lips, and zeal for the salvation of others in his heart; but he was certainly at that time no preacher of good will, nor of Christian charity. And without reference to human laws, it may be affirmed, that the circumstances which removed this high-minded and hotminded man from a course of dangerous activity, in which he was as little likely to acquire a tolerant spirit as to impart it, and placed him in confinement, where his understanding had leisure to ripen and to cool, was no less favourable for his moral and religious nature, than it has ultimately proved to his usefulness and his fame.

Nothing is more certain than that the gratification which a resolute spirit feels in satisfying its conscience, exceeds all others; this feeling is altogether distinct from that peace of mind which under all afflictions abides in the regenerate heart; nor is it so safe a feeling, for it depends too much upon excitement, and the exaltation and triumph which it produces are akin to pride. Bunyan's heart had been kindled by the Book of Martyrs,-cold and insensible indeed must any heart be which could dwell without emotion upon those precious records of religious heroism! He had read in those records, with perfect sympathy, the passionate epistle which the Italian martyr, Pomponius Algerius, addressed from prison to his friends. That martyr was a student of Padua, and, in what in one sense may be called the golden age of literature, had been devoted to study from his childhood with ambitious diligence and the most hopeful success. "To mitigate your sorrow which you take for me," said this noble soldier of the noble Army, "I cannot but impart unto you some portion of my delectation and joys which I feel and find, to the intent that you may rejoice with me and sing before the Lord.-I have found a nest of honey and honey-comb in the entrails of a lion.-Behold, He that was once far from me, now is present with me: Whom once scarce I could feel, now I see more apparently: Whom once I saw afar off, now I behold near at hand: Whom once I hungered for, the same now approacheth, and reacheth His hand unto me. He doth comfort me, and heapeth me up with gladness; He driveth away all bitterness; He ministereth strength and courage; He healeth me, refresheth, advanceth, and comforteth me.-' -The sultry heat of the prison to me is coldness; the cold winter to me is a fresh spring-time in the Lord. He that feareth not to be burnt in the

fire, how will he fear the heat of the weather?

Or what careth he for the pinching frost, who burneth with the love of the Lord? This place is sharp and tedious to them that be guilty; but to the innocent, here droppeth delectable dew, here floweth pleasant nectar, here runneth sweet milk, here is plenty of all good things. Let the miserable worldling say, if there be any plot, pasture, or meadow, so delightful to the mind of man as here. Here is Mount Sion; here I am already in Heaven itself. "Here standeth first Christ Jesus in the front; about him stand the old Patriarchs, Prophets, and Evangelists, Apostles, and all the servants of God; of whom some do embrace and cherish me; some exhort, some open the sacraments unto me, some comfort me, other some are singing about me. How then shall I be thought to be alone, among so many and such as these, the beholding of whom to me is both solace and example !”*

"This man," says Bunyan, "was, when he wrote this letter, in the house of the forest of Lebanon, in the Church in the Wilderness,—in the Place and way of contending for the Truth of God: and he drank of both cups, of that which was exceeding bitter, and of that which was exceeding sweet; and the reason why he complained not of the bitter, was because the sweet had overcome it. As his affliction abounded for Christ, so did his consolations by him ;-so did I say? they abounded much more. But was not this man, think you, a Giant ? A pillar in this House? Had he not also now hold of the shield of faith? Yea, was he not now in the combat? And did he not behave himself valiantly? Was not his mind elevated a thousand degrees beyond sense, carnal reasons, fleshly love, self-concerns, and the desire of embracing worldly things? This man had got that by the end that pleased him: neither could all the flatteries, promises, threats, or reproaches, make him once listen to, or inquire after, what the world, or the glory of it, could afford. His mind was captivated with delights invisible he coveted to show his love to his Lord by laying down his life for His sake. He longed to be there, where there shall be no more pain nor sorrow, nor sighing, nor tears, nor troubles.”.''

Bunyan had thoroughly conformed his own frame of mind to that which he thus admired; but there were times when his [* Foxe's Actes and Monumentes,' ed. 1576, p. 912.]

