken by ,fairfax at ,maidstone in

 #afdh1 and condemned  to the gallows4  
,by his sister's help he eluded his     
keepers' vigilance1  escaped from       
prison1 and ultimately found his way to 
,bedford1 where for a  time he practised
 as a physician1 though without any     
change of his loose  habits4  ,the loss 
of a large sum of money at gaming awoke 
a disgust at  his dissolute life4  ,a   
few sentences of a pious book deepened  
the  impression4  ,he became a converted
 man1 and joined himself to a handful   
of earnest ,christians in ,bedford1 who 
becoming1 in the language of the  day1 a
 church1 he was appointed its first     
minister4  ,gifford exercised  a deep   
and vital though narrow influence1      
leaving behind him at his  death1 in    
#afee1 the character of a wise1         
tolerant1 and truly ,christian  man4    
,the conversation of the poor women who 
were destined to exercise  so momentous 
an influence on ,bunyan's spiritual     
life1 evidenced how  thoroughly they had
 drunk in their pastor's teaching4      

,bunyan himself was  at this time a     
brisk talker in the matters of religion1
 such as he drew  from the life in his  
own ,talkative4  ,but the words of these
 poor women  were entirely beyond him4  
,they opened a new and blessed land to  
which he  was a complete stranger4      
,they spoke of their own wretchedness of
 heart1  of their unbelief1 of their    
miserable state by nature1 of the new   
birth1  and the work of ,god in their   
souls1 and how the ,lord refreshed them1
 and  supported them against the        
temptations of the ,devil by ,his words 
and  promises4  ,but what seems to have 
struck ,bunyan the most forcibly was    
the happiness which their religion shed 
in the hearts of these poor  women4     
,religion up to this time had been to   
him a system of rules and  restrictions4
  ,heaven was to be won by doing certain
 things and not doing  certain other    
things4  ,of religion as a ,divine life 
kindled in the soul1  and flooding it   
with a joy which creates a heaven on    

earth1 he had no  conception4  ,joy in  
believing was a new thing to him4  ,they
 spake as if  joy did make them speak2  
they spake with such pleasantness of    
,scripture  language1 and with such     
appearance of grace in all they said1   
that they  were to me as if they had    
found a new world1 a veritable ,el      
,dorado1  stored with the true riches4  
,bunyan1 as he says1 after he had       
listened  awhile and wondered at their  
words1 left them and went about his work
  again4  ,but their words went with    
him4  ,he could not get rid of them4    
,he  saw that though he thought himself 
a godly man1 and his neighbours  thought
 so too1 he wanted the true tokens of   
godliness4  ,he was convinced  that     
godliness was the only true happiness1  
and he could not rest till he  had      
attained it4  ,so he made it his        
business to be going again and again    
into the company of these good women4   
,he could not stay away1 and the  more  
he talked with them the more uneasy he  

became--the more ,i  questioned my own  
condition4  ,the salvation of his soul  
became all in  all to him4  ,his mind   
lay fixed on eternity like a horse-leech
 at the  vein4  ,the ,bible became      
precious to him4  ,he read it with new  
eyes1 as  ,i never did before4  ,i was  
indeed then never out of the ,bible1    
either  by reading or meditation4  ,the 
,epistles of ,st4 ,paul1 which before he
  could not away with1 were now sweet   
and pleasant to him4  ,he was  still    
crying out to ,god that he might know   
the truth and the way to  ,heaven and   
glory4  ,having no one to guide him in  
his study of the most  difficult of all 
books1 it is no wonder that he          
misinterpreted and  misapplied its words
 in a manner which went far to unsettle 
his brain4  ,he  read that without faith
 he could not be saved1 and though he   
did not  clearly know what faith was1 it
 became a question of supreme anxiety to
  him to determine whether he had it or 
not4  ,if not1 he was a castaway        

indeed1 doomed to perish for ever4  ,so 
he determined to put it to the  test4   
,the ,bible told him that faith1 even as
 a grain of mustard seed1  would enable 
its possessor to work miracles4  ,so1 as
 ,mr4 ,froude says1  not understanding  
,oriental metaphors1 he thought he had  
here a simple  test which would at once 
solve the question4  ,one day as he was 
walking  along the miry road between    
,elstow and ,bedford1 which he had so   
often  paced as a schoolboy1 the        
temptation came hot upon him to put the 
matter to the proof1 by saying to the   
puddles that were in the horse-pads  be 
dry1 and to the dry places1 be ye       
puddles4  ,he was just about to  utter  
the words when a sudden thought stopped 
him4  ,would it not be  better just to  
go under the hedge and pray that ,god   
would enable him8  ,this pause saved him
 from a rash venture1 which might have  
landed him in  despair4  ,for he        
concluded that if he tried after praying
 and nothing  came of it1 it would prove

 that he had no faith1 but was a        
castaway4  ,nay1 thought ,i1 if it be   
so1 ,i will never try yet1 but will stay
 a  little longer4  ,then1 he continues1
 ,i was so tossed betwixt the ,devil    
and my own ignorance1 and so perplexed1 
especially at sometimes1 that ,i  could 
not tell what to do4  ,at another time  
his mind1 as the minds of  thousands    
have been and will be to the end1 was   
greatly harassed by the  insoluble      
problems of predestination and election4
  ,the question was not  now whether he 
had faith1 but whether he was one of the
 elect or not1  and if not1 what then8  
,he might as well leave off and strive  
no  further4  ,and then the strange     
fancy occurred to him1 that the good    
people at ,bedford whose acquaintance he
 had recently made1 were all that  ,god 
meant to save in that part of the       
country1 and that the day of grace  was 
past and gone for him2 that he had      
overstood the time of mercy4  ,oh  that 
he had turned sooner6 was then his cry4 

,oh that he had turned  seven years     
before6  ,what a fool he had been to    
trifle away his time till  his soul and 
heaven were lost6  ,the text1 compel    
them to come in1 and  yet there is room1
 came to his rescue when he was so      
harassed and faint  that he was scarce  
able to take one step more4  ,he found  
them sweet  words1 for they showed him  
that there was place enough in heaven   
for  him1 and he verily believed that   
when ,christ spoke them ,he was thinking
  of him1 and had them recorded to help 
him to overcome the vile fear that      
there was no place left for him in ,his 
bosom4  ,but soon another fear          
succeeded the former4  ,was he truly    
called of ,christ8  ,he called to them  
when ,he would1 and they came to ,him4  
,but they could not come unless ,he     
called them4  ,had ,he called him8      
,would ,he call him8  ,if ,he did how   
gladly would he run after ,him4  ,but   
oh1 he feared that ,he had no liking  to
 him2 that ,he would not call him4      

,true conversion was what he longed     
for4  ,could it have been gotten for    
gold1 he said1 what could ,i have  given
 for it6  ,had ,i a whole world1 it had 
all gone ten thousand times  over for   
this1 that my soul might have been in a 
converted state4  ,all  those whom he   
thought to be truly converted were now  
lovely in his eyes4  ,they shone1 they  
walked like people that carried the     
broad seal of  heaven about them4  ,oh  
that he were like them1 and shared in   
their goodly  heritage6    ,about this  
time ,bunyan was greatly troubled1      
though at the same time  encouraged in  
his endeavours after the blessedness he 
longed for so  earnestly but could not  
yet attain to1 by a dream or vision     
which  presented itself to him1 whether 
in his waking or sleeping hours he does 
not tell us4  ,he fancied he saw his    
four ,bedford friends refreshing        
themselves on the sunny side of a high  
mountain while he was shivering  with   
dark and cold on the other side1 parted 

from them by a high wall  with only one 
small gap in it1 and that not found but 
after long  searching1 and so strait and
 narrow withal that it needed long and  
desperate efforts to force his way      
through4  ,at last he succeeded4  ,then1
 he says1 ,i was exceeding glad1 and    
went and sat down in the  midst of them1
 and so was comforted with the light and
 heat of their  sun4    ,but this       
sunshine shone but in illusion1 and soon
 gave place to the old  sad questioning1
 which filled his soul with darkness4   
,was he already  called1 or should he be
 called some day8  ,he would give worlds
 to know4  ,who could assure him8  ,at  
last some words of the prophet ,joel    
7chap4 iii1  #ba7 encouraged him to hope
 that if not converted already1 the time
 might  come when he should be converted
 to ,christ4  ,despair began to give way
 to  hopefulness4    ,at this crisis    
,bunyan took the step which he would    
have been wise if he  had taken long    
before4  ,he sought the sympathy and    

counsel of others4  ,he  began to speak 
his mind to the poor people in ,bedford 
whose words of  religious experiences   
had first revealed to him his true      
condition4  ,by  them he was introduced 
to their pastor1 the godly ,mr4         
,gifford1 who  invited him to his house 
and gave him spiritual counsel4  ,he    
began to  attend the meetings of his    
disciples4    ,the teaching he received 
here was but ill-suited for one of      
,bunyan's  morbid sensitiveness4  ,for  
it was based upon a constant            
introspection and  a scrupulous weighing
 of each word and action1 with a        
torturing suspicion  of its motive1     
which made a man's ever-varying         
spiritual feelings the  standard of his 
state before ,god1 instead of leading   
him off from self to  the ,saviour4  ,it
 is not1 therefore1 at all surprising   
that a considerable  period intervened  
before1 in the language of his school1  
he found  peace4  ,this period1 which   
seems to have embraced two or three     

years1  was marked by that tremendous   
inward struggle which he has described1 
as  with a pen of fire1 in that         
marvellous piece of religious           
autobiography1  without a counterpart   
except in ,the ,confessions of ,st4     
,augustine1 his  ,grace ,abounding to   
the ,chief of ,sinners4  ,bunyan's first
 experiences  after his introduction to 
,mr4 ,gifford and the inner circle of   
his  disciples were most discouraging4  
,what he heard of ,god's dealings with  
their souls showed him something of the 
vanity and inward wretchedness  of his  
wicked heart1 and at the same time      
roused all its hostility to  ,god's     
will4  ,it did work at that rate for    
wickedness as it never did  before4     
,the ,canaanites would dwell in the     
land4  ,his heart  hankered after every 
foolish vanity1 and hung back both to   
and in every  duty1 as a clog on the leg
 of a bird to hinder her from flying4   
,he  thought that he was growing worse  
and worse1 and was further from         

conversion than ever before4  ,though he
 longed to let ,christ into his  heart1 
his unbelief would1 as it were1 set its 
shoulder to the door to  keep ,him out4 
,yet all the while he was tormented with
 the most perverse scrupulosity of      
conscience4  ,as to the act of sinning1 
,i never was more tender than now2  ,i  
durst not take a pin or a stick1 though 
but so big as a straw1 for my           
conscience now was sore1 and would smart
 at every twist4  ,i could not now  tell
 how to speak my words1 for fear ,i     
should misplace them4  ,oh6 how         
gingerly did ,i then go in all ,i did or
 said3 ,i found myself in a miry  bog1  
that shook if ,i did but stir1 and was  
as those left both of ,god1 and         
,christ1 and the ,spirit1 and all good  
things4  ,all the misdoings of his      
earlier years rose up against him4      
,there they were1 and he could not rid  
himself of them4  ,he thought that no   
one could be so bad as he was2 not  even
 the ,devil could be his equal3 he was  

more loathsome in his own eyes  than a  
toad4  ,what then must ,god think of    
him8  ,despair seized fast hold  of him4
  ,he thought he was forsaken of ,god   
and given up to the ,devil1  and to a   
reprobate mind4  ,nor was this a        
transient fit of despondency4  ,thus1 he
 writes1 ,i continued a long while1 even
 for some years  together4    ,this is  
not the place minutely to pursue        
,bunyan's religious history  through the
 sudden alternations of hopes and fears1
 the fierce  temptations1 the torturing 
illusions1 the strange perversions of   
isolated  scraps of ,bible              
language--texts torn from their         
context--the harassing  doubts as to the
 truth of ,christianity1 the depths of  
despair and the  elevations of joy1     
which he has portrayed with his own     
inimitable graphic  power4  ,it is a    
picture of fearful fascination that he  
draws4  ,a great  storm at one time     
comes down upon him1 piece by piece1    
which handled  him twenty times worse   

than all he had met with before1 while  
floods of  blasphemies were poured upon 
his spirit1 and would bolt out of his   
heart4  ,he felt himself driven to      
commit the unpardonable sin and         
blaspheme the ,holy ,ghost1 whether he  
would or no4  ,no sin would serve  but  
that4  ,he was ready to clap his hand   
under his chin1 to keep his  mouth shut1
 or to leap head-foremost into some     
muckhill-hole1 to  prevent his uttering 
the fatal words4  ,at last he persuaded 
himself that  he had committed the sin1 
and a good but not overwise man1 an     
ancient  ,christian1 whom he consulted  
on his sad case1 told him he thought so 
too1 which was but cold comfort4  ,he   
thought himself possessed by the  devil1
 and compared himself to a child carried
 off under her apron by a  gipsy4  ,kick
 sometimes ,i did1 and also shriek and  
cry1 but yet ,i was as  bound in the    
wings of the temptation1 and the wind   
would carry me away4  ,he wished himself
 a dog or a toad1 for they had no soul  

to be lost as  his was like to be2 and  
again a hopeless callousness seemed to  
settle  upon him4  ,if ,i would have    
given a thousand pounds for a tear ,i   
could  not shed one2 no1 nor sometimes  
scarce desire to shed one4  ,and yet he 
was all the while bewailing this        
hardness of heart1 in which he thought  
himself singular4  ,this much sunk me4  
,i thought my condition was alone2  but 
how to get out of1 or get rid of1 these 
things ,i could not4  ,again  the very  
ground of his faith was shaken4  ,was   
the ,bible true1 or was it  not rather a
 fable and cunning story8  ,all thought 
their own religion  true4  ,might not   
the ,turks have as good ,scriptures to  
prove their ,mahomet  ,saviour as       
,christians had for ,christ8  ,what if  
all we believed in should  be but 'a    
think-so' too8  ,so powerful and so real
 were his illusions  that he had hard   
work to keep himself from praying to    
things about him1  to a bush1 a bull1 a 
besom1 or the like1 or even to ,satan   

himself4  ,he  heard voices behind him  
crying out that ,satan desired to have  
him1 and  that so loud and plain that he
 would turn his head to see who was     
calling him2 when on his knees in prayer
 he fancied he felt the foul  fiend pull
 his clothes from behind1 bidding him   
break off1 make haste2  you have prayed 
enough4    ,this horror of great        
darkness was not always upon him4       
,bunyan had his  intervals of           
sunshine-weather when ,giant ,despair's 
fits came on him1  and the giant lost   
the use of his hand4  ,texts of         
,scripture would give  him a sweet      
glance1 and flood his soul with comfort4
  ,but these  intervals of happiness    
were but short-lived4  ,they were but   
hints1  touches1 and short visits1 sweet
 when present1 but like ,peter's sheet1 
suddenly caught up again into heaven4   
,but1 though transient1 they  helped the
 burdened ,pilgrim onward4  ,so vivid   
was the impression  sometimes made1 that
 years after he could specify the place 

where these  beams of sunlight fell on  
him--sitting in a neighbour's           
house1--travelling into the country1--as
 he was going home from  sermon4  ,and  
the joy was real while it lasted4  ,the 
words of the  preacher's text1 ,behold1 
thou art fair1 my love1 kindling his    
spirit1  he felt his heart filled with  
comfort and hope4  ,now ,i could believe
  that my sins would be forgiven4  ,he  
was almost beside himself with  ecstasy4
  ,i was now so taken with the love and 
mercy of ,god that ,i  thought ,i could 
have spoken of it even to the very crows
 that sat upon  the ploughed lands      
before me1 had they been capable to have
 understood  me4  ,surely1 he cried with
 gladness1 ,i will not forget this forty
  years hence4  ,but1 alas6 within less 
than forty days ,i began to  question   
all again4  ,it was the ,valley of the  
,shadow of ,death which  ,bunyan1 like  
his own ,pilgrim1 was travelling        
through4  ,but1 as in his  allegory1 by 
and by the day broke1 and the ,lord did 

more fully and  graciously discover     
,himself unto him4  ,one day1 he writes1
 as ,i was  musing on the wickedness and
 blasphemy of my heart1 that scripture  
came  into my mind1 ',he hath made peace
 by the ,blood of ,his ,cross4'  ,by    
which ,i  was made to see1 both again   
and again and again that day1 that ,god 
and my  soul were friends by this blood3
 ,yea1 ,i saw the justice of ,god and my
  sinful soul could embrace and kiss    
each other4  ,this was a good day to    
me4  ,i hope ,i shall not forget it4    
,at another time the glory and joy  of a
 passage in the ,hebrews 7ii4 #ad-ae7   
were so weighty that ,i was  once or    
twice ready to swoon as ,i sat1 not with
 grief and trouble1 but  with solid joy 
and peace4  ,but1 oh6 now how was my    
soul led on from  truth to truth by     
,god2 now had ,i evidence of my         
salvation from heaven1  with many golden
 seals thereon all banging in my sight1 
and ,i would long  that the last day    
were come1 or that ,i were fourscore    

years old1 that ,i  might die quickly   
that my soul might be at rest4    ,at   
this time he fell in with an old        
tattered copy of ,luther's ,commentary  
on the ,galatians1 so old that it was   
ready to fall piece from piece if  ,i   
did but turn it over4  ,as he read1 to  
his amazement and thankfulness1  he     
found his own spiritual experience      
described4  ,it was as if his book  had 
been written out of my heart4  ,it      
greatly comforted him to find that  his 
condition was not1 as he had thought1   
solitary1 but that others had  known the
 same inward struggles4  ,of all the    
books that ever he had  seen1 he deemed 
it most fit for a wounded conscience4   
,this book was  also the means of       
awakening an intense love for the       
,saviour4  ,now ,i  found1 as ,i        
thought1 that ,i loved ,christ dearly4  
,oh1 methought my soul  cleaved unto    
,him1 my affections cleaved unto ,him2  
,i felt love to ,him as  hot as fire4   
,and very quickly1 as he tells us1 his  

love was tried to some purpose4  ,he    
became the victim of an extraordinary   
temptation--a freak of fancy1  ,mr4     
,froude terms it--fancy resenting the   
minuteness with which he  watched his   
own emotions4  ,he had found ,christ and
 felt ,him most  precious to his soul4  
,he was now tempted to give ,him up1 to 
sell and  part with this most blessed   
,christ1 to exchange ,him for the things
 of  this life2 for anything4  ,nor was 
this a mere passing1 intermittent       
delusion4  ,it lay upon me for the space
 of a year1 and did follow me so        
continually that ,i was not rid of it   
one day in a month1 no1 not  sometimes  
one hour in many days together1 except  
when ,i was asleep4  ,wherever he was1  
whatever he was doing day and night1 in 
bed1 at table1  at work1 a voice kept   
sounding in his ears1 bidding him sell  
,christ for  this or that4  ,he could   
neither eat his food1 stoop for a pin1  
chop a  stick1 or cast his eyes on      
anything but the hateful words were     

heard1  not once only1 but a hundred    
times over1 as fast as a man could      
speak1  'sell ,him1 sell ,him1 sell     
,him1' and1 like his own ,christian in  
the dark  valley1 he could not determine
 whether they were suggestions of the   
,wicked ,one1 or came from his own      
heart4  ,the agony was so intense1      
while1  for hours together1 he struggled
 with the temptation1 that his whole    
body  was convulsed by it4  ,it was no  
metaphorical1 but an actual1 wrestling  
with a tangible enemy4  ,he pushed and  
thrust with his hands and elbows1  and  
kept still answering1 as fast as the    
destroyer said sell ,him1 ,no1  ,i will 
not1 ,i will not1 ,i will not6 not for  
thousands1 thousands1  thousands of     
worlds6 at least twenty times together4 
,but the fatal  moment at last came1 and
 the weakened will yielded1 against     
itself4  ,one  morning as he lay in his 
bed1 the voice came again with redoubled
 force1  and would not be silenced4  ,he
 fought against it as long as he could1 

even until ,i was almost out of breath1 
when without any conscious  action of   
his will the suicidal words shaped      
themselves in his heart1  ,let ,him go  
if ,he will4    ,now all was over4  ,he 
had spoken the words and they could not 
be  recalled4  ,satan had won the       
battle1 and as a bird that is shot from 
the top of a tree1 down fell he into    
great guilt and fearful despair4  ,he   
left his bed1 dressed1 and went moping  
into the field1 where for the  next two 
hours he was like a man bereft of life1 
and as one past all  recovery and bound 
to eternal punishment4  ,the most       
terrible examples in  the ,bible came   
trooping before him4  ,he had sold his  
birthright like  ,esau4  ,he a betrayed 
his ,master like ,judas--,i was ashamed 
that ,i should  be like such an ugly man
 as ,judas4  ,there was no longer any   
place for  repentance4  ,he was past all
 recovery2 shut up unto the judgment to 
come4  ,he dared hardly pray4  ,when he 
tried to do so1 he was as with a tempest

  driven away from ,god1 while something
 within said1 ',tis too late2 ,i am     
lost2 ,god hath let me fall4  ,the texts
 which once had comforted him gave  him 
no comfort now2 or1 if they did1 it was 
but for a brief space4  ,about  ten or  
eleven o'clock one day1 as ,i was       
walking under a hedge and  bemoaning    
myself for this hard hap that such a    
thought should arise  within me1        
suddenly this sentence bolted upon me1  
',the blood of ,christ  cleanseth from  
all sin1' and gave me good              
encouragement4  ,but in two  or three   
hours all was gone4  ,the terrible words
 concerning ,esau's  selling his        
birthright took possession of his mind1 
and held him down4  ,this stuck with    
him4  ,though he sought it carefully    
with tears1 there  was no restoration   
for him4  ,his agony received a terrible
 aggravation  from a highly coloured    
narrative of the terrible death of      
,francis ,spira1  an ,italian lawyer of 
the middle of the sixteenth century1    

who1 having  embraced the ,protestant   
religion1 was induced by worldly motives
 to  return to the ,roman ,catholic     
,church1 and died full of remorse and   
despair1 from which ,bunyan afterwards  
drew the awful picture of the man  in   
the ,iron ,cage at the ,interpreter's   
house4  ,the reading of this book  was  
to his troubled spirit as salt when     
rubbed into a fresh wound1  as knives   
and daggers in his soul4  ,we cannot    
wonder that his health  began to give   
way under so protracted a struggle4     
,his naturally sturdy  frame was shaken 
by a continual trembling4  ,he would    
wind and twine  and shrink under his    
burden1 the weight of which so crushed  
him that he  could neither stand1 nor   
go1 nor lie1 either at rest or quiet4   
,his  digestion became disordered1 and a
 pain1 as if his breastbone would have  
split asunder1 made him fear that as he 
had been guilty of ,judas' sin1  so he  
was to perish by ,judas' end1 and burst 
asunder in the midst4  ,in  the         

trembling of his limbs he saw ,cain's   
mark set upon him2 ,god had  marked him 
out for his curse4  ,no one was ever so 
bad as he4  ,no one had  ever sinned so 
flagrantly4  ,when he compared his sins 
with those of ,david  and ,solomon and  
,manasseh and others which had been     
pardoned1 he found his  sin so much     
exceeded theirs that he could have no   
hope of pardon4  ,theirs1  it was true1 
were great sins2 sins of a bloody       
colour4  ,but none of them  were of the 
nature of his4  ,he had sold his        
,saviour4  ,his sin was point  blank    
against ,christ4  ,oh1 methought this   
sin was bigger than the sins  of a      
country1 of a kingdom1 or of the whole  
world2 not all of them  together was    
able to equal mine2 mine outwent them   
every one4    ,it would be wearisome to 
follow ,bunyan through all the mazes of 
his self-  torturing illusions4  ,fierce
 as the storm was1 and long in its      
duration--for it was more than two years
 before the storm became a  calm--the   

waves1 though he knew it not1 in their  
fierce tossings which  threatened to    
drive his soul like a broken vessel     
headlong on the rocks  of despair1 were 
bearing him nearer and nearer to the    
haven where he  would be4  ,his vivid   
imagination1 as we have seen1 surrounded
 him with  audible voices4  ,he had     
heard1 as he thought1 the tempter       
bidding him  ,sell ,christ2 now he      
thought he heard ,god with a great      
voice1 as it  were1 over his shoulder   
behind him1 saying1 ,return unto ,me1   
for ,i have  redeemed thee2 and though  
he felt that the voice mocked him1 for  
he  could not return1 there was no place
 of repentance for him1 and fled  from  
it1 it still pursued him1 holloaing     
after him1 ',return1 return6'  ,and     
return he did1 but not all at once1 or  
without many a fresh struggle4  ,with   
his usual graphic power he describes the
 zigzag path by which he  made his way4 
,his hot and cold fits alternated with  
fearful suddenness4  ,as ,esau beat him 

down1 ,christ raised him up4  ,his life 
hung in doubt1  not knowing which way he
 should tip4  ,more sensible evidence   
came4  ,one  day1 he tells us1 as ,i    
walked to and fro in a good man's       
shop--we can  hardly be wrong in placing
 it in ,bedford--bemoaning myself for   
this hard  hap of mine1 for that ,i     
should commit so great a sin1 greatly   
fearing  that ,i should not be pardoned1
 and ready to sink with fear1 suddenly  
there was as if there had rushed in at  
the window the noise of wind upon  me1  
but very pleasant1 and ,i heard a voice 
speaking1 ',did'st ever refuse  to be   
justified by the ,blood of ,christ8'    
,whether the voice were  supernatural or
 not1 he was not1 in twenty years' time1
 able to  determine4  ,at the time he   
thought it was4  ,it was as if an angel 
had  come upon me4  ,it commanded a     
great calm upon me4  ,it persuaded me   
there might be hope4  ,but this         
persuasion soon vanished4  ,in three or 
four days ,i began to despair again4    

,he found it harder than ever to  pray4 
,the devil urged that ,god was weary of 
him2 had been weary for  years past2    
that he wanted to get rid of him and his
 bawlings in his  ears1 and therefore   
,he had let him commit this particular  
sin that he  might be cut off           
altogether4  ,for such an one to pray   
was but to add sin  to sin4  ,there was 
no hope for him4  ,christ might indeed  
pity him and  wish to help him2 but ,he 
could not1 for this sin was             
unpardonable4  ,he  had said let ,him go
 if ,he will1 and ,he had taken him at  
his word4  ,then1 he says1 ,i was always
 sinking whatever ,i did think or do4   
,years  afterwards he remembered how1 in
 this time of hopelessness1 having      
walked  one day1 to a neighbouring town1
 wearied out with his misery1 he sat    
down  on a settle in the street to      
ponder over his fearful state4  ,as he  
looked  up1 everything he saw seemed    
banded together for the destruction of  
so  vile a sinner4  ,the sun grudged him

 its light1 the very stones in the      
streets and the tiles on the house-roofs
 seemed to bend themselves  against him4
  ,he burst forth with a grievous sigh1 
,how can ,god comfort  such a wretch as 
,i8  ,comfort was nearer than he        
imagined4  ,no sooner  had ,i said it1  
but this returned to me1 as an echo doth
 answer a voice1  ',this sin is not unto
 death4'  ,this breathed fresh life into
 his soul4  ,he was as if he had been   
raised out of a grave4  ,it was a       
release to  me from my former bonds1 a  
shelter from my former storm4  ,but     
though the  storm was allayed it was by 
no means over4  ,he had to struggle hard
 to  maintain his ground4  ,oh1 how did 
,satan now lay about him for to bring   
me down again4  ,but he could by no     
means do it1 for this sentence stood    
like a millpost at my back4  ,but after 
two days the old despairing  thoughts   
returned1 nor could his faith retain the
 word4  ,a few hours1  however1 saw the 
return of his hopes4  ,as he was on his 

knees before  going to bed1 seeking the 
,lord with strong cries1 a voice echoed 
his  prayer1 ,i have loved ,thee with an
 everlasting love4  ,now ,i went to bed 
at quiet1 and when ,i awaked the next   
morning it was fresh upon my soul  and  
,i believed it4    ,these voices from   
heaven--whether real or not he could not
 tell1 nor did  he much care1 for they  
were real to him--were continually      
sounding in his  ears to help him out of
 the fresh crises of his spiritual      
disorder4  ,at  one time ,o man1 great  
is thy faith1 fastened on his heart as  
if one  had clapped him on the back4    
,at another1 ,he is able1 spoke suddenly
  and loudly within his heart2 at       
another1 that piece of a sentence1 ,my  
grace is sufficient1 darted in upon him 
three times together1 and he  was as    
though he had seen the ,lord ,jesus look
 down through the tiles  upon him1 and  
was sent mourning but rejoicing home4   
,but it was still  with him like an     
,april sky4  ,at one time bright        

sunshine1 at another  lowering clouds4  
,the terrible words about ,esau returned
 on him as  before1 and plunged him in  
darkness1 and then again some good      
words1 as  it seemed writ in great      
letters1 brought back the light of day4 
,but the  sunshine began to last longer 
than before1 and the clouds were less   
heavy4  ,the visage of the threatening  
texts was changed2 they looked  not on  
him so grimly as before2 that about     
,esau's birthright began to  wax weak   
and withdraw and vanish4  ,now remained 
only the hinder part of  the tempest4   
,the thunder was gone2 only a few drops 
fell on him now and  then4    ,the      
long-expected deliverance was at hand4  
,as he was walking in the  fields1 still
 with some fears in his heart1 the      
sentence fell upon his  soul1 ,thy      
righteousness is in heaven4  ,he looked 
up and saw with the  eyes of his soul   
our ,saviour at ,god's right hand4      
,there1 ,i say1 was my  righteousness2  
so that wherever ,i was1 or whatever ,i 

was a-doing1 ,god  could not say of me1 
',he wants my righteousness1' for that  
was just  before ,him4  ,now did the    
chains fall off from my legs4  ,i was   
loosed from  my affliction and irons4   
,my temptations also fled away1 so that 
from  that time those dreadful          
,scriptures left off to trouble me4  ,oh
 methought  ,christ1 ,christ1 there was 
nothing but ,christ that was before mine
 eyes4  ,i  could look from myself to   
,him1 and should reckon that all those  
graces of  ,god that now were green upon
 me1 were yet but like those            
crack-groats1  and fourpence-halfpennies
 that rich men carry in their purses1   
while  their gold is in their trunks at 
home4  ,oh1 ,i saw my gold was in my    
trunk  at home4  ,in ,christ my ,lord   
and ,saviour4  ,further the ,lord did   
lead me  into the mystery of union with 
the ,son of ,god4  ,his righteousness   
was  mine1 ,his merits mine1 ,his       
victory also mine4  ,now ,i could see   
myself in  heaven and earth at once2 in 

heaven by my ,christ1 by my ,head1 by my
  ,righteousness and ,life1 though on   
earth by my body or person4  ,these     
blessed considerations were made to     
spangle in mine eyes4  ,christ was my   
all2 all my ,wisdom1 all my             
,righteousness1 all my ,sanctification1 
and all  my ,redemption4                
,,chapter ,,iii4      ,the ,pilgrim1    
having now floundered through the       
,slough of ,despond1 passed  through the
 ,wicket ,gate1 climbed the ,hill       
,difficulty1 and got safe by the        
,lions1 entered the ,palace ,beautiful1 
and was had in to the family4  ,in      
plain words1 ,bunyan united himself to  
the little ,christian brotherhood at    
,bedford1 of which the former           
loose-living royalist major1 ,mr4       
,gifford1  was the pastor1 and was      
formally admitted into their society4   
,in ,gifford  we recognize the prototype
 of the ,evangelist of ,the ,pilgrim's  
,progress1  while the ,prudence1 ,piety1
 and ,charity of ,bunyan's immortal     

narrative had  their human              
representatives in devout female members
 of the congregation1  known in their   
little ,bedford world as ,sister        
,bosworth1 ,sister ,munnes1  and ,sister
 ,fenne1 three of the poor women whose  
pleasant words on the  things of ,god1  
as they sat at a doorway in the sun1 as 
if joy did make  them speak1 had first  
opened ,bunyan's eyes to his spiritual  
ignorance4  ,he was received into the   
church by baptism1 which1 according to  
his  earliest biographer1 ,charles ,doe 
the ,struggler1 was performed publicly  
by ,mr4 ,gifford1 in the river ,ouse1   
the ,bedford river into which ,bunyan   
tells us he once fell out of a boat1 and
 barely escaped drowning4  ,this  was   
about the year #afec4  ,the exact date  
is uncertain4  ,bunyan never  mentions  
his baptism himself1 and the church     
books of ,gifford's  congregation do not
 commence till ,may1 #afef1 the year    
after ,gifford's  death4  ,he was also  
admitted to the ,holy ,communion1 which 

for want1 as he  deemed1 of due         
reverence in his first approach to it1  
became the occasion  of a temporary     
revival of his old temptations4  ,while 
actually at the  ,lord's ,table he was  
forced to bend himself to pray to be    
kept from  uttering blasphemies against 
the ordinance itself1 and cursing his   
fellow  communicants4  ,for             
three-quarters of a year he could never 
have rest or  ease from this shocking   
perversity4  ,the constant strain of    
beating off  this persistent temptation 
seriously affected his health4  ,captain
  ,consumption1 who carried off his own 
,mr4 ,badman1 threatened his life4  ,but
 his naturally robust constitution      
routed his forces1 and brought  him     
through what at one time he anticipated 
would prove a fatal illness4  ,again and
 again1 during his period of            
indisposition1 the ,tempter took        
advantage of his bodily weakness to ply 
him with his former despairing          
questionings as to his spiritual state4 

