Those who have read John Bunyan’s account of his spiritual history in Grace Abounding will recall how he was attracted during his deep soul exercises to listen to the godly conversation of several women seated at their cottage doors. By this circumstance he was helped into a knowledge of the truth. It was a time when light as to the true character of the Church, as composed of all real believers, was entering many hearts, and many were led to meet apart from the forms and ceremonial of the established Church, a movement doubtless much fostered by the fact that many of the clergy were worthless as preachers and many led ungodly and even vicious lives.
“In 1650, in the town of Bedford, a few believers —twelve in number — after much prayer and exercise and seeking God’s guidance, gave themselves to the Lord and to one another and, unanimously choosing one of themselves as pastor, decided to meet together on simple Christian lines. The principle on which they entered into fellowship with one another and upon which they afterwards received those that were added to their fellowship was faith in Christ and holiness of life.”
It was to this little body of devoted Christians that these women belonged whose joyful conversation had so impressed him. Their first pastor, John Gifford, was a wonderful example of “a brand plucked out of the fire” (Zech. 3:22And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? (Zechariah 3:2)). He had been a Royalist officer during the Civil War and was a thorough man of the world, leading an utterly dissolute life. He was among a few who, after the victory of Parliament, were condemned to the gallows, but he escaped in an almost miraculous way. Suddenly he was convicted of sin by reading a Christian book and sought the company of the few Christians already referred to. They naturally feared him, as the early disciples did Saul of Tarsus, for, before his conversion, he so hated the gospel and the people of God that he had even contemplated killing one of the leading men among them. He now became, however, a preacher of the gospel he had so bitterly opposed.
In Grace Abounding, John Bunyan himself pays tribute to Gifford in the following terms:
“At this time I sat under the ministry of holy Mr. Gifford, whose doctrine of God’s grace was much for my stability. This man made it much his business to deliver the people of God from all those false and unsound rests that by nature we are prone to take and make to our souls. He would bid us take special heed that we took not up any truth upon trust, as from this or that or any other man or men, but cry mightily to God that He would convince us of the reality thereof and set us down therein by His own Spirit in the Holy Word.”
Under the unique circumstances of Cromwell’s Church Settlement, this little body of Christians were allowed to meet in the parish church of St. John’s in Bedford, and Gifford became the recognized minister, though he had never been ordained. In 1653 Bunyan became a member, and his name still appears in the church records. Gifford died two years later and was succeeded by a young man named Burton. Some extracts from the church records will serve better than any description to illustrate the scriptural simplicity which marked the proceedings of the little company then meeting in the parish church.
“At the meeting of the congregation at Bedford the 24th of the second mon: 1657, Sister Cooper’s desire of joyning with the congregation was considered, and bro. Burton, bro. Spensely and bro. Harrington were appointed to go to her, for the further satisfaction of the Church.
“26th of the 4th moneth, John Wilson’s desire of joyning with the congregation was mentioned, and it was agreed that he should give an account of the worke of grace in his soul, next meeting. Some brethren at Woollaston desiring to joyne in fellowship with us, it was agreed that before the next meeting a day should be set apart to seek the Lord concerning it. It was concluded likewise that the members of the Church of Christ in and about Steventon may breake bread with us and we with them as the Lord shall give opportunity.”
“1659. 29th of the 10th moneth. It was appointed that every monethly meeting some of our brethren, viz. one at a time, to whom the Lord may have given a gift, be called forth and incouraged to speake a word in the Church for our mutuall edification, and that one of the brethren be desired to begin next meeting. And that every 3rd monethly meeting especially all our brethren and sisters be desired to come together without any delay or excuse. We are agreed to set apart the 5th day of the next weeke to seeke the Lord especially upon the account of the distractions of the nation.
“1660. 29th of the 1st moneth. We are agreed considering our bro. Burton’s weakenes to entreat our bro. Wheeler, bro. Dunne, bro. Gibbes and bro. Breeden to give their assistance in the work of God in preaching and breaking of bread once every moneth or 3 weekes one after another on the Lord’s dayes during the time of his weakenes.
“The 16th day of the next mon: was appointed to be spent in seeking God with reference to the affaires of the nation and the weakenes of our bro. Burton.
“25th of the 2nd moneth. We are agreed that our meetings on the 2nd day of the week begin henceforth at noone and that the time be spent in prayer.
“It was ordered according to our agreement that our bro. Bunyan be prepared to speake a word to us at the next Church meeting and that our bro. Whiteman faile not to speake to him of it.
