Part 2 (1/2)

The followingthis friend took hiether to Mr Wingate's A few inquiries showed the istrate that he had entirelyand its object Instead of a gathering of ”Fifth Monarchy men,”

or other turbulent fanatics as he had supposed, for the disturbance of the public peace, he learnt from the constable that they were only a few peaceable, harether ”to preach and hear the word,”

without any political ate was now at a nonplus, and ”could not well tell what to say” For the credit of histo show that he had notthe warrant So he asked Bunyan what business he had there, and why it was not enough for hi the law by preaching Bunyan replied that his only object in co there was to exhort his hearers for their souls' sake to forsake their sinful courses and close in with Christ, and this he could do and follow his calling as well Wingate, now feeling hirily that he would ”break the neck of these unlawful ood behaviour or go to gaol There was no difficulty in obtaining the security Bail was at once forthco The real difficulty lay with Bunyan hi If his friends gave them, their bonds would be forfeited, for he ”would not leave speaking the word of God” Wingate told hiaol to be tried at the next Quarter Sessions, and left the roo, one whom Bunyan bitterly styles ”an old eneate's father-in-law, ca terht he had to preach andhi prayers to devour s houses, and likening hi, 'tis like,” says Bunyan, ”at me because I was a tinker” The e was on his way to Bedford, when he was ed the constable to wait a little while that they et Bunyan released After a soate, they returned with the istrate and ”say certain words” to hio free To satisfy his friends, Bunyan returned with theement proposed to him would be such as he could lawfully take ”If the words were such as he could say with a good conscience he would say theoing, by the tiht had come on As he entered the hall, one, he tells us, cahted candle in his hand, whonized as one Williaate's brother-in-law, afterwards a fierce persecutor of the Nonconformists of the district With a simulated affection, ”as if he would have leapt on uard, as he had ever known him for ”a close opposer of the ways of God,”

he adopted the tone of one who had Bunyan's interest at heart, and begged him as a friend to yield a little from his stubbornness His brother-in- law, he said, was very loath to send hiaol All he had to do was only to proether, and he should be set at liberty and s were plainly unlawful andand leave off preaching, especially on week-days, whichtoo God commanded men to work six days and serve Him on the seventh It was vain for Bunyan to reply that he never summoned people to hear him, but that if they came he could not but use the best of his skill and wisdom to counsel them for their soul's salvation; that he could preach and the people could cos, and that men were bound to look out for their souls' welfare on week-days as well as Sundays Neither could convince the other Bunyan's stubbornness was not a little provoking to Foster, and was equally disappointing to Wingate They both evidently wished to dismiss the case, and intentionally provided a loophole for Bunyan's escape The promise put into his ether”--was purposely devised to meet his scrupulous conscience But even if he could keep the promise in the letter, Bunyan knew that he was fully purposed to violate its spirit He was the lastfast and loose with his conscience All evasion was foreign to his nature The long interview caate and Foster endeavoured to break down Bunyan's resolution; but when they saas ”at a point, and would not be ain put into the constable's hands, and he and his prisoner were started on the walk to Bedford gaol It was dark, as we have seen, when this protracted interview began It ives no hint whether the as taken in the dark or in the daylight There was however no need for haste Bedford was thirteen miles away, and the constable would probably wait till theto set out for the prison which was to be Bunyan's ho, he says, the ”peace of God along with me, and His co tradition has identified Bunyan's place of imprisonment with a little corporation lock-up-house, some fourteen feet square, picturesquely perched on one of the e which, previously to 1765, spanned the Ouse at Bedford, and as Mr

Froude has said, has ”furnished a subject for pictures,” both of pen and pencil, ”which if correct would be extre” Unfortunately, however, for the lovers of the sensational, these pictures are not ”correct,” but are based on a false assurew up out of a desire to heap contu the severity of his protracted, but by noarrested by the warrant of a county istrate for a county offence, Bunyan's place of incarceration was naturally the county gaol There he undoubtedly passed the twelve years of his captivity, and there the royal warrant for his release found hiaol for our county of Bedford” But though far different fro the sufferings of the Puritan confessor in theform, have drawn--if not ”a damp and dreary cell” into which ”a narrow chink adht to render visible the prisoner, pale and e his daily task to earn the ether,”--”the coaol” of Bedford must have been a sufficiently strait and unwholeso tinker, accustoreater part of his days in the open-air in unrestricted freedo afterwards, were, at their best, foul, dark, aol, though better than soraceful condition One who visited Bunyan during his confinement speaks of it as ”an uncomfortable and close prison” Bunyan however himself, in the narrative of his imprisonment,in any way suffered from the conditions of his confinement, as was the case with not a few of his fellow-sufferers for the sake of religion in other English gaols, some of them even unto death Bad as it oes, there is no evidence that his i in its strictness with his various gaolers, was aggravated by any special severity; and, as Mr Froude has said, ”it is unlikely that at any tireater hardshi+ps than were absolutely inevitable”