,that seemed as bad as bad could  be4   
,live he must not2 die he dare not4  ,he
 was repeatedly near giving  up all for 
lost4  ,but a few words of ,scripture   
brought to his mind would  revive his   
drooping spirits1 with a natural        
reaction on his physical  health1 and he
 became well both in body and mind at   
once4  ,my sickness  did presently      
vanish1 and ,i walked comfortably in my 
work for ,god again4  ,at another time1 
after three or four days of deep        
dejection1 some words  from the ,epistle
 to the ,hebrews came bolting in upon   
him1 and sealed  his sense of acceptance
 with an assurance he never afterwards  
entirely  lost4  ,then with joy ,i told 
my wife1 ',now ,i know1 ,i know4'  ,that
 night  was a good night to me2 ,i never
 had but few better4  ,i could scarce   
lie  in my bed for joy and peace and    
triumph through ,christ4    ,during this
 time ,bunyan1 though a member of the   
,bedford congregation1  continued to    
reside at ,elstow1 in the little        

thatched wayside tenement1  with its    
lean-to forge at one end1 already       
mentioned1 which is still  pointed out  
as ,bunyan's ,cottage4  ,there his two  
children1 ,mary1 his  passionately loved
 blind daughter1 and ,elizabeth were    
born2 the one in  #afej1 and the other  
in #afed4  ,it was probably in the next 
year1 #afee1  that he finally quitted   
his native village and took up his      
residence in  ,bedford1 and became a    
deacon of the congregation4  ,about this
 time also  he must have lost the wife  
to whom he owed so much4  ,bunyan does  
not  mention the event1 and our only    
knowledge of it is from the conversation
  of his second wife1 ,elizabeth1 with  
,sir ,matthew ,hale4  ,he sustained also
  an even greater loss in the death of  
his friend and comrade1 ,mr4 ,gifford1  
who died in ,september1 #afee4  ,the    
latter was succeeded by a young man     
named ,john ,burton1 of very delicate   
health1 who was taken by death from  his
 congregation1 by whom he was much      

beloved1 in ,september1 #affj1 four     
months after the restoration of the     
,monarchy and the ,church4  ,burton     
thoroughly appreciated ,bunyan's gifts1 
and stood sponsor for him on the        
publication of his first printed work4  
,this was a momentous year for  ,bunyan1
 for in it ,dr4 ,brown has shown1 by a  
comparison of dates1 that  we may       
probably place the beginning of         
,bunyan's ministerial life4  ,bunyan    
was now in his twenty-seventh year1 in  
the prime of his manly vigour1  with a  
vivid imagination1 ready speech1 minute 
textual knowledge of the  ,bible1 and an
 experience of temptation and the wiles 
of the evil one1  such as few           
,christians of double his years have    
ever reached4  ,his gifts  could not    
long be hid4  ,the beginnings of that   
which was to prove the  great work of   
his life were slender enough4  ,as ,mr4 
,froude says1 he was  modest1 humble1   
shrinking4  ,the members of his         
congregation1 recognizing  that he had  

the gift of utterance asked him to speak
 a word of  exhortation to them4  ,the  
request scared him4  ,the most truly    
gifted are  usually the least conscious 
of their gifts4  ,at first it did much  
dash  and abash his spirit4  ,but after 
earnest entreaty he gave way1 and made  
one or two trials of his gift in private
 meetings1 though with much  weakness   
and infirmity4  ,the result proved the  
correctness of his  brethren's estimate4
  ,the young tinker showed himself no   
common preacher4  ,his words came home  
with power to the souls of his hearers1 
who  protested solemnly1 as in the sight
 of ,god1 that they were both affected  
and comforted by them1 and gave thanks  
to the ,father of mercies for the  grace
 bestowed on him4  ,after this1 as the  
brethren went out on their  itinerating 
rounds to the villages about1 they began
 to ask ,bunyan to  accompany them1 and 
though he durst not make use of his gift
 in an open  way1 he would sometimes1   
yet more privately still1 speak a word  

of  admonition1 with which his hearers  
professed their souls edified4  ,that   
he had a real ,divine call to the       
ministry became increasingly evident1   
both to himself and to others4  ,his    
engagements of this kind multiplied4    
,an entry in the ,church book records   
that ,brother ,bunyan being taken off   
by the preaching of the gospel from his 
duties as deacon1 another member  was   
appointed in his room4  ,his appointment
 to the ministry was not long  delayed4 
,after some solemn prayer with fasting1 
he was called forth  and appointed a    
preacher of the word1 not1 however1 so  
much for the  ,bedford congregation as  
for the neighbouring villages4  ,he did 
not  however1 like some1 neglect his    
business1 or forget to show piety at    
home4  ,he still continued his craft as 
a tinker1 and that with industry  and   
success4  ,god1 writes an early         
biographer1 had increased his  stores so
 that he lived in great credit among his
 neighbours4  ,he  speedily became      

famous as a preacher4  ,people came in  
by hundreds to  hear the word1 and that 
from all parts1 though upon sundry and  
divers  accounts1--some1 as ,southey    
writes1 to marvel1 and some perhaps to  
mock4  ,curiosity to hear the once      
profane tinker preach was not one of    
the least prevalent motives4  ,but his  
word proved a word of power to  many4   
,those who came to scoff remained to    
pray4  ,i had not preached  long1 he    
says1 before some began to be touched   
and to be greatly  afflicted in their   
minds4  ,his success humbled and amazed 
him1 as it  must every true man who     
compares the work with the worker4  ,at 
first1  he says1 ,i could not believe   
that ,god should speak by me to the     
heart of  any man1 still counting myself
 unworthy2 and though ,i did put it from
 me  that they should be awakened by me1
 still they would confess it and  affirm
 it before the saints of ,god4  ,they   
would also bless ,god for  me--unworthy 
wretch that ,i am--and count me ,god's  

instrument that showed  to them the way 
of salvation4  ,he preached wherever he 
found  opportunity1 in woods1 in barns1 
on village greens1 or even in churches4 
,but he liked best to preach in the     
darkest places of the country1 where    
people were the furthest off from       
profession1 where he could give the     
fullest scope to the awakening and      
converting power he possessed4  ,his    
success as a preacher might have tempted
 him to vanity4  ,but the  conviction   
that he was but an instrument in the    
hand of a higher power  kept it down4   
,he saw that if he had gifts and wanted 
grace he was but as  a tinkling cymbal4 
,what1 thought ,i1 shall ,i be proud    
because ,i am a  sounding brass8  ,is it
 so much to be a fiddle8  ,this thought 
was1 as it  were1 a maul on the head of 
the pride and vainglory which he found  
easily blown up at the applause and     
commendation of every unadvised         
christian4  ,his experiences1 like those
 of every public speaker1  especially   

the most eloquent1 were very varied1    
even in the course of the  same sermon4 
,sometimes1 he tells us1 he would begin 
with much  clearness1 evidence1 and     
liberty of speech1 but1 before he had   
done1 he  found himself so straitened in
 his speech before the people1 that he  
scarce knew or remembered what he had   
been about1 and felt as if his  head had
 been in a bag all the time of the      
exercise4  ,he feared that he  would not
 be able to speak sense to the hearers1 
or he would be seized  with such        
faintness and strengthlessness that his 
legs were hardly able  to carry him to  
his place of preaching4  ,old           
temptations too came back4  ,blasphemous
 thoughts formed themselves into words1 
which he had hard work  to keep himself 
from uttering from the pulpit4  ,or the 
tempter tried to  silence him by telling
 him that what he was going to say would
 condemn  himself1 and he would go full 
of guilt and terror even to the pulpit  
door4  ',what1' the devil would say1    

'will you preach this8  ,of this  your  
own soul is guilty4  ,preach not of it  
at all1 or if you do1 yet so  mince it  
as to make way for your own escape4'    
,all1 however1 was in  vain4  ,necessity
 was laid upon him4  ,woe1 he cried1 is 
me1 if ,i preach  not the gospel4  ,his 
heart was so wrapped up in the glory of 
this  excellent work1 that he counted   
himself more blessed and honoured of    
,god  than if he had made him emperor of
 the ,christian world4  ,bunyan was no  
preacher of vague generalities4  ,he    
knew that sermons miss their mark if    
they hit no one4  ,self-application is  
their object4  ,wherefore1 he  says1 ,i 
laboured so to speak the word1 as that  
the sin and person guilty  might be     
particularized by it4  ,and what he     
preached he knew and felt to  be true4  
,it was not what he read in books1 but  
what he had himself  experienced4  ,like
 ,dante he had been in hell himself1 and
 could speak as  one who knew its       
terrors1 and could tell also of the     

blessedness of  deliverance by the      
person and work of ,christ4  ,and this  
consciousness  gave him confidence and  
courage in declaring his message4  ,it  
was as if  an angel of ,god had stood at
 my back4  ,oh it hath been with such   
power  and heavenly evidence upon my own
 soul while ,i have been labouring to   
fasten it upon the conscience of others1
 that ,i could not be contented  with   
saying1 ',i believe and am sure4'       
,methought ,i was more than sure1 if  it
 be lawful so to express myself1 that   
the things ,i asserted were true4       
,bunyan1 like all earnest workers for   
,god1 had his disappointments which     
wrung his heart4  ,he could be satisfied
 with nothing less than the  conversion 
and sanctification of his hearers4  ,if 
,i were fruitless1 it  mattered not who 
commanded me2 but if ,i were fruitful1  
,i cared not who  did condemn4  ,and the
 result of a sermon was often very      
different from  what he anticipated3    
,when ,i thought ,i had done no good1   

then ,i did the  most2 and when ,i      
thought ,i should catch them1 ,i fished 
for nothing4  ,a  word cast in          
by-the-bye sometimes did more execution 
than all the ,sermon  besides4  ,the tie
 between him and his spiritual children 
was very close4  ,the backsliding of any
 of his converts caused him the most    
extreme grief2  it was more to me than  
if one of my own children were going to 
the  grave4  ,nothing hath gone so near 
me as that1 unless it was the fear of   
the loss of the salvation of my own     
soul4    ,a story1 often repeated1 but  
too characteristic to be omitted1       
illustrates the power of his preaching  
even in the early days of his  ministry4
  ,being to preach in a church in a     
country village in  ,cambridgeshire--it 
was before the ,restoration--and the    
public being  gathered together in the  
churchyard1 a ,cambridge scholar1 and   
none of the  soberest neither1 inquired 
what the meaning of that concourse of   
people  was 7it being a week-day72 and  

being told that one ,bunyan1 a tinker1  
was  to preach there1 he gave a lad     
twopence to hold his horse1 saying he   
was  resolved to hear the tinker prate2 
and so he went into the church to hear  
him4  ,but ,god met him there by ,his   
ministry1 so that he came out much      
changed2 and would by his good will hear
 none but the tinker for a long  time   
after1 he himself becoming a very       
eminent preacher in that country        
afterwards4  ,this story1 continues the 
anonymous biographer1 ,i know  to be    
true1 having many times discoursed with 
the man4  ,to the same ante-            
,restoration period1 ,dr4 ,brown also   
assigns the anecdote of ,bunyan's       
encounter1 on the road near ,cambridge1 
with the university man who asked  him  
how he dared to preach not having the   
original ,scriptures4  ,with  ready wit1
 ,bunyan turned the tables on the       
scholar by asking whether he  had the   
actual originals1 the copies written by 
the apostles and  prophets4  ,the       

scholar replied1 ,no1 but they had what 
they believed to  be a true copy of the 
original4  ,and ,i1 said ,bunyan1       
believe the  ,english ,bible to be a    
true copy1 too4  ,then away rid the     
scholar4    ,the fame of such a         
preacher1 naturally1 soon spread far and
 wide2 all the  countryside flocked     
eagerly to hear him4  ,in some places1  
as at ,meldreth  in ,cambridgeshire1 and
 ,yelden in his own county of           
,bedfordshire1 the  pulpits of the      
parish churches were opened to him4  ,at
 ,yelden1 the  ,rector1 ,dr4 ,william   
,dell1 the ,puritan ,master of ,caius   
,college1 ,cambridge1  formerly         
,chaplain to the army under ,fairfax1   
roused the indignation of  his orthodox 
parishioners by allowing him--one       
,bunyon of ,bedford1 a  tinker1 as he is
 ignominiously styled in the petition   
sent up to the  ,house of ,lords in     
#affj--to preach in his parish church on
 ,christmas ,day4  ,but1 generally1 the 
parochial clergy were his bitterest     

enemies4  ,when ,i  first went to preach
 the word abroad1 he writes1 the        
,doctors and  priests of the country did
 open wide against me4  ,many were      
envious of  his success where they had  
so signally failed4  ,in the words of   
,mr4 ,henry  ,deane1 when defending     
,bunyan against the attacks of ,dr4 ,t4 
,smith1  ,professor of ,arabic and      
,keeper of the ,university ,library at  
,cambridge1  who had come upon ,bunyan  
preaching in a barn at ,toft1 they were 
angry  with the tinker because he strove
 to mend souls as well as kettles and   
pans1 and proved himself more skilful in
 his craft than those who had  graduated
 at a university4  ,envy is ever the    
mother of detraction4  ,slanders of the 
blackest dye against his moral character
 were freely  circulated1 and as readily
 believed4  ,it was the common talk that
 he was  a thorough reprobate4  ,nothing
 was too bad for him4  ,he was a witch1 
a  ,jesuit1 a highwayman1 and the like4 
,it was reported that he had his  misses

 and his bastards2 that he had two wives
 at once1 c4  ,such  charges roused all 
the man in ,bunyan4  ,few passages in   
his writings show  more passion than    
that in ,grace ,abounding1 in which he  
defends himself  from the fools or      
knaves who were their authors4  ,he begs
 belief of no  man1 and if they believe 
him or disbelieve him it is all one to  
him4  ,but  he would have them know how 
utterly baseless their accusations are4 
,my  foes1 he writes1 have missed their 
mark in their open shooting at me4  ,i  
am not the man4  ,if all the fornicators
 and adulterers in ,england were  hanged
 by the neck till they be dead1 ,john   
,bunyan would be still alive4  ,i  know 
not whether there is such a thing as a  
woman breathing under the  copes of the 
whole heaven but by their apparel1 their
 children1 or by  common fame1 except my
 wife4  ,he calls not only men1 but     
angels1 nay1  even ,god ,himself1 to    
bear testimony to his innocence in this 
respect4  ,but  though they were so     

absolutely baseless1 nay1 the rather    
because they  were so baseless1 the     
grossness of these charges evidently    
stung ,bunyan  very deeply4    ,so      
bitter was the feeling aroused against  
him by the marvellous success  of his   
irregular ministry1 that his enemies1   
even before the restoration  of the     
,church and ,crown1 endeavoured to put  
the arm of the law in motion  to        
restrain him4  ,we learn from the church
 books that in ,march1 #afeh1 the       
little ,bedford church was in trouble   
for ,brother ,bunyan1 against whom  an  
indictment had been laid at the ,assizes
 for preaching at ,eaton  ,socon4  ,of  
this indictment we hear no more2 so it  
was probably dropped4  ,but it is an    
instructive fact that1 even during the  
boasted religious  liberty of the       
,protectorate1 irregular preaching1     
especially that of the  much dreaded    
,anabaptists1 was an indictable offence4
  ,but1 as ,dr4 ,brown  observes1       
religious liberty had not yet come to   

mean liberty all round1  but only       
liberty for a certain recognized section
 of ,christians4  ,that  there was no   
lack of persecution during the          
,commonwealth is clear from  the cruel  
treatment to which ,quakers were        
subjected1 to say nothing of  the       
intolerance shown to ,episcopalians and 
,roman ,catholics4  ,in ,bunyan's  own  
county of ,bedford1 ,quakeresses were   
sentenced to be whipped and sent  to    
,bridewell for reproving a parish       
priest1 perhaps well deserving of it1   
and exhorting the folks on a market day 
to repentance and amendment of  life4   
,the simple truth is1 writes ,robert    
,southey1 all parties were  agreed on   
the one catholic opinion that certain   
doctrines were not to be  tolerated3 the
 only points of difference between them 
were what those  doctrines were1 and how
 far intolerance might be carried4  ,the
 withering  lines are familiar to us1 in
 which ,milton denounces the ,new       
,forcers of  ,conscience1 who by their  

intolerance and super-metropolitan and  
hyperarchiepiscopal tyranny1 proved that
 in his proverbial words1 ,new          
,presbyter is but old ,priest writ      
large--       ,because you have thrown  
off your prelate lord1     ,and with    
stiff vows renounce his liturgy         
,dare ye for this adjure the civil sword
     ,to force our consciences that     
,christ set free6    ,how ,bunyan came  
to escape we know not4  ,but the danger 
he was in was  imminent enough for the  
church at ,bedford to meet to pray for  
counsail  what to doe in respect of it4 
,it was in these closing years of the   
,protectorate that ,bunyan made his     
first essay at authorship4  ,he was led 
to it by a long and tiresome            
controversy with the ,quakers1 who had  
recently found their way to  ,bedford4  
,the foundations of the faith1 he       
thought1 were being  undermined4  ,the  
,quakers' teaching as to the inward     
light seemed to him a  serious          
disparagement of the ,holy ,scriptures1 

while their mystical view  of the       
spiritual ,christ revealed to the soul  
and dwelling in the heart1  came        
perilously near to a denial of the      
historic reality of the personal        
,christ4  ,he had had public            
disputations with male and female       
,quakers from  time to time1 at the     
,market ,cross at ,bedford1 at ,paul's  
,steeple-house in  ,bedford town1 and   
other places4  ,one of them1 ,anne      
,blackley by name1  openly bade him     
throw away the ,scriptures1 to which    
,bunyan replied1 ,no2  for then the     
devil would be too hard for me4  ,the   
same enthusiast  charged him with       
preaching up an idol1 and using         
conjuration and  witchcraft1 because of 
his assertion of the bodily presence of 
,christ in  heaven4    ,the first work  
of one who was to prove himself so      
voluminous an author1  cannot but be    
viewed with much interest4  ,it was a   
little volume in  duodecimo1 of about   
two hundred pages1 entitled ,some       

,gospel ,truths  ,opened1 by that       
unworthy servant of ,christ1 ,john      
,bunyan1 of ,bedford1 by  the ,grace of 
,god1 preacher of the ,gospel of ,his   
dear ,son1 published in  #afef4  ,the   
little book1 which1 as ,dr4 ,brown says1
 was evidently thrown  off at a heat1   
was printed in ,london and published at 
,newport ,pagnel4  ,bunyan being        
entirely unknown to the world1 his first
 literary venture  was introduced by a  
commendatory ,epistle written by        
,gifford's  successor1 ,john ,burton4   
,in this ,burton speaks of the young    
author--,bunyan  was only in his        
twenty-ninth year--as one who had       
neither the greatness  nor the wisdom of
 the world to commend him1 not being    
chosen out of an  earthly but out of a  
heavenly university1 the ,church of     
,christ1 where  through grace he had    
taken three heavenly degrees1 to wit1   
union with  ,christ1 the anointing of   
the ,spirit1 and experience of the      
temptations of  ,satan1 and as one of   

whose soundness in the faith1 godly     
conversation1  and his ability to preach
 the ,gospel1 not by human aid1 but by  
the ,spirit  of the ,lord1 he with many 
other saints had had experience4  ,this 
book  must be pronounced a very         
remarkable production for a young       
travelling  tinker1 under thirty1 and   
without any literary or theological     
training  but such as he had gained for 
himself after attaining to manhood4     
,its  arrangement is excellent1 the     
arguments are ably marshalled1 the style
 is  clear1 the language pure and well  
chosen4  ,it is1 in the main1 a well-   
reasoned defence of the historical truth
 of the ,articles of the ,creed         
relating to the ,second ,person of the  
,trinity1 against the mystical  teaching
 of the followers of ,george ,fox1 who1 
by a false spiritualism1  sublimated the
 whole ,gospel narrative into a vehicle 
for the  representation of truths       
relating to the inner life of the       
believer4  ,no  one ever had a firmer   

grasp than ,bunyan of the spiritual     
bearing of the  facts of the recorded   
life of ,christ on the souls of men4    
,but he would  not suffer their         
subjectivity--to adopt modern terms--to 
destroy their  objectivity4  ,if the    
,son of ,god was not actually born of   
the ,virgin  ,mary1 if ,he did not live 
in a real human body1 and in that body  
die1 lie  in the grave1 rise again1 and 
ascend up into heaven1 whence ,he would 
return--and that ,bunyan believed       
shortly--in the same ,body ,he took of  
,his  mortal mother1 ,his preaching was 
vain2 their faith was vain2 they were   
yet in their sins4  ,those who cried up 
a ,christ within1 in opposition  to a   
,christ without1 who asserted that      
,christ had no other ,body but the      
,church1 that the only ,crucifixion1    
rising again1 and ascension of ,christ  
was that within the believer1 and that  
every man had1 as an inner  light1 a    
measure of ,christ's ,spirit within him 
sufficient to guide him to  salvation1  

he asserted were possessed with a spirit
 of delusion2  deceived themselves1 they
 were deceiving others to their eternal 
ruin4  ,to  the refutation of such      
fundamental errors1 substituting a      
mystical for an  historical faith1      
,bunyan's little treatise is addressed2 
and it may be  truly said the work is   
done effectually4  ,to adopt            
,coleridge's expression  concerning     
,bunyan's greater and world-famous work1
 it is an admirable  ,summa ,theologiae 
,evangelicae1 which1 notwithstanding its
 obsolete  style and old-fashioned      
arrangement1 may be read even now with  
advantage4    ,bunyan's denunciation of 
the tenets of the ,quakers speedily     
elicited a  reply4  ,this was written by
 a certain ,edward ,burrough1 a young   
man of  three and twenty1 fearless1     
devoted1 and ardent in the propagation  
of the  tenets of his sect4  ,being     
subsequently thrown into ,newgate with  
hundreds  of his co-religionists1 at the
 same time that his former antagonist   

was  imprisoned in ,bedford ,gaol1      
,burrough met the fate ,bunyan's        
stronger  constitution enabled him to   
escape2 and in the language of the      
times1  rotted in prison1 a victim to   
the loathsome foulness of his place of  
incarceration1 in the year of the       
,bartholomew ,act1 #affb4    ,burrough  
entitled his reply1 ,the ,gospel of     
,peace1 contended for in the  ,spirit of
 ,meekness and ,love against the secret 
opposition of ,john ,bunyan1  a         
professed minister in ,bedfordshire4    
,his opening words1 too  characteristic 
of the entire treatise1 display but     
little of the meekness  professed4  ,how
 long1 ye crafty fowlers1 will ye prey  
upon the innocent8  ,how long shall the 
righteous be a prey to your teeth1 ye   
subtle foxes6  ,your dens are in        
darkness1 and your mischief is hatched  
upon your beds of  secret whoredoms8    
,of ,john ,burton and the others who    
recommended  ,bunyan's treatise1 he     
says1 ,they have joined themselves with 

the broken  army of ,magog1 and have    
showed themselves in the defence of the 
dragon  against the ,lamb in the day of 
war betwixt them4  ,we may well echo    
,dr4  ,brown's wish that these two good 
men could have had a little free and    
friendly talk face to face4  ,there     
would probably have been better         
understanding1 and fewer hard words1 for
 they were really not so far  apart as  
they thought4  ,bunyan believed in the  
inward light1 and ,burrough  surely     
accepted an objective ,christ4  ,but    
failing to see each other's  exact point
 of view1 ,burrough thunders at ,bunyan1
 and ,bunyan swiftly  returns the shot4 
,the rapidity of ,bunyan's literary work
 is amazing1 especially when we  take   
his antecedents into account4  ,within a
 few weeks he published his  rejoinder  
to ,friend ,burrough1 under the title of
 ,a ,vindication of ,gospel  ,truths    
,opened4  ,in this work1 which appeared 
in #affg1 ,bunyan repays  ,burrough in  
his own coin1 styling him a proved enemy

 to the truth1 a  grossly railing       
,rabshakeh1 who breaks out with a taunt 
and a jeer1 is  very censorious and     
utters many words without knowledge4    
,in vigorous1  nervous language1 which  
does not spare his opponent1 he defends 
himself  from ,burrough's charges1 and  
proves that the ,quakers are deceivers4 
,as  for you thinking that to drink     
water1 and wear no hatbands is not      
walking  after your own lusts1 ,i say   
that whatsoever man do make a religion  
out  of1 having no warrant for it in    
,scripture1 is but walking after their  
own  lusts1 and not after the ,spirit of
 ,god4  ,burrough had most unwarrantably
  stigmatized ,bunyan as one of the     
false prophets1 who love the wages of   
unrighteousness1 and through            
covetousness make merchandise of souls4 
,bunyan calmly replies1 ,friend1 dost   
thou speak this as from thy own         
knowledge1 or did any other tell thee   
so8  ,however that spirit that led  thee
 out this way is a lying spirit4  ,for  

though ,i be poor and of no  repute in  
the world as to outward things1 yet     
through grace ,i have  learned by the   
example of the ,apostle to preach the   
truth1 and also to  work with my hands  
both for mine own living1 and for those 
that are with  me1 when ,i have         
opportunity4  ,and ,i trust that the    
,lord ,jesus who hath  helped me to     
reject the wages of unrighteousness     
hitherto1 will also help  me still so   
that ,i shall distribute that which ,god
 hath given me freely1  and not for     
filthy lucre's sake4  ,the fruitfulness 
of his ministry which  ,burrough had    
called in question1 charging him with   
having run before he  was sent1 he      
refuses to discuss4  ,bunyan says1 ,i   
shall leave it to be  taken notice of by
 the people of ,god and the country     
where ,i dwell1 who  will testify the   
contrary for me1 setting aside the      
carnal ministry with  their retinue who 
are so mad against me as thyself4    ,in
 his third book1 published in #afeh1 at 

the ,king's ,head1 in the ,old  ,bailey1
 a few days before ,oliver ,cromwell's  
death1 ,bunyan left the  thorny domain  
of polemics1 for that of ,christian     
exhortation1 in which  his chief work   
was to be done4  ,this work was an      
exposition of the  parable of the ,rich 
,man and ,lazarus1 bearing the          
horror-striking title1  ,a ,few ,sighs  
from ,hell1 or the ,groans of a ,damned 
,soul4  ,in this work1  as its title    
would suggest1 ,bunyan1 accepting the   
literal accuracy of the  parable as a   
description of the realities of the     
world beyond the grave1  gives full     
scope to his vivid imagination in       
portraying the condition of  the lost4  
,it contains some touches of racy       
humour1 especially in the  similes1 and 
is written in the nervous homespun      
,english of which he was  master4  ,its 
popularity is shown by its having gone  
through nine editions  in the author's  
lifetime4  ,to take an example or two of
 its style3  dealing with the excuses   

people make for not hearing the ,gospel1
 ,o1  saith one1 ,i dare not for my     
master1 my brother1 my landlord2 ,i     
shall  lose his favour1 his house of    
work1 and so decay my calling4  ,o1     
saith  another1 ,i would willingly go in
 this way but for my father2 he chides  
me  and tells me he will not stand my   
friend when ,i come to want2 ,i shall   
never enjoy a pennyworth of his goods2  
he will disinherit me--,and ,i dare     
not1 saith another1 for my husband1 for 
he will be a-railing1 and tells  me he  
will turn me out of doors1 he will beat 
me and cut off my legs2  and then       
turning from the hindered to the        
hinderers3 ,oh1 what red lines  will    
there be against all those rich ungodly 
landlords that so keep under  their poor
 tenants that they dare not go out to   
hear the word for fear  that their rent 
should be raised or they turned out of  
their houses4  ,think on this1 you      
drunken proud rich1 and scornful        
landlords2 think on  this1 you          

madbrained blasphemous husbands1 that   
are against the godly and  chaste       
conversation of your wives2 also you    
that hold your servants so  hard to it  
that you will not spare them time to    
hear the ,word1 unless it  will be where
 and when your lusts will let you4  ,he 
bids the ungodly  consider that the     
profits1 pleasures1 and vanities of the 
world will  one day give thee the slip1 
and leave thee in the sands and the     
brambles  of all that thou hast done4   
,the careless man lies like the smith's 
dog  at the foot of the anvil1 though   
the fire sparks flee in his face4  ,the 
rich man remembers how he once despised 
,lazarus1 scrubbed beggarly  ,lazarus4  
,what1 shall ,i dishonour my fair       
sumptuous and gay house with  such a    
scabbed creephedge as he8  ,the         
,lazaruses are not allowed to warn  them
 of the wrath to come1 because they are 
not gentlemen1 because they  cannot with
 ,pontius ,pilate speak ,hebrew1 ,greek1
 and ,latin4  ,nay1 they  must not1     

shall not1 speak to them1 and all       
because of this4    ,the fourth         
production of ,bunyan's pen1 his last   
book before his twelve  years of prison 
life began1 is entitled1 ,the ,doctrine 
of ,law and ,grace  ,unfolded4  ,with a 
somewhat overstrained humility which is 
hardly worthy  of him1 he describes     
himself in the title-page as that poor  
contemptible  creature ,john ,bunyan1 of
 ,bedford4  ,it was given to the world  
in ,may1  #afei1 and issued from the    
same press in the ,old ,bailey as his   
last work4  ,it cannot be said that this
 is one of ,bunyan's most attractive    
writings4  ,it is as he describes it1 a 
parcel of plain yet sound1 true1 and    
home  sayings1 in which with that       
clearness of thought and accuracy of    
arrangement which belongs to him1 and   
that marvellous acquaintance with       
,scripture language which he had gained 
by his constant study of the  ,bible1 he
 sets forth the two covenants--the      
covenant of works1 and the  covenant of 