“At a meeting of the Church the latter part of the 6th moneth (Sept.): Whereas the Lord hath taken to himself our teacher bro. Burton, we are agreed to set apart the 17th of the next moneth to seek to the Lord for direction in our advising and considering of a Pastor or Teacher suitable for us, and that our friends be very earnest with the rest of our brethren and sisters to give their assistance in this worke according to our duty.
“We desire our bro. Harrington, bro. Coventon, bro. John ffenne to take care to informe themselves of a convenient place for our meeting so soone as they can (we being now deprived of our former place) and reporte it to ye Church.”
In 1655, only two years after he had joined, Bunyan was asked to give a word of exhortation in one of their gatherings. Although they had a pastor, there were evidently opportunities for others who had the gift of preaching and teaching to exercise their gift. Thus John Bunyan began, and it was evident to all that he had been endowed by the Holy Spirit as a preacher and teacher. People soon came in hundreds to hear the converted tinker preach. About this time he had a controversy with the Quakers, whose vague notions and confusion between the work of the Holy Spirit and the voice of conscience greatly troubled him. He was thereby led to write his first book, Some Gospel Truths Opened, in which he inveighed against the mysticism of Quakerism. Bunyan’s preaching activities soon extended into the neighboring counties. Burton, who had succeeded Gifford, was a weak man physically and only lived till 1660. That was the year of the Restoration, and the little company, being Non-Conformists, were turned out of the parish church. The local justices did not wait for government direction. They ordered the restoration of the Book of Common Prayer. Bunyan was among the first to suffer. A warrant was issued against him and he was arrested as he was about to take a meeting at Lower Samsell, a hamlet about thirteen miles from Bedford. He was warned and advised to escape, but he declined to do so, feeling it would set a bad example. The company had already gathered. He began with prayer. Just as they were opening their Bibles, the constable entered. His arrest was not really legal, as the Act of Uniformity had not yet been passed. Having been brought before the magistrate, he was placed under bond not to preach until he appeared before the coming Sessions, but as he declined to give such a promise, he was immediately committed to the county prison at Bedford.
Friends made an unsuccessful effort to secure bail from Mr. Crompton, the magistrate at Elstow. He was fully resigned, for he “tells us that before going to meet the justice, he first committed the matter absolutely to the Lord and left it in His hands. If he might do more good by being set at liberty, he asked that liberty might be granted. But if not, then God’s will be done, for he was not altogether without hope his imprisonment might be the awakening of the saints in that country. Having thus, in all simplicity, committed the matter to God, there came into his heart that inward peace God ever gives to trustful souls. When he found from his jailer that Mr. Crompton had refused the bail, he was not at all daunted, but rather glad and saw evidently that the Lord had heard him. ‘Verily, at my return,’ says he, ‘I did meet my God sweetly in prison again, comforting of me and satisfying me that it was His will and mind that I should be there.’ He wrote these words immediately on returning to the prison chamber, and adds, ‘Here I lie waiting the good will of God to do with me as He pleaseth, knowing that not one hair of my head can fall to the ground without the will of my Father who is in heaven; then let the rage and malice of men be what they may, they can do no more and go no farther than God permits them, and even when they have done their worst, we know that all things work together for good for them that love God.’”
His case came up for trial at the Quarter Sessions in January 1661. He was indicted for “devilishly and perniciously abstaining from coming to church to hear divine service and for being 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.”
Having confessed to meeting with his friends for mutual help and encouragement “when they had enjoyed the sweet comforting presence of the Lord among them,” he was ordered to go back to prison for three months. If he did not then submit, he would be banished from the realm. If, after banishment, he was again found in the country without permission, he would be hanged.
As he declined at the end of his term of imprisonment to give any promise to discontinue meeting with his brethren or cease preaching, he was remitted to prison and there stayed for twelve years. At the coronation, many evildoers were released, but Bunyan was not among them. The Barabases were freed; the followers of Christ were kept in prison. His poor wife made desperate and pathetic appeals for his release, pleading she had four small children who could not help themselves, one of whom was blind, and they were without support save for charity, but these appeals fell on deaf ears.