The arrest of one whose work as a preacher had been a blessing to so ious body to which he belonged A few days after Bunyan's coaol, soistrate at Elstow, to bail hi the required security for his appearance at the Quarter Sessions Thea youngit possible that there ainst Bunyan than the ” hih it sent him back to prison, was received by Bunyan with his usual cal providence ”I was not at all daunted, but rather glad, and saw evidently that the Lord had heard me” Before he set out for the justice's house, he tells us he had co, with the prayer that ”if heat liberty than in prison,” the bail ht be done” In the failure of his friends' good offices he saw an answer to his prayer, encouraging the hope that the untoward event, which deprived the to the saints in the country,” and while ”the slender answer of the justice,” which sent hi akin to conteladness ”Verily I didof me, that it was His will andconforreat Master was a stay to his soul

”This word,” he continues, ”did drop in upon my heart with some life, for he knew that 'for envy they had delivered him'”

Seven weeds after his committal, early in January, 1661, the Quarter Sessions came on, and ”John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, labourer,”

was indicted in the custo ”devilishly and perniciously abstained fro to church to hear Divine Service,” and as ”a cos and conventions, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of the kingdo Sir John Keeling, the prototype of Bunyan's Lord Hategood in Faithful's trial at Vanity Fair, who afterwards, by his base subserviency to an infaovernment, climbed to the Lord Chief Justice's seat, over the head of Sir Matthew Hale Keeling had suffered reat Rebellion, when, according to Clarendon, he was ”always in gaol,”

and was by no means disposed to deal leniently with an offender of that persuasion His brethren of the bench were country gentleer for retaliation for the wrongs it had wrought them Fro, no leniency was to be anticipated But Bunyan's attitude forbade any leniency As the law stood he had indisputably broken it, and he expressed his determination, respectfully but firain ”I told theospel again to-morrow by the help of God” We istrates towards the prisoner; weand conte's expositions of Scripture and his stock arguh 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' ti pedlar's French,” as Keeling called it, had the better of his judges in knowledge of the Bible, in Christian charity, as well as in dignity and in co him in court--”Let him speak no further,” said one of them, ”he will do harly: but his legal offence was clear He confessed to the indictment, if not in express ters together, both to pray to God and to exhort one another I confessed s were forbidden by the lahich it was the duty of the justices to administer, and they had no choice whether they would convict or no Perhaps they were not sorry they had no such choice Bunyan was a most ”iistrates being but unregenerate ” The sentence necessarily followed It was pronounced, not, we are sure reluctantly, by Keeling, in the tero back to prison for three o to church to hear Divine service and leave his preaching, he was to be banished the realain without special royal license,” he , ”I tell you plainly” Bunyan's reply that ”as to that e,” for ”that he would repeat the offence the first time he could,” provoked a rejoinder froht have been still further prolonged, had it not been stopped by the gaoler, who ”pulling hione,” had him back to prison, where he says, and ”blesses the Lord Jesus Christ for it,” his heart was as ”sweetly refreshed” in returning to it as it had ”been during his examination So that I find Christ's words ive a ainsay or resist And that His peace no h not unnaturally irritated by what seemed to them Bunyan's unreasonable obstinacy, were not desirous to push matters to extremity The three months named in his sentence, at the expiration of which he was either to confor to an end, without any sign of submission on his part

As a last resort Mr Cobb, the Clerk of the Peace, was sent to try what calht effect Cobb, who evidently knew Bunyan personally, did his best, as a kind-hearted, sensiblehim to reason Cobb did not profess to be ”a man that could dispute,” and Bunyan had the better of hiument His position, however, was unassailable The recent insurrection of Venner and his Fifth Monarchy er to the public peace there was in allowing fanatical gatherings to assemble unchecked Bunyan, whose loyalty was unquestioned, s which, however good their ostensible aidom and commonwealth

Bunyan had confessed his readiness to obey the apostolic precept by sub forbade the holding of private ht be prejudicial to the State Why then did he not subhbourly way He hbours in private discourse, provided he did not bring people together in public assee him of this liberty Why should he stand so strictly on public s? Or why should he not coift so far above that of others that he could learn of no one? If he could not be persuaded, the judges were resolved to prosecute the law against him

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 soood could he do to his friends then? ”Neighbour Bunyan” had better consider these things seriously before the Quarter Session, and be ruled by good advice The gaoler here put in his word in support of Cobb's arguments: ”Indeed, sir, I hope he will be ruled” But all Cobb's friendly reasonings and expostulations were ineffectual to bend Bunyan's sturdy will He would yield to no-one in his loyalty to his sovereign, and his readiness to obey the law But, he said, with a hairsplitting casuistry he would have indignantly conde, ”one to obey actively, and if his conscience forbad that, then to obey passively; to lie down and suffer whatever they ht do to hi the argument any further ”At this,” writes Bunyan, ”he sat down, and said no more; which, when he had done, I did thank hi with ht meet in heaven!”