,grace--in their natures1 ends1 bounds1 
together with the  state and condition  
of them that are under the one1 and of  
them that are  under the other4  ,dr4   
,brown describes the book as marked by a
 firm  grasp of faith and a strong view 
of the reality of ,christ's person and  
work as the one ,priest and ,mediator   
for a sinful world4  ,to quote a        
passage1 ,is there righteousness in     
,christ8 that is mine4  ,is there       
perfection in that righteousness8 that  
is mine4  ,did ,he bleed for sin8  ,it  
was for mine4  ,hath ,he overcome the   
law1 the devil1 and hell8  ,the  victory
 is mine1 and ,i am come forth          
conqueror1 nay1 more than a  conqueror  
through ,him that hath loved me4 4 4    
,lord1 show me continually  in the light
 of ,thy ,spirit1 through ,thy word1    
that ,jesus that was born in  the days  
of ,caesar ,augustus1 when ,mary1 a     
daughter of ,judah1 went with  ,joseph  
to be taxed in ,bethlehem1 that ,he is  
the very ,christ4  ,let me not  rest    

contented without such a faith that is  
so wrought even by the  discovery of    
,his ,birth1 ,crucifying ,death1 ,blood1
 ,resurrection1 ,ascension1  and        
,second--which is ,his                  
,personal--,coming again1 that the very 
faith of  it may fill my soul with      
comfort and holiness4  ,up and down its 
pages we  meet with vivid reminiscences 
of his own career1 of which he can only 
speak with wonder and thankfulness4  ,in
 the ,epistle to the ,reader1  which    
introduces it1 occurs the passage       
already referred to describing  his     
education4  ,i never went to school to  
,aristotle or ,plato1 but was  brought  
up at my father's house in a very mean  
condition1 among a company  of poor     
countrymen4  ,of his own religious state
 before his conversion he  thus speaks3 
,when it pleased the ,lord to begin to  
instruct my soul1 ,he  found me one of  
the black sinners of the world4  ,he    
found me making a  sport of oaths1 and  
also of lies2 and many a soul-poisoning 

meal did ,i  make out of divers lusts1  
such as drinking1 dancing1 playing1     
pleasure  with the wicked ones of the   
world2 and so wedded was ,i to my sins1 
that  thought ,i to myself1 ',i will    
have them though ,i lose my soul4'  ,and
  then1 after narrating the struggles he
 had had with his conscience1 the       
alternations of hope and fear which he  
passed through1 which are more  fully   
described in his ,grace ,abounding1 he  
thus vividly depicts the  full assurance
 of faith he had attained to3 ,i saw    
through grace that it  was the ,blood   
shed on ,mount ,calvary that did save   
and redeem sinners1 as  clearly and as  
really with the eyes of my soul as ever1
 methought1 ,i had  seen a penny loaf   
bought with a penny4 4 4 ,o let the     
saints know that  unless the devil can  
pluck ,christ out of heaven he cannot   
pull a true  believer out of ,christ4   
,in a striking passage he shows how1 by 
turning  ,satan's temptations against   
himself1 ,christians may ,get the art as

 to  outrun him in his own shoes1 and   
make his own darts pierce himself4      
,what6 didst thou never learn to        
outshoot the devil in his own bow1 and  
cut off his head with his own sword as  
,david served ,goliath8  ,the whole     
treatise is somewhat wearisome1 but the 
pious reader will find much in it  for  
spiritual edification4                  
,,chapter ,,iv4      ,we cannot doubt   
that one in whom loyalty was so deep and
 fixed a  principle as ,bunyan1 would   
welcome with sincere thankfulness the   
termination of the miserable interval of
 anarchy which followed the death  of   
the ,protector and the abdication of his
 indolent and feeble son1 by  the       
restoration of monarchy in the person of
 ,charles the ,second4  ,even if  some  
forebodings might have arisen that with 
the restoration of the old  monarchy the
 old persecuting laws might be revived1 
which made it  criminal for a man to    
think for himself in the matters which  
most nearly  concerned his eternal      

interests1 and to worship in the way    
which he found  most helpful to his     
spiritual life1 they would have been    
silenced by the  promise1 contained in  
,charles's ,declaration from ,breda1 of 
liberty to  tender consciences1 and the 
assurance that no one should be         
disquieted  for differences of opinion  
in religion1 so long as such differences
 did  not endanger the peace and        
well-being of the realm4  ,if this      
declaration  meant anything1 it meant a 
breadth of toleration larger and more   
liberal  than had been ever granted by  
,cromwell4  ,any fears of the renewal of
  persecution must be groundless4       
,but if such dreams of religious liberty
 were entertained they were  speedily   
and rudely dispelled1 and ,bunyan was   
one of the first to feel  the shock of  
the awakening4  ,the promise was coupled
 with a reference to  the mature        
deliberation of ,parliament4  ,with such
 a promise ,charles's  easy conscience  
was relieved of all responsibility4     

,whatever he might  promise1 the nation1
 and ,parliament which was its          
mouthpiece1 might set  his promise      
aside4  ,and if he knew anything of the 
temper of the people  he was returning  
to govern1 he must have felt assured    
that any scheme of  comprehension was   
certain to be rejected by them4  ,as    
,mr4 ,froude has  said1 before          
toleration is possible1 men must have   
learnt to tolerate  toleration1 and this
 was a lesson the ,english nation was   
very far from  having learnt2 at no     
time1 perhaps1 were they further from   
it4  ,puritanism  had had its day1 and  
had made itself generally detested4     
,deeply  enshrined as it was in many    
earnest and devout hearts1 such as      
,bunyan's1  it was necessarily the      
religion not of the many1 but of the    
few2 it was  the religion not of the    
common herd1 but of a spiritual         
aristocracy4  ,its  stern condemnation  
of all mirth and pastime1 as things in  
their nature  sinful1 of which we have  

so many evidences in ,bunyan's own      
writings2 its  repression of all that   
makes life brighter and more joyous1 and
 the sour  sanctimoniousness which      
frowned upon innocent relaxation1 had   
rendered  its yoke unbearable to        
ordinary human nature1 and men took the 
earliest  opportunity of throwing the   
yoke off and trampling it under foot4   
,they  hailed with rude and boisterous  
rejoicings the restoration of the       
,monarchy which they felt1 with a true  
instinct1 involved the restoration  of  
the old ,church of ,england1 the church 
of their fathers and of the  older among
 themselves1 with its larger indulgence 
for the instincts of  humanity1 its     
wider comprehensiveness1 and its more   
dignified and  decorous ritual4    ,the 
reaction from ,puritanism pervaded all  
ranks4  ,in no class1 however1  was its 
influence more powerful than among the  
country gentry4  ,most of  them had been
 severe sufferers both in purse and     
person during the  ,protectorate4       

,fines and sequestrations had fallen    
heavily upon them1 and  they were eager 
to retaliate on their oppressors4       
,their turn had come2  can we wonder    
that they were eager to use it8  ,as    
,mr4 ,j4 ,r4 ,green has  said3 ,the     
,puritan1 the ,presbyterian1 the        
,commonwealthsman1 all were at  their   
feet4 4 4 ,their whole policy appeared  
to be dictated by a  passionate spirit  
of reaction4 4 4 ,the oppressors of the 
parson had been  the oppressors of the  
squire4  ,the sequestrator who had      
driven the one  from his parsonage had  
driven the other from his manor-house4  
,both had  been branded with the same   
charge of malignity4  ,both had suffered
  together1 and the new ,parliament was 
resolved that both should triumph       
together4    ,the feeling thus          
eloquently expressed goes far to explain
 the harshness  which ,bunyan           
experienced at the hands of the         
administrators of justice at  the crisis
 of his life at which we have now       

arrived4  ,those before whom  he was    
successively arraigned belonged to this 
very class1 which1 having  suffered most
 severely during the ,puritan           
usurpation1 was least likely to  show   
consideration to a leading teacher of   
the ,puritan body4  ,nor were  reasons  
wanting to justify their severity4  ,the
 circumstances of the  times were       
critical4  ,the public mind was still in
 an excitable state1  agitated by the   
wild schemes of political and religious 
enthusiasts  plotting to destroy the    
whole existing framework both of ,church
 and  ,state1 and set up their own      
chimerical fabric4  ,we cannot be       
surprised  that1 as ,southey has said1  
after all the nation had suffered from  
fanatical zeal1 ,the government1        
rendered suspicious by the constant     
sense of danger1 was led as much by fear
 as by resentment to seventies  which   
are explained by the necessities of     
self-defence1 and which the  nervous    
apprehensions of the nation not only    

condoned1 but incited4  ,already        
,churchmen in ,wales had been taking the
 law into their own hands1  and         
manifesting their orthodoxy by harrying 
,quakers and ,nonconformists4  ,in the  
,may and ,june of this year1 we hear of 
sectaries being taken from  their beds  
and haled to prison1 and brought        
manacled to the ,quarter  ,sessions and 
committed to loathsome dungeons4        
,matters had advanced since  then4  ,the
 ,church had returned in its full power 
and privileges together  with the       
monarchy1 and everything went back into 
its old groove4  ,every  ,act passed for
 the disestablishment and disendowment  
of the ,church was  declared a dead     
letter4  ,those of the ejected          
incumbents who remained  alive entered  
again into their parsonages1 and        
occupied their pulpits as  of old2 the  
surviving bishops returned to their     
sees2 and the whole  existing statute   
law regarding the ,church revived from  
its suspended  animation4  ,no new      

enactment was required to punish        
,nonconformists and to  silence their   
ministers2 though1 to the disgrace of   
the nation and its  parliament1 many new
 ones were subsequently passed1 with    
ever-increasing  disabilities4  ,the    
various ,acts of ,elizabeth supplied all
 that was  needed4  ,under these ,acts  
all who refused to attend public worship
 in  their parish churches were subject 
to fines2 while those who resorted to   
conventicles were to be imprisoned till 
they made their submissions2 if  at the 
end of three months they refused to     
submit they were to be  banished the    
realm1 and if they returned from        
banishment1 without  permission of the  
,crown1 they were liable to execution as
 felons4  ,this  long-disused sword was 
now drawn from its rusty sheath to      
strike terror  into the hearts of       
,nonconformists4  ,it did not prove very
 effectual4  ,all  the true-hearted men 
preferred to suffer rather than yield in
 so sacred a  cause4  ,bunyan was one of

 the earliest of these1 as he proved one
 of the  staunchest4    ,early in       
,october1 #affj1 the country magistrates
 meeting in ,bedford issued  an order   
for the public reading of the ,liturgy  
of the ,church of ,england4  ,such an   
order ,bunyan would not regard as       
concerning him4  ,anyhow he would  not  
give obeying it a thought4  ,one of the 
things we least like in ,bunyan  is the 
feeling he exhibits towards the ,book of
 ,common ,prayer4  ,to him it  was an   
accursed thing1 the badge and token of a
 persecuting party1 a  relic of popery  
which he exhorted his adherents to take 
heed that they  touched not if they     
would be steadfast in the faith of      
,jesus ,christ4  ,nothing could be      
further from his thoughts than to give  
any heed to the  magistrates' order to  
go to church and pray after the form of 
men's  inventions4    ,the time for     
testing ,bunyan's resolution was now    
near at hand4  ,within  six months of   
the king's landing1 within little more  

than a month of the  issue of the       
magistrate's order for the use of the   
,common ,prayer ,book1  his sturdy      
determination to yield obedience to no  
authority in spiritual  matters but that
 of his own conscience was put to the   
proof4  ,bunyan may  safely be regarded 
as at that time the most conspicuous of 
the  ,nonconformists of the             
neighbourhood4  ,he had now preached for
 five or six  years with ever-growing   
popularity4  ,no name was so rife in    
men's mouths  as his4  ,at him1         
therefore1 as the representative of his 
brother  sectaries1 the first blow was  
levelled4  ,it is no cause of surprise  
that  in the measures taken against him 
he recognized the direct agency of      
,satan to stop the course of the truth3 
,that old enemy of man's  salvation1 he 
says1 took his opportunity to inflame   
the hearts of his  vassals against me1  
insomuch that at the last ,i was laid   
out for the  warrant of a justice4  ,the
 circumstances were these1 on ,november 

#ab1  #affj1 ,bunyan had engaged to go  
to the little hamlet of ,lower ,samsell 
near  ,harlington1 to hold a religious  
service4  ,his purpose becoming known1 a
  neighbouring magistrate1 ,mr4 ,francis
 ,wingate1 of ,harlington ,house1 was   
instructed to issue a warrant for his   
apprehension under the ,act of          
,elizabeth4  ,the meeting being         
represented to him as one of seditious  
persons bringing arms1 with a view to   
the disturbance of the public  peace1 he
 ordered that a strong watch should be  
kept about the house1 as  if1 ,bunyan   
says1 we did intend to do some fearful  
business to the  destruction of the     
country4  ,the intention to arrest him  
oozed out1 and  on ,bunyan's arrival the
 whisperings of his friends warned him  
of his  danger4  ,he might have easily  
escaped if he had been minded to play   
the  coward4  ,some advised it1         
especially the brother at whose house   
the  meeting was to take place4  ,he1   
living by them1 knew what spirit the    

magistrates were of1 before whom ,bunyan
 would be taken if arrested1 and  the   
small hope there would be of his        
avoiding being committed to gaol4  ,the 
man himself1 as a harbourer of a        
conventicle1 would also run no  small   
danger of the same fate1 but ,bunyan    
generously acquits him of any  selfish  
object in his warning3 he was1 ,i think1
 more afraid of 7for7 me1  than of 7for7
 himself4  ,the matter was clear enough 
to ,bunyan4  ,at the  same time it was  
not to be decided in a hurry4  ,the time
 fixed for the  service not being yet   
come1 ,bunyan went into the meadow by   
the house1 and  pacing up and down      
thought the question well out4  ,if he  
who had up to  this time showed himself 
hearty and courageous in his preaching1 
and had  made it his business to        
encourage others1 were now to run and   
make an  escape1 it would be of an ill  
savour in the country4  ,if he were now 
to  flee because there was a warrant out
 for him1 would not the weak and        

newly-converted brethren be afraid to   
stand when great words only were  spoken
 to them4  ,god had1 in ,his mercy1     
chosen him to go on the forlorn  hope2  
to be the first to be opposed for the   
gospel2 what a discouragement  it must  
be to the whole body if he were to fly4 
,no1 he would never by  any cowardliness
 of his give occasion to the enemy to   
blaspheme the  gospel4  ,so back to the 
house he came with his mind made up4    
,he had  come to hold the meeting1 and  
hold the meeting he would4  ,he was not 
conscious of saying or doing any evil4  
,if he had to suffer it was the  ,lord's
 will1 and he was prepared for it4  ,he 
had a full hour before him  to escape if
 he had been so minded1 but he was      
resolved not to go away4  ,he calmly    
waited for the time fixed for the       
brethren to assemble1 and  then1 without
 hurry or any show of alarm1 he opened  
the meeting in the  usual manner1 with  
prayer for ,god's blessing4  ,he had    
given out his text1  the brethren had   

just opened their ,bibles and ,bunyan   
was beginning to  preach1 when the      
arrival of the constable with the       
warrant put an end to  the exercise4    
,bunyan requested to be allowed to say a
 few parting words  of encouragement to 
the terrified flock4  ,this was granted1
 and he  comforted the little company   
with the reflection that it was a mercy 
to  suffer in so good a cause2 and that 
it was better to be the persecuted  than
 the persecutors2 better to suffer as   
,christians than as thieves or          
murderers4  ,the constable and the      
justice's servant soon growing weary of 
listening to ,bunyan's exhortations1    
interrupted him and would not be  quiet 
till they had him away from the house4  
,the justice who had issued the warrant1
 ,mr4 ,wingate1 not being at home  that 
day1 a friend of ,bunyan's residing on  
the spot offered to house him  for the  
night1 undertaking that he should be    
forthcoming the next day4  ,the         
following morning this friend took him  

to the constable's house1 and  they then
 proceeded together to ,mr4 ,wingate's4 
,a few inquiries showed  the magistrate 
that he had entirely mistaken the       
character of the ,samsell  meeting and  
its object4  ,instead of a gathering of 
,fifth ,monarchy men1  or other         
turbulent fanatics as he had supposed1  
for the disturbance of  the public      
peace1 he learnt from the constable that
 they were only a few  peaceable1       
harmless people1 met together to preach 
and hear the word1  without any         
political meaning4  ,wingate was now at 
a nonplus1 and could  not well tell what
 to say4  ,for the credit of his        
magisterial character1  however1 he must
 do something to show that he had not   
made a mistake in  issuing the warrant4 
,so he asked ,bunyan what business he   
had there1 and  why it was not enough   
for him to follow his own calling       
instead of  breaking the law by         
preaching4  ,bunyan replied that his    
only object in  coming there was to     

exhort his hearers for their souls' sake
 to forsake  their sinful courses and   
close in with ,christ1 and this he could
 do and  follow his calling as well4    
,wingate1 now feeling himself in the    
wrong1  lost his temper1 and declared   
angrily that he would break the neck of 
these unlawful meetings1 and that       
,bunyan must find securities for his    
good behaviour or go to gaol4  ,there   
was no difficulty in obtaining the      
security4  ,bail was at once            
forthcoming4  ,the real difficulty lay  
with  ,bunyan himself4  ,no bond was    
strong enough to keep him from          
preaching4  ,if  his friends gave them1 
their bonds would be forfeited1 for he  
would not  leave speaking the word of   
,god4  ,wingate told him that this being
 so1 he  must be sent to gaol to be     
tried at the next ,quarter ,sessions1   
and left  the room to make out his      
mittimus4  ,while the committal was     
preparing1  one whom ,bunyan bitterly   
styles an old enemy to the truth1 ,dr4  

,lindall1  ,vicar of ,harlington1       
,wingate's father-in-law1 came in and   
began taunting  at him with many        
reviling terms1 demanding what right he 
had to preach  and meddle with that for 
which he had no warrant1 charging him   
with  making long prayers to devour     
widows houses1 and likening him to one  
,alexander the ,coppersmith he had read 
of1 aiming1 'tis like1 says  ,bunyan1 at
 me because ,i was a tinker4  ,the      
mittimus was now made out1  and ,bunyan 
in the constable's charge was on his way
 to ,bedford1 when he  was met by two of
 his friends1 who begged the constable  
to wait a little  while that they might 
use their interest with the magistrate  
to get  ,bunyan released4  ,after a     
somewhat lengthened interview with      
,wingate1  they returned with the       
message that if ,bunyan would wait on   
the  magistrate and say certain words to
 him1 he might go free4  ,to satisfy    
his friends1 ,bunyan returned with them1
 though not with any expectation  that  

the engagement proposed to him would be 
such as he could lawfully  take4  ,if   
the words were such as he could say with
 a good conscience he  would say them1  
or else he would not4    ,after all this
 coming and going1 by the time ,bunyan  
and his friends got  back to ,harlington
 ,house1 night had come on4  ,as he     
entered the hall1  one1 he tells us1    
came out of an inner room with a lighted
 candle in his  hand1 whom ,bunyan      
recognized as one ,william ,foster1 a   
lawyer of ,bedford1  ,wingate's         
brother-in-law1 afterwards a fierce     
persecutor of the  ,nonconformists of   
the district4  ,with a simulated        
affection1 as if he  would have leapt on
 my neck and kissed me1 which put       
,bunyan on his  guard1 as he had ever   
known him for a close opposer of the    
ways of ,god1  he adopted the tone of   
one who had ,bunyan's interest at heart1
 and begged  him as a friend to yield a 
little from his stubbornness4  ,his     
brother-in-  law1 he said1 was very     

loath to send him to gaol4  ,all he had 
to do was  only to promise that he would
 not call people together1 and he should
 be  set at liberty and might go back to
 his home4  ,such meetings were plainly 
unlawful and must be stopped4  ,bunyan  
had better follow his calling and  leave
 off preaching1 especially on week-days1
 which made other people  neglect their 
calling too4  ,god commanded men to work
 six days and serve  ,him on the        
seventh4  ,it was vain for ,bunyan to   
reply that he never  summoned people to 
hear him1 but that if they came he could
 not but use  the best of his skill and 
wisdom to counsel them for their soul's 
salvation2 that he could preach and the 
people could come to hear without       
neglecting their callings1 and that men 
were bound to look out for their  souls'
 welfare on week-days as well as        
,sundays4  ,neither could convince  the 
other4  ,bunyan's stubbornness was not a
 little provoking to ,foster1  and was  
equally disappointing to ,wingate4      

,they both evidently wished to  dismiss 
the case1 and intentionally provided a  
loophole for ,bunyan's  escape4  ,the   
promise put into his mouth--that he     
would not call the  people together--was
 purposely devised to meet his          
scrupulous  conscience4  ,but even if he
 could keep the promise in the letter1  
,bunyan  knew that he was fully purposed
 to violate its spirit4  ,he was the    
last  man to forfeit self-respect by    
playing fast and loose with his         
conscience4  ,all evasion was foreign to
 his nature4  ,the long interview  came 
to an end at last4  ,once again ,wingate
 and ,foster endeavoured to  break down 
,bunyan's resolution2 but when they saw 
he was at a point1 and  would not be    
moved or persuaded1 the mittimus was    
again put into the  constable's hands1  
and he and his prisoner were started on 
the walk to  ,bedford gaol4  ,it was    
dark1 as we have seen1 when this        
protracted  interview began4  ,it must  
have now been deep in the night4        

,bunyan gives  no hint whether the walk 
was taken in the dark or in the         
daylight4  ,there  was however no need  
for haste4  ,bedford was thirteen miles 
away1 and the  constable would probably 
wait till the morning to set out for the
 prison  which was to be ,bunyan's home 
for twelve long years1 to which he went 
carrying1 he says1 the peace of ,god    
along with me1 and ,his comfort in my   
poor soul4          ,,chapter ,v4       
,a long-standing tradition has          
identified ,bunyan's place of           
imprisonment  with a little corporation 
lock-up-house1 some fourteen feet       
square1  picturesquely perched on one of
 the mid-piers of the many-arched       
mediaeval  bridge which1 previously to  
#agfe1 spanned the ,ouse at ,bedford1   
and as ,mr4  ,froude has said1 has      
furnished a subject for pictures1 both  
of pen and  pencil1 which if correct    
would be extremely affecting4           
,unfortunately1  however1 for the lovers
 of the sensational1 these pictures are 

not  correct1 but are based on a false  
assumption which grew up out of a       
desire to heap contumely on ,bunyan's   
enemies by exaggerating the severity  of
 his protracted1 but by no means harsh  
imprisonment4  ,being arrested by  the  
warrant of a county magistrate for a    
county offence1 ,bunyan's place  of     
incarceration was naturally the county  
gaol4  ,there he undoubtedly  passed the
 twelve years of his captivity1 and     
there the royal warrant for  his release
 found him a prisoner in the common gaol
 for our county of  ,bedford4  ,but     
though far different from the pictures  
which writers1  desirous of exhibiting  
the sufferings of the ,puritan confessor
 in the  most telling form1 have        
drawn--if not a damp and dreary cell    
into which  a narrow chink admits a few 
scanty rays of light to render visible  
the  prisoner1 pale and emaciated1      
seated on the humid earth1 pursuing his 
daily task to earn the morsel which     
prolongs his existence and his          

confinement together1--the common gaol  
of ,bedford must have been a            
sufficiently strait and unwholesome     
abode1 especially for one1 like the     
travelling tinker1 accustomed to spend  
the greater part of his days in  the    
open-air in unrestricted freedom4       
,prisons in those days1 and indeed  long
 afterwards1 were1 at their best1 foul1 
dark1 miserable places4  ,a  century    
later ,howard found ,bedford gaol1      
though better than some1 in what  would 
now be justly deemed a disgraceful      
condition4  ,one who visited  ,bunyan   
during his confinement speaks of it as  
an uncomfortable and close  prison4     
,bunyan however himself1 in the         
narrative of his imprisonment1  makes no
 complaint of it1 nor do we hear of his 
health having in any way  suffered from 
the conditions of his confinement1 as   
was the case with not  a few of his     
fellow-sufferers for the sake of        
religion in other ,english  gaols1 some 
of them even unto death4  ,bad as it    

must have been to be a  prisoner1 as far
 as his own testimony goes1 there is no 
evidence that his  imprisonment1 though 
varying in its strictness with his      
various gaolers1  was aggravated by any 
special severity2 and1 as ,mr4 ,froude  
has said1 it  is unlikely that at any   
time he was made to suffer any greater  
hardships  than were absolutely         
inevitable4    ,the arrest of one whose 
work as a preacher had been a blessing  
to so  many1 was not at once tamely     
acquiesced in by the religious body to  
which  he belonged4  ,a few days after  
,bunyan's committal to gaol1 some of the
  brethren applied to ,mr4 ,crompton1 a 
young magistrate at ,elstow1 to bail    
him out1 offering the required security 
for his appearance at the ,quarter      
,sessions4  ,the magistrate was at first
 disposed to accept the bail2 but  being
 a young man1 new in his office1 and    
thinking it possible that there  might  
be more against ,bunyan than the        
mittimus expressed1 he was afraid  of   

compromising himself by letting him go  
at large4  ,his refusal1 though  it sent
 him back to prison1 was received by    
,bunyan with his usual calm  trust in   
,god's overruling providence4  ,i was   
not at all daunted1 but  rather glad1   
and saw evidently that the ,lord had    
heard me4  ,before he  set out for the  
justice's house1 he tells us he had     
committed the whole  event to ,god's    
ordering1 with the prayer that if he    
might do more good  by being at liberty 
than in prison1 the bail might be       
accepted1 but if  not1 that ,his will   
might be done4  ,in the failure of his  
friends' good  offices he saw an answer 
to his prayer1 encouraging the hope that
 the  untoward event1 which deprived    
them of his personal ministrations1     
might  be an awaking to the saints in   
the country1 and while the slender      
answer of the justice1 which sent him   
back to his prison1 stirred  something  
akin to contempt1 his soul was full of  
gladness4  ,verily ,i did  meet my ,god 

sweetly again1 comforting of me1 and    
satisfying of me1 that  it was ,his will
 and mind that ,i should be there4  ,the
 sense that he was  being conformed to  
the image of his great ,master was a    
stay to his soul4  ,this word1 he       
continues1 did drop in upon my heart    
with some life1 for  he knew that 'for  
envy they had delivered him4'    ,seven 
weeds after his committal1 early in     
,january1 #affa1 the ,quarter  ,sessions
 came on1 and ,john ,bunyan1 of the town
 of ,bedford1 labourer1  was indicted in
 the customary form for having          
devilishly and  perniciously abstained  
from coming to church to hear ,divine   
,service1 and  as a common upholder of  
several unlawful meetings and           
conventions1 to  the great disturbance  
and distraction of the good subjects of 
the  kingdom4  ,the chairman of the     
bench was the brutal and blustering ,sir
  ,john ,keeling1 the prototype of      
,bunyan's ,lord ,hategood in ,faithful's
 trial  at ,vanity ,fair1 who           

afterwards1 by his base subserviency to 
an infamous  government1 climbed to the 
,lord ,chief ,justice's seat1 over the  
head of  ,sir ,matthew ,hale4  ,keeling 
had suffered much from the ,puritans    
during the  great ,rebellion1 when1     
according to ,clarendon1 he was always  
in gaol1  and was by no means disposed  
to deal leniently with an offender of   
that  persuasion4  ,his brethren of the 
bench were country gentlemen hating     
,puritanism from their heart1 and eager 
for retaliation for the wrongs it  had  
wrought them4  ,from such a bench1 even 
if ,bunyan had been less                
uncompromising1 no leniency was to be   
anticipated4  ,but ,bunyan's attitude   
forbade any leniency4  ,as the law stood
 he had indisputably broken it1  and he 
expressed his determination1            
respectfully but firmly1 to take the    
first opportunity of breaking it again4 
,i told them that if ,i was let  out of 
prison today ,i would preach the gospel 
again to-morrow by the help  of ,god4   

,we may dislike the tone adopted by the 
magistrates towards the  prisoner2 we   
may condemn it as overbearing and       
contemptuous2 we may smile  at          
,keeling's expositions of ,scripture and
 his stock arguments against            
unauthorized prayer and preaching1      
though we may charitably believe that   
,bunyan misunderstood him when he makes 
him say that the ,book of ,common       
,prayer had been ever since the         
apostles' time2 we may think that the   
prisoner1 in his canting pedlar's       
,french1 as ,keeling called it1 had the 
better of his judges in knowledge of the
 ,bible1 in ,christian charity1 as  well
 as in dignity and in common sense1 and 
that they showed their wisdom  in       
silencing him in court--,let him speak  
no further1 said one of them1  he will  
do harm1--since they could not answer   
him more convincingly3  but his legal   
offence was clear4  ,he confessed to the
 indictment1 if not  in express terms1  
yet virtually4  ,he and his friends had 

held many  meetings together1 both to   
pray to ,god and to exhort one another4 
,i  confessed myself guilty no          
otherwise4  ,such meetings were         
forbidden by  the law1 which it was the 
duty of the justices to administer1 and 
they  had no choice whether they would  
convict or no4  ,perhaps they were not  
sorry they had no such choice4  ,bunyan 
was a most impracticable  prisoner1 and 
as ,mr4 ,froude says1 the magistrates   
being but unregenerate  mortals may be  
pardoned if they found him provoking4   
,the sentence  necessarily followed4    
,it was pronounced1 not1 we are sure    
reluctantly1  by ,keeling1 in the terms 
of the ,act4  ,he was to go back to     
prison for  three months4  ,if at three 
months' end he still refused to go to   
church  to hear ,divine service and     
leave his preaching1 he was to be       
banished the  realm1--in modern language
 transported1 and if he came back again 
without special royal license1 he must  
stretch by the neck for it4    ,this1   

said ,keeling1 ,i tell you plainly4     
,bunyan's reply that as to  that matter 
he was at a point with the judge1 for   
that he would repeat  the offence the   
first time he could1 provoked a         
rejoinder from one of  the bench1 and   
the unseemly wrangling might have been  
still further  prolonged1 had it not    
been stopped by the gaoler1 who pulling 
him away  to be gone1 had him back to   
prison1 where he says1 and blesses the  
,lord  ,jesus ,christ for it1 his heart 
was as sweetly refreshed in returning   
to it as it had been during his         
examination4  ,so that ,i find ,christ's
  words more than bare trifles1 where   
,he saith1 ,he will give a mouth and    
wisdom1 even such as all the adversaries
 shall not gainsay or resist4  ,and     
that ,his peace no man can take from us4
    ,the magistrates1 however1 though   
not unnaturally irritated by what seemed
  to them ,bunyan's unreasonable        
obstinacy1 were not desirous to push    
matters to extremity4  ,the three months

 named in his sentence1 at the          
expiration of which he was either to    
conform or be banished the realm1  were 
fast drawing to an end1 without any sign
 of submission on his part4  ,as a last 
resort ,mr4 ,cobb1 the ,clerk of the    
,peace1 was sent to try what  calm and  
friendly reasoning might effect4  ,cobb1
 who evidently knew  ,bunyan personally1
 did his best1 as a kind-hearted1       
sensible man1 to  bring him to reason4  
,cobb did not profess to be a man that  
could  dispute1 and ,bunyan had the     
better of him in argument4  ,his        
position1  however1 was unassailable4   
,the recent insurrection of ,venner and 
his  ,fifth ,monarchy men1 he said1 had 
shown the danger to the public peace    
there was in allowing fanatical         
gatherings to assemble unchecked4       
,bunyan1  whose loyalty was             
unquestioned1 must acknowledge the      
prudence of  suppressing meetings which1
 however good their ostensible aim1     
might  issue in nothing less than the   

ruin of the kingdom and commonwealth4   
,bunyan had confessed his readiness to  
obey the apostolic precept by           
submitting himself to the king as       
supreme4  ,the king forbade the holding 
of private meetings1 which1 under colour
 of religion1 might be  prejudicial to  
the ,state4  ,why then did he not       
submit8  ,this need not  hinder him from
 doing good in a neighbourly way4  ,he  
might continue to  use his gifts and    
exhort his neighbours in private        
discourse1 provided he  did not bring   
people together in public assemblies4   
,the law did not  abridge him of this   
liberty4  ,why should he stand so       
strictly on public  meetings8  ,or why  
should he not come to church and hear8  
,was his gift so  far above that of     
others that he could learn of no one8   
,if he could not  be persuaded1 the     
judges were resolved to prosecute the   
law against him4  ,he would be sent away
 beyond the seas to ,spain or           
,constantinople--either  ,cobb's or     

