Bun. To which I answered, that I also had read of very many priests and Pharisees, that had their hands in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lind. Ay, saith he, and you are one of those Scribes and Pharisees, for you, with a pretence, make long prayers to devour widows' houses.

Bun. I answered, that if he got no more by preaching and praying than I had done, he would not be so rich as now he was. But that scripture coming into my mind, 'Answer not a fool according to his folly," I was as sparing of my speech as I could without prejudice to the truth.

After this there was another examination with one Mr. Foster, of Bedford, who tried hard to persuade Bunyan to promise that he would leave off preaching, in which case he should be acquitted. Bunyan's honest, straight-forward truth, good sense, and mother-wit, answered as good a purpose with this Mr. Foster, as it did with that "old enemy," Dr. Lindale. Mr. Foster told Bunyan there were none that heard him but a company of foolish people.

Bun. I told him that there were the wise as well as the foolish that did hear me; and again, those that are most commonly counted foolish by the world, are the wisest before God. Also, that God had rejected the wise and mighty and noble, and chosen the foolish and the base.

Foster. He told me that I made people neglect their calling; and that God hath commanded people to work six days, and serve him on the seventh.

Bun. I told him that it was the duty of people, rich and poor, to look out for their souls on those days, as well as their bodies; and that God would have his people exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day.

Fost. He said again, that there were none but a company of poor, simple, ignorant people that came.

Bun. I told him that the foolish and the ignorant had most need of teaching and information; and therefore it would be profitable for me to go on in that work.

Fost. Well, said he, to conclude, but will you promise that you will not call the people together any more, and then you may be released and go home?

Bun. I told him that I durst say no more than I had said; for I durst not leave off that work which God had called me to. If my preaching might be said to call the people together, I durst not say that I would not call them together.

Foster upon this told the justice that he must send Bunyan to prison; and so to prison he went, nothing daunted, but singing and making melody in his heart unto the Lord. After this follows an inimitably rich and humorous dialogue, which Bunyan called, The Sum of my Examination before Justice Keelin, Justice Chester, Justice Blundale, Justice Beecher, and Justice Snagg. These men's names are immortalized in a way they never dreamed of; nor can any one read this scene, and compare it with the trial of Faithful in the Pilgrim's Progress, and not see what rich materials Bunyan was now gathering, in the providence of God, out of his own experience, for his future work. These persons are just as certainly to be detected in Bunyan's sketches of the court, in the town of Vanity Fair, as Sancho Panza whenever he appears in any part of Don Quixote. It was an almost unconscious operation of quiet, but keen satire, when this scene remoulded its materials afterwards in Bunyan's imagination. The extent of the indictment against Bunyan was as follows: That John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, labourer, being a person of such and such conditions, he hath, since such a time, devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear divine service, and is a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, contrary to the laws of our sovereign Lord the King, When this was read, the clerk of the sessions said to Bunyan, What say you to this?

Bunyan. I said that as to the first part of it, I was a common frequenter of the church of God, and was also, by grace, a member with those people, over whom Christ was the head.

Keelin. But, saith Justice Keelin, who was the judge in that court, Do you come to church, you know what I mean, to the parish-church to hear divine service?

Bun. I answered no, I did not.

Keel. He asked me why.

Bun. I said, because I did not find it commanded in the word of God.

Keel. He said we were commanded to pray.

Bun. I said, but not by the Common Prayer Book.

Keel. He said, how then?

Bun. I said, with the Spirit. As the apostle saith, I will pray with the Spirit with understanding.

Keel. He said, we might pray with the Spirit with understanding, and with the Common Prayer Book also.

Bun. I said that those prayers in the Common Prayer Book were such as were made by other men, and not by the motions of the Holy Ghost within our hearts; and as I said, the apostle saith he will pray with the Spirit and with understanding, not with the Spirit and the Common Prayer Book.

Another Justice. What do you count prayer? Do you think it is to say a few words over, before or among a people?

Bun. I said, not so; for men might have many elegant or excellent words, and yet not pray at all; but when a man prayeth, he doth, through a sense of those things which he wants, which sense is begotten by the Spirit, pour out his heart before God through Christ; though his words be not so many and so excellent as others.

Justices. They said that was true.

Bun. I said this might be done without the Common Prayer Book.

