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tians in every point, being able to make the man of God perfect in all things, through faith in Jesus Christ, and thoroughly to furnish him unto all good works." The indulgence at first allowed him, enabled him to be present at private meetings of the congregation at Bedford, in June and July, 1661, his name being found in the minutes of the church-book; and once the gaoler permitted him to take a journey to London. Unfortunately, Bunyan's enemies heard of it, and his friendly gaoler, being threatened with the loss of his office, was compelled to keep his prisoner more close; so that, says Bunyan, "I must not now look out of the door." He expected to be called to account at the ensuing assizes, in November 1661; but he was passed over. In January following, the assizes were again held; and being anxious to come before the judges, he prevailed upon the gaoler to put down his name in the calendar; but his enemies prevented his being called to appear. Why no steps were taken in pursuance of Judge Hale's advice, does not appear from the Narrative; and it has been surmised, that the means for defraying the legal expenses could not be raised. It might have been supposed that the object of his visit to London was connected with some effort to obtain the reversal of his sentence, as there would seem to have been otherwise no adequate motive for the risk he incurred; but the Narrative contains no intimation of the kind. He now appears to have resigned himself to his fate. From there being no mention of his name at the church-meetings of the Bedford congregation from July 1661, to August 1668, it is inferred that, during these seven years, he was kept a close prisoner. As there was an end put to his working at his craft, he learned to make tagged laces, and by this means contributed to support his family. Dr. Southey takes for granted, that their condition was not

would have been more evident from the exhortation to adhere to the Scriptures as the only and sufficient rule of faith. A jealousy for the exclusive authority of the word of God, the principle so manfully advocated by Chillingworth, was the real source of the strong feeling manifested against both the Common Prayer and the et-cetera.

"worsened by his imprisonment," since it would render them "objects of compassion to their neighbours," and that Bunyan was, upon the whole, very comfortable in gaol. "He had the society there," he says, "of some who were suffering for the same cause;"* he had his Bible, and his Book of Martyrs; and he had leisure to brood over his own thoughts. Scanty materials of worldly comfort; but how enviable the man who could extract happiness out of them! Are any thanks due to his unjust persecutors, that "the Pilgrim's Progress was one of the fruits of his imprisonment?"

The oppressor holds

His body bound; but knows not what a range

His spirit takes, unconscious of a chain;

And, that to bind him is a vain attempt,

Whom God delights in, and in whom he dwells."--COWPER.

Bunyan thus speaks of his own imprisonment: "I was had home to prison, and there have lain now complete twelve years, waiting to see what God would suffer these men to do with me.+ In which condition I have continued with much content, through grace, but have met with many turnings and goings upon my heart;" the result of which, he adds, had been "much conviction, instruction, and

It is said, "there were never fewer than sixty dissenters in the prison with him during the period of his confinement; for, as some were discharged, others were committed. Two of these were ministers of the Baptist denomination, Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Dunn."—IVIMEY'S LIFE OF BUNYAN.

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↑ Perhaps we are to understand Bunyan as meaning that he was imprisoned twelve years altogether. The Continuator of his Life states, that he was imprisoned at first for six years, till, the Act of Indulgence to Dissenters being allowed, he obtained his freedom by the intercession of some in trust and power, that took pity on his sufferings; but within six years afterwards”— six days must be meant "he was again taken up, viz. in the year 1666, and was then confined for six years more. . . When he was taken this last time, he was preaching on these words: Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' And this imprisonment continued six years; and when this was over, another short affliction, which was an imprisonment of half a year, fell to his share." "In the last year of his twelve years' imprisonment," it is added, “the pastor of the congregation at Bedford died; and he was chosen to that care of souls on the 12th of December, 1671."

understanding." During the last four years of his imprisonment that is, from 1669 to 1672, inclusive-he enjoyed a considerable degree of liberty. From the entries in the Baptist church-book, he appears to have been regularly present at their social meetings; and in October 1671, though still a prisoner, he was elected to the office of co-pastor or elder of that community. Among the works written during his confinement, we find enumerated the following:-Of Prayer by the Spirit. The Holy City's Resurrection. Grace Abounding, (the autobiographical narrative so often referred to.) Pilgrim's Progress, Part I. Defence of the Doctrine of Justification, against Bishop Fowler. This last work is dated from prison, the 21st of the 11th month, 1671.