,bunyan's colonial geography was rather 
at fault here--or some  other remote    
part of the world1 and what good could  
he do to his friends  then8  ,neighbour 
,bunyan had better consider these things
 seriously  before the ,quarter         
,session1 and be ruled by good advice4  
,the gaoler here  put in his word in    
support of ,cobb's arguments3 ,indeed1  
sir1 ,i hope he  will be ruled4  ,but   
all ,cobb's friendly reasonings and     
expostulations  were ineffectual to bend
 ,bunyan's sturdy will4  ,he would yield
 to no-one  in his loyalty to his       
sovereign1 and his readiness to obey the
 law4  ,but1  he said1 with a           
hairsplitting casuistry he would have   
indignantly  condemned in others1 the   
law provided two ways of obeying1 one to
 obey  actively1 and if his conscience  
forbad that1 then to obey passively2 to 
lie down and suffer whatever they might 
do to him4  ,the ,clerk of the  ,peace  
saw that it was no use to prolong the   
argument any further4  ,at  this1 writes

 ,bunyan1 he sat down1 and said no more2
 which1 when he had  done1 ,i did thank 
him for his civil and meek discoursing  
with me2 and so  we parted3 ,o that we  
might meet in heaven6    ,the           
,coronation which took place very soon  
after this interview1 ,april #ac1       
#affa1 afforded a prospect of release   
without unworthy submission4  ,the      
customary proclamation1 which allowed   
prisoners under sentence for any        
offence short of felony to sue out a    
pardon for twelve months from that      
date1 suspended the execution of the    
sentence of banishment and gave a  hope 
that the prison doors might be opened   
for him4  ,the local  authorities taking
 no steps to enable him to profit by the
 royal  clemency1 by inserting his name 
in the list of pardonable offenders1 his
  second wife1 ,elizabeth1 travelled up 
to ,london1--no slight venture for a    
young woman not so long raised from the 
sick bed on which the first news  of her
 husband's arrest had laid her1--and    

with dauntless courage made  her way to 
the ,house of ,lords1 where she         
presented her petition to one of  the   
peers1 whom she calls ,lord ,barkwood1  
but whom unfortunately we cannot  now   
identify4  ,he treated her kindly1 and  
showed her petition to other  peers1 who
 appear to have been acquainted with the
 circumstances of  ,bunyan's case4      
,they replied that the matter was beyond
 their province1  and that the question 
of her husband's release was committed  
to the  judges at the next assizes4     
,these assizes were held at ,bedford in 
the  following ,august4  ,the judges of 
the circuit were ,twisden and ,sir      
,matthew  ,hale4  ,from the latter--the 
friend of ,richard ,baxter1 who1 as     
,burnet  records1 took great care to    
cover the ,nonconformists1 whom he      
thought  too hardly used1 all he could  
from the seventies some designed2 and   
discouraged those who were inclined to  
stretch the laws too much against       
them--,bunyan's case would be certain to

 meet with sympathetic  consideration4  
,but being set to administer the law1   
not according to his  private wishes1   
but according to its letter and its     
spirit1 he was  powerless to relieve    
him4  ,three several times did ,bunyan's
 noble-hearted  wife present her        
husband's petition that he might be     
heard1 and his case  taken impartially  
into consideration4  ,but the law forbad
 what ,burnet  calls ,sir ,matthew      
,hale's tender and compassionate nature 
to have free  exercise4  ,he received   
the petition very mildly at her hand1   
telling her  that he would do her and   
her husband the best good he could2 but 
he  feared he could do none4  ,his      
brother judge's reception of her        
petition  was very different4  ,having  
thrown it into the coach1 ,twisden snapt
 her  up1 telling her1 what after all   
was no more than the truth1 that her    
husband was a convicted person1 and     
could not be released unless he would   
promise to obey the law and abstain from

 preaching4  ,on this the ,high         
,sheriff1 ,edmund ,wylde1 of ,houghton  
,conquest1 spoke kindly to the poor     
woman1 and encouraged her to make a     
fresh application to the judges  before 
they left the town4  ,so she made her   
way1 with abashed face and  trembling   
heart1 to the large chamber at the ,old 
,swan ,inn at the ,bridge  ,foot1 where 
the two judges were receiving a large   
number of the justices  of the peace and
 other gentry of the county4            
,addressing ,sir ,matthew ,hale  she    
said1 ,my lord1 ,i make bold to come    
again to your lordship to know  what may
 be done with my husband4  ,hale        
received her with the same  gentleness  
as before1 repeated what he had said    
previously1 that as her  husband had    
been legally convicted1 and his         
conviction was recorded1  unless there  
was something to undo that he could do  
her no good4  ,twisden1  on the other   
hand1 got violently angry1 charged her  
brutally with making  poverty her cloak1

 told her that her husband was a breaker
 of the peace1  whose doctrine was the  
doctrine of the devil1 and that he ran  
up and down  and did harm1 while he was 
better maintained by his preaching than 
by  following his tinker's craft4  ,at  
last he waxed so violent that withal    
she thought he would have struck her4   
,in the midst of all his coarse  abuse1 
however1 ,twisden hit the mark when he  
asked3 ,what6 you think we  can do what 
we list8  ,and when we find ,hale1      
confessedly the soundest  lawyer of the 
time1 whose sympathies were all with the
 prisoner1 after  calling for the       
,statute ,book1 thus summing up the     
matter3 ,i am sorry1  woman1 that ,i can
 do thee no good4  ,thou must do one of 
these three  things1 viz41 either apply 
thyself to the king1 or sue out his     
pardon1 or  get a writ of error1 which  
last1 he told her1 would be the cheapest
  course--we may feel sure that         
,bunyan's ,petition was not granted     
because  it could not be granted        

legally4  ,the blame of his continued   
imprisonment  lay1 if anywhere1 with the
 law1 not with its administrators4      
,this is not  always borne in mind as it
 ought to be4  ,as ,mr4 ,froude remarks1
 ,persons  often choose to forget that  
judges are sworn to administer the law  
which  they find1 and rail at them as if
 the sentences which they are obliged by
  their oath to pass were their own     
personal acts4  ,it is not surprising   
that ,elizabeth ,bunyan was unable to   
draw this distinction1 and that she     
left the ,swan chamber in tears1 not1   
however1 so much at what she thought    
the judges' hardheartedness to her and  
her husband1 as at the thought  of the  
sad account such poor creatures would   
have to give hereafter1  for what she   
deemed their opposition to ,christ and  
,his gospel4    ,no steps seem to have  
been taken by ,bunyan's wife1 or any of 
his  influential friends1 to carry out  
either of the expedients named by ,hale4
  ,it may have been that the money      

needed was not forthcoming1 or1 what    
,southey remarks is quite               
probable1--because it is certain that   
,bunyan1  thinking himself in conscience
 bound to preach in defiance of the law1
  would soon have made his case worse   
than it then was4    ,at the next       
assizes1 which were held in ,january1   
#affb1 ,bunyan again made  strenuous    
efforts to get his name put on the      
calendar of felons1 that he  might have 
a regular trial before the king's judges
 and be able to plead  his cause in     
person4  ,this1 however1 was effectually
 thwarted by the  unfriendly influence  
of the county magistrates by whom he had
 been  committed1 and the ,clerk of the 
,peace1 ,mr4 ,cobb1 who having failed in
 his  kindly meant attempt to induce    
,neighbour ,bunyan to conform1 had      
turned  bitterly against him and become 
one of his chief enemies4  ,thus1 writes
  ,bunyan1 was ,i hindered and prevented
 at that time also from appearing       
before the judge1 and left in prison4   

,of this prison1 the county gaol  of    
,bedford1 he remained an inmate1 with   
one1 short interval in #afff1 for  the  
next twelve years1 till his release by  
order of the ,privy ,council1  ,may #ag1
 #afgb4          ,,chapter ,,vi4        
,the exaggeration of the severity of    
,bunyan's imprisonment long current1    
now that the facts are better known1 has
 led1 by a very intelligible  reaction1 
to an undue depreciation of it4  ,mr4   
,froude thinks that his  incarceration  
was intended to be little more than     
nominal1 and was  really meant in       
kindness by the authorities who         
respected his  character1 as the best   
means of preventing him from getting    
himself into  greater trouble by        
repeating an offence that would compel  
them to adopt  harsh measures which they
 were earnestly trying to avoid4  ,if   
convicted  again he must be transported1
 and they were unwilling to drive him   
out  of the country4  ,it is1 however1  
to be feared that it was no such kind   

consideration for the tinker-preacher   
which kept the prison doors closed  on  
,bunyan4  ,to the justices he was simply
 an obstinate law-breaker1 who  must be 
kept in prison as long as he refused    
compliance with the ,act4  ,if  he      
rotted in gaol1 as so many of his fellow
 sufferers for conscience'  sake did in 
those unhappy times1 it was no concern  
of theirs4  ,he and his  stubbornness   
would be alone to blame4    ,it is      
certainly true that during a portion of 
his captivity1 ,bunyan1 in  ,dr4        
,brown's words1 had an amount of liberty
 which in the case of a  prisoner       
nowadays would be simply impossible4    
,but the mistake has been  made of      
extending to the whole period an        
indulgence which belonged only  to a    
part1 and that a very limited part of   
it4  ,when we are told that  ,bunyan was
 treated as a prisoner at large1 and    
like one on parole1 free  to come and go
 as he pleased1 even as far as ,london1 
we must remember  that ,bunyan's own    

words expressly restrict this indulgence
 to the six  months between the ,autumn 
,assizes of #affa and the ,spring       
,assizes of #affb4  ,between these two  
assizes1 he says1 ,i had by my jailer   
some liberty  granted me more than at   
the first4  ,this liberty was certainly 
of the  largest kind consistent with his
 character of a prisoner4  ,the church  
books show that he was occasionally     
present at their meetings1 and was      
employed on the business of the         
congregation4  ,nay1 even his preaching1
  which was the cause of his            
imprisonment1 was not forbidden4  ,i    
followed1 he says1 writing of this      
period1 my wonted course of  preaching1 
taking all occasions that were put into 
my hand to visit the  people of ,god4   
,but this indulgence was very brief and 
was brought  sharply to an end4  ,it was
 plainly irregular1 and depended on the 
connivance of his jailer4  ,we cannot be
 surprised that when it came to  the    
magistrates' ears--my enemies1 ,bunyan  

rather unworthily calls  them--they were
 seriously displeased4  ,confounding    
,bunyan with the ,fifth  ,monarchy men  
and other turbulent sectaries1 they     
imagined that his visits  to ,london had
 a political object1 to plot1 and raise 
division1 and make  insurrections1      
which1 he honestly adds1 ,god knows was 
a slander4  ,the  jailer was all but    
cast out of his place1 and threatened   
with an  indictment for breach of trust1
 while his own liberty was so seriously 
straitened that he was prohibited even  
to look out at the door4  ,the  last    
time ,bunyan's name appears as present  
at a church meeting is ,october  #bh1   
#affa1 nor do we see it again till      
,october #i1 #affh1 only four years     
before his twelve years term of         
imprisonment expired4    ,but though his
 imprisonment was not so severe1 nor his
 prison quite so  narrow and wretched as
 some word-painters have described them1
 during the  greater part of the time   
his condition was a dreary and painful  

one1  especially when spent1 as it      
sometimes was1 under cruel and          
oppressive  jailers4  ,the enforced     
separation from his wife and children1  
especially  his tenderly loved blind    
daughter1 ,mary1 was a continually      
renewed  anguish to his loving heart4   
,the parting with them1 he writes1 hath 
often been to me as pulling the flesh   
from the bones2 and that not only       
because ,i am somewhat too fond of these
 great mercies1 but also because ,i     
should often have brought to my mind the
 many hardships1 miseries1 and  wants my
 poor family was like to meet with1     
should ,i be taken from them2           
especially my poor blind child1 who lay 
nearer to my heart than all  beside4    
,poor child1 thought ,i1 thou must be   
beaten1 thou must beg1 thou  must suffer
 hunger1 cold1 nakedness1 and a thousand
 calamities1 though ,i  cannot now      
endure the wind should blow on thee4    
,o1 the thoughts of the  hardships my   
blind one might go under would break my 

heart to pieces4  ,he  seemed to himself
 like a man pulling down his house on   
his wife and  children's head1 and yet  
he felt1 ,i must do it2 ,o1 ,i must do  
it4  ,he  was also1 he tells us1 at one 
time1 being but a young prisoner1       
greatly  troubled by the thoughts that  
for aught he could tell1 his            
imprisonment might end at the gallows1  
not so much that he dreaded  death as   
that he was apprehensive that when it   
came to the point1 even if  he made a   
scrabbling shift to clamber up the      
ladder1 he might play the  coward and so
 do discredit to the cause of religion4 
,i was ashamed to  die with a pale face 
and tottering knees for such a cause as 
this4  ,the  belief that his            
imprisonment might be terminated by     
death on the  scaffold1 however         
groundless1 evidently weighed long on   
his mind4  ,the  closing sentences of   
his third prison book1 ,christian       
,behaviour1  published in #affc1 the    
second year of his durance1 clearly     

point to such  an expectation4  ,thus   
have ,i in few words written to you     
before ,i die1  4  4 4 not knowing the  
shortness of my life1 nor the hindrances
 that  hereafter ,i may have of serving 
my ,god and you4  ,the ladder of his    
apprehensions was1 as ,mr4 ,froude has  
said1 an imaginary ladder1 but it  was  
very real to ,bunyan4  ,oft ,i was as if
 ,i was on the ladder with a  rope about
 my neck4  ,the thought of it1 as his   
autobiography shows1  caused him some of
 his deepest searchings of heart1 and   
noblest ventures  of faith4  ,he was    
content to suffer by the hangman's hand 
if thus he  might have an opportunity of
 addressing the crowd that he thought   
would  come to see him die4  ,and if it 
must be so1 if ,god will but convert one
  soul by my very last words1 ,i shall  
not count my life thrown away or  lost4 
,and even when hours of darkness came   
over his soul1 and he was  tempted to   
question the reality of his ,christian  
profession1 and to doubt  whether ,god  

would give him comfort at the hour of   
death1 he stayed  himself up with such  
bold words as these4  ,i was bound1 but 
,he was free4  ,yea1 'twas my duty to   
stand to ,his word whether ,he would    
ever look on me  or no1 or save me at   
the last4  ,if ,god doth not come in1   
thought ,i1 ,i  will leap off the ladder
 even blindfold into ,eternity1 sink or 
swim1 come  heaven1 come hell4  ,lord   
,jesus1 if ,thou wilt catch me1 do4  ,if
 not1 ,i  will venture for ,thy name4   
,bunyan being precluded by his          
imprisonment from carrying on his       
brazier's  craft for the support of his 
wife and family1 and his active spirit  
craving occupation1 he got himself      
taught how to make long tagged  laces1  
many hundred gross of which1 we are told
 by one who first  formed his           
acquaintance in prison1 he made during  
his captivity1 for his  own and his     
family's necessities4  ,while his hands 
were thus busied1  writes ,lord         
,macaulay1 he had often employment for  

his mind and for his  lips4  ,though a  
prisoner he was a preacher still4  ,as  
with ,st4 ,paul in  his ,roman chains1  
the word of ,god was not bound4  ,the   
prisoners for  conscience' sake1 who    
like him1 from time to time1 were cooped
 up in  ,bedford gaol1 including several
 of his brother ministers and some of   
his  old friends among the leading      
members of his own little church1       
furnished  a numerous and sympathetic   
congregation4  ,at one time a body of   
some  sixty1 who had met for worship at 
night in a neighbouring wood1 were      
marched off to gaol1 with their minister
 at their head4  ,but while all  about  
him was in confusion1 his spirit        
maintained its even calm1 and he  could 
at once speak the words of strength and 
comfort that were needed4  ,in the midst
 of the hurry which so many newcomers   
occasioned1 writes  the friend to whom  
we are indebted for the details of his  
prison life1 ,i  have heard ,mr4 ,bunyan
 both preach and pray with that mighty  

spirit of  faith and plerophory of      
,divine assistance that has made me     
stand and  wonder4  ,these sermons      
addressed to his fellow prisoners       
supplied1 in  many cases1 the first     
outlines of the books which1 in rapid   
succession1  flowed from his pen during 
the earlier years of his imprisonment1  
relieving the otherwise insupportable   
tedium of his close confinement4        
,bunyan himself tells us that this was  
the case with regard to his ,holy       
,city1 the first idea of which was borne
 in upon his mind when addressing  his  
brethren in the prison chamber1 nor can 
we doubt that the case was  the same    
with other works of his4  ,to these we  
shall hereafter return4  ,nor was it his
 fellow prisoners only who profited by  
his counsels4  ,in  his ,life and ,death
 of ,mr4 ,badman1 he gives us a story of
 a woman who  came to him when he was in
 prison1 to confess how she had robbed  
her  master1 and to ask his help4  ,hers
 was probably a representative case4    

,the time spared from his handicraft1   
and not employed in religious  counsel  
and exhortation1 was given to study and 
composition4  ,for this  his confinement
 secured him the leisure which otherwise
 he would have  looked for in vain4     
,the few books he possessed he studied  
indefatigably4  ,his library was1 at    
least at one period1 a very limited     
one1--the least  and the best library1  
writes a friend who visited him in      
prison1 that ,i  ever saw1 consisting   
only of two books--the ,bible1 and      
,foxe's ',book of  ,martyrs4'  ,but with
 these two books1 writes ,mr4 ,froude1  
he had no  cause to complain of         
intellectual destitution4  ,bunyan's    
mode of  composition1 though certainly  
exceedingly rapid1--thoughts succeeding 
one  another with a quickness akin to   
inspiration1--was anything but careless4
  ,the limae labor with him was         
unsparing4  ,it was1 he tells us1 first 
with doing1 and then with undoing1 and  
after that with doing again1 that  his  

books were brought to completion1 and   
became what they are1 a mine of         
,evangelical ,calvinism of the richest  
ore1 entirely free from the narrow      
dogmatism and harsh predestinarianism of
 the great ,genevan divine2 books  which
 for clearness of thought1 lucidity of  
arrangement1 felicity of  language1 rich
 even if sometimes homely force of      
illustration1 and  earnestness of piety 
have never been surpassed4    ,bunyan's 
prison life when the first bitterness of
 it was past1 and habit  had done away  
with its strangeness1 was a quiet and it
 would seem1 not an  unhappy one4  ,a   
manly self-respect bore him up and      
forbade his dwelling  on the darker     
features of his position1 or thinking or
 speaking harshly  of the authors of his
 durance4  ,he was1 writes one who saw  
him at this  time1 mild and affable in  
conversation2 not given to loquacity or 
to  much discourse unless some urgent   
occasion required4  ,it was observed he 
never spoke of himself or his parents1  

but seemed low in his own eyes4  ,he    
was never heard to reproach or revile1  
whatever injury he received1 but  rather
 rebuked those who did so4  ,he managed 
all things with such  exactness as if he
 had made it his study not to give      
offence4    ,according to his earliest  
biographer1 ,charles ,doe1 in #afff1 the
 year of  the ,fire of ,london1 after   
,bunyan had lain six years in ,bedford  
gaol1 by  the intercession of some      
interest or power that took pity on his 
sufferings1 he enjoyed a short interval 
of liberty4  ,who these friends  and    
sympathisers were is not mentioned1 and 
it would be vain to  conjecture4  ,this 
period of freedom1 however1 was very    
short4  ,he at once  resumed his old    
work of preaching1 against which the    
laws had become even  more stringent    
during his imprisonment1 and was        
apprehended at a meeting  just as he was
 about to preach a sermon4  ,he had     
given out his text1  ,dost thou believe 
on the ,son of ,god8 7,john ix4 #ce71   

and was standing  with his open ,bible  
in his hand1 when the constable came in 
to take him4  ,bunyan fixed his eyes on 
the man1 who turned pale1 let go his    
hold1 and  drew back1 while ,bunyan     
exclaimed1 ,see how this man trembles at
 the word  of ,god6  ,this is all we    
know of his second arrest1 and even this
 little  is somewhat doubtful4  ,the    
time1 the place1 the circumstances1 are 
as  provokingly vague as much else of   
,bunyan's life4  ,the fact1 however1 is 
certain4  ,bunyan returned to ,bedford  
gaol1 where he spent another six  years1
 until the issuing of the ,declaration  
of ,indulgence early in #afgb  opened   
the long-closed doors1 and he walked out
 a free man1 and with what  he valued   
far more than personal liberty1 freedom 
to deliver ,christ's  message as he     
understood it himself1 none making him  
afraid1 and to  declare to his brother  
sinners what their ,saviour had done for
 them1 and  what he expected them to do 
that they might obtain the salvation ,he

 died  to win4    ,from some unknown    
cause1 perhaps the depressing effect of 
protracted  confinement1 during this    
second six years ,bunyan's pen was far  
less  prolific than during the former   
period4  ,only two of his books are     
dated  in these years4  ,the last of    
these1 ,a ,defence of the ,doctrine of  
,justification by ,faith1 a reply to a  
work of ,edward ,fowler1 afterwards     
,bishop of ,gloucester1 the rector of   
,northill1 was written in hot haste     
immediately before his release1 and     
issued from the press  contemporaneously
 with it1 the prospect of liberty       
apparently breathing  new life into his 
wearied soul4  ,when once ,bunyan became
 a free man  again1 his pen recovered   
its former copiousness of production1   
and the  works by which he has been     
immortalized1 ,the ,pilgrim's           
,progress--which  has been erroneously  
ascribed to ,bunyan's twelve years'     
imprisonment--and  its sequel1 ,the     
,holy ,war1 and the ,life and ,death of 

,mr4 ,badman1 and a  host of more       
strictly theological works1 followed one
 another in rapid  succession4          
,bunyan's second term of imprisonment   
was certainly less severe than that     
which preceded it4  ,at its commencement
 we learn that1 like ,joseph in  ,egypt1
 he found favour in his jailer's eyes1  
who took such pity of his  rigorous     
suffering1 that he put all care and     
trust into his hands4  ,towards the     
close of his imprisonment its rigour was
 still further  relaxed4  ,the ,bedford 
church book begins its record again in  
#afhh1 after  an interval of ominous    
silence of five years1 when the         
persecution was at  the hottest4  ,in   
its earliest entries we find ,bunyan's  
name1 which occurs  repeatedly up to the
 date of his final release in #afgb4    
,not one of these  notices gives the    
slightest allusion of his being a       
prisoner4  ,he is  deputed with others  
to visit and remonstrate with           
backsliding brethren1  and fulfil other 

commissions on behalf of the            
congregation1 as if he were  in the full
 enjoyment of his liberty4  ,this was in
 the two years'  interval between the   
expiration of the ,conventicle ,act1    
,march #b1 #affg-h1  and the passing of 
the new ,act1 styled by ,marvell1 the   
quintessence of  arbitrary malice1      
,april #aa1 #afgj4  ,after a few months 
of hot  persecution1 when a disgraceful 
system of espionage was set on foot and 
the vilest wretches drove a lucrative   
trade as spies on meetingers1 the       
severity greatly lessened4  ,charles    
,,ii4 was already meditating the        
issuing of a ,declaration of            
,indulgence1 and signified his          
disapprobation  of the forceable courses
 in which1 the sad experience of twelve 
years  showed1 there was very little    
fruit4  ,one of the first and most      
notable  consequences of this change of 
policy was ,bunyan's release4    ,mr4   
,offor's patient researches in the      
,state ,paper ,office have proved that  

the ,quakers1 than whom no class of     
sectaries had suffered more severely    
from the persecuting edicts of the      
,crown1 were mainly instrumental in     
throwing open the prison doors to those 
who1 like ,bunyan1 were in bonds  for   
the sake of their religion4  ,gratitude 
to ,john ,groves1 the ,quaker  mate of  
,tattersall's fishing boat1 in which    
,charles had escaped to ,france  after  
the battle of ,worcester1 had something1
 and the untiring advocacy  of ,george  
,whitehead1 the ,quaker1 had still more1
 to do with this act of  royal clemency4
  ,we can readily believe that the      
good-natured ,charles was  not sorry to 
have an opportunity of evidencing his   
sense of former  services rendered at a 
time of his greatest extremity4  ,but   
the main  cause lay much deeper1 and is 
connected with what ,lord ,macaulay     
justly  styles one of the worst acts of 
one of the worst governments that       
,england has ever seen--that of the     
,cabal4  ,our national honour was at    

its lowest ebb4  ,charles had just      
concluded the profligate ,treaty of     
,dover1 by which1 in return for the     
protection he sought from the ,french   
king1 he declared himself a ,roman      
,catholic at heart1 and bound himself to
  take the first opportunity of changing
 the present state of religion in       
,england for a better1 and restoring the
 authority of the ,pope4  ,the          
announcement of his conversion ,charles 
found it convenient to postpone4  ,nor  
could the other part of his engagement  
be safely carried into effect  at once4 
,it called for secret and cautious      
preparation4  ,but to pave the  way for 
it1 by an unconstitutional exercise of  
his prerogative he issued  a            
,declaration of ,indulgence which       
suspended all penal laws against        
whatever sort of ,nonconformists or     
,recusants4  ,the latter were  evidently
 the real object of the indulgence2 the 
former class were only  introduced the  
better to cloke his infamous design4    

,toleration1 however1  was thus at last 
secured1 and the long-oppressed         
,nonconformists hastened  to profit by  
it4  ,ministers returned1 writes ,mr4   
,j4 ,r4 ,green1 after  years of         
banishment1 to their homes and their    
flocks4  ,chapels were re-  opened4     
,the gaols were emptied4  ,men were set 
free to worship ,god after  their own   
fashion4  ,john ,bunyan left the prison 
which had for twelve  years been his    
home4  ,more than three thousand        
licenses to preach were  at once issued4
  ,one of the earliest of these1 dated  
,may #i1 #afgb1 four  months before his 
formal pardon under the ,great ,seal1   
was granted to  ,bunyan1 who in the     
preceding ,january had been chosen their
 minister by  the little congregation at
 ,bedford1 and giving himself up to     
serve  ,christ and ,his ,church in that 
charge1 had received of the elders the  
right hand of fellowship4  ,the place   
licensed for the exercise of  ,bunyan's 
ministry was a barn standing in an      

orchard1 once forming part of  the      
,castle ,moat1 which one of the         
congregation1 ,josias ,roughead1 acting 
for the members of his church1 had      
purchased4  ,the license bears date ,may
  #i1 #afgb4  ,this primitive place of  
worship1 in which ,bunyan preached      
regularly till his death1 was pulled    
down in #agjg1 when a three-ridged      
meeting-house was erected in its place4 
,this in its turn gave way1 in  #ahdi1  
to the existing more seemly chapel1 to  
which the present ,duke of  ,bedford1 in
 #ahgf1 presented a pair of noble bronze
 doors bearing scenes1  in high relief1 
from ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 the work
 of ,mr4 ,frederick  ,thrupp4  ,in the  
vestry are preserved ,bunyan's chair1   
and other relics of  the man who has    
made the name of ,bedford famous to the 
whole civilized  world4                 
,,chapter ,,vii4      ,mr4 ,green has   
observed that ,bunyan found compensation
 for the narrow  bounds of his prison in
 the wonderful activity of his pen4     

,tracts1  controversial treatises1      
poems1 meditations1 his ',grace         
,abounding1' and  his ',holy ,war1'     
followed each other in quick succession4
  ,bunyan's  literary fertility in the  
earlier half of his imprisonment was    
indeed  amazing4  ,even if1 as seems    
almost certain1 we have been hitherto in
  error in assigning the ,first ,part of
 ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress to this      
period1 while the ,holy ,war certainly  
belongs to a later1 the works  which had
 their birth in ,bedford ,gaol during   
the first six years of his  confinement1
 are of themselves sufficient to make   
the reputation of any  ordinary writer4 
,as has been already remarked1 for some 
unexplained  cause1 ,bunyan's gifts as  
an author were much more sparingly      
called into  exercise during the second 
half of his captivity4  ,only two works 
appear  to have been written between    
#afff and his release in #afgb4    ,mr4 
,green has spoken of poems as among the 
products of ,bunyan's pen  during this  

period4  ,the compositions in verse     
belonging to this epoch1  of which there
 are several1 hardly deserve to be      
dignified with so high a  title4  ,at no
 part of his life had ,bunyan much title
 to be called a poet4  ,he did not      
aspire beyond the rank of a versifier1  
who clothed his  thoughts in rhyme or   
metre instead of the more congenial     
prose1 partly  for the pleasure of the  
exercise1 partly because he knew by     
experience  that the lessons he wished  
to inculcate were more likely to be     
remembered  in that form4  ,mr4 ,froude1
 who takes a higher estimate of         
,bunyan's verse  than is commonly held1 
remarks that though it is the fashion to
 apply the  epithet of doggerel to it1  
the sincere and rational meaning which  
pervades his compositions renders such  
an epithet improper4  ,his ear for      
rhythm1 he continues1 though less true  
than in his prose1 is seldom  wholly at 
fault1 and whether in prose or verse1 he
 had the superlative  merit that he     

could never write nonsense4  ,bunyan's  
earliest prison  work1 entitled         
,profitable ,meditations1 was in verse1 
and neither this  nor his later metrical
 ventures before his release--his ,four 
,last  ,things1 his ,ebal and ,gerizim1 
and his ,prison ,meditations--can be    
said to show much poetical power4  ,at  
best he is a mere rhymester1 to  whom   
rhyme and metre1 even when self-chosen1 
were as uncongenial  accoutrements as   
,saul's armour was to ,david4  ,the     
first-named book1  which is entitled a  
,conference between ,christ and a       
,sinner1 in the form  of a poetical     
dialogue1 according to ,dr4 ,brown has  
small literary merit  of any sort4  ,the
 others do not deserve much higher      
commendation4  ,there  is an            
individuality about the ,prison         
,meditations which imparts to it a      
personal interest1 which is entirely    
wanting in the other two works1  which  
may be characterized as metrical        
sermons1 couched in verse of the        