66

There was a strange mixture of candour and bitterness in these justices, for they acknowledged the truth of some things that Bunyan said, and that very freely, while they were blasphemous in other things, as we shall see. Bunyan's own argument against the Common Prayer Book would not be admitted as valid by many out of the Episcopal Church as well as in it; but his argument against the enforcing of it on the conscience is incontrovertible, as well as his own candid and tolerant spirit towards those who preferred to use it. "Let them use it, if they choose," said he, we would not keep them from it; only, for our part, we can pray to God without it; and all we ask is the liberty of so praying and preaching." Could any thing be more fair, equitable, or generous than this? The same we say now to those who assert, that we cannot worship God aright without episcopacy, confirmation, and a liturgy; and who arrogantly say that without these things we are not of the true church, and are neither ministers nor flocks of Jesus Christ: we say to those who are guilty of such unchristian conduct, Use you your liturgy, and love it as much as you please, and we will agree with you, that for those who choose a liturgy, it is, with some great faults, an admirable composition; but, dare not to impose it upon us; be not guilty of the great intolerance and wickedness of unchurching and anathematizing others, because they do not use a liturgy nor hold to episcopacy; stand not by yourselves and say, I am holier than thou by the apostolical succession, and episcopacy, and the liturgy! Above all, if you do these things, expect to be met with severity and indignation; and accuse no man of bitterness, who defends, or because he defends the church and the ministry of Christ from your unrighteous assumptions.

Bunyan's chief reason for not using the Common Prayer Book was, that it is not commanded in the scriptures. "Show me," said he, "the place in the epistles, where the Common Prayer Book is written, or one text of scripture that commands me to read it, and I will use it. But yet, notwithstanding," said he," they that have a mind to use it, they have their liberty; that is, I would not keep it from them, or them from it; but for our parts, we can pray to God without it. Blessed be his name."

With that one of them said, Who is your God, Beelzebub? Moreover they often said that I was possessed with the spirit of delusion and of the devil. All which sayings I passed over, the Lord forgive them! And further, I said, Blessed be the Lord for it, we are encouraged to meet together, and to pray, and exhort one another: for we have had the comfortable presence of God among us, for ever blessed be his holy name.

Justice Keelin called this pedler's French, saying that I must leave off my canting. The Lord open his eyes.

Bun. I said that we ought to exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day. Keel. Justice Keelin said that I ought not to preach; and asked me where I had my authority?

Bun. I said that I would prove that it was lawful for me, and such as I am, to preach the word of God.

Keel. He said unto me, By what scripture?

Bun. I said, By that in the first epistle of Peter, the fourth chapter, the eleventh verse; and Acts the eighteenth, with other scriptures, which he would not suffer me to mention. But hold, said he, not so many; which is the first?

Bun. I said this: "As every man hath received the gift, so let him minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God."

Keel. He said, Let me a little open that scripture to you. As every man hath received the gift; that is, said he, as every man hath received a trade, so let him follow it. If any man hath received a gift of tinkering, as thou hast done, let him follow his tinkering; and so other men their trades, and the divine his calling, &c.

Bun. Nay, sir, said I, but it is most clear that the apostle speaks here of preaching the word; if you do but compare both the verses together, the next verse explains this gift, what it is; saying, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;" so that it is plain that the Holy Ghost doth not, in this place, so much exhort to civil callings, as to the exercising of those gifts that we have received from God. I would have gone on, but he would not give me leave.

Keel. He said, we might do it in our families, but not otherwise.

If

Bun. I said, if it was lawful to do good to some, it was lawful to do good to more. it was a good duty to exhort our families, it is good to exhort others; but if they hold it a sin to meet together to seek the face of God, and exhort one another to follow Christ, I should sin still, for so we should do.

Keel. Then you confess the indictment, do you not?

Bun. This I confess, we have had many meetings together, both to pray to God and to exhort one another, and that we had the sweet comforting presence of the Lord among us, for our encouragement, blessed be his name therefore. I confess myself guilty no

otherwise.

Keel. Then, said he, hear your judgment. You must be had back again to prison, and there lie for three months following; and at three months' end, if you do not submit to go to church to hear divine service, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm; and if, after such a day as shall be appointed you to be gone, you shall be found in this realm, or be found to come over again without special licence from the king, you must stretch by the neck for it, I tell you plainly. And so he bid my jailer

have me away.

Bun. I told him, as to this matter I was at a point with him; for if I was out of prison to-day, I would preach the gospel again to-morrow, by the help of God.