The Coronation which took place very soon after this interview, April 13, 1661, afforded a prospect of release without unworthy submission The customary proclamation, which allowed prisoners under sentence for any offence short of felony to sue out a pardon for twelve months from that date, suspended the execution of the sentence of banishht be opened for hi no steps to enable hi his name in the list of pardonable offenders, his second wife, Elizabeth, travelled up to London,--no slight venture for a young wo raised from the sick bed on which the first news of her husband's arrest had laid her,--and with dauntless courage made her way to the House of Lords, where she presented her petition to one of the peers, whom she calls Lord Barkwood, but whom unfortunately we cannot now identify He treated her kindly, and showed her petition to other peers, who appear to have been acquainted with the circumstances of Bunyan's case They replied that the matter was beyond their province, and that the question of her husband's release was coes at the next assizes These assizes were held at Bedford in the following August The judges of the circuit were Twisden and Sir Matthew Hale From the latter--the friend of Richard Baxter, who, as Burnet records, took great care to ”cover the Nonconforht too hardly used, all he could froed those ere inclined to stretch the laws too ainst them”--Bunyan's case would be certain toset to ad to his private wishes, but according to its letter and its spirit, he was powerless to relieve him Three several times did Bunyan's noble-hearted wife present her husband's petition that he ht be heard, and his case taken impartially into consideration But the law forbad what Burnet calls Sir Matthew Hale's ”tender and compassionate nature” to have free exercise He ”received the petition veryher that he would do her and her husband the best good he could; but he feared he could do none” His brother judge's reception of her petition was very different Having thrown it into the coach, Twisden ”snapt her up,” telling her, what after all was no more than the truth, that her husband was a convicted person, and could not be released unless he would pro On this the High Sheriff, Edhton Conquest, spoke kindly to the poor woed her to es before they left the town So sheheart,” to the large chae Foot, where the two judges were receiving a large nuentry of the county Addressing Sir Matthew Hale she said, ”My lord, I ain to your lordshi+p to knohat may be done with entleness as before, repeated what he had said previously, that as her husband had been legally convicted, and his conviction was recorded, unless there was soood Twisden, on the other hand, got violently angry, charged her brutally withpoverty her cloak, told her that her husband was a breaker of the peace, whose doctrine was the doctrine of the devil, and that he ran up and down and did har than by following his tinker's craft At last he waxed so violent that ”withal she thought he would have struck her” In the midst of all his coarse abuse, however, Twisden hit the mark when he asked: ”What! you think we can do e list?” And e find Hale, confessedly the soundest lawyer of the ti for the Statute Book, thus su up the ood Thou s, viz, either apply thyself to the king, or sue out his pardon, or get a writ of error,” which last, he told her, would be the cheapest course--we ranted because it could not be granted legally The blame of his continued imprisonment lay, if anywhere, with the law, not with its adht to be As Mr Froude rees are sworn to administer the lahich they find, and rail at theed by their oath to pass were their own personal acts” It is not surprising that Elizabeth Bunyan was unable to draw this distinction, and that she left the Swan chaht the judges' ”hardheartedness to her and her husband,” as at the thought of ”the sad account such poor creatures would have to give” hereafter, for what she deeospel”

No steps seem to have been taken by Bunyan's wife, or any of his influential friends, to carry out either of the expedients named by Hale

It , or, what Southey remarks is ”quite probable,”--”because it is certain that Bunyan, thinking himself in conscience bound to preach in defiance of the laould soon have made his case worse than it then was”

At the next assizes, which were held in January, 1662, Bunyan again et his naular trial before the king's judges and be able to plead his cause in person This, however, was effectually thwarted by the unfriendly influence of the county istrates by whom he had been co failed in his kindly hbour Bunyan” to conforainst him and become one of his chief enemies ”Thus,” writes Bunyan, ”was I hindered and prevented at that tie, and left in prison” Of this prison, the county gaol of Bedford, he remained an inmate, with one, short interval in 1666, for the next twelve years, till his release by order of the Privy Council, May 17, 1672