,sternhold and ,hopkins type4  ,a       
specimen or two will suffice4  ,the     
,four  ,last ,things thus opens3--      
,these lines ,i at this time present    
,to all that will them heed1            
,wherein ,i show to what intent     ,god
 saith1 ',convert with speed4'     ,for 
these four things come on apace1        
,which we should know full well1        
,both death and judgment1 and1 in place 
,next to them1 heaven and hell4    ,the 
following lines are from ,ebal and      
,gerizim3--       ,thou art like one    
that hangeth by a thread     ,over the  
mouth of hell1 as one half dead2        
,and oh1 how soon this thread may broken
 be1     ,or cut by death1 is yet       
unknown to thee4     ,but sure it is if 
all the weight of sin1     ,and all that
 ,satan too hath doing been     ,or yet 
can do1 can break this crazy thread1    
',twill not be long before among the    
dead     ,thou tumble do1 as linked fast
 in chains1     ,with them to wait in   
fear for future pains4    ,the poetical 

effusion entitled ,prison ,meditations  
does not in any way  rise above the     
prosaic level of its predecessors4  ,but
 it can be read  with less weariness    
from the picture it presents of         
,bunyan's prison life1  and of the      
courageous faith which sustained him4   
,some unnamed friend1 it  would appear1 
fearing he might flinch1 had written him
 a letter  counselling him to keep his  
head above the flood4  ,bunyan replied  
in  seventy stanzas in ballad measure1  
thanking his correspondent for his  good
 advice1 of which he confesses he stood 
in need1 and which he takes  it kindly  
of him to send1 even though his feet    
stand upon ,mount ,zion1 and  the gaol  
is to him like a hill from which he     
could see beyond this world1  and take  
his fill of the blessedness of that     
which remains for the  ,christian4      
,though in bonds his mind is free1 and  
can wander where it  will4       ,for   
though men keep my outward man          
,within their locks and bars1     ,yet  

by the faith of ,christ1 ,i can         
,mount higher than the stars4           
,meanwhile his captivity is sweetened by
 the thought of what it was that        
brought him there3--       ,i here am   
very much refreshed     ,to think1 when 
,i was out1     ,i preached life1 and   
peace1 and rest1     ,to sinners round  
about4       ,my business then was souls
 to save     ,by preaching grace and    
faith1     ,of which the comfort now ,i 
have     ,and have it shall till death4 
,that was the work ,i was about         
,when hands on me they laid4     ',twas 
this for which they plucked me out      
,and vilely to me said1       ',you     
heretic1 deceiver1 come1     ,to prison 
you must go1     ,you preach abroad1 and
 keep not home1     ,you are the        
,church's foe4'       ,wherefore to     
prison they me sent1     ,where to this 
day ,i lie1     ,and can with very much 
content     ,for my profession die4     
,the prison very sweet to me     ,hath  
been since ,i came here1     ,and so    

would also hanging be     ,if ,god would
 there appear4       ,to them that here 
for evil lie     ,the place is          
comfortless2     ,but not to me1 because
 that ,i     ,lie here for              
righteousness4       ,the truth and ,i  
were both here cast     ,together1 and  
we do     ,lie arm in arm1 and so hold  
fast     ,each other1 this is true4     
,who now dare say we throw away     ,our
 goods or liberty1     ,when ,god's most
 holy ,word doth say     ,we gain thus  
much thereby8    ,it will be seen that  
though ,bunyan's verses are certainly   
not high-class  poetry1 they are very   
far removed from doggerel4  ,nothing    
indeed that  ,bunyan ever wrote1 however
 rugged the rhymes and limping the      
metre1 can  be so stigmatized4  ,the    
rude scribblings on the margins of the  
copy of  the ,book of ,martyrs1 which   
bears ,bunyan's signature on the        
title-pages1  though regarded by        
,southey as undoubtedly his1 certainly  
came from a  later and must less        

instructed pen4  ,and as he advanced in 
his literary  career1 his claim to the  
title of a poet1 though never of the    
highest1  was much strengthened4  ,the  
verses which diversify the narrative in 
the  ,second ,part of ,the ,pilgrim's   
,progress are decidedly superior to     
those  in the ,first ,part1 and some are
 of high excellence4  ,who is ignorant  
of  the charming little song of the     
,shepherd ,boy in the ,valley of        
,humiliation1 in very mean clothes1 but 
with a very fresh and  well-favoured    
countenance1 and wearing more of the    
herb called ,heartsease  in his bosom   
than he that is clad in silk and        
velvet8--       ,he that is down need   
fear no fall2     ,he that is low1 no   
pride2     ,he that is humble1 ever     
shall     ,have ,god to be his guide4   
,i am content with what ,i have1        
,little be it or much1     ,and1 ,lord1 
contentment still ,i crave1     ,because
 ,thou savest such4       ,fulness to   
such a burden is     ,that go on        

,pilgrimage1     ,here little1 and      
hereafter ,bliss     ,is best from age  
to age4    ,bunyan reaches a still      
higher flight in ,valiant-for-,truth's  
song1 later  on1 the ,shakesperian ring 
of which recalls ,amiens' in ,as ,you   
,like ,it1       ,under the greenwood   
tree1     ,who loves to lie with me4 4 4
     ,come hither1 come hither1    and  
has led some to question whether it can 
be ,bunyan's own4  ,the  resemblance1 as
 ,mr4 ,froude remarks1 is too near to be
 accidental4  ,perhaps he may have heard
 the lines1 and the rhymes may have     
clung to  him without his knowing whence
 they came4       ,who would true       
,valour see1     ,let him come hither1  
,one here will constant be1     ,come   
wind1 come weather4     ,there's no     
discouragement     ,shall make him once 
relent     ,his first avowed intent     
,to be a ,pilgrim4       ,who so beset  
him round     ,with dismal stories1     
,do but themselves confound     ,his    
strength the more is4     ,no lion can  

him fright1     ,he'll with a giant     
fight1     ,but he will have a right    
,to be a ,pilgrim4       ,hobgoblin nor 
foul fiend     ,can daunt his spirit1   
,he knows he at the end     ,shall life 
inherit4     ,then fancies fly away     
,he'll fear not what men say1     ,he'll
 labour night and day     ,to be a      
,pilgrim4    ,all readers of ,the       
,pilgrim's ,progress and ,the ,holy ,war
 are familiar  with the long metrical   
compositions giving the history of these
 works by  which they are prefaced and  
the latter work is closed4  ,no more    
characteristic examples of ,bunyan's    
muse can be found4  ,they show his      
excellent command of his native tongue  
in racy vernacular1 homely but  never   
vulgar1 and his power of expressing his 
meaning with sharp defined  outlines and
 without the waste of a word4    ,take  
this account of his perplexity1 when the
 ,first ,part of his  ,pilgrim's        
,progress was finished1 whether it      
should be given to the  world or no1 and

 the characteristic decision with which 
he settled the  question for himself3-- 
,well1 when ,i had then put mine ends   
together1     ,i show'd them others that
 ,i might see whether     ,they would   
condemn them1 or them justify2     ,and 
some said ,let them live2 some1 ,let    
them die4     ,some said1 ,john1 print  
it2 others said1 ,not so2     ,some said
 it might do good2 others said ,no4     
,now was ,i in a strait1 and did not see
     ,which was the best thing to be    
done by me2     ,at last ,i thought     
since you are thus divided     ,i print 
it will2 and so the case decided2    or 
the lines in which he introduces the    
,second ,part of the ,pilgrim to the    
readers of the former part3--       ,go 
now1 my little ,book1 to every place    
,where my first ,pilgrim hath but shown 
his face3     ,call at their door3 ,if  
any say1 ',who's there8'     ,then      
answer that ,christiana is here4     ,if
 they bid thee come in1 then enter thou 
,with all thy boys4  ,and then1 as thou 

knowest how1     ,tell who they are1    
also from whence they came2     ,perhaps
 they'll know them by their looks or    
name4     ,but if they should not1 ask  
them yet again     ,if formerly they did
 not entertain     ,one ,christian1 a   
pilgrim4  ,if they say     ,they did1   
and were delighted in his way3     ,then
 let them know that these related are   
,unto him1 yea1 his wife and children   
are4     ,tell them that they have left 
their house and home1     ,are turned   
,pilgrims1 seek a world to come2        
,that they have met with hardships on   
the way1     ,that they do meet with    
troubles night and day4    ,how racy1   
even if the lines are a little halting1 
is the defence of the  genuineness of   
his ,pilgrim in ,the ,advertisement to  
the ,reader at the  end of ,the ,holy   
,war4       ,some say the ,pilgrim's    
,progress is not mine1     ,insinuating 
as if ,i would shine     ,in name or    
fame by the worth of another1     ,like 
some made rich by robbing of their      

brother2     ,or that so fond ,i am of  
being sire     ,i'll father bastards2 or
 if need require1     ,i'll tell a lie  
or print to get applause4     ,i scorn  
it4  ,john such dirt-heap never was     
,since ,god converted him4 4 4          
,witness my name1 if anagram'd to thee  
,the letters make ,nu hony in a ,b4     
,,iohn ,,bunyan4    ,how full of life   
and vigour his sketch of the            
beleaguerment and  deliverance of       
,mansoul1 as a picture of his own       
spiritual experience1  in the           
introductory verses to ,the ,holy       
,war6--       ,for my part ,i1 myself1  
was in the town1     ,both when 'twas   
set up1 and when pulling down2     ,i   
saw ,diabolus in possession1     ,and   
,mansoul also under his oppression4     
,yes1 ,i was there when she crowned him 
for lord1     ,and to him did submit    
with one accord4     ,when ,mansoul     
trampled upon things divine1     ,and   
wallowed in filth as doth a swine1      
,when she betook herself unto her arms1 

,fought her ,emmanuel1 despised his     
charms3     ,then ,i was there1 and did 
rejoice to see     ,diabolus and        
,mansoul so agree4     ,i saw the       
prince's armed men come down     ,by    
troops1 by thousands1 to besiege the    
town1     ,i saw the captains1 heard the
 trumpets sound1     ,and how his forces
 covered all the ground1     ,yea1 how  
they set themselves in battle array1    
,i shall remember to my dying day4      
,bunyan's other essays in the domain of 
poetry need not detain us long4  ,the   
most considerable of these--at least in 
bulk--if it be really his1 is  a version
 of some portions of the ,old and ,new  
,testaments3 the life of  ,joseph1 the  
,book of ,ruth1 the history of ,samson1 
the ,book of ,jonah1 the  ,sermon on the
 ,mount1 and the ,general ,epistle of   
,st4 ,james4  ,the attempt  to do the   
,english ,bible into verse has been     
often made and never  successfully3 in  
the nature of things success in such a  
task is  impossible1 nor can this       

attempt be regarded as happier than that
 of  others4  ,mr4 ,froude indeed1 who  
undoubtingly accepts their genuineness1 
is of a different opinion4  ,he styles  
the ,book of ,ruth and the ,history  of 
,joseph beautiful idylls1 of such high  
excellence that1 if we found  them in   
the collected works of a poet laureate1 
we should consider that a  difficult    
task had been accomplished successfully4
  ,it would seem almost  doubtful       
whether ,mr4 ,froude can have read the  
compositions that he  commends so       
largely1 and so much beyond their merit4
  ,the following  specimen1 taken       
haphazard1 will show how thoroughly     
,bunyan or the  rhymester1 whoever he   
may be1 has overcome what ,mr4 ,froude  
regards as an  almost insuperable       
difficulty1 and has managed to spoil    
completely the  faultless prose of the  
,english translation3--       ,ruth     
replied1     ,intreat me not to leave   
thee or return2     ,for where thou     
goest ,i'll go1 where thou sojourn      

,i'll sojourn also--and what people's   
thine1     ,and who thy ,god1 the same  
shall both be mine4     ,where thou     
shalt die1 there will ,i die likewise1  
,and ,i'll be buried where thy body     
lies4     ,the ,lord do so to me and    
more if ,i     ,do leave thee or forsake
 thee till ,i die4    ,the more we read 
of these poems1 not given to the world  
till twelve years  after ,bunyan's      
death1 and that by a publisher who was a
 repeated  offender against the laws of 
honest dealing1 the more we are inclined
 to  agree with ,dr4 ,brown1 that the   
internal evidence of their style renders
  their genuineness at the least        
questionable4  ,in the dull prosaic     
level  of these compositions there is   
certainly no trace of the force and     
power always present in ,bunyan's rudest
 rhymes1 still less of the dash  of     
genius and the sparkle of soul which    
occasionally discover the hand  of a    
master4    ,of the authenticity of      
,bunyan's ,divine ,emblems1 originally  

published  three years after his death  
under the title of ,country ,rhymes for 
,children1 there is no question4  ,the  
internal evidence confirms the          
external4  ,the book is thoroughly in   
,bunyan's vein1 and in its homely       
naturalness of imagery recalls the      
similitudes of the ,interpreter's       
,house1 especially those expounded to   
,christiana and her boys4  ,as in  that 
house of imagery things of the most     
common sort1 the sweeping of a  room1   
the burning of a fire1 the drinking of a
 chicken1 a robin with a  spider in his 
mouth1 are made the vehicle of religious
 teaching2 so in  this ,book for ,boys  
and ,girls1 a mole burrowing in the     
ground1 a swallow  soaring in the air1  
the cuckoo which can do nothing but     
utter two notes1  a flaming and a       
blinking candle1 or a pound of candles  
falling to the  ground1 a boy chasing a 
butterfly1 the cackling of a hen when   
she has  laid her egg1 all1 to his      
imaginative mind1 set forth some        

spiritual  truth or enforce some        
wholesome moral lesson4  ,how racy1     
though homely1  are these lines on a    
,frog6--       ,the ,frog by nature is  
but damp and cold1     ,her mouth is    
large1 her belly much will hold1        
,she sits somewhat ascending1 loves to  
be     ,croaking in gardens1 though     
unpleasantly4       ,the hypocrite is   
like unto this ,frog1     ,as like as is
 the puppy to the dog4     ,he is of    
nature cold1 his mouth is wide     ,to  
prate1 and at true goodness to deride4  
,and though this world is that which he 
doth love1     ,he mounts his head as if
 he lived above4     ,and though he     
seeks in churches for to croak1     ,he 
neither seeketh ,jesus nor ,his yoke4   
,there is some real poetry in those on  
the ,cuckoo1 though we may be  inclined 
to resent his harsh treatment of our    
universal favourite3--       ,thou booby
 says't thou nothing but ,cuckoo8       
,the robin and the wren can that outdo4 
,they to us play thorough their little  

throats     ,not one1 but sundry pretty 
tuneful notes4     ,but thou hast       
fellows1 some like thee can do          
,little but suck our eggs1 and sing     
,cuckoo4       ,thy notes do not first  
welcome in our spring1     ,nor dost    
thou its first tokens to us bring4      
,birds less than thee by far like       
prophets do     ,tell us 'tis coming1   
though not by ,cuckoo1     ,nor dost    
thou summer bear away with thee         
,though thou a yawling bawling ,cuckoo  
be4     ,when thou dost cease among us  
to appear1     ,then doth our harvest   
bravely crown our year4     ,but thou   
hast fellows1 some like thee can do     
,little but suck our eggs1 and sing     
,cuckoo4       ,since ,cuckoos forward  
not our early spring     ,nor help with 
notes to bring our harvest in1     ,and 
since while here1 she only makes a noise
     ,so pleasing unto none as girls and
 boys1     ,the ,formalist we may       
compare her to1     ,for he doth suck   
our eggs and sing ,cuckoo4    ,a perusal

 of this little volume with its         
roughness and quaintness1  sometimes    
grating on the ear but full of strong   
thought and picturesque  images1 cannot 
fail to raise ,bunyan's pretensions as a
 poet4  ,his muse1  it is true1 as      
,alexander ,smith has said1 is a homely 
one4  ,she is clad  in russet1 wears    
shoes and stockings1 has a country      
accent1 and walks  along the level      
,bedfordshire roads4  ,but if the lines 
are unpolished1  they have pith and     
sinew1 like the talk of a shrewd        
peasant1 with the  strong thought and   
the knack of the skilled workman who can
 drive by a  single blow the nail home  
to the head4    ,during his imprisonment
 ,bunyan's pen was much more fertile in 
prose than  in poetry4  ,besides his    
world-famous ,grace ,abounding1 he      
produced  during the first six years of 
his gaol life a treatise on prayer1     
entitled ,praying in the ,spirit2 a book
 on ,christian ,behaviour1  setting     
forth with uncompromising plainness the 

relative duties of  husbands and wives1 
parents and children1 masters and       
servants1 by which  those who profess a 
true faith are bound to show forth its  
reality and  power2 the ,holy ,city1 an 
exposition of the vision in the closing 
chapters of the ,book of ,revelation1   
brilliant with picturesque  description 
and rich in suggestive thought1 which1  
he tells us1 had its  origin in a sermon
 preached by him to his brethren in     
bonds in their  prison chamber2 and a   
work on the ,resurrection of the ,dead  
and ,eternal  ,judgment4  ,on these     
works we may not linger4  ,there is not 
one of them  which is not marked by     
vigour of thought1 clearness of         
language1 accuracy  of arrangement1 and 
deep spiritual experience4  ,nor is     
there one which  does not here and there
 exhibit specimens of ,bunyan's         
picturesque  imaginative power1 and his 
command of forcible and racy language4  
,each  will reward perusal4  ,his work  
on ,prayer is couched in the most       

exalted  strain1 and is evidently the   
production of one who by long and       
agonizing  experience had learnt the    
true nature of prayer1 as a pouring out 
of the  soul to ,god1 and a wrestling   
with ,him until the blessing1 delayed   
not  denied1 is granted4  ,it is1       
however1 unhappily deformed by much     
ignorant  reviling of the ,book of      
,common ,prayer4  ,he denounces it as   
taken out of  the papistical mass-book1 
the scraps and fragments of some popes1 
some  friars1 and ,i know not what2 and 
ridicules the order of service it       
propounds to the worshippers4  ,they    
have the matter and the manner of  their
 prayer at their fingers' ends2 they set
 such a prayer for such a  day1 and that
 twenty years before it comes3 one for  
,christmas1 another  for ,easter1 and   
six days after that4  ,they have also   
bounded how many  syllables must be said
 in every one of them at their public   
exercises4  ,for each saint's day also  
they have them ready for the generations

 yet  unborn to say4  ,they can tell you
 also when you shall kneel1 when you    
shall stand1 when you should abide in   
your seats1 when you should go up  into 
the chancel1 and what you should do when
 you come there4  ,all which  the       
apostles came short of1 as not being    
able to compose so profound a  manner4  
,this bitter satirical vein in treating 
of sacred things is  unworthy of its    
author1 and degrading to his sense of   
reverence4  ,it has  its excuse in the  
hard measure he had received from those 
who were so  unwisely endeavouring to   
force the ,prayer ,book on a generation 
which had  largely forgotten it4  ,in   
his mind1 the men and the book were     
identified1  and the unchristian        
behaviour of its advocates blinded his  
eyes to its  merits as a guide to       
devotion4  ,bunyan1 when denouncing     
forms in worship1  forgot that the same 
apostle who directs that in our public  
assemblies  everything should be done to
 edification1 directs also that         

everything  should be done decently and 
in order4    ,by far the most important 
of these prison works--,the ,pilgrim's  
,progress1 belonging1 as will be seen1  
to a later period--is the ,grace        
,abounding1 in which with inimitable    
earnestness and simplicity ,bunyan      
gives the story of his early life and   
his religious history4  ,this book1  if 
he had written no other1 would stamp    
,bunyan as one of the greatest  masters 
of the ,english language of his own or  
any other age4  ,in graphic  delineation
 of the struggles of a conscience       
convicted of sin towards a  hardly won  
freedom and peace1 the alternations of  
light and darkness1 of  hope and        
despair1 which chequered its course1 its
 morbid self-torturing  questionings of 
motive and action1 this work of the     
travelling tinker1 as  a spiritual      
history1 has never been surpassed4  ,its
 equal can hardly be  found1 save       
perhaps in the ,confessions of ,st4     
,augustine4  ,these1  however1 though   

describing a like spiritual conflict1   
are couched in a  more cultured style1  
and rise to a higher metaphysical region
 than ,bunyan  was capable of attaining 
to4  ,his level is a lower one1 but on  
that level  ,bunyan is without a rival4 
,never has the history of a soul        
convinced of  the reality of eternal    
perdition in its most terrible form as  
the most  certain of all possible facts1
 and of its own imminent danger of      
hopeless1 irreversible doom--seeing     
itself1 to employ his own image1        
hanging1 as it were1 over the pit of    
hell by a thin line1 which might  snap  
any moment--been portrayed in more      
nervous and awe-inspiring  language4    
,and its awfulness is enhanced by its   
self-evident truth4  ,bunyan was drawing
 no imaginary picture of what others    
might feel1 but  simply telling in plain
 unadorned language what he had felt4   
,the  experience was a very tremendous  
reality to him4  ,like ,dante1 if he had
  not actually been in hell1 he had been

 on the very threshold of it2 he  had in
 very deed traversed the ,valley of the 
,shadow of ,death1 had heard  its       
hideous noises1 and seen the ,hobgoblins
 of the ,pit4  ,he spake  what he knew  
and testified what he had seen4  ,every 
sentence breathes  the most tremendous  
earnestness4  ,his words are the        
plainest1 drawn from  his own homely    
vernacular4  ,he says in his preface1   
which will amply  repay reading1 as one 
of the most characteristic specimens of 
his style1  that he could have stepped  
into a higher style1 and adorned his    
narrative  more plentifully4  ,but he   
dared not4  ,god did not play in        
convincing  him4  ,the devil did not    
play in tempting him4  ,he himself did  
not play  when he sunk as into a        
bottomless pit1 and the pangs of hell   
caught hold  on him4  ,nor could he play
 in relating them4  ,he must be plain   
and simple  and lay down the thing as it
 was4  ,he that liked it might receive  
it4  ,he  that did not might produce a  

better4  ,the remembrance of his great  
sins1 his great temptations1 his great  
fears of perishing for ever1  recalled  
the remembrance of his great help1 his  
great support from  heaven1 the great   
grace ,god extended to such a wretch as 
he was4  ,having  thus enlarged on his  
own experience1 he calls on his         
spiritual children1  for whose use the  
work was originally composed and to whom
 it is  dedicated1--those whom ,god had 
counted him worthy to beget to ,faith by
  his ministry in the ,word--to survey  
their own religious history1 to  work   
diligently and leave no corner          
unsearched4  ,he would have them        
remember their tears and prayers to     
,god2 how they sighed under every  hedge
 for mercy4  ,had they never a hill     
,mizar 7,psa4 xlii4 #f7 to remember8    
,had they forgotten the close1 the      
milkhouse1 the stable1 the barn1 where  
,god visited their souls8  ,let them    
remember the ,word on which the ,lord   
had caused them to hope4  ,if they had  

sinned against light1 if they were      
tempted to blaspheme1 if they were down 
in despair1 let them remember  that it  
had been so with him1 their spiritual   
father1 and that out of  them all the   
,lord had delivered him4  ,this         
dedication ends thus3 ,my  dear         
children1 the milk and honey is beyond  
this wilderness4  ,god be  merciful to  
you1 and grant you be not slothful to go
 in to possess the  land4    ,this      
remarkable book1 as we learn from the   
title-page1 was written by  his own hand
 in prison4  ,it was first published by 
,george ,larkin in  ,london1 in #afff1  
the sixth year of his imprisonment1 the 
year of the ,fire  of ,london1 about the
 time that he experienced his first     
brief release4  ,as  with ,the          
,pilgrim's ,progress1 the work grew in  
picturesque detail and  graphic power in
 the author's hand after its first      
appearance4  ,the later  editions supply
 some of the most interesting personal  
facts contained in  the narrative1 which

 were wanting when it first issued from 
the press4  ,his two escapes from       
drowning1 and from the supposed sting of
 an adder2  his being drawn as a        
soldier1 and his providential           
deliverance from  death2 the graphic    
account of his difficulty in giving up  
bell-ringing at  ,elstow ,church1 and   
dancing on ,sundays on ,elstow          
,green--these and other  minor touches  
which give a life and colour to the     
story1 which we should  be very sorry to
 lose1 are later additions4  ,it is     
impossible to over-  estimate the value 
of the ,grace ,abounding1 both for the  
facts of  ,bunyan's earlier life and for
 the spiritual experience of which these
  facts were1 in his eyes only the      
outward framework4  ,beginning with his 
parentage and boyhood1 it carries us    
down to his marriage and life in the    
wayside-cottage at ,elstow1 his         
introduction to ,mr4 ,gifford's         
congregation  at ,bedford1 his joining  
that holy brotherhood1 and his          

subsequent call to  the work of the     
ministry among them1 and winds up with  
an account of his  apprehension1        
examinations1 and imprisonment in       
,bedford gaol4  ,the work  concludes    
with a report of the conversation       
between his noble-hearted  wife and ,sir
 ,matthew ,hale and the other judges at 
the ,midsummer assizes1  narrated in a  
former chapter1 taken down1 he says1    
from her own  mouth4  ,the whole story  
is of such sustained interest that our  
chief  regret on finishing it is that it
 stops where it does1 and does not go on
  much further4  ,its importance for our
 knowledge of ,bunyan as a man1 as      
distinguished from an author1 and of the
 circumstances of his life1 is  seen by 
a comparison of our acquaintance with   
his earlier and with his  later years4  
,when he laid down his pen no one took  
it up1 and beyond two  or three facts1  
and a few hazy anecdotes we know little 
or nothing of all  that happened between
 his final release and his death4       

,the value of the ,grace ,abounding1    
however1 as a work of experimental      
religion may be easily over-estimated4  
,it is not many who can study  ,bunyan's
 minute history of the various stages of
 his spiritual life with  real profit4  
,to some temperaments1 especially among 
the young1 the book  is more likely to  
prove injurious than beneficial2 it is  
calculated  rather to nourish morbid    
imaginations1 and a dangerous habit of  
introspection1 than to foster the quiet 
growth of the inner life4  ,bunyan's    
unhappy mode of dealing with the ,bible 
as a collection of texts1  each of      
,divine authority and declaring a       
definite meaning entirely  irrespective 
of its context1 by which the words hide 
the ,word1 is also  utterly destructive 
of the true purpose of the ,holy        
,scriptures as a  revelation of ,god's  
loving and holy mind and will4  ,few    
things are more  touching than the      
eagerness with which1 in his intense    
self-torture1  ,bunyan tried to evade   

the force of those fearful and terrible 
,scriptures which appeared to seal his  
condemnation1 and to lay hold of  the   
promises to the penitent sinner4  ,his  
tempest-tossed spirit could  only find  
rest by doing violence to the dogma1    
then universally accepted  and not quite
 extinct even in our own days1 that the 
authority of the  ,bible--that ,divine  
,library--collectively taken1 belongs to
 each and  every sentence of the ,bible 
taken for and by itself1 and that1 in   
,coleridge's words1 detached sentences  
from books composed at the  distance of 
centuries1 nay1 sometimes at a millenium
 from each other1  under different      
dispensations and for different objects1
 are to be  brought together into       
logical dependency4  ,but where the     
,spirit of the  ,lord is there is       
liberty4  ,the divinely given life in   
the soul of man  snaps the bonds of     
humanly-constructed logical systems4    
,only those1  however1 who have known by
 experience the force of ,bunyan's      

spiritual  combat1 can fully appreciate 
and profit by ,bunyan's narrative4  ,he 
tells  us on the title-page that it was 
written for the support of the weak and 
tempted people of ,god4  ,for such the  
,grace ,abounding to the chief of       
sinners will ever prove most valuable4  
,those for whom it was intended  will   
find in it a message--of comfort and    
strength4    ,as has been said1         
,bunyan's pen was almost idle during the
 last six years  of his imprisonment4   
,only two of his works were produced in 
this period3  his ,confession of ,faith1
 and his ,defence of the ,doctrine of   
,justification by ,faith4  ,both were   
written very near the end of his  prison
 life1 and published in the same year1  
#afgb1 only a week or two  before his   
release4  ,the object of the former work
 was1 as ,dr4 ,brown  tells us1 to      
vindicate his teaching1 and if possible1
 to secure his  liberty4  ,writing as   
one in bonds for the ,gospel1 his       
professed  principles1 he asserts1 are  

faith1 and holiness springing therefrom1
  with an endeavour so far as in him    
lies to be at peace with all men4  ,he  
is ready to hold communion with all     
whose principles are the same2 with  all
 whom he can reckon as children of ,god4
  ,with these he will not  quarrel about
 things that are circumstantial1 such as
 water baptism1  which he regards as    
something quite indifferent1 men being  
neither the  better for having it1 nor  
the worse for having it not4  ,he will  
receive  them in the ,lord as becometh  
saints4  ,if they will not have         
communion  with him1 the neglect is     
theirs not his4  ,but with the openly   
profane and  ungodly1 though1 poor      
people6 they have been christened and   
take the  communion1 he will have no    
communion4  ,it would be a strange      
community1  he says1 that consisted of  
men and beasts4  ,men do not receive    
their  horse or their dog to their      
table2 they put them in a room by       
themselves4  ,as regards forms and      

ceremonies1 he cannot allow his soul  to
 be governed in its approach to ,god by 
the superstitious inventions of  this   
world4  ,he is content to stay in prison
 even till the moss grows on  his       
eyelids rather than thus make of his    
conscience a continual butchery  and    
slaughter-shop by putting out his eyes  
and committing himself to the  blind to 
lead him4  ,eleven years' imprisonment  
was a weighty argument to  pause and    
pause again over the foundation of the  
principles for which he  had thus       
suffered4  ,those principles he had     
asserted at his trial1 and in  the      
tedious tract of time since then he had 
in cold blood examined them  by the     
,word of ,god and found them good2 nor  
could he dare to revolt from  or deny   
them on pain of eternal damnation4      
,the second-named work1 the ,defence of 
the ,doctrine of ,justification by      
,faith1 is entirely controversial4  ,the
 ,rev4 ,edward ,fowler1 afterwards      
,bishop of ,gloucester1 then ,rector of 

,northill1 had published in the early   
part of #afga1 a book entitled ,the     
,design of ,christianity4  ,a copy      
having found its way into ,bunyan's     
hands1 he was so deeply stirred by  what
 he deemed its subversion of the true   
foundation of ,evangelical  religion    
that he took up his pen and in the space
 of six weeks composed a  long and      
elaborate examination of the book1      
chapter by chapter1 and a  confutation  
of its teaching4  ,fowler's doctrines as
 ,bunyan understood  them--or rather    
misunderstood them--awoke the worst side
 of his impetuous  nature4  ,his        
vituperation of the author and his book 
is coarse and  unmeasured4  ,he roundly 
charges ,fowler with having closely1    
privily1 and  devilishly turned the     
grace of ,god into a licentious         
doctrine1  bespattering it with giving  
liberty to lasciviousness2 and he calls 
him  a pretended minister of the ,word1 
who1 in his cursed blasphemous book     
vilely exposes to public view the       

rottenness of his heart1 in principle   
diametrically opposite to the simplicity
 of the ,gospel of ,christ1 a  glorious 
latitudinarian that can1 as to religion1
 turn and twist like an  eel on the     
angle1 or rather like the weathercock   
that stands on the  steeple2 and        
describes him as contradicting the      
wholesome doctrine of  the ,church of   
,england4  ,he knows him not by face    
much less his personal  practise4  ,he  
may have kept himself clear of the      
ignorant ,sir ,johns who  had for a long
 time1 as a judgment of ,god1 been made 
the mouth to the  people--men of        
debauched lives who for the love of     
filthy lucre and the  pampering of their
 idle carcases had made shipwreck of    
their former  faith2 but he does know   
that having been ejected as a           
,nonconformist in  #affb1 he had        
afterwards gone over to the winning     
side1 and he fears that  such an        
unstable weathercock spirit as he had   
manifested would stumble  the work and  

give advantage to the adversary to speak
 vilifyingly of  religion4  ,no excuse  
can be offered for the coarse violence  
of ,bunyan's  language in this book2 but
 it was too much the habit of the time  
to load  a theological opponent with    
vituperation1 to push his assertions to 
the  furthest extreme1 and make the most
 unwarrantable deductions from them4    
,it must be acknowledged that ,bunyan   
does not treat ,fowler and his          
doctrines with fairness1 and that1 if   
the latter may be thought to  depreciate
 unduly the sacrifice of the ,death of  
,christ as an expiation  for man's      
guilt1 and to lay too great a stress on 
the moral faculties  remaining in the   
soul after the ,fall1 ,bunyan errs still
 more widely on  the other side in      
asserting the absolute1 irredeemable    
corruption of  human nature1 leaving    
nothing for grace to work upon1 but     
demanding an  absolutely fresh creation1
 not a revivification of the ,divine    
nature  grievously marred but not       

annihilated by ,adam's sin4    ,a reply 
to ,bunyan's severe strictures was not  
slow to appear4  ,the book  bears the   
title1 characteristic of the tone and   
language of its contents1  of ,dirt     
wip't off2 or1 a manifest discovery of  
the ,gross ,ignorance1  ,erroneousness1 
and most ,unchristian and ,wicked       
,spirit of one ,john ,bunyan1           
,lay-preacher in ,bedford4  ,it         
professes to be written by a friend of  
,fowler's1 but ,fowler was generally    
accredited with it4  ,its violent       
tirades against one who1 he says1 had   
been near these twenty years or  longer 
very infamous in the ,town and ,county  
of ,bedford as a very  ,pestilent       
,schismatick1 and whom he suggests the  
authorities have done  wrong in letting 
out of prison1 and had better clap in   
gaol again as an  impudent and malicious
 ,firebrand1 have long since been       
consigned to a  merciful oblivion1 where
 we may safely leave them4              
,,chapter ,,viii4      ,bunyan's        

protracted imprisonment came to an end  
in #afgb4  ,the exact date  of his      
actual liberation is uncertain4  ,his   
pardon under the ,great ,seal  bears    
date ,september #acth4  ,but we find    
from the church books that he had  been 
appointed pastor of the congregation to 
which he belonged as early  as the #bast
 of ,january of that year1 and on the   
#ith of ,may his  ministerial position  
was duly recognized by the ,government1 
and a license  was granted to him to act
 as preacher in the house of ,josias    
,roughead1  for those of the ,persuasion
 commonly called ,congregational4  ,his 
release would therefore seem to have    
anticipated the formal issue of his     
pardon by four months4  ,bunyan was now 
half way through his forty-fourth  year4
  ,sixteen years still remained to him  
before his career of  indefatigable     
service in the ,master's work was       
brought to a close4  ,of  these sixteen 
years1 as has already been remarked1 we 
have only a very  general knowledge4    