This answer of his

There was

Thus ended the examination and commitment of John Bunyan. is equal in nobleness to any thing recorded of Luther. IF I WAS OUT OF THE PRISON TODAY, I WOULD PREACH THE GOSPEL AGAIN TO-MORROW, BY THE HELP OF GOD. neither obstinacy nor vain-glory in it, but a calm steadfast determination to obey God rather than man. Bunyan had good examples for his steadfastness and courage. The scene reminds us more than almost any thing else, of certain events in the Acts of the Apostles. What shall we do to these men? said the Jewish rulers. That it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. And again they spake ; and again they were thrust into prison; and again they spake; and again the council and high priest charged them, Did we not straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? So they beat the apostles, and commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And what next? Why, just this: And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach, and to preach Jesus Christ. In all these trying and vexing examinations, Bunyan appears to the greatest advantage, both as a man and a Christian. If he sometimes answered a fool according to his folly, it was never with railing or bitterness; and with all his prejudices against the Common Prayer Book, he has not one word to say against those who choose it, or conscientiously use it, or against their religion. And now, to those who may think it strange that so strong a prejudice should have prevailed against that book, so that men would rather go to prison than use it, we would simply say, What think you would be your feelings in regard to the Presbyterian Book of Discipline, if you were compelled by law to use it, and abide by it, or else have no religion at all? If the strong grasp of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny were laid upon you, and your face were pressed in the dust beneath that book, and it were said to you, Either abide by this and obey it, or you shall neither

preach nor teach, nor hold any civil office; nay, you shall be thrust into prison, or banished, and if found returning, you shall be hanged by the neck till you are dead! I say, what think you would be your feelings towards that book? Why, if it were better than the Pilgrim's Progress itself, you would abhor it, and I had almost said, you would do well to hate it; and you would, as an instrument of pride and tyranny. Prejudice against the Common Prayer Book! If men wish to bring it into disgrace, let them persevere in their assumption that there is no true church, and no true ministry without it. The cross itself, the moment you erect it into a thing of worship, the moment you put the image in place of the thing signified, becomes an idol, a mark of sin instead of glory. Just so it was with the brazen serpent. There was a race of Romanists in that day, who kept it as an object of idolatrous adoration; had they been let go on in their absurdities, they would have passed a law that no person should worship without the brazen serpent. But good King Hezekiah, the noble old image-breaker, took it, and called it with the utmost contempt, a piece of brass, Nehushtan, and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder.

Here I am reminded of a very beautiful remark by Mr. Coleridge, taken partly from an old writer, that an appropriate and seemly religious ceremony is as a gold chain about the neck of faith; it at once adorns and secures it. Yes, says Mr. Coleridge, but if you draw it too close, you strangle it. You strangle and destroy religion, if you make that which is not essential, and especially that which is not commanded in scripture, to be essential and inevitable. And just so with the Prayer Book, the Liturgy; if you seek to enforce it on men's consciences, if you make it essential to religion or to the true church, you suffocate and strangle your religion, and instead of finding in it a living seraph, it will be to you a dead corpse. Let no man judge you in regard to these things, saith Paul; let no man be admitted to spy out and destroy your liberty, which ye have in Christ Jesus. Give no place in subjection to such an one, no, not for an hour.

This

One of the most instructive and important lessons to be drawn from this part of Bunyan's history, and from the survey of his times, is the invaluable preciousness of that discipline of trial, which God, in infinite wisdom and mercy, has appointed for his people, as their pathway to the kingdom of heaven. We scarcely know how the church of Christ could have existed, or what she would have become, without the purifying and ennobling fires of persecution to burn upon her. The most precious of her literary and religious treasures have come out of this furnace. The most heavenly and inspiring names in the record of her living examples are the names of men whose souls were purged from their dross by just such discipline, and perhaps taken out of their bodies, and conveyed in a chariot of fire to heaven. The martyr literature of England, a possession like which, in glory and in value, no nation in the world can show the counterpart, grew out of that fiery process upon men's souls; it is as gold seven-fold purified in the furnace. book of Bunyan's, the heavenly Pilgrim's Progress, grew out of just such a process; for such is the nature of adversity in the hand of God, not only to refine and purify, but to bring out hidden virtue into exercise, and to give to all qualities so wrought, a power over the universal heart of man, such as no learning can sway, and no philosophy communicate. The best work of Baxter's was written on the borders of the grave, in weakness and suffering, having bidden the world adieu, and being raised by the magic of such discipline to a mount of vision, from whence he could take a broad and near survey of the glories of heaven. And perhaps self-denial, by the grace of God, is still more efficacious to raise a man's soul, impart to it power, and transfigure it with glory, than even adversity under the hand of God. At any rate, here is the true secret of greatness. Virtue, said Lord Bacon, is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are either burned or crushed. This is the power of adversity with noble natures, or, with the grace of God, even in a poor nature. But self-denial is a sort of self-burning, that makes a purer fire, and more surely separates the dross from a man's being, than temptation and affliction. Indeed, self-denial is the great end in this world, of which temptation and affliction are the means; a man being then most free and powerful, when most completely dead to self and absorbed in God the Saviour.