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spirit failed; and there is not a more characteristic passage in his, works than that in which he describes his apprehensions, and inward conflict, and final determination. "I will tell you a pretty business," he says: "I was in a very sad and low condition for many weeks; at which times also, being but a young prisoner and not acquainted with the laws, I had this lying much upon my spirits, that my imprisonment might end at the gallows, for aught that I could tell. Now therefore Satan laid hard, at me to beat me out of heart, by suggesting this unto me; But how if, when you come indeed to die, you should be in this condition; that is, as not to savour the things of God, nor to have any evidence upon your soul for a better state hereafter?" (for indeed at that time all the things of God were hid from my soul.) Wherefore, when I at first began to think of this, it was a great trouble to me; for I thought with myself, that in the condition I now was, I was not fit to die; neither indeed did I think I could, if I should be called to it. Besides, I thought with myself, if I should make a scrambling shift to clamber up the ladder, yet I should either with quaking, or other symptoms of fainting, give occasion to the enemy to reproach the way of God, and his people for their timorousness. This therefore lay with great trouble upon me; for methought I was ashamed to die with a pale face and tottering knees, in such a case as this. Wherefore I prayed to God that He would comfort me, and give me strength to do and suffer what he should call me to; yet no comfort appeared, but all continued hid. I was also at this time so really possessed with the thoughts of death, that oft I was as if I was on the ladder with a rope about my neck. Only this was some encouragement to me: I thought I might now have an opportunity to speak my last words unto a multitude, which I thought would come to see me die; and, thought I, if it must be so, if God will but convert one soul by my last words, I shall not count my life thrown away, nor lost.

“But yet all the things of God were kept out of my sight; and still the Tempter followed me with, 'But whither must you go when you die? what will become of you? where will you be found in another world? what evidence have you for Heaven and glory, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified?' Thus was I tossed for many weeks, and knew not what to do.

At last this consideration fell with weight upon me, that it was for the word and way of God that I was in this condition, wherefore I was engaged not to flinch a hair's breadth from it. I thought also that God might choose whether He would give me comfort now, or at the hour of death; but I might not therefore choose whether I would hold my profession or not. I was bound, but He was free. Yea, it was my duty to stand to His Word, whether he would ever look upon me or save me at the last; wherefore, thought I, the point being thus, I am for going on, and venturing my eternal state with Christ, whether I have comfort here or no. If God doth not come in, thought 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 name!" John Bunyan did not ask himself how far the case of those Martyrs whose example he was prepared to follow resembled the situation in which he was placed. Such a question, had he been cool enough to entertain it, might have shown him that they had no other alternative than idolatry or the stake: but that he was neither called upon to renounce anything that he did believe, nor to profess any thing that he did not; that the congregation to which he belonged held at that time their meetings unmolested; that he might have worshipped when he pleased, where he pleased, and how he pleased; that he was only required not to go about the country holding conventicles; and that the cause for that interdiction was not that persons were admonished in such conventicles to labour for salvation, but that they were exhorted there to regard with abhorrence that Protestant church which is essentially part of the constitution of this kingdom; from the doctrines of which Church, except in the point of infant baptism, he did not differ a hair's breadth. This I am bound to observe, because Bunyan has been, and no doubt will continue to be, most wrongfully represented as having been the victim of intolerant laws, and prelatical oppression.

But greater strength of will and strength of heart could not have been manifested, if a plain duty, wherewith there may be no compromise, had called for that sacrifice which he was ready to have made. It would be wronging him here, were the touching expression of his feelings under these circumstances to be

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withheld. I found myself," he says, a man encompassed with infirmities. The parting with my wife and poor children hath often been to me, in this place, as the pulling the flesh from the bones; and that not only because I am somewhat too fond of these great mercies, but also because I should have often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries, and wants that my poor family was like to meet with, should I be taken from them; especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my heart than all besides. Oh, the thoughts of the hardships I thought my poor blind one might go under, would break my heart to pieces!Poor child thought I, what sorrow art thou like to have for thy portion in this world! Thou must be beaten; must beg; suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities, though I cannot now endure the wind should blow upon thee. But yet recalling myself, thought I, I must venture you all with God, though it goeth to the quick to leave you. Oh, I saw in this condition I was as a man who was pulling down his house upon the heads of his wife and children: yet, thought I, I must do it! And now I thought on those two milch-kine that were to carry the Ark of God into another country, and to leave their* calves behind them."

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These fears passed away when he found that no further proceedings were intended against him. But his worldly occupation was gone, for there was an end of tinkering as well as of his ministerial itinerancy: "He was as effectually called away from his pots and kettles," says Mr. Ivimey, "as the Apostles were from mending their nets;" he learnt therefore to make tagged thread-laces, and by this means supported his family. They lost the comfort of his presence; but in other respects their condition was not worsened by his imprisonment, which indeed was likely to render them objects of kindness, as well as of compassion, to their neighbours. In an age when the state of our prisons was disgraceful to a Christian people, and the treatment of prisoners not unfrequently most inhuman, Bunyan was fortunate in the place of his confinement and in the disposition of his jailer, who is said to have committed the management of the prison to his care, knowing how entirely he might be trusted. He had the society there of some who were suffering for the

* 1 Sam. vi. 10.