,details are entirely wanting2 nor is   
there any known  source from which they 
can be recovered4  ,if he kept any diary
 it has not  been preserved4  ,if he    
wrote letters--and one who was looked up
 to by so  large a circle of disciples  
as a spiritual father and guide1 and    
whose  pen was so ready of exercise1    
cannot fail to have written many--not   
one  has come down to us4  ,the pages of
 the church books during his pastorate  
are also provokingly barren of record1  
and little that they contain is in      
,bunyan's handwriting4  ,as ,dr4 ,brown 
has said1 he seems to have been too     
busy to keep any records of his busy    
life4  ,nor can we fill up the blank    
from external authorities4  ,the        
references to ,bunyan in contemporary   
biographies are far fewer than we might 
have expected2 certainly far  fewer than
 we could have desired4  ,but the little
 that is recorded is  eminently         
characteristic4  ,we see him constantly 
engaged in the great  work to which he  

felt ,god had called him1 and for which1
 with much  content through grace1 he   
had suffered twelve years'              
incarceration4  ,in  addition to the    
regular discharge of his pastoral duties
 to his own  congregation1 he took a    
general oversight of the villages far   
and near  which had been the scene of   
his earlier ministry1 preaching whenever
  opportunity offered1 and1 ever        
unsparing of his own personal labour1   
making long journeys into distant parts 
of the country for the  furtherance of  
the gospel4  ,we find him preaching at  
,leicester in the  year of his release4 
,reading also is mentioned as receiving 
occasional  visits from him1 and that   
not without peril after the revival of  
persecution2 while the congregations in 
,london had the benefit of his          
exhortations at stated intervals4       
,almost the first thing ,bunyan did1    
after his liberation from gaol1 was to  
make others sharers in his hardly  won  
liberty of prophesying1 by applying to  

the ,government for licenses  for       
preachers and preaching places in       
,bedfordshire and the neighbouring      
counties1 under the ,declaration of     
,indulgence4  ,the still existing list  
sent in to the authorities by him1 in   
his own handwriting1 contains the  names
 of twenty-five preachers and thirty    
buildings1 besides ,josias  ,roughead's 
,house in his orchard at ,bedford4      
,nineteen of these were in  his own     
native county1 three in                 
,northamptonshire1 three in             
,buckinghamshire1 two in                
,cambridgeshire1 two in                 
,huntingdonshire1 and one  in           
,hertfordshire4  ,the places sought to  
be licensed were very various1  barns1  
malthouses1 halls belonging to public   
companies1 c41 but more  usually private
 houses4  ,over these religious         
communities1 bound together  by a common
 faith and common suffering1 ,bunyan    
exercised a  quasi-episcopal            
superintendence1 which gained for him   

the playful title  of ,bishop ,bunyan4  
,in his regular circuits1--visitations  
we may not  improperly term them1--we   
are told that he exerted himself to     
relieve the  temporal wants of the      
sufferers under the penal laws1--so soon
 and so  cruelly revived1--ministered   
diligently to the sick and afflicted1   
and  used his influence in reconciling  
differences between professors of the   
gospel1 and thus prevented the scandal  
of litigation among ,christians4  ,the  
closing period of ,bunyan's life was    
laborious but happy1 spent  honourably  
and innocently in writing1 preaching1   
visiting his  congregations1 and        
planting daughter churches4  ,happy1    
writes ,mr4  ,froude1 in his work2 happy
 in the sense that his influence was    
daily  extending--spreading over his own
 country and to the far-off settlements 
of ,america1--he spent his last years in
 his own land of ,beulah1 ,doubting     
,castle out of sight1 and the towers and
 minarets of ,immanuel's ,land  growing 

nearer and clearer as the days went on4 
,with his time so largely occupied in   
his spiritual functions1 he could  have 
had but small leisure to devote to his  
worldly calling4  ,this1  however1 one  
of so honest and independent a spirit is
 sure not to have  neglected1 it was    
indeed necessary that to a certain      
extent he should  work for his living4  
,he had a family to maintain4  ,his     
congregation were  mostly of the poorer 
sort1 unable to contribute much to their
 pastor's  support4  ,had it been       
otherwise1 ,bunyan was the last man in  
the world to  make a trade of the       
gospel1 and though never hesitating to  
avail himself  of the apostolic         
privilege to live of the gospel1 he1    
like the apostle  of the ,gentiles1     
would never be ashamed to work with his 
own hands1  that he might minister to   
his own necessities1 and those of his   
family4  ,but from the time of his      
release he regarded his ministerial work
 as the  chief work of his life4  ,when 

he came abroad1 says one who knew him1  
he found his temporal affairs were gone 
to wreck1 and he had as to them  to     
begin again as if he had newly come into
 the world4  ,but yet he was  not       
destitute of friends1 who had all along 
supported him with  necessaries and had 
been very good to his family1 so that by
 their  assistance getting things a     
little about him again1 he resolved as  
much  as possible to decline worldly    
business1 and give himself wholly up to 
the service of ,god4  ,the anonymous    
writer to whom we are indebted for      
information concerning his imprisonment 
and his subsequent life1 says  that     
,bunyan1 contenting himself with that   
little ,god had bestowed upon  him1     
sequestered himself from all secular    
employments to follow that of  his call 
to the ministry4  ,the fact1 however1   
that in the deed of gift  of all his    
property to his wife in #afhe1 he still 
describes himself as a  brazier1 puts it
 beyond all doubt that though his       

ministerial duties  were his chief      
concern1 he prudently kept fast hold of 
his handicraft as  a certain means of   
support for himself and those dependent 
on him4  ,on  the whole1 ,bunyan's      
outward circumstances were probably     
easy4  ,his wants  were few and easily  
supplied4  ,having food and raiment for 
himself1 his  wife1 and his children1 he
 was therewith content4  ,the house in  
the  parish of ,st4 ,cuthbert's which   
was his home from his release to his    
death  7unhappily demolished fifty years
 back71 shows the humble character of   
his daily life4  ,it was a small        
cottage1 such as labourers now occupy1  
with three small rooms on the ground    
floor1 and a garret with a  diminutive  
dormer window under the high-pitched    
tiled roof4  ,behind stood  an          
outbuilding which served as his         
workshop4  ,we have a passing glimpse   
of this cottage home in the diary of    
,thomas ,hearne1 the ,oxford antiquary4 
,one ,mr4 ,bagford1 otherwise unknown to

 us1 had once walked into the  country  
on purpose to see the study of ,john    
,bunyan1 and the student  who made it   
famous4  ,on his arrival the            
interviewer--as we should now  call     
him--met with a civil and courteous     
reception from ,bunyan2 but he  found   
the contents of his study hardly larger 
than those of his prison  cell4  ,they  
were limited to a ,bible1 and copies of 
,the ,pilgrim's  ,progress1 and a few   
other books1 chiefly his own works1 all 
lying on a  shelf or shelves4  ,slight  
as this sketch is1 it puts us more in   
touch  with the immortal dreamer than   
many longer and more elaborate          
paragraphs4    ,bunyan's celebrity as a 
preacher1 great before he was shut up in
 gaol1  was naturally enhanced by the   
circumstance of his imprisonment4  ,the 
barn  in ,josias ,roughead's orchard1   
where he was licensed as a preacher1 was
  so thronged the first time he appeared
 there to edify1 that many were         
constrained to stay without2 every one  

that was of his persuasion  striving to 
partake of his instructions4  ,wherever 
he ministered1  sometimes1 when         
troublous days returned1 in woods1 and  
in dells1 and  other hiding-places1 the 
announcement that ,john ,bunyan was to  
preach  gathered a large and attentive  
auditory1 hanging on his lips and       
drinking  from them the word of life4   
,his fame grew the more he was known and
  reached its climax when his work was  
nearest its end4  ,his biographer       
,charles ,doe tells us that just before 
his death1 when ,mr4 ,bunyan  preached  
in ,london1 if there were but one day's 
notice given1 there would  be more      
people come together than the           
meeting-house could hold4  ,i have      
seen1 by my computation1 about twelve   
hundred at a morning lecture by  seven  
o'clock on a working day1 in the dark   
winter time4  ,i also computed  about   
three thousand that came to hear him one
 ,lord's ,day in ,london1 at a          
town's-end meeting-house1 so that half  

were fain to go back again for  want of 
room1 and then himself was fain at a    
back door to be pulled  almost over     
people to get upstairs to his pulpit4   
,this town's-end  meeting house has been
 identified by some with a quaint       
straggling long  building which once    
stood in ,queen ,street1 ,southwark1 of 
which there is  an engraving in         
,wilkinson's ,londina ,illustrata4      
,doe's account1  however1 probably      
points to another building1 as the ,zoar
 ,street meeting-  house was not opened 
for worship till about six months before
 ,bunyan's  death1 and then for         
,presbyterian service4  ,other places in
 ,london  connected with his preaching  
are ,pinners' ,hall in ,old ,broad      
,street1  where1 on one of his          
occasional visits1 he delivered his     
striking sermon  on ,the ,greatness of  
the ,soul and the ,unspeakableness of   
the ,loss  thereof1 first published in  
#afhc2 and ,dr4 ,owen's meeting-house in
  ,white's ,alley1 ,moorfields1 which   

was the gathering-place for titled folk1
  city merchants1 and other             
,nonconformists of position and degree4 
,at  earlier times1 when the penal laws 
against ,nonconformists were in         
vigorous exercise1 ,bunyan had to hold  
his meetings by stealth in private      
houses and other places where he might  
hope to escape the lynx-eyed  informer4 
,it was at one of these furtive meetings
 that his earliest  biographer1 the     
honest combmaker at the foot of ,london 
,bridge1 ,charles  ,doe1 first heard him
 preach4  ,his choice of an ,old        
,testament text at  first offended ,doe1
 who had lately come into ,new          
,testament light and had  had enough of 
the historical and doing-for-favour of  
the ,old ,testament4  ,but as he went on
 he preached so ,new ,testament like    
that his hearer's  prejudices vanished1 
and he could only admire1 weep for joy1 
and give  the preacher his affections4  
,bunyan was more than once urged to     
leave ,bedford and settle in the        

metropolis4  ,but to all these          
solicitations he turned a deaf ear4     
,bedford  was the home of his deepest   
affections4  ,it was there the holy     
words of  the poor women sitting in the 
sun1 speaking as if joy did make them   
speak1 had first made his heart shake1  
and shown him that he was still  a      
stranger to vital godliness4  ,it was   
there he had been brought out of        
darkness into light himself1 and there  
too he had been the means of  imparting 
the same blessing to others4  ,the very 
fact of his long  imprisonment had      
identified him with the town and its    
inhabitants4  ,there  he had a large and
 loving congregation1 to whom he was    
bound by the ties  of a common faith and
 common sufferings4  ,many of these     
recognized in  ,bunyan their spiritual  
father2 all1 save a few of the baser    
sort1  reverenced him as their teacher  
and guide4  ,no prospect of a wider     
field  of usefulness1 still less of a   
larger income1 could tempt him to desert

  his few sheep in the wilderness4      
,some of them1 it is true1 were  wayward
 sheep1 who wounded the heart of their  
pastor by breaking from the  fold1 and  
displaying very un-lamb-like behaviour4 
,he had sometimes to  realize painfully 
that no pale is so close but that the   
enemy will creep  in somewhere and      
seduce the flock2 and that no rules of  
communion1  however strict1 can         
effectually exclude unworthy members4   
,brother ,john  ,stanton had to be      
admonished for abusing his wife and     
beating her often  for very light       
matters 7if the matters had been less   
light1 would the  beating in these days 
have been thought justifiable872 and    
,sister ,mary  ,foskett1 for privately  
whispering of a horrid scandal1 'without
 culler  of truth1' against ,brother    
,honeylove4  ,evil-speaking and         
backbiting set  brother against brother4
  ,dissensions and heartburnings grieved
 ,bunyan's  spirit4  ,he himself was not
 always spared4  ,a letter had to be    

written to  ,sister ,hawthorn by way of 
reproof for her unseemly language       
against  ,brother ,scot and the whole   
,church4  ,john ,wildman was had up     
before the  ,church and convicted of    
being an abominable liar and slanderer1 
extraordinary guilty against our beloved
 ,brother ,bunyan himself4  ,and  though
 ,sister ,hawthorn satisfied the ,church
 by humble acknowledgment of  her       
miscariag1 the bolder misdoer only made 
matters worse by a frothy  letter1 which
 left no alternative but a sentence of  
expulsion4  ,but  though ,bunyan's flock
 contained some whose fleeces were not  
as white as  he desired1 these were the 
exception4  ,the congregation meeting in
 ,josias  ,roughead's barn must have    
been1 take them as a whole1 a quiet1    
,god-fearing1 spiritually-minded folk1  
of whom their pastor could think  with  
thankfulness and satisfaction as his    
hope and joy and crown of  rejoicing4   
,from such he could not be severed      
lightly4  ,inducements  which would have

 been powerful to a meaner nature fell  
dead on his  independent spirit4  ,he   
was not a man that preached by way of   
bargain  for money1 and1 writes ,doe1   
more than once he refused a more        
plentiful  income to keep his station4  
,as ,dr4 ,brown says3 ,he was too deeply
  rooted on the scene of his lifelong   
labours and sufferings to think of      
striking his tent till the command came 
from the ,master to come up to the      
higher service for which he had been    
ripening so long4  ,at ,bedford1        
therefore1 he remained2 quietly staying 
on in his cottage in ,st4  ,cuthbert's1 
and ministering to his humble flock1    
loving and beloved1 as  ,mr4 ,froude    
writes1 through changes of ministry1    
,popish plots1 and  ,monmouth           
rebellions1 while the terror of a       
restoration of ,popery was  bringing on 
the ,revolution2 careless of kings and  
cabinets1 and confident  that ,giant    
,pope had lost his power for harm1 and  
thenceforward could only  bite his nails

 at the passing pilgrims4    ,bunyan's  
peace was not1 however1 altogether      
undisturbed4  ,once it  received a shock
 in a renewal of his imprisonment1      
though only for a  brief period1 in     
#afge1 to which we owe the world-famous 
,pilgrim's  ,progress2 and it was again 
threatened1 though not actually         
disturbed ten  years later1 when the    
renewal of the persecution of the       
,nonconformists  induced him to make    
over all his property--little enough in 
good sooth--to  his wife by deed of     
gift4    ,the former of these events    
demands our attention1 not so much for  
itself  as for its connection with      
,bishop ,barlow's interference in       
,bunyan's  behalf1 and1 still more1 for 
its results in the production of ,the   
,pilgrim's ,progress4  ,until very      
recently the bare fact of this later    
imprisonment1 briefly mentioned by      
,charles ,doe and another of his early  
biographers1 was all that was known to  
us4  ,they even leave the date to  be   

gathered1 though both agree in limiting 
its duration to six months or           
thereabouts4  ,the recent discovery1    
among the ,chauncey papers1 by ,mr4 ,w4 
,g4 ,thorpe1 of the original warrant    
under which ,bunyan was at this time    
sent to gaol1 supplies the missing      
information4  ,it has been already      
noticed that the ,declaration of        
,indulgence1 under which ,bunyan was    
liberated in #afgb1 was very            
short-lived4  ,indeed it barely lasted  
in  force a twelvemonth4  ,granted on   
the #aeth of ,march of that year1 it was
  withdrawn on the #ith of ,march of the
 following year1 at the instance of  the
 ,house of ,commons1 who had taken alarm
 at a suspension of the laws of  the    
realm by the inherent power of the      
sovereign1 without the advice or        
sanction of ,parliament4  ,the          
,declaration was cancelled by ,charles  
,,ii41  the monarch1 it is said1 tearing
 off the ,great ,seal with his own      
hands1 a  subsidy being promised to the 

royal spendthrift as a reward for his   
complaisance4  ,the same year the ,test 
,act became law4  ,bunyan therefore  and
 his fellow ,nonconformists were in a   
position of greater peril1 as far  as   
the letter of the law was concerned1    
than they had ever been4  ,but1 as  ,dr4
 ,stoughton has remarked1 the letter of 
the law is not to be taken as  an       
accurate index of the ,nonconformists'  
condition4  ,the pressure of a  bad law 
depends very much upon the hands        
employed in its administration4         
,unhappily for ,bunyan1 the parties in  
whose hands the execution of the  penal 
statutes against ,nonconformists rested 
in ,bedfordshire were his  bitter       
personal enemies1 who were not likely to
 let them lie inactive4  ,the prime     
mover in the matter was doubtless ,dr4  
,william ,foster1 that  right ,judas    
whom we shall remember holding the      
candle in ,bunyan's face  in the hall of
 ,harlington ,house at his first        
apprehension1 and showing  such feigned 

affection as if he would have leaped on 
his neck and kissed  him4  ,he had some 
time before this become ,chancellor of  
the ,bishop of  ,lincoln1 and           
,commissary of the ,court of the        
,archdeacon of ,bedford1  offices which 
put in his hands extensive powers which 
he had used with  the most relentless   
severity4  ,he has damned himself to    
eternal infamy by  the bitter zeal he   
showed in hunting down ,dissenters1     
inflicting  exorbitant fines1 and       
breaking into their houses and          
distraining their  goods for a full     
discharge1 maltreating their wives and  
daughters1 and  haling the offenders to 
prison4  ,having been chiefly           
instrumental in  ,bunyan's first        
committal to gaol1 he doubtless viewed  
his release with  indignation as the    
leader of the ,bedfordshire sectaries   
who was doing  more mischief to the     
cause of conformity1 which it was his   
province at  all hazards to maintain1   
than any other twenty men4  ,the church 

would  never be safe till he was clapped
 in prison again4  ,the power to do this
  was given by the new proclamation4    
,by this act the licenses to preach     
previously granted to ,nonconformists   
were recalled4  ,henceforward no        
conventicle had any authority1          
allowance1 or encouragement from his    
,majesty4  ,we can easily imagine the   
delight with which ,foster would hail   
the issue of this proclamation4  ,how he
 would read and read again with  ever   
fresh satisfaction its stringent        
clauses4  ,that pestilent fellow1       
,bunyan1 was now once more in his       
clutches4  ,this time there was no      
chance  of his escape4  ,all licences   
were recalled1 and he was absolutely    
defenceless4  ,it should not be         
,foster's fault if he failed to end his 
days in the prison from which he ought  
never to have been released4  ,the      
proclamation is dated the #dth of       
,march1 #afgd-e1 and was published in   
the  ,gazette on the #ith4  ,it would   

reach ,bedford on the #aath4  ,it placed
  ,bunyan at the mercy of his enemies1  
who struck at him forthwith4  ,a        
warrant was issued for his apprehension1
 undoubtedly written by our old  friend1
 ,paul ,cobb1 the clerk of the peace1   
who1 it will be remembered1  had acted  
in the same capacity on ,bunyan's first 
committal4  ,it is dated  the #dth of   
,march1 and bears the signature of no   
fewer than thirteen  magistrates1 ten of
 them affixing their seals4    ,that so 
unusually large a number took part in   
the execution of this  warrant1 is      
sufficient indication of the importance 
attached to ,bunyan's  imprisonment by  
the gentry of the county4  ,the         
following is the  document3--       ,to 
the ,constables of ,bedford and to every
 of them       ,whereas information and 
complaint is made unto us that          
7notwithstanding the ,kings ,majties    
late ,act of most gracious generall     
and free pardon to all his subjects for 
past misdemeanours that by his     said 

clemencie and indulgent grace and favor 
they might bee mooved and     induced   
for the time to come more carefully to  
observe his ,highenes     lawes and     
,statutes and to continue in theire     
loyall and due obedience     to his     
,majtie7 ,yett one ,john ,bunnyon of    
youre said ,towne ,tynker hath          
divers times within one month last past 
in contempt of his ,majtie's     good   
,lawes preached or teached at a         
,conventicle ,meeting or ,assembly      
under color or ptence of exercise of    
,religion in other manner than          
according to the ,liturgie or practiss  
of the ,church of ,england  ,these      
are therefore in his ,majties name to   
comand you forthwith to apprehend       
and bring the ,body of the said ,john   
,bunnion before us or any of us or      
other his ,majties ,justice of ,peace   
within the said ,county to answer       
the premisses and further to doo and    
receave as to ,lawe and ,justice        
shall appertaine and hereof you are not 

to faile4  ,given under our     handes  
and seales this ffourth day of ,march in
 the seven and twentieth     yeare of   
the ,raigne of our most gracious        
,soveraigne ,lord ,king ,charles     the
 ,second  ,a que ,dni41 juxta c #afgd   
,j ,napier     ,w ,beecher     ,g       
,blundell      ,hum3 ,monoux     ,will  
ffranklin     ,john ,ventris     ,will  
,spencer     ,will ,gery       ,st ,jo  
,chernocke          ,wm ,daniels     ,t 
,browne          ,w ffoster     ,gaius  
,squire    ,there would be little delay 
in the execution of the warrant4        
,john ,bunyan was a marked man and an   
old offender1 who1 on his arrest1  would
 be immediately committed for trial4    
,once more1 then1 ,bunyan became  a     
prisoner1 and that1 there can be little 
doubt1 in his old quarters in  the      
,bedford gaol4  ,errors die hard1 and   
those by whom they have been once       
accepted find it difficult to give them 
up4  ,the long-standing tradition  of   
,bunyan's twelve years' imprisonment in 

the little lock-up-house on the  ,ouse  
bridge1 having been scattered to the    
winds by the logic of fact and  common  
sense1 those to whom the story is dear1 
including the latest and  ablest of his 
biographers1 ,dr4 ,brown1 see in this   
second brief  imprisonment a way to     
rehabilitate it4  ,probability pointing 
to this  imprisonment as the time of the
 composition of ,the ,pilgrim's         
,progress1  they hold that on this      
occasion ,bunyan was committed to the   
bridge-gaol1  and that he there wrote   
his immortal work1 though they fail to  
bring  forward any satisfactory reasons 
for the change of the place of his      
confinement4  ,the circumstances1       
however1 being the same1 there can be no
  reasonable ground for questioning     
that1 as before1 ,bunyan was imprisoned 
in the county gaol4    ,this last       
imprisonment of ,bunyan's lasted only   
half as many months as his  former      
imprisonment had lasted years4  ,at the 
end of six months he was  again a free  

man4  ,his release was due to the good  
officers of ,owen1  ,cromwell's         
celebrated chaplain1 with ,barlow1      
,bishop of ,lincoln4  ,the  suspicion   
which hung over this intervention from  
its being erroneously  attributed to his
 release in #afgb1 three years before   
,barlow became a  bishop1 has been      
dispelled by the recently discovered    
warrant4  ,the dates  and circumstances 
are now found to tally4  ,the warrant   
for ,bunyan's  apprehension bears date  
,march #d1 #afge4  ,on the #adth of the 
following ,may  the supple and          
time-serving ,barlow1 after long and    
eager waiting for a  mitre1 was elected 
to the see of ,lincoln vacated by the   
death of ,bishop  ,fuller1 and          
consecrated on the #bgth of ,june4      
,barlow1 a man of very  dubious         
churchmanship1 who had succeeded in     
keeping his university  appointments    
undisturbed all through the             
,commonwealth1 and who was yet  among   
the first with effusive loyalty to      

welcome the restoration of  monarchy1   
had been ,owen's tutor at ,oxford1 and  
continued to maintain  friendly         
relations with him4  ,as bishop of the  
diocese to which  ,bedfordshire then1   
and long after1 belonged1 ,barlow had   
the power1 by the  then existing law1 of
 releasing a prisoner for nonconformity 
on a bond  given by two persons that he 
would conform within half a year4  ,a   
friend  of ,bunyan's1 probably ,ichabod 
,chauncey1 obtained a letter from ,owen 
to  the bishop requesting him to employ 
this prerogative in ,bunyan's behalf4   
,barlow with hollow complaisance        
expressed his particular kindness for   
,dr4  ,owen1 and his desire to deny him 
nothing he could legally grant4  ,he    
would even strain a point to serve him4 
,but he had only just been made a       
bishop1 and what was asked was a new    
thing to him4  ,he desired a little     
time to consider of it4  ,if he could do
 it1 ,owen might be assured of his      
readiness to oblige him4  ,a second     

application at the end of a fortnight   
found this readiness much cooled4  ,it  
was true that on inquiry he found  he   
might do it2 but the times were         
critical1 and he had many enemies4  ,it 
would be safer for him not to take the  
initiative4  ,let them apply to the     
,lord ,chancellor1 and get him to issue 
an order for him to release ,bunyan  on 
the customary bond4  ,then he would do  
what ,owen asked4  ,it was vain to  tell
 ,barlow that the way he suggested was  
chargeable1 and ,bunyan poor4  ,vain    
also to remind him that there was no    
point to be strained4  ,he had          
satisfied himself that he might do the  
thing legally4  ,it was hoped he  would 
remember his promise4  ,but the bishop  
would not budge from the  position he   
had taken up4  ,they had his ultimatum2 
with that they must be  content4  ,if   
,bunyan was to be liberated1 his friends
 must accept ,barlow's  terms4  ,this at
 last was done1 and the poor man was    
released4  ,but  little thanks to the   

bishop4    ,this short six months'      
imprisonment assumes additional         
importance from  the probability1 first 
suggested by ,dr4 ,brown1 which the     
recovery of its  date renders almost a  
certainty1 that it was during this      
period that  ,bunyan began1 if he did   
not complete1 the first part of ,the    
,pilgrim's  ,progress4  ,we know from   
,bunyan's own words that the book was   
begun in  gaol1 and its composition has 
been hitherto unhesitatingly assigned to
  his twelve years' confinement4  ,dr4  
,brown was1 we believe1 the first to    
call this in question4  ,bunyan's       
imprisonment1 we know1 ended in #afgb4  
,the first edition of ,the ,pilgrim's   
,progress did not appear till #afgh4    
,if written during his earlier          
imprisonment1 six years must have       
elapsed  between its writing and its    
publication4  ,but it was not ,bunyan's 
way to  keep his works in manuscript so 
long after their completion4  ,his books
  were commonly put in the printers'    

hands as soon as they were finished4    
,there are no sufficient reasons--though
 some have been suggested--for his      
making an exception to this general     
habit in the case of ,the ,pilgrim's    
,progress4  ,besides we should certainly
 conclude1 from the poetical            
introduction1 that there was little     
delay between the finishing of the  book
 and its being given to the world4      
,after having written the book1 he      
tells us1 simply to gratify himself1    
spending only vacant seasons in  his    
scribble1 to divert himself from worser 
thoughts1 he showed it  to his friends  
to get their opinion whether it should  
be published or  not4  ,but as they were
 not all of one mind1 but some          
counselled one thing  and some another1 
after some perplexity1 he took the      
matter into his own  hands4       ,now  
was ,i in a strait1 and did not see     
,which was the best thing to be done by 
me2     ,at last ,i thought1 ,since you 
are so divided1     ,i print it will1   

and so the case decided4    ,we must    
agree with ,dr4 ,brown that there is a  
briskness about this which1  to say the 
least1 is not suggestive of a six years'
 interval before  publication4  ,the    
break which occurs in the narrative     
after the visit of  the ,pilgrims to the
 ,delectable ,mountains1 which so       
unnecessarily  interrupts the course of 
the story--,so ,i awoke from my dream2  
and ,i  slept and dreamed again--has    
been not unreasonably thought by ,dr4   
,brown  to indicate the point ,bunyan   
had reached when his six months'        
imprisonment ended1 and from which he   
continued the book after his  release4  
,the ,first ,part of ,the ,pilgrim's    
,progress issued from the press in      
#afgh4  ,a second edition followed in   
the same year1 and a third with large   
and  important additions in #afgi4  ,the
 ,second ,part1 after an interval of    
seven  years1 followed early in #afhe4  
,between the two parts appeared two of  
his  most celebrated works--the ,life   

and ,death of ,mr4 ,badman1 published in
  #afhj1 originally intended to supply a
 contrast and a foil to ,the  ,pilgrim's
 ,progress1 by depicting a life which   
was scandalously bad2 and1  in #afhb1   
that which ,macaulay1 with perhaps      
exaggerated eulogy1 has said1  would    
have been our greatest allegory if the  
earlier allegory had never  been        
written1 the ,holy ,war made by ,shaddai
 upon ,diabolus4  ,superior to  ,the    
,pilgrim's ,progress as a literary      
composition1 this last work must  be    
pronounced decidedly inferior to it in  
attractive power4  ,for one who  reads  
the ,holy ,war1 five hundred read the   
,pilgrim4  ,and those who  read it once 
return to it again and again1 with ever 
fresh delight4  ,it  is a book that     
never tires4  ,one or two perusals of   
the ,holy ,war  satisfy3 and even these 
are not without weariness4  ,as ,mr4    
,froude has  said1 ,the ',holy ,war'    
would have entitled ,bunyan to a place  
among the  masters of ,english          

literature4  ,it would never have made  
his name a  household word in every     
,english-speaking family on the globe4  
,leaving the further notice of these and
 his other chief literary  productions  
to another chapter1 there is little more
 to record in  ,bunyan's life4  ,though 
never again seriously troubled for his  
nonconformity1 his preaching journeys   
were not always without risk4  ,there   
is a tradition that when he visited     
,reading to preach1 he disguised        
himself as a waggoner carrying a long   
whip in his hand to escape  detection4  
,the name of ,bunyan's ,dell1 in a wood 
not very far from  ,hitchin1 tells of   
the time when he and his hearers had to 
conceal their  meetings from their      
enemies' quest1 with scouts planted on  
every side to  warn them of the approach
 of the spies and informers1 who for    
reward were  actively plying their      
odious trade4  ,reference has already   
been made to  ,bunyan's deed of gift of 
all that he possessed in the world--his 

goods1 chattels1 debts1 ready money1    
plate1 rings1 household stuff1  apparel1
 utensils1 brass1 pewter1 bedding1 and  
all other his substance  whatsoever--to 
his well-beloved wife ,elizabeth        
,bunyan4  ,towards the  close of the    
first year of ,james the ,second1 #afhe1
 the apprehensions  under which ,bunyan 
executed this document were far from    
groundless4  ,at  no time did the       
persecution of ,nonconformists rage with
 greater  fierceness4  ,never1 not even 
under the tyranny of ,laud1 as ,lord    
,macaulay  records had the condition of 
the ,puritans been so deplorable4       
,never had  spies been so actively      
employed in detecting congregations4    
,never had  magistrates1 grand-jurors1  
rectors1 and churchwardens been so much 
on the  alert4  ,many ,nonconformists   
were cited before the ecclesiastical    
courts4  ,others found it necessary to  
purchase the connivance of the agents of
 the  ,government by bribes4  ,it was   
impossible for the sectaries to pray    

together without precautions such as are
 employed by coiners and  receivers of  
stolen goods4  ,dissenting ministers1   
however blameless in  life1 however     
eminent in learning1 could not venture  
to walk the streets  for fear of        
outrages which were not only not        
repressed1 but encouraged by  those     
whose duty it was to preserve the peace4
  ,richard ,baxter was in  prison4      
,howe was afraid to show himself in     
,london for fear of insult1  and had    
been driven to ,utrecht4  ,not a few who
 up to that time had borne  up boldly   
lost heart and fled the kingdom4  ,other
 weaker spirits were  terrified into a  
show of conformity4  ,through many      
subsequent years the  autumn of #afhe   
was remembered as a time of misery and  
terror4  ,there is1  however1 no        
indication of ,bunyan having been       
molested4  ,the deed of  gift by which  
he sought to avoid the confiscation of  
his goods was never  called into        
exercise4  ,indeed its very existence   

was forgotten by his  wife in whose     
behalf it had been executed4  ,hidden   
away in a recess in  his house in ,st4  
,cuthbert's1 this interesting document  
was accidentally  discovered at the     
beginning of the present century1 and is
 preserved  among the most valued       
treasures of the congregation which     
bears his name4    ,quieter times for   
,nonconformists were however at hand4   
,active  persecution was soon to cease  
for them1 and happily never to be       
renewed  in ,england4  ,the autumn of   
#afhe showed the first indications of a 
great  turn of fortune1 and before      
eighteen months had elapsed1 the        
intolerant  king and the intolerant     
,church were eagerly bidding against    
each other  for the support of the party
 which both had so deeply injured4  ,a  
new  form of trial now awaited the      
,nonconformists4  ,peril to their       
personal  liberty was succeeded by a    
still greater peril to their honesty and
  consistency of spirit4  ,james the    