The importance of suffering and self-denial as elements of spiritual discipline, is never by us sufficiently considered. If we draw back from the baptism of suffering, we are not likely to be instrumental in the regeneration either of the soul or the literature of the world. How beautiful the language of the poet Cowper, wrung from him by his own experience of anguish,

"The path of sorrow, and that path alone,

Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown."

And Cowper's own intellectual being, Cowper's own poetry, derived a strength and a sacred fire of inspiration from his own sufferings, which nothing else could have communicated. Such has been the experience of multitudes; and it is true that the very best part of our literature has come out of that same furnace. And must not this be our experience if in our piety and intellect we would retain the elements of originality and vital power? It was a remark of Mr. Coleridge, that cannot be too often quoted, that Death only supplies the oil for the inextinguishable lamp of life; a great truth, which is true even before our mortal dissolution; that death to self, which trial, by God's grace, produces, constituting, even in this world, the very essence of strength, life, and glory. Another most important and instructive lesson to be drawn from this part of Bunyan's history, and from our survey of his times, is that of the invaluable preciousness of religious liberty, and the importance not only of the possession, but of the right understanding and use of this great blessing. The experience of ages has proved that there is no lesson so difficult for mankind to learn as that of true religious toleration; for almost every sect in turn, when tempted by the power, has resorted to the practice of religious persecution. Were it not for the seeming incongruity of the sentiment, we should say that good men have even taken turns in burning one another; though, to the credit of Rome, it must be said that the baptism of fire is almost exclusively her sacrament for heretics. Good men of almost all persuasions have been confined in prison for conscience' sake.

Bunyan was the first person in the reign of Charles II. punished for the crime of nonconformity. This, in part, is Southey's own language, punished is the phrase he uses; it should have been, persecuted for the virtue; for such it was in Bunyan: and any palliation which could be resorted to for the purpose of justifying the English Hierarchy for shutting up John Bunyan in prison, would also justify a Romish Hierarchy for burning Latimer and Ridley at the stake. Strange, that the lesson of religious toleration should be one of the last and hardest, even for liberal minds, to learn. It cost long time, instruction, and discipline even for the disciples of Christ to learn it; and they never would have learned it, had not the infant church been cut loose from the state, and deprived of all possibility of girding the secular arm with thunder in its behalf. John had not learned it, when he would have called down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans; nor John nor his fellows, when they forbade a faithful saint (some John Bunyan of those days, belike,) from casting out devils, because he followed not them. And they never would have learned it had the union of church and state been sanctioned by the Saviour. Wherever one sect in particular is united to the state, the lesson of religious toleration will not be perfectly learned; nay, who does not see that toleration itself, applied to religion, implies the assumption of a power that ought not to exist, that in itself is tyranny. It implies that you, an earthly authority, an earthly power, say to me, so condescendingly, I permit you the free exercise of your religion. You permit me! And what authority have you to permit me, any more than I to permit you? God permits me, God commands me; and do you dare to say that you tolerate me? Who is he that shall dare come in between me and God, either to say yea or nay? Your toleration itself is tyranny, for you have no right to meddle with the matter. But wherever church and state are united, then there will be meddling with the matter; and even in this country, if one particular sect were to get the patronage of the state, there would be an end to our perfect religious freedom.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the poet Southwell, who wrote one of the most exquisitely beautiful death-hymns in our language, and who seems to have been truly a devout man, was put to death violently and publicly, no other crime being proved against him, but what he honestly and proudly avowed, that he had come over into England simply and solely to preach the Roman Catholic religion. And he ought to have been left at liberty to preach it; for if the Protestant religion cannot stand against Roman Catholic preaching, it ought to go down; no religion is worth having, or worth supporting, that needs racks, or inquisitions, or fires and faggots to sustain it; that dare not or cannot meet its adversaries on the open battle-field of truth; no religion is worth supporting that needs any thing but the truth and Spirit of God to support it; and no establishment ought to be permitted to stand, that stands by persecuting others; nor any church to exist, that exists simply by unchurching others.

So if the English Church Establishment dared not consider herself safe without shut