CHAPTER VI

The exaggeration of the severity of Bunyan's i current, now that the facts are better known, has led, by a very intelligible reaction, to an undue depreciation of it Mr Froude thinks that his incarceration was ”intended to be little more than nominal,” and was really meant in kindness by the authorities who ”respected his character,” as the best reater trouble by ”repeating an offence that would compel the to avoid” If convicted again heto drive him out of the country” It is, however, to be feared that it was no such kind consideration for the tinker-preacher which kept the prison doors closed on Bunyan To the justices he was simply an obstinate law-breaker, whoas he refused coaol, as so many of his fellow sufferers for conscience'

sake did in those unhappy times, it was no concern of theirs He and his stubbornness would be alone to bla a portion of his captivity, Bunyan, in Dr Broords, ”had an amount of liberty which in the case of a prisoner nowadays would be si to the whole period an indulgence which belonged only to a part, and that a very limited part of it When we are told that Bunyan was treated as a prisoner at large, and like one ”on parole,” free to coo as he pleased, even as far as London, we must reence to the sixassizes of 1662

”Between these two assizes,” he says, ”I had by ranted me more than at the first” This liberty was certainly of the largest kind consistent with his character of a prisoner The church books show that he was occasionally present at their ation Nay, even his preaching, which was the cause of his i of this period, ” all occasions that were put into ence was very brief and was brought sharply to an end It was plainly irregular, and depended on the connivance of his jailer We cannot be surprised that when it caistrates' ears--”my enemies,” Bunyan rather unworthily calls the Bunyan with the Fifth Monarchy ined that his visits to London had a political object, ”to plot, and raise division, and make insurrections,” which, he honestly adds, ”God knoas a slander” The jailer was all but ”cast out of his place,” and threatened with an indictment for breach of trust, while his own liberty was so seriously ”straitened” that he was prohibited even ”to look out at the door” The last ti is October 28, 1661, nor do we see it again till October 9, 1668, only four years before his twelve years terh his imprisonment was not so severe, nor his prison quite so narrow and wretched as soreater part of the time his condition was a dreary and painful one, especially when spent, as it sometimes was, ”under cruel and oppressive jailers” The enforced separation from his wife and children, especially his tenderly loved blind daughter, Mary, was a continually renewed anguish to his loving heart ”The parting with the the flesh from the bones; and that not only because I areat ht to my mind the many hardshi+ps, miseries, and wants my poor family was like to meet with, should I be taken from them; especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer to ht I, thou er, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calah I cannot now endure the wind should blow on thee O, the thoughts of the hardshi+ps o under would breakdown his house on his wife and children's head, and yet he felt, ”I must do it; O, Ibut ”a young prisoner,” greatly troubled by the thoughts that ”for aught he could tell,” his ”iallows,” not so much that he dreaded death as that he was apprehensive that when it ca shi+ft to claht play the coward and so do discredit to the cause of religion ”I was asha knees for such a cause as this” The belief that his iht be terroundless, evidently weighed long on hissentences of his third prison book, ”Christian Behaviour,”

published in 1663, the second year of his durance, clearly point to such an expectation ”Thus have I in feords written to you before I die,not knowing the shortness of my life, nor the hindrances that hereafter Imy God and you” The ladder of his apprehensions was, as Mr Froude has said, ”an iinary ladder,” but it was very real to Bunyan ”Oft I was as if I was on the ladder with a rope about raphy shows, caused his of heart, and noblest ventures of faith He was content to suffer by the hang the crowd that he thought would come to see him die ”And if it must be so, if God will but convert one soul by my very last words, I shall not count my life throay or lost” And even when hours of darkness came over his soul, and he was tempted to question the reality of his Christian profession, and to doubt whether God would give him comfort at the hour of death, he stayed himself up with such bold words as these ”I was bound, but He was free

Yea, 'twas my duty to stand to His hether He would ever look on me or no, or save ht I, I will leap off the ladder even blindfold into Eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt catch me, do If not, I will venture for Thy na precluded by his i on his brazier's craft for the support of his wife and faot hiross” of which, we are told by one who first for his captivity, for ”his own and his family's necessities” ”While his hands were thus busied,”

writes Lord Macaulay, ”he had often eh a prisoner he was a preacher still” As with St Paul in his Roman chains, ”the word of God was not bound” The prisoners for conscience' sake, who like hiaol, including several of his brothermembers of his own little church, furnished a nuation At one tiht in a neighbouring wood, were aol, with their minister at their head But while all about him was in confusion, his spirit maintained its even calth and comfort that were needed