,second1 despairing of employing the    
,tories and the ,churchmen as his tools1
 turned1 as his brother had turned      
before him1 to the ,dissenters4  ,the   
snare was craftily baited with a        
,declaration of ,indulgence1 by which   
the king1 by his sole authority1        
annulled a long series of statutes and  
suspended all penal laws against        
,nonconformists of every sort4  ,these  
lately political ,pariahs now held  the 
balance of power4  ,the future fortunes 
of ,england depended mainly on  the     
course they would adopt4  ,james was    
resolved to convert the ,house of       
,commons from a free deliberative       
assembly into a body subservient to his 
wishes1 and ready to give parliamentary 
sanction to any edict he might  issue4  
,to obtain this end the electors must be
 manipulated4  ,leaving the  county     
constituencies to be dealt with by the  
lords-lieutenants1 half of  whom        
preferred dismissal to carrying out the 
odious service peremptorily  demanded of

 them1 ,james's next concern was to     
regulate the  ,corporations4  ,in those 
days of narrowly restricted franchise1  
the  municipalities virtually returned  
the town members4  ,to obtain an        
obedient parliament1 he must secure a   
roll of electors pledged to return  the 
royal nominees4  ,a committee of seven  
privy councillors1 all ,roman           
,catholics but the infamous ,jeffreys1  
presided over the business1 with  local 
sub-committees scattered over the       
country to carry out the details4       
,bedford was dealt with in its turn4    
,under ,james's policy of courting the  
,puritans1 the leading ,dissenters were 
the first persons to be approached4     
,two are specially named1 a ,mr4        
,margetts1 formerly                     
,judge-,advocate-,general  of the ,army 
under ,general ,monk1 and ,john ,bunyan4
  ,it is no matter of  surprise that    
,bunyan1 who had been so severe a       
sufferer under the old  penal statutes1 
should desire their abrogation1 and     

express his readiness  to steer his     
friends and followers to support        
candidates who would  pledge themselves 
to vote for their repeal4  ,but no      
further would he go4  ,the ,bedford     
,corporation was regulated1 which means 
that nearly the  whole of its members   
were removed and others substituted by  
royal order4  ,of these new members some
 six or seven were leading persons of   
,bunyan's  congregation4  ,but1 with all
 his ardent desire for religious        
liberty1  ,bunyan was too keen-witted   
not to see through ,james's policy1 and 
too  honest to give it any direct       
insidious support4  ,in vain is the net 
spread in the sight of any bird4  ,he   
clearly saw that it was not for any     
love of the ,dissenters that they were  
so suddenly delivered from their        
persecutions1 and placed on a kind of   
equality with the ,church4  ,the  king's
 object was the establishment of        
,popery4  ,to this the ,church was  the 
chief obstacle4  ,that must be          

undermined and subverted first4  ,that  
done1 all other religious denominations 
would follow4  ,all that the            
,nonconformists would gain by yielding1 
was the favour ,polyphemus promised     
,ulysses1 to be devoured last4  ,zealous
 as he was for the liberty of           
prophesying1 even that might be         
purchased at too high a price4  ,the    
boon  offered by the king was good in   
itself1 but not so intended4  ,so1 as   
his biographer describes1 when the      
regulators came1 he expressed his  zeal 
with some weariness as perceiving the   
bad consequences that would  ensue1 and 
laboured with his congregation to       
prevent their being imposed  on by the  
fair promises of those who were at heart
 the bitterest enemies  of the cause    
they professed to advocate4  ,the       
newly-modelled corporation  of ,bedford 
seems like the other corporations       
through the country1 to have  proved as 
unmanageable as the old4  ,as ,macaulay 
says1 ,the sectaries who  had declared  

in favour of the ,indulgence had become 
generally ashamed of  their error1 and  
were desirous to make atonement4  ,not  
knowing the man  they had to deal with1 
the regulators are said to have         
endeavoured to  buy ,bunyan's support by
 the offer of some place under          
government4  ,the  bribe was indignantly
 rejected4  ,bunyan even refused to see 
the  government agent who offered       
it1--he would1 by no means come to him1 
but  sent his excuse4  ,behind the      
treacherous sunshine he saw a black     
cloud1  ready to break4  ,the           
,ninevites' remedy he felt was now      
called for4  ,so he  gathered his       
congregation together and appointed a   
day of fasting and  prayer to avert the 
danger that1 under a specious pretext1  
again menaced  their civil and religious
 liberties4  ,a true1 sturdy            
,englishman1 ,bunyan1  with ,baxter and 
,howe1 refused an indulgence which could
 only be  purchased by the violent      
overthrow of the law4    ,bunyan did not

 live to see the ,revolution4  ,four    
months after he had  witnessed the      
delirious joy which hailed the acquittal
 of the seven  bishops1 the ,pilgrim's  
earthly ,progress ended1 and he was     
bidden to cross  the dark river which   
has no bridge4  ,the summons came to him
 in the very  midst of his religious    
activity1 both as a preacher and as a   
writer4  ,his  pen had never been more  
busy than when he was bidden to lay it  
down  finally4  ,early in #afhh1 after a
 two years' silence1 attributable       
perhaps  to the political troubles of   
the times1 his ,jerusalem ,sinner       
,saved1 or a  ,help to ,despairing      
,souls1 one of the best known and most  
powerfully  characteristic of his works1
 had issued from the press1 and had been
  followed by four others between ,march
 and ,august1 the month of his death4   
,these books were1 ,the ,work of ,jesus 
,christ as an ,advocate2 a poetical     
composition entitled ,the ,building1    
,nature1 and ,excellency of the ,house  

of ,god1 a discourse on the constitution
 and government of the ,christian       
,church2 the ,water of ,life1 and       
,solomon's ,temple ,spiritualized4  ,at 
the time of his death he was occupied in
 seeing through the press a sixth  book1
 ,the ,acceptable ,sacrifice1 which was 
published after his funeral4  ,in       
addition to these1 ,bunyan left behind  
him no fewer than fourteen works  in    
manuscript1 written at this time1 as the
 fruit of his fertile  imagination and  
untiring pen4  ,ten of these were given 
to the world soon  after ,bunyan's      
death1 by one of ,bunyan's most devoted 
followers1 ,charles  ,doe1 the combmaker
 of ,london ,bridge 7who naively tells  
us how one day  between the stairhead   
and the middle of the stairs1 he        
resolved that the  best work he could do
 for ,god was to get ,bunyan's books    
printed and sell  them--adding1 ,i have 
sold about #c1jjj71 and others1 a few   
years later1  including one of the      
raciest of his compositions1 ,the       

,heavenly ,footman1  bought by ,doe of  
,bunyan's eldest son1 and1 he says1 put 
into the ,world  in ,print ,word for    
,word as it came from him to ,me4    ,at
 the time that death surprised him1     
,bunyan had gained no small  celebrity  
in ,london as a popular preacher1 and   
approached the nearest to  a position of
 worldly honour4  ,though we must       
probably reject the idea  that he ever  
filled the office of ,chaplain to the   
,lord ,mayor of ,london1  ,sir ,john    
,shorter1 the fact that he is styled his
 ,lordship's teacher  proves that there 
was some relation more than that of     
simple friendship  between the chief    
magistrate and the ,bedford minister4   
,but the society  of the great was never
 congenial to him4  ,if they were godly 
as well as  great1 he would not shrink  
from intercourse1 with those of a rank  
above  his own1 but his heart was with  
his own humble folk at ,bedford4        
,worldly  advancement he rejected for   
his family as well as for himself4  ,a  

,london  merchant1 it is said1 offered  
to take his son ,joseph into his house  
of  business without the customary      
premium4  ,but the offer was declined   
with  what we may consider an           
overstrained independence4  ,god1 he    
said1 did  not send me to advance my    
family but to preach the gospel4  ,an   
instance  of other-worldliness1 writes  
,dr4 ,brown1 perhaps more consistent    
with  the honour of the father than with
 the prosperity of the son4    ,bunyan's
 end was in keeping with his life4  ,he 
had ever sought to be a  peacemaker and 
to reconcile differences1 and thus had  
hindered many  mishaps and saved many   
families from ruin4  ,his last effort of
 the kind  caused his death4  ,the      
father of a young man in whom he took an
 interest1  had resolved1 on some       
offence1 real or supposed1 to disinherit
 his son4  ,the young man sought        
,bunyan's mediation4  ,anxious to heal  
the breach1  ,bunyan mounted his horse  
and took the long journey to the        

father's house  at ,reading--the scene1 
as we have noticed1 of his occasional   
ministrations--where he pleaded the     
offender's cause so effectually as to   
obtain a promise of forgiveness4        
,bunyan returned homewards through      
,london1 where he was appointed to      
preach at ,mr4 ,gamman's meeting-house  
near ,whitechapel4  ,his forty miles'   
ride to ,london was through heavy       
driving rain4  ,he was weary and        
drenched to the skin when he reached the
  house of his very loving friend1 ,john
 ,strudwick1 grocer and chandler1  at   
the sign of the ,star1 ,holborn ,bridge1
 at the foot of ,snow ,hill1 and  deacon
 of the ,nonconformist meeting in ,red  
,cross ,street4  ,a few months  before  
,bunyan had suffered from the sweating  
sickness4  ,the exposure  caused a      
return of the malady1 and though well   
enough to fulfil his  pulpit engagement 
on ,sunday1 the #aith of ,august1 on the
 following ,tuesday  dangerous symptoms 
declared themselves1 and in ten days the

 disease  proved fatal4  ,he died within
 two months of completing his sixtieth  
year1  on the #cast of ,august1 #afhh1  
just a month before the publication of  
the  ,declaration of the ,prince of     
,orange opened a new era of civil and   
religious liberty1 and between two and  
three months before the ,prince's       
landing in ,torbay4  ,he was buried in  
,mr4 ,strudwick's newly-purchased       
vault1 in what ,southey has termed the  
,campo ,santo of ,nonconformists1 the   
burial-ground in ,finsbury1 taking its  
name of ,bunhill or ,bonehill ,field1   
from a vast mass of human remains       
removed to it from the charnel house of 
,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral in #aedi4  ,at a
 later period it served as a place of   
interment for those who died in the     
,great ,plague of #affe4  ,the day after
  ,bunyan's funeral1 his powerful       
friend1 ,sir ,john ,shorter1 the ,lord  
,mayor1  had a fatal fall from his horse
 in ,smithfield1 and followed him across
  the river4    ,by his first wife1     

whose ,christian name is nowhere        
recorded1 ,bunyan had  four             
children--two sons and two daughters2   
and by his second wife1 the  heroic     
,elizabeth1 one son and one daughter4   
,all of these survived him  except his  
eldest daughter ,mary1 his              
tenderly-loved blind child1 who died    
before him4  ,his wife only survived him
 for a brief period1 following  her     
faithful pilgrim from this world to the 
other whither he was gone  before her   
either in #afia or #afib4  ,forgetful of
 the deed of gift1 or  ignorant of its  
bearing1 ,bunyan's widow took out       
letters of  administration of her late  
husband's estate1 which appears from the
  ,register ,book to have amounted to no
 more than1 #db pounds #ais4  ,on this1 
and the proceeds of his books1 she      
supported herself till she rejoined     
him4    ,bunyan's character and person  
are thus described by ,charles ,doe3 ,he
  appeared in countenance to be of a    
stern and rough temper4  ,but in his    

conversation he was mild and affable1   
not given to loquacity or much          
discourse in company1 unless some urgent
 occasion required it4  ,observing      
never to boast of himself or his parts1 
but rather to seem low in his own  eyes 
and submit himself to the judgment of   
others4  ,abhorring lying and  swearing1
 being just1 in all that lay in his     
power1 to his word4  ,not  seeming to   
revenge injuries2 loving to reconcile   
differences and make  friendship with   
all4  ,he had a sharp1 quick eye1 with  
an excellent  discerning of persons1    
being of good judgment and quick wit4   
,he was tall  of stature1 strong-boned1 
though not corpulent2 somewhat of a     
ruddy face1  with sparkling eyes1       
wearing his hair on his upper lip after 
the old  ,british fashion4  ,his hair   
reddish1 but in his later days time had 
sprinkled it with grey4  ,his nose well 
set1 but not declining or bending4  ,his
 mouth moderately large1 his forehead   
something high1 and his habit  always   

plain and modest4  ,not puffed up in    
prosperity1 nor shaken in  adversity1   
always holding the golden mean4    ,we  
may add the portrait drawn by one who   
had been his companion and              
fellow-sufferer for many years1 ,john   
,nelson3 ,his countenance was grave  and
 sedate1 and did so to the life discover
 the inward frame of his  heart1 that it
 was convincing to the beholders and did
 strike something  of awe into them that
 had nothing of the fear of ,god4       
,the same friend speaks thus of         
,bunyan's preaching3 ,as a minister of  
,christ he was laborious in his work of 
preaching1 diligent in his  preparation 
for it1 and faithful in dispensing the  
,word1 not sparing  reproof whether in  
the pulpit or no1 yet ready to succour  
the tempted2 a  son of consolation to   
the broken-hearted1 yet a son of thunder
 to secure  and dead sinners4  ,his     
memory was tenacious1 it being customary
 with him  to commit his sermons to     
writing after he had preached them4  ,a 

rich  anointing of the ,spirit was upon 
him1 yet this great saint was always in 
his own eyes the chiefest of sinners and
 the least of saints4    ,an anecdote is
 told which1 ,southey says1             
authenticates itself1 that one  day when
 he had preached with peculiar warmth   
and enlargement1 one of  his hearers    
remarked what a sweet sermon he had     
delivered4  ,ay1 was  ,bunyan's reply1  
you have no need to tell me that1 for   
the devil  whispered it to me before ,i 
was well out of the pulpit4  ,as an     
evidence  of the estimation in which    
,bunyan was held by the highly-educated1
 it is  recorded that ,charles the      
,second expressed his surprise to ,dr4  
,owen that  a learned man such as he    
could sit and listen to an illiterate   
tinker4  ,may it please your ,majesty1  
,owen replied4  ,i would gladly give up 
all  my learning if ,i could preach like
 that tinker4    ,although much of      
,bunyan's literary activity was devoted 
to controversy1  he had none of the     

narrowness or bitter spirit of a        
controversialist4  ,it  is true that his
 zeal for what he deemed to be truth led
 him into  vehemence of language in     
dealing with those whom he regarded as  
its  perverters4  ,but this intensity of
 speech was coupled with the utmost     
charity of spirit towards those who     
differed from him4  ,few ever had less  
of the sectarian temper which lays      
greater stress on the infinitely small  
points on which all true ,christians    
differ than on the infinitely great     
truths on which they are agreed4        
,bunyan inherited from his spiritual    
father1 ,john ,gifford1 a truly catholic
 spirit4  ,external differences he      
regarded as insignificant where he found
 real ,christian faith and love4  ,i    
would be1 he writes1 as ,i hope ,i am1 a
 ,christian4  ,but for those  factious  
titles of ,anabaptist1 ,independent1    
,presbyterian1 and the like1 ,i         
conclude that they come neither from    
,jerusalem nor from ,antioch1 but from  

,hell or from ,babylon4  ,he was1 writes
 one of his early biographers1 a  true  
lover of all that love our ,lord ,jesus1
 and did often bewail the  different and
 distinguishing appellations that are   
among the godly1  saying he did believe 
a time would come when they should be   
all buried4  ,the only persons he       
scrupled to hold communion with were    
those whose  lives were openly immoral4 
,divisions about non-essentials1 he     
said1  were to churches what wars were  
to countries4  ,those who talked most   
about religion cared least for it2 and  
controversies about doubtful  things and
 things of little moment1 ate up all    
zeal for things which were  practical   
and indisputable4  ,his last sermon     
breathed the same catholic  spirit1 free
 from the trammels of narrow            
sectarianism4  ,if you are the  children
 of ,god live together lovingly4  ,if   
the world quarrel with you it  is no    
matter2 but it is sad if you quarrel    
together4  ,if this be among  you it is 

a sign of ill-breeding4  ,dost thou see 
a soul that has the  image of ,god in   
him8  ,love him1 love him4  ,say1 ',this
 man and ,i must go  to heaven one day4'
  ,serve one another4  ,do good for one 
another4  ,if any  wrong you pray to    
,god to right you1 and love the         
brotherhood4  ,the  closing words of    
this his final testimony are such as    
deserve to be  written in letters of    
gold as the sum of all true ,christian  
teaching3 ,be  ye holy in all manner of 
conversation3 ,consider that the holy   
,god is your  ,father1 and let this     
oblige you to live like the children of 
,god1 that  you may look your ,father in
 the face with comfort another day4     
,there  is1 writes ,dean ,stanley1 no   
compromise in his words1 no faltering in
  his convictions2 but his love and     
admiration are reserved on the whole    
for that which all good men love1 and   
his detestation on the whole is         
reserved for that which all good men    
detest4  ,by the catholic spirit  which 

breathes through his writings1          
especially through ,the ,pilgrim's      
,progress1 the tinker of ,elstow has    
become the teacher not of any           
particular sect1 but of the ,universal  
,church4          ,,chapter ,,ix4       
,we have1 in this concluding chapter1 to
 take a review of ,bunyan's merits  as a
 writer1 with especial reference to the 
works on which his fame  mainly rests1  
and1 above all1 to that which has given 
him his chief title  to be included in a
 series of ,great ,writers1 ,the        
,pilgrim's ,progress4  ,bunyan1 as we   
have seen1 was a very copious author4   
,his works1 as  collected by the late   
industrious ,mr4 ,offor1 fill three     
bulky quarto  volumes1 each of nearly   
eight hundred double-columned pages in  
small  type4  ,and this copiousness of  
production is combined with a general   
excellence in the matter produced4      
,while few of his books approach the    
high standard of ,the ,pilgrim's        
,progress or ,holy ,war1 none1 it may be

  truly said1 sink very far below that  
standard4  ,it may indeed be affirmed   
that it was impossible for ,bunyan to   
write badly4  ,his genius was a  native 
genius4  ,as soon as he began to write  
at all1 he wrote well4  ,without any    
training1 is he says1 in the school of  
,aristotle or ,plato1 or  any study of  
the great masters of literature1 at one 
bound he leapt to a  high level of      
thought and composition4  ,his earliest 
book1 ,some ,gospel  ,truths ,opened1   
thrown off1 writes ,dr4 ,brown1 at a    
heat1 displays the  same ease of style  
and directness of speech and absence of 
stilted  phraseology which he maintained
 to the end4  ,the great charm which    
pervades all ,bunyan's writings is their
 naturalness4  ,you never feel that  he 
is writing for effect1 still less to    
perform an uncongenial piece of         
task-work4  ,he writes because he had   
something to say which was worth        
saying1 a message to deliver on which   
the highest interests of others  were at

 stake1 which demanded nothing more than
 a straightforward  earnestness and     
plainness of speech1 such as coming from
 the heart might  best reach the hearts 
of others4  ,he wrote as he spoke1      
because a  necessity was laid upon him  
which he dared not evade4  ,as he says  
in a  passage quoted in a former        
chapter1 he might have stepped into a   
much  higher style1 and have employed   
more literary ornament4  ,but to attempt
  this would be1 to one of his intense  
earnestness1 to degrade his calling4    
,he dared not do it4  ,like the great   
,apostle1 his speech and preaching  was 
not with enticing words of man's wisdom1
 but in demonstration of the  ,spirit   
and in power4  ,god had not played with 
him1 and he dared not play  with others4
  ,his errand was much too serious1 and 
their need and danger  too urgent to    
waste time in tricking out his words    
with human skill4  ,and  it is just this
 which1 with all their rudeness1 their  
occasional bad  grammar1 and homely     

colloquialisms1 gives to ,bunyan's      
writings a power of  riveting the       
attention and stirring the affections   
which few writers have  attained to4    
,the pent-up fire glows in every line1  
and kindles the  hearts of his readers4 
,beautiful images1 vivid expressions1   
forcible  arguments all aglow with      
passion1 tender pleadings1 solemn       
warnings1 make  those who read him all  
eye1 all ear1 all soul4  ,this native   
vigour is  attributable1 in no small    
degree1 to the manner in which for the  
most  part ,bunyan's works came into    
being4  ,he did not set himself to      
compose  theological treatises upon     
stated subjects1 but after he had       
preached  with satisfaction to himself  
and acceptance with his audience1 he    
usually  wrote out the substance of his 
discourse from memory1 with the         
enlargements and additions it might seem
 to require4  ,and thus his  religious  
works have all the glow and fervour of  
the unwritten utterances  of a practised

 orator1 united with the orderliness and
 precision of a  theologian1 and are no 
less admirable for the excellence of    
their  arrangement than for their       
evangelical spirit and scriptural       
doctrine4  ,originally meant to be      
heard1 they lose somewhat by being read4
  ,but few  can read them without being 
delighted with the opulence of his      
imagination and impressed with the      
solemn earnestness of his convictions4  
,like the subject of the portrait       
described by him in the ,house of the   
,interpreter1 he stands like one who    
pleads with men1 the law of truth       
written upon his lips1 the world behind 
his back1 and a crown of gold  above his
 head4    ,these characteristics1 which 
distinguish ,bunyan as a writer from    
most of  his ,puritan contemporaries1   
are most conspicuous in the works by    
which he  is chiefly known1 ,the        
,pilgrim's ,progress1 the ,holy ,war1   
the ,grace  ,abounding1 and we may add1 
though from the repulsiveness of the    

subject  the book is now scarcely read  
at all1 the ,life and ,death of ,mr4    
,badman4    ,one great charm of these   
works1 especially of ,the ,pilgrim's    
,progress1  lies in the pure ,saxon     
,english in which they are written1     
which render  them models of the        
,english speech1 plain but never vulgar1
 homely but  never coarse1 and still    
less unclean1 full of imagery but never 
obscure1  always intelligible1 always   
forcible1 going straight to the point in
 the  fewest and simplest words2        
powerful and picturesque1 writes        
,hallam1  from concise simplicity4      
,bunyan's style is recommended by ,lord 
,macaulay as an invaluable study to     
every person who wishes to gain a wide  
command over his mother tongue4  ,its   
vocabulary is the vocabulary of the     
common people4  ,there is not1 he truly 
says1 in ',the ,pilgrim's  ,progress' a 
single expression1 if we except a few   
technical terms of  theology1 that would
 puzzle the rudest peasant4  ,we may1   

look through  whole pages1 and not find 
a word of more than two syllables4  ,nor
 is the  source of this pellucid        
clearness and imaginative power far to  
seek4  ,bunyan was essentially a man of 
one book1 and that book the very best1  
not only for its spiritual teaching but 
for the purity of its style1 the        
,english ,bible4  ,in no book1 writes   
,mr4 ,j4 ,r4 ,green1 do we see more     
clearly than in ',the ,pilgrim's        
,progress' the new imaginative force    
which  had been given to the common life
 of ,englishmen by their study of the   
,bible4  ,bunyan's ,english is the      
simplest and homeliest ,english that has
  ever been used by any great ,english  
writer1 but it is the ,english of the   
,bible4  ,his images are the images of  
prophet and evangelist4  ,so  completely
 had the ,bible become ,bunyan's life   
that one feels its phrases  as the      
natural expression of his thoughts4  ,he
 had lived in the ,bible  till its words
 became his own4    ,all who have       

undertaken to take an estimate of       
,bunyan's literary genius  call special 
attention to the richness of his        
imaginative power4  ,few  writers indeed
 have possessed this power in so high a 
degree4  ,in  nothing1 perhaps1 is its  
vividness more displayed than in the    
reality of  its impersonations4  ,the   
dramatis persons are not shadowy        
abstractions1  moving far above us in a 
mystical world1 or lay figures ticketed 
with  certain names1 but solid men and  
women of our own flesh and blood1 living
  in our own everyday world1 and of like
 passions with ourselves4  ,many of     
them we know familiarly2 there is hardly
 one we should be surprised to  meet any
 day4  ,this lifelike power of          
characterization belongs in the  highest
 degree to ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress4   
,it is hardly inferior in  ,the ,holy   
,war1 though with some exceptions the   
people of ,mansoul have  failed to      
engrave themselves on the popular memory
 as the characters of  the earlier      

allegory have done4  ,the secret of this
 graphic power1 which  gives ,the       
,pilgrim's ,progress its universal      
popularity1 is that ,bunyan  describes  
men and women of his own day1 such as he
 had known and seen  them4  ,they are   
not fancy pictures1 but literal         
portraits4  ,though the  features may be
 exaggerated1 and the colours laid on   
with an unsparing  brush1 the outlines  
of his bold personifications are        
truthfully drawn  from his own          
experience4  ,he had had to do with     
every one of them4  ,he  could have     
given a personal name to most of them1  
and we could do the  same to many4  ,we 
are not unacquainted with ,mr ,byends of
 the town of ,fair  ,speech1 who always 
has the luck to jump in his judgment    
with the way of  the times1 and to get  
thereby1 who is zealous for ,religion   
when he goes  in his silver slippers1   
and loves to walk with him in the       
streets when  the sun shines and the    
people applaud him4  ,all his kindred   

and  surroundings are only too familiar 
to us--his wife1 that very virtuous     
woman my ,lady ,feigning's daughter1 my 
,lord ,fair-speech1 my ,lord            
,time-server1 ,mr4 ,facingbothways1 ,mr4
 ,anything1 and the ,parson of the      
,parish1 his mother's own brother by the
 father's side1 ,mr4 ,twotongues4  ,nor 
is his schoolmaster1 one ,mr4 ,gripeman1
 of the market town of  ,lovegain1 in   
the county of ,coveting1 a stranger to  
us4  ,obstinate1 with  his dogged       
determination and stubborn common-sense1
 and ,pliable with his  shallow         
impressionableness1 are among our       
acquaintances4  ,we have1 before  now1  
come across the brisk lad ,ignorance    
from the town of ,conceit1 and  have    
made acquaintance with ,mercy's would-be
 suitor1 ,mr4 ,brisk1 a man of  some    
breeding and that pretended to religion1
 but who stuck very close to  the world4
  ,the man ,temporary who lived in a    
town two miles off from  ,honesty1 and  
next door to ,mr4 ,turnback2 ,formalist 

and ,hypocrisy1 who were  from the land 
of ,vainglory1 and were going for praise
 to ,mount ,sion2  ,simple1 ,sloth1 and 
,presumption1 fast asleep by the        
roadside with fetters  on their heels1  
and their companions1 ,shortwind1       
,noheart1  ,lingerafterlust1 and        
,sleepyhead1 we know them all4  ,the    
young woman  whose name was ,dull taxes 
our patience every day4  ,where is the  
town  which does not contain ,mrs4      
,timorous and her coterie of gossips1   
,mrs4  ,bats-eyes1 ,mrs4 ,inconsiderate1
 ,mrs4 ,lightmind1 and ,mrs4            
,knownothing1 all  as merry as the      
maids1 with that pretty fellow ,mr4     
,lechery at the house  of ,madam        
,wanton1 that admirably well-bred       
gentlewoman8  ,where shall we  find more
 lifelike portraits than those of ,madam
 ,bubble1 a tall1 comely  dame1 somewhat
 of a swarthy complexion1 speaking very 
smoothly with a  smile at the end of    
each sentence1 wearing a great purse by 
her side1  with her hand often in it1   

fingering her money as if that was her  
chief  delight2 of poor ,feeblemind of  
the town of ,uncertain1 with his whitely
  look1 the cast in his eye1 and his    
trembling speech2 of ,littlefaith1 as   
white as a clout1 neither able to fight 
nor fly when the thieves from  ,dead    
,man's ,lane were on him2 of            
,ready-to-halt1 at first coming along on
  his crutches1 and then when ,giant    
,despair had been slain and ,doubting   
,castle demolished1 taking              
,despondency's daughter ,much-afraid by 
the hand  and dancing with her in the   
road8  ,true1 he could not dance without
 one  crutch in his hand1 but ,i promise
 you he footed it well4  ,also the girl 
was to be commanded1 for she answered   
the musick handsomely4  ,in  ,bunyan's  
pictures there is never a superfluous   
detail4  ,every stroke  tells1 and helps
 to the completeness of the portraiture4
    ,the same reality characterizes the 
descriptive part of ,the ,pilgrim's     
,progress4  ,as his characters are such 