The First Part of the Pilgrim's Progress is known to have been written during his imprisonment; but, as no extant copy of the first edition has hitherto been discovered, the year in which it was published remains uncertain. The date of the second edition, of which a copy is in the British Museum, is 1678. If, therefore, the work was published before his release, or even immediately after it, the sale must have been very slow and limited for some years after its appearance. But when once it had found its way into general circulation, edition after edition was rapidly called for. The eighth edition was published in 1682, the ninth in 1684, and the tenth in 1685.* In the mean time, several dishonest imitations of his work had appeared;

One passage of considerable length, the whole scene between Mr. By-Ends and his three friends, and their subsequent discourse with Christian and Faithful, was added after the second edition. Dr. Southey conjectures that it was first inserted in the fourth impression, "which had many additions more than any preceding." This is stated in an advertisement on the back of the frontispiece to the eighth; where it is also stated, that the publisher, “observing that many persons desired to have it illustrated with pictures, hath endeavoured to gratify them therein; and besides those that are ordinarily printed to the fifth impression, hath provided thirteen copper cuts, curiously engraven, for such as desire them." No additions, Dr. Southey informs us, after collating the editions, were introduced subsequently to the eighth; nor any alterations but verbal ones of slight importance.

some of them counterfeiting his popular title, others purporting to be a second part. These interlopers may have furnished an additional inducement to Bunyan to put forth his own Continuation of the Parable, which appeared in January, 1684. In the poetical preface to this Second Part, he refers with honest satisfaction to the extensive reputation which his Pilgrim had attained:

"In France and Flanders, where men kill each other,

My Pilgrim is esteemed a friend, a brother.

In Holland too, 'tis said, as I am told,

My Pilgrim is, with some, worth more than gold.

Highlanders and wild Irish can agree,

My Pilgrim should familiar with them be.

'Tis in New England under such advance,

Receives there so much loving countenance,

As to be trimmed, new clothed, and deck'd with gems,
That it might show its features and its limbs.
Yet more; so comely doth my Pilgrim walk,
That of him thousands daily sing and talk."

In the same homely, yet not despicable lines, he refers to some of the objections which had been urged against the First Part:

"But some there be that say, He laughs too loud;

And some do say, His head is in a cloud.

Some things are of that nature as to make

One's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache.

Whereas some say, A cloud is in his head,

That doth but show his wisdom's covered

With its own mantle."

It is probable that Bunyan had already become known by his writings, when he obtained his release. How this was effected, is not known; but, some time in 1672, a day of thanksgiving was observed by his flock, on the occasion of his deliverance. The Author of the Continuation of his Life, appended to his own Narrative, states, that "Dr. Barlow, the then bishop of Lincoln, and other churchmen,"

*

Supposed to have been Mr. Charles Doe, a Baptist minister. He describes himself as "a true friend and long acquaintance of Mr. Bunyan's."

had been "moved by his patience to pity his hard and unreasonable sufferings, so far as to stand very much his friends in procuring his enlargement." And the interference of Bishop Barlow has been ascribed, upon credible authority, to the intercession of Dr. John Owen. For this story there must be some foundation. Yet Barlow was not made a bishop till 1675;* and it may be questioned, whether, at that period, any thing short of a royal order could have secured to Bunyan the undisturbed enjoyment of his personal freedom and his liberty to preach. The Conventicle Act had been revived in 1670, in all its severity. Yet, shortly after his enlargement, Bunyan was enabled to build a meeting-house, by the voluntary contributions of his friends. In the church-book, it is entered: "11 August, 1672, the ground on which the meeting-house stands was bought by subscription." Here he continued to preach to large audiences, without any material interruption. "In this charge," says the Continuator of his Narrative, "he often had disputes with scholars that came to oppose him, as supposing him an ignorant person; and, though he argued plainly, and by scripture, without phrases and logical expressions, yet he nonplussed" them by his pertinent answers. Every year he used to pay a visit to his friends in London, where his reputation as a preacher was so great, that "if but a day's notice were given, the meeting-house in Southwark, where he generally preached, would not hold half the people that attended. Three thousand persons have been gathered together for the purpose in a remote part of the town; and no fewer than twelve hundred, on a dark winter's morning, at seven o'clock, even on week-days." Dr. Owen is stated to have been among his occasional auditors; and an anecdote is on record, that, being asked by Charles II., how a learned man such as he

See Orme's Life of Owen, p. 398. Mr. Orme confesses that he is unable to reconcile with this date the story told in Asty's Memoirs of Owen, and repeated by Mr. Ivimey, of Bishop Barlow's refusing to comply with Owen's request, without an order from the chancellor; unless it refers to some subsequent imprisonment

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