as he must meet with every day in  his  
native town1 so also the scenery and    
surroundings of his allegory are  part  
of his own everyday life1 and reproduce 
what he had been brought up  amidst in  
his native county1 or had noticed in his
 tinker's wanderings4  ,born and bred1  
writes ,kingsley1 in the monotonous     
,midland1 he had no  natural images     
beyond the pastures and brooks1 the town
 and country  houses1 he saw about him4 
,the ,slough of ,despond1 with its      
treacherous  quagmire in the midst of   
the plain1 into which a wayfarer might  
heedlessly fall1 with its               
stepping-stones half drowned in mire2   
,byepathmeadow1 promising so fair1 with 
its stile and footpath on the  other    
side of the fence2 the pleasant river   
fringed with meadows1 green  all the    
year long and overshadowed with trees2  
the thicket all overgrown  with briars  
and thorns1 where one tumbled over a    
bush1 another stuck fast  in the dirt1  
some lost their shoes in the mire1 and  

others were fastened  from behind with  
the brambles2 the high wall by the      
roadside over which  the fruit trees    
shot their boughs and tempted the boys  
with their unripe  plums2 the arbour    
with its settle tempting the footsore   
traveller to  drowsiness2 the refreshing
 spring at the bottom of ,hill          
,difficulty2 all  are evidently drawn   
from his own experience4  ,bunyan1 in   
his long tramps1  had seen them all4    
,he had known what it was to be in      
danger of falling  into a pit and being 
dashed to pieces with ,vain ,confidence1
 of being  drowned in the flooded       
meadows with ,christian and ,hopeful2 of
 sinking in  deep water when swimming   
over a river1 going down and rising up  
half  dead1 and needing all his         
companion's strength and skill to keep  
his head  above the stream4  ,vanity    
,fair is evidently drawn from the life4 
,the  great yearly fair of ,stourbridge1
 close to ,cambridge1 which ,bunyan had 
probably often visited in his tinker    

days1 with its streets of booths  filled
 with wares of all kinds from all       
countries1 its shows1  jugglings1 cheats
 games1 plays1 fools1 apes1 knaves1 and 
rogues1 and that  of every kind1 its    
great one of the fair1 its court of     
justice and  power of judgment1         
furnished him with the materials for his
 picture4  ,scenes like these he draws  
with sharp defined outlines4  ,when he  
had to  describe what he only knew by   
hearsay1 his pictures are shadowy and   
cold4  ,never having been very far from 
home1 he had had no experience of the   
higher types of beauty and grandeur in  
nature1 and his pen moves in  fetters   
when he attempts to describe them4      
,when his pilgrims come to the  ,hill   
,difficulty and the ,delectable         
,mountains1 the difference is at once   
seen4  ,all his nobler imagery is drawn 
from ,scripture4  ,as ,hallam has       
remarked1 ,there is scarcely a          
circumstance or metaphor in the ,old    
,testament which does not find a place  

bodily and literally in ',the           
,pilgrim's ,progress1' and this has made
 his imagination appear more  creative  
than it really is4    ,it would but     
weary the reader to follow the details  
of a narrative which  is so universally 
known4  ,who needs to be told that in   
the pilgrimage  here described is       
represented in allegorical dress the    
course of a human  soul convinced of    
sin1 struggling onwards to salvation    
through the trials  and temptations that
 beset its path to its eternal home8    
,the book is so  completely wrought into
 the mind and memory1 that most of us   
can at once  recall the incidents which 
chequer the pilgrim's way1 and realize  
their  meaning2 the ,slough of ,despond1
 in which the man convinced of his guilt
  and fleeing from the wrath to come1 in
 his agonizing self-consciousness  is in
 danger of being swallowed up in        
despair2 the ,wicket ,gate1 by which  he
 enters on the strait and narrow way of 
holiness2 the ,interpreter's  ,house1   

with his visions and acted parables2 the
 ,wayside ,cross1 at the  sight of which
 the burden of guilt falls from the     
pilgrim's back1 and he  is clothed with 
change of raiment2 the ,hill            
,difficulty1 which stands  right in his 
way1 and which he must surmount1 not    
circumvent2 the lions  which he has to  
pass1 not knowing that they are chained2
 the ,palace  ,beautiful1 where he is   
admitted to the communion of the        
faithful1 and  sits down to meat with   
them2 the ,valley of ,humiliation1 the  
scene of his  desperate but victorious  
encounter with ,apollyon2 the ,valley of
 the  ,shadow of ,death1 with its evil  
sights and doleful sounds1 where one of 
the wicked ones whispers into his ear   
thoughts of blasphemy which he  cannot  
distinguish from the suggestions of his 
own mind2 the cave at the  valley's     
mouth1 in which1 ,giant ,pagan having   
been dead this many a day1  his brother1
 ,giant ,pope1 now sits alone1 grinning 
at pilgrims as they  pass by1 and biting

 his nails because he cannot get at     
them2 ,vanity ,fair1  the picture of the
 world1 as ,st4 ,john describes it1     
hating the light that  puts to shame its
 own self-chosen darkness1 and putting  
it out if it can1  where the ,pilgrim's 
fellow1 ,faithful1 seals his testimony  
with his death1  and the ,pilgrim       
himself barely escapes2 the delicate    
plain called ,ease1  and the little     
hill1 ,lucre1 where ,demas stood        
gentlemanlike1 to invite  the passersby 
to come and dig in his silver mine2     
,byepath ,meadow1 into  which the       
,pilgrim and his newly-found companion  
stray1 and are made  prisoners by ,giant
 ,despair and shut up in the dungeons of
 ,doubting  ,castle1 and break out of   
prison by the help of the ,key of       
,promise2 the  ,delectable ,mountains in
 ,immanuel's ,land1 with their friendly 
shepherds  and the cheering prospect of 
the far-off heavenly city2 the          
,enchanted  ,land1 with its temptations 
to spiritual drowsiness at the very end 

of the  journey2 the ,land of ,beulah1  
the ante-chamber of the city to which   
they  were bound2 and1 last stage of    
all1 the deep dark river1 without a     
bridge1 which had to be crossed before  
the city was entered2 the entrance  into
 its heavenly gates1 the pilgrim's      
joyous reception with all the  bells in 
the city ringing again for joy2 the     
,dreamer's glimpse of its  glories      
through the opened portals--is not every
 stage of the journey1  every scene of  
the pilgrimage1 indelibly printed on our
 memories1 for our  warning1 our        
instruction1 our encouragement in the   
race we1 as much as  they1 have each one
 to run8  ,have we not all1 again and   
again1 shared the  ,dreamer's           
feelings--,after that they shut up the  
,gates2 which1 when ,i had  seen1 ,i    
wished myself among them1 and prayed1   
,god helping us1 that our  dangerous    
journey--ever the most dangerous when we
 see its dangers the  least--might end  
in our safe arrival at the desired      

country8    ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress   
exhibits ,bunyan in the character by    
which he  would have most desired to be 
remembered1 as one of the most          
influential  of ,christian preachers4   
,hallam1 however1 claims for him another
  distinction which would have greatly  
startled and probably shocked him1  as  
the father of our ,english novelists4   
,as an allegorist ,bunyan had many      
predecessors1 not a few of whom1 dating 
from early times1 had taken the  natural
 allegory of the pilgrimage of human    
life as the basis of their  works4  ,but
 as a novelist he had no one to show him
 the way4  ,bunyan was  the first to    
break ground in a field which has since 
then been so  overabundantly worked that
 the soil has almost lost its           
productiveness2  while few novels       
written purely with the object of       
entertainment have  ever proved so      
universally entertaining4  ,intensely   
religious as it is in  purpose1 ,the    
,pilgrim's ,progress may be safely      

styled the first ,english  novel4  ,the 
claim to be the father of ,english      
romance1 writes ,dr4  ,allon1 which has 
been sometimes preferred for ,defoe1    
really pertains to  ,bunyan4  ,defoe may
 claim the parentage of a species1 but  
,bunyan is the  creator of the genus4   
,as the parent of fictitious biography  
it is that  ,bunyan has charmed the     
world4  ,on its vivid interest as a     
story1 its  universal interest and      
lasting vitality rest4  ,other          
allegorises1  writes ,lord ,macaulay1   
have shown great ingenuity1 but no other
  allegorist has ever been able to touch
 the heart1 and to make its             
abstractions objects of terror1 of pity1
 and of love4  ,whatever its            
deficiencies1 literary and religious1   
may be2 if we find incongruities in  the
 narrative1 and are not insensible to   
some grave theological  deficiencies2 if
 we are unable without qualification to 
accept  ,coleridge's dictum that it is  
incomparably the best ',summa           

,theologiae  ,evangelicae' ever produced
 by a writer not miraculously inspired2 
even  if1 with ,hallam1 we consider its 
excellencies great indeed1 but not of   
the highest order1 and deem it a little 
over-praised1 the fact of its  universal
 popularity with readers of all classes 
and of all orders of  intellect remains1
 and gives this book a unique           
distinction4  ,i have1  says ,dr4       
,arnold1 when reading it after a long   
interval1 always been  struck by its    
piety4  ,i am now struck equally or even
 more by its  profound wisdom4  ,it     
seems to be a complete reflexion of     
,scripture4  ,and  to turn to a critic  
of very different character1 ,dean      
,swift3 ,i have been  better entertained
 and more improved1 writes that cynical 
pessimist1 by  a few pages of this book 
than by a long discourse on the will and
  intellect4  ,the favourite of our     
childhood1 as the most perfect and      
complex of fairy tales1 so human and    
intelligible1 read1 as ,hallam says1  at

 an age when the spiritual meaning is   
either little perceived or  little      
regarded1 the ,pilgrim's ,progress      
becomes the chosen companion  of our    
later years1 perused with ever fresh    
appreciation of its teaching1  and      
enjoyment of its native genius2 the     
interpreter of life to all who  are     
perplexed with its problems1 and the    
practical guide and solace of  all who  
need counsel and sympathy4    ,the      
secret of this universal acceptableness 
of ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress  lies in   
the breadth of its religious sympathies4
  ,rigid ,puritan as ,bunyan  was1 no   
book is more completely free from       
sectarian narrowness4  ,its  reach is as
 wide as ,christianity itself1 and it   
takes hold of every human  heart because
 it is so intensely human4  ,no apology 
is needed for  presenting ,mr4 ,froude's
 eloquent panegyric3 ,the ,pilgrim1     
though in  ,puritan dress1 is a genuine 
man4  ,his experience is so truly human 
experience that ,christians of every    

persuasion can identify themselves  with
 him2 and even those who regard         
,christianity itself as but a natural   
outgrowth of the conscience and         
intellect1 and yet desire to live nobly 
and make the best of themselves1 can    
recognize familiar footprints in  every 
step of ,christian's journey4  ,thus    
',the ,pilgrim's ,progress' is a  book  
which when once read can never be       
forgotten4  ,we too1 every one of  us1  
are pilgrims on the same road2 and      
images and illustrations come back  to  
us from so faithful an itinerary1 as we 
encounter similar trials1 and  learn for
 ourselves the accuracy with which      
,bunyan has described them4  ,time      
cannot impair its interest1 or          
intellectual progress make it cease  to 
be true to experience4  ,dr4 ,brown's   
appreciative words may be added3  ,with 
deepest pathos it enters into the stern 
battle so real to all of  us1 into those
 heart-experiences which make up1 for   
all1 the discipline  of life4  ,it is   

this especially which has given to it   
the mighty hold  which it has always had
 upon the toiling poor1 and made it the 
one book  above all books well-thumbed  
and torn to tatters among them4  ,and it
 is  this which makes it one of the     
first books translated by the missionary
  who seeks to give true thoughts of    
,god and life to heathen men4    ,the   
,second ,part of ,the ,pilgrim's        
,progress partakes of the character of  
almost all continuations4  ,it is1 in   
,mr4 ,froude's words1 only a feeble     
reverberation of the first part1 which  
has given it a popularity it would  have
 hardly attained by its own merits4     
,christiana and her children are        
tolerated for the pilgrim's sake to whom
 they belong4  ,bunyan seems not  to    
have been insensible of this himself1   
when in his metrical preface he  thus   
introduces his new work3       ,go now  
my little book to every place     ,where
 my first ,pilgrim has but shown his    
face4     ,call at their door2 if any   

say ',who's there8'     ,then answer    
thus1 ',christiana is here4'     ,if    
they bid thee come in1 then enter thou  
,with all thy boys4  ,and then1 as thou 
know'st how1     ,tell who they are1    
also from whence they came2     ,perhaps
 they'll know them by their looks or    
name4    ,but although the ,second ,part
 must be pronounced inferior1 on the    
whole1  to the first1 it is a work of   
striking individuality and graphic      
power1  such as ,bunyan alone could have
 written4  ,everywhere we find strokes  
of  his peculiar genius1 and though in a
 smaller measure than the first1 it  has
 added not a few portraits to ,bunyan's 
spiritual picture gallery we  should be 
sorry to miss1 and supplied us with racy
 sayings which stick to  the memory4    
,the sweet maid ,mercy affords a lovely 
picture of gentle  feminine piety1 well 
contrasted with the more vigorous but   
still  thoroughly womanly character of  
,christiana4  ,great-,heart is too much 
of  an abstraction3 a preacher in the   

uncongenial disguise of a knightly      
champion of distressed females and the  
slayer of giants4  ,but the other  new  
characters have generally a vivid       
personality4  ,who can forget ,old      
,honesty1 the dull good man with no     
mental gifts but of dogged sincerity1   
who though coming from the ,town of     
,stupidity1 four degrees beyond the     
,city of ,destruction1 was known for a  
cock of the right kind1 because he  said
 the truth and stuck to it2 or his      
companion1 ,mr4 ,fearing1 that most     
troublesome of pilgrims1 stumbling at   
every straw1 lying roaring at the       
,slough of ,despond above a month       
together1 standing shaking and shrinking
  at the ,wicket ,gate1 but making no   
stick at the ,lions1 and at last getting
  over the river not much above wetshod2
 or ,mr4 ,valiant for ,truth1 the       
native of ,darkland1 standing with his  
sword drawn and his face all bloody     
from his three hours' fight with        
,wildhead1 ,inconsiderate1 and          

,pragmatick2  ,mr4 ,standfast1 blushing 
to be found on his knees in the         
,enchanted ,ground1  one who loved to   
hear his ,lord spoken of1 and coveted to
 set his foot  wherever he saw the print
 of his shoe2 ,mr4 ,feeblemind1 the     
sickly1  melancholy pilgrim1 at whose   
door death did usually knock once a day1
  betaking himself to a pilgrim's life  
because he was never well at home1      
resolved to run when he could1 and go   
when he could not run1 and creep  when  
he could not go1 an enemy to laughter   
and to gay attire1 bringing up  the rear
 of the company with ,mr4 ,readytohalt  
hobbling along on his  crutches2 ,giant 
,despair's prisoners1 ,mr4 ,despondency1
 whom he had all but  starved to        
death--and ,mistress ,much-afraid his   
daughter1 who went through  the river   
singing1 though none could understand   
what she said8  ,each of  these         
characters has a distinct individuality 
which lifts them from  shadowy          
abstractions into living men and women4 

,but with all its  excellencies1 and    
they are many1 the general inferiority  
of the history  of ,christiana and her  
children's pilgrimage to that of her    
husband's must  be acknowledged4  ,the  
story is less skilfully constructed2 the
 interest  is sometimes allowed to flag2
 the dialogues that interrupt the       
narrative  are in places dry and        
wearisome--too much of sermons in       
disguise4  ,there  is also a want of    
keeping between the two parts of the    
allegory4  ,the  ,wicket ,gate of the   
,first ,part has become a considerable  
building with a  summer parlour in the  
,second2 the shepherds' tents on the    
,delectable  ,mountains have risen into 
a palace1 with a dining-room1 and a     
looking-  glass1 and a store of jewels2 
while ,vanity ,fair has lost its former 
bad  character1 and has become a        
respectable country town1 where         
,christiana  and her family1 seeming    
altogether to forget their pilgrimage1  
settled  down comfortably1 enjoy the    

society of the good people of the place1
 and  the sons marry and have children4 
,these same children also cause the     
reader no little perplexity1 when he    
finds them in the course of the         
supposed journey transformed from sweet 
babes who are terrified with the        
,mastiffs barking at the ,wicket ,gate1 
who catch at the boughs for the  unripe 
plums and cry at having to climb the    
hill2 whose faces are stroked  by the   
,interpreter2 who are catechised and    
called good boys by  ,prudence2 who sup 
on bread crumbled into basins of milk1  
and are put to  bed by ,mercy--into     
strong young men1 able to go out and    
fight with a  giant1 and lend a hand to 
the pulling down of ,doubting ,castle1  
and  becoming husbands and fathers4  ,we
 cannot but feel the want of            
vraisemblance which brings the whole    
company of pilgrims to the banks  of the
 dark river at one time1 and sends them 
over in succession1  following one      
another rapidly through the ,golden     

,gate of the ,city4  ,the  four boys    
with their wives and children1 it is    
true1 stay behind awhile1  but there is 
an evident incongruity in their doing so
 when the allegory  has brought them all
 to what stands for the close of their  
earthly  pilgrimage4  ,bunyan's mistake 
was in gratifying his inventive genius  
and  making his band of pilgrims so     
large4  ,he could get them together and 
make them travel in company without any 
sacrifice of dramatic truth1  which1    
however1 he was forced to disregard when
 the time came for their  dismissal4    
,the exquisite pathos of the description
 of the passage of the  river by        
,christian and ,hopeful blinds us to    
what may be almost termed the           
impossibility of two persons passing    
through the final struggle together1    
and dying at the same moment1 but this  
charm is wanting in the prosaic  picture
 of the company of fellow-travellers    
coming down to the water's  edge1 and   
waiting till the postman blows his horn 

and bids them cross4  ,much as the      
,second ,part contains of what is       
admirable1 and what no one  but ,bunyan 
could have written1 we feel after       
reading it that1 in ,mr4  ,froude's     
words1 the rough simplicity is gone1 and
 has been replaced by a  tone of        
sentiment which is almost mawkish4      
,giants1 dragons1 and angelic  champions
 carry us into a spurious fairyland     
where the knight-errant is a  preacher  
in disguise4  ,fair ladies and          
love-matches1 however decorously        
chastened1 suit ill with the sternness  
of the mortal conflict between the  soul
 and sin4  ,with the acknowledged       
shortcomings of the ,second ,part of    
,the ,pilgrim's ,progress1 we may be    
well content that ,bunyan never  carried
 out the idea hinted at in the closing  
words of his allegory3  ,shall it be my 
lot to go that way again1 ,i may give   
those that desire it  an account of what
 ,i am here silent about2 in the        
meantime ,i bid my  reader--,adieu4     

,bunyan's second great allegorical work1
 ,the ,holy ,war1 need not detain  us   
long4  ,being an attempt1 and in the    
nature of things an unsuccessful        
attempt1 to clothe what writers on      
divinity call the plan of salvation  in 
a figurative dress1 the narrative1 with 
all its vividness of  description in    
parts1 its clearly drawn characters with
 their picturesque  nomenclature1 and   
the stirring vicissitudes of the drama1 
is necessarily  wanting in the personal 
interest which attaches to an individual
 man1  like ,christian1 and those who   
are linked with or follow his career4   
,in  fact1 the tremendous realities of  
the spiritual history of the human race 
are entirely unfit for allegorical      
treatment as a whole4  ,sin1 its        
origin1 its consequences1 its remedy1   
and the apparent failure of that  remedy
 though administered by ,almighty hands1
 must remain a mystery for  all time4   
,the attempts made by ,bunyan1 and by   
one of much higher  intellectual power  

and greater poetic gifts than           
,bunyan--,john ,milton--to  bring that  
mystery within the grasp of the finite  
intellect1 only render  it more         
perplexing4  ,the proverbial line tells 
us that--       ,fools rush in where    
angels fear to tread4    ,bunyan and    
,milton were as far as possible from    
being fools2 but when  both these great 
writers1 on the one hand1 carry us up   
into the ,council  ,chamber of ,heaven  
and introduce us to the ,persons of the 
ever-blessed  ,trinity1 debating1       
consulting1 planning1 and resolving1    
like a sovereign  and his ministers when
 a revolted province has to be brought  
back to its  allegiance2 and1 on the    
other hand1 take us down to the infernal
 regions1  and makes us privy to the    
plots and counterplots of the rebel     
leaders and  hearers of their speeches1 
we cannot but feel that1 in spite of the
  magnificent diction and poetic        
imagination of the one1 and the homely  
picturesque genius of the other1 the    

grand themes treated of are degraded  if
 not vulgarized1 without our being in   
any way helped to unravel their         
essential mysteries4  ,in point of      
individual personal interest1 ,the ,holy
  ,war contrasts badly with ,the        
,pilgrim's ,progress4  ,the narrative   
moves  in a more shadowy region4  ,we   
may admire the workmanship2 but the same
  undefined sense of unreality pursues  
us through ,milton's noble epic1 the    
outcome of a divinely-fired genius1 and 
,bunyan's humble narrative1  drawing its
 scenes and circumstances1 and to some  
extent its dramatis  personae1 from the 
writer's own surroundings in the town   
and corporation  of ,bedford1 and his   
brief but stirring experience as a      
soldier in the  great ,parliamentary    
,war4  ,the catastrophe also is         
eminently  unsatisfactory4  ,when       
,christian and ,hopeful enter the       
,golden ,gates we  feel that the story  
has come to its proper end1 which we    
have been  looking for all along4  ,but 

the conclusion of ,the ,holy ,war is too
 much  like the closing chapter of      
,rasselas--a conclusion in which nothing
 is  concluded4  ,after all the endless 
vicissitudes of the conflict1 and the   
final and glorious victory of ,emmanuel 
and his forces1 and the execution  of   
the ringleaders of the mutiny1 the issue
 still remains doubtful4  ,the  town of 
,mansoul is left open to fresh attacks4 
,diabolus is still at  large4  ,carnal  
,sense breaks prison and continues to   
lurk in the town4  ,unbelief1 that      
nimble ,jack1 slips away1 and can never 
be laid hold of4  ,these1 therefore1 and
 some few others of the more subtle of  
the  ,diabolonians1 continue to make    
their home in ,mansoul1 and will do so  
until ,mansoul ceases to dwell in the   
kingdom of ,universe4  ,it is true  they
 turn chicken-hearted after the other   
leaders of their party have  been taken 
and executed1 and keep themselves quiet 
and close1 lurking in  dens and holes   
lest they should be snapped up by       

,emmanuel's men4  ,if  ,unbelief or any 
of his crew venture to show themselves  
in the streets1  the whole town is up in
 arms against them2 the very children   
raise a hue  and cry against them and   
seek to stone them4  ,but all in vain4  
,mansoul1  it is true1 enjoys some good 
degree of peace and quiet4  ,her ,prince
 takes  up his residence in her borders4
  ,her captains and soldiers do their   
duties4  ,she minds her trade with the  
heavenly land afar off2 also she is     
busy in her manufacture4  ,but with the 
remnants of the ,diabolonians still     
within her walls1 ready to show their   
heads on the least relaxation of  strict
 watchfulness1 keeping up constant      
communication with ,diabolus and  the   
other lords of the pit1 and prepared to 
open the gates to them when  opportunity
 offers1 this peace can not be lasting4 
,the old battle will  have to be fought 
over again1 only to end in the same     
undecisive result4  ,and so it must be  
to the end4  ,if untrue to art1 ,bunyan 

is true to fact4  ,whether we regard    
,mansoul as the soul of a single        
individual or as the  whole human race1 
no final victory can be looked for so   
long as it abides  in the country of    
,universe4  ,the flesh will lust against
 the spirit1  the regenerated man will  
be in danger of being brought into      
captivity to  the law of sin and death  
unless he keeps up his watchfulness and 
maintains the struggle to the end4      
,and it is here1 that1 for purposes of  
art1 not for purposes of truth1 the     
real failing of ,the ,holy ,war lies4   
,the drama of ,mansoul is incomplete1   
and whether individually or             
collectively1 must remain incomplete    
till man  puts on a new nature1 and the 
victory1 once for all gained on         
,calvary1 is  consummated1 in the       
fulness of time1 at the restitution of  
all things4  ,there is no uncertainty   
what the end will be4  ,evil must be put
 down1 and  good must triumph at last4  
,but the end is not yet1 and it seems as

 far  off as ever4  ,the army of        
,doubters1 under their several captains1
  ,election ,doubters1 ,vocation        
,doubters1 ,salvation ,doubters1 ,grace 
,doubters1  with their general the great
 ,lord ,incredulity at their head1      
reinforced  by many fresh regiments     
under novel standards1 unknown and      
unthought of  in ,bunyan's days1 taking 
the place of those whose power is past1 
is ever  making new attacks upon poor   
,mansoul1 and terrifying feeble souls   
with  their threatenings4  ,whichever   
way we look there is much to puzzle1    
much  to grieve over1 much that to our  
present limited view is entirely        
inexplicable4  ,but the mind that       
accepts the loving will and wisdom of   
,god as the law of the ,universe1 can   
rest in the calm assurance that all1    
however mysteriously1 is fulfilling ,his
 eternal designs1 and that though  ,he  
seems to permit ,his work to be spoilt1 
,his power defied1 and even ,his        
victories when won made useless1 it is  

but seeming1--that the triumph of  evil 
is but temporary1 and that these        
apparent failures and  contradictions1  
are slowly but surely working out and   
helping forward       ,the one unseen   
divine event     ,to which the whole    
creation moves4    ,the mysteries and   
contradictions which the ,christian     
revelation leaves  unsolved are made    
tolerable by ,hope4  ,to adopt ,bunyan's
 figurative  language in the closing    
paragraph of his allegory1 the day is   
certainly  coming when the famous town  
of ,mansoul shall be taken down and     
transported every stick and stone to    
,emmanuel's land1 and there set up  for 
the ,father's habitation in such        
strength and glory as it never saw      
before4  ,no ,diabolonian shall be able 
to creep into its streets1 burrow  in   
its walls1 or be seen in its borders4   
,no evil tidings shall trouble  its     
inhabitants1 nor sound of ,diabolian    
drum be heard there4  ,sorrow and  grief
 shall be ended1 and life1 always sweet1

 always new1 shall last  longer than    
they could even desire it1 even all the 
days of eternity4  ,meanwhile let those 
who have such a glorious hope set before
 them keep  clean and white the liveries
 their ,lord has given them1 and wash   
often in  the open fountain4  ,let them 
believe in ,his love1 live upon ,his    
word2  watch1 fight1 and pray1 and hold 
fast till ,he come4    ,one more work of
 ,bunyan's still remains to be briefly  
noticed1 as bearing  the characteristic 
stamp of his genius1 ,the ,life and     
,death of ,mr4  ,badman4  ,the original 
idea of this book was to furnish a      
contrast to  ,the ,pilgrim's ,progress4 
,as in that work he had described the   
course of  a man setting out on his     
course heavenwards1 struggling onwards  
through  temptation1 trials1 and        
difficulties1 and entering at last      
through the  golden gates into the city 
of ,god1 so in this later work his      
purpose was  to depict the career of a  
man whose face from the first was turned

 in the  opposite direction1 going on   
from bad to worse1 ever becoming more   
and  more irretrievably evil1 fitter and
 fitter for the bottomless pit2 his     
life full of sin and his death without  
repentance2 reaping the fruit of  his   
sins in hopeless sinfulness4  ,that this
 was the original purpose of  the work1 
,bunyan tells us in his preface4  ,it   
came into his mind1 he  says1 as in the 
former book he had written concerning   
the progress of the  ,pilgrim from this 
world to glory1 so in this second book  
to write of the  life and death of the  
ungodly1 and of their travel from this  
world to  hell4  ,the new work1 however1
 as in almost every respect it differs  
from  the earlier one1 so it is         
decidedly inferior to it4  ,it is       
totally unlike  ,the ,pilgrim's         
,progress both in form and execution4   
,the one is an  allegory1 the other a   
tale1 describing without imagery or     
metaphor1 in  the plainest language1 the
 career of a vulgar1 middle-class1      

unprincipled scoundrel4  ,while ,the    
,pilgrim's ,progress pursues the        
narrative form throughout1 only         
interrupted by dialogues between the    
leading characters1 ,mr4 ,badman's      
career is presented to the world in a   
dialogue between a certain ,mr4 ,wiseman
 and ,mr4 ,attentive4  ,mr4 ,wiseman    
tells the story1 and ,mr4 ,attentive    
supplies appropriate reflections on  it4
  ,the narrative is needlessly burdened 
with a succession of short  sermons1 in 
the form of didactic discourses on      
lying1 stealing1 impurity1  and the     
other vices of which the hero of the    
story was guilty1 and which  brought him
 to his miserable end4  ,the plainness  
of speech with which  some of these evil
 doings are enlarged upon1 and ,mr4     
,badman's indulgence  in them described1
 makes portions of the book very        
disagreeable1 and  indeed hardly        
profitable reading4  ,with omissions1   
however1 the book well  deserves        
perusal1 as a picture such as only      

,bunyan or his rival in  lifelike       
portraiture1 ,defoe1 could have drawn of
 vulgar ,english life in  the latter    
part of the seventeenth century1 in a   
commonplace country town  such as       
,bedford4  ,it is not at all a pleasant 
picture4  ,the life  described1 when not
 gross1 is sordid and foul1 is mean and 
commonplace4  ,but as a description of  
,english middle-class life at the epoch 
of the  ,restoration and ,revolution1 it
 is invaluable for those who wish to put
  themselves in touch with that period4 
,the anecdotes introduced to  illustrate
 ,bunyan's positions of ,god's judgment 
upon swearers and  sinners1 convicting  
him of a credulity and a harshness of   
feeling one is  sorry to think him      
capable of1 are very interesting for the
 side-lights  they throw upon the times 
and the people who lived in them4  ,it  
would  take too long to give a sketch of
 the story1 even if a summary could give
  any real estimate of its picturesque  
and vivid power4  ,it is certainly a    

remarkable1 if an offensive book4  ,as  
with ,robinson ,crusoe and ,defoe's     
other tales1 we can hardly believe that 
we have not a real history before  us4  
,we feel that there is no reason why the
 events recorded should not  have       
happened4  ,there are no surprises2 no  
unlooked-for catastrophes2 no           
providential interpositions to punish   
the sinner or rescue the good man4      
,badman's pious wife is made to pay the 
penalty of allowing herself to be       
deceived by a tall1 good-looking1       
hypocritical scoundrel4  ,he himself    
pursues his evil way to the end1 and    
dies like a lamb1 or as men call  it1   
like a ,chrisom child sweetly and       
without fear1 but the selfsame ,mr4     
,badman still1 not only in name1 but in 
condition2 sinning onto the last1  and  
dying with a heart that cannot repent4  
,mr4 ,froude's summing up of this book  
is so masterly that we make no  apology 
for presenting it to our readers4       
,bunyan conceals nothing1  assumes      

nothing1 and exaggerates nothing4  ,he  
makes his bad man sharp and  shrewd4    
,he allows sharpness and shrewdness to  
bring him the reward which  such        
qualities in fact command4  ,badman is  
successful2 is powerful2 he  enjoys all 
the pleasures which money can bring2 his
 bad wife helps him to  ruin1 but       
otherwise he is not unhappy1 and he dies
 in peace4  ,bunyan has  made him a     
brute1 because such men do become       
brutes4  ,it is the real  punishment of 
brutal and selfish habits4  ,there the  
figure stands--a  picture of a man in   
the rank of ,english life with which    
,bunyan was most  familiar2 travelling  
along the primrose path to the          
everlasting bonfire1  as the way to     
,emmanuel's ,land was through the       
,slough of ,despond and the  ,valley of 
the ,shadow of ,death4  ,pleasures are  
to be found among the  primroses1 such  
pleasures as a brute can be gratified   
by4  ,yet the reader  feels that even if
 there was no bonfire1 he would still   

prefer to be with  ,christian4          
,,footnotes      #a  ,a small enclosure 
behind a cottage4