Bunyan took with him to prison two books, the Bible and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. And what were his feelings in those years of confinement, separated from his beloved family and his brethren? He has recorded them himself: “I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now. The Scriptures that I saw nothing in before are made in this place to shine upon me. Jesus Christ also was never more real and apparent than now. Here I have seen Him and felt Him indeed. I have seen that here that I am persuaded I shall never, while in this world, be able to express. I never knew what it was for God to stand by me at all turns and at every effort of Satan to afflict me, as I have found Him since I came in hither. As being very tender to me, He hath not suffered me to be molested, but would with one scripture and another strengthen me against all, insomuch that I have often said that were it lawful, I could pray for greater trouble for the greater comfort’s sake. Many more of the dealings of God towards me I might relate, but these out of the spoils won in battle have I dedicated to maintain the house of God.”
He was not idle in prison. He made laces for his own support and to help to provide for the necessities of his family. He was not entirely alone either. At one time, there were as many as sixty Dissenters in the jail. To some, too, who were allowed to bring their affairs before him, he became a spiritual counselor. Then there were brief periods of liberty. He was granted several weeks of freedom at one time, due to the intercession of persons of influence. It was at such a time he wrote Grace Abounding. However, he was again imprisoned. During the first six years of imprisonment, he wrote nine books. Pilgrim’s Progress, the work which has made his name famous, appears, however, to have been written during a short term of imprisonment in 1675, some years after the first twelve years had been completed.
As already indicated in these pages, the period of Bunyan’s imprisonment was a time of suffering for those of God’s people whose light kept them apart from the State Church. Paid spies received £7 or £8 — even as much as £15 — for a single conviction. Official records show that many hundreds of Independents and Baptists in Bedford and adjacent counties were imprisoned.
In March 1672, the King’s Declaration of Indulgence was proclaimed. Meanwhile, Bunyan had already enjoyed some liberty, and his brethren in Bedford contemplated appointing him as their pastor. The relative minute in the church records is very interesting. It reads:
“At a full Assembly of the Church at Bedford (Jan. 21, 1672), after much seeking God by prayer and sober conference formerly had, the Congregation did at this meeting with joint consent (signified by solemn lifting up of their hands) call forth and appoint our brother John Bunyan to the pastoral office or eldership, and he, accepting thereof, gave up himself to serve Christ and His Church in that charge and received of the Elders the right hand of fellowship.”
On the same occasion, the names of others among them are recorded as men whose gifts and calling to the ministry and service of the Church were recognized and approved. Under the authority of the new Declaration, a license was obtained for a meeting room (actually a barn) in Mill Lane, Bedford.
Bunyan speedily became a recognized leader in the district, his influence extending to the borders of the neighboring counties and even to London itself. When he applied for his own license, he applied also for licenses for twenty-five other preachers and thirty other buildings in Bedfordshire and the neighboring counties. In the application, the companies requiring these places were called Congregational. The premises included upper rooms, barns, malting floors, gardens, houses, buildings in orchards, halls belonging to public companies, and even chambers in ruined monasteries and cellars in old castles.
Bunyan was forty-four years of age when his twelve years of captivity ended, and save for a period of six months in 1675, his arduous services as a pastor, teacher and preacher continued without further interruption, though the reign of persecution lasted till the year of his death. From time to time he visited London, and a certain Charles Doe, who benefited greatly by his ministry there, left the following testimony concerning his services in the capital:
“When Mr. Bunyan preached in London, if there were but one day’s notice given, there would be more people come together to hear him preach than the meeting-house could hold. I have seen to hear him preach, by my computation, about twelve hundred at a morning lecture by seven o’clock on a working day, in the dark wintertime. I also computed about three thousand that came to hear him one Lord’s Day at London, at a town’s-end meetinghouse, so that half were fain to go back again for want of room, and then himself was fain at a back door to be pulled almost over people to get upstairs to his pulpit.”
In the long confinement in Bedford Jail, God formed and fashioned His servant for those last, fruitful sixteen years, the full results of which are known only to Him. His best known work, Pilgrim’s Progress, needs no introduction. Among Christian books, none has been more widely read and appreciated. His Holy War, though not so well-known, is a remarkable book. Grace Abounding is a moving story of God’s dealings with his own soul. In all, he wrote sixty books, a remarkable achievement for one who had had only scanty educational advantages, but they were all on subjects he had himself learned in the school of God.
In the very year when James II fled and the advent of William and Mary put an end to the persecution of Non-Conformists, John Bunyan rested from his labors. His last service was an errand of mercy to bring about a reconciliation between an angry father and an erring son. Having successfully fulfilled his mission, when returning from Reading to London, he was overtaken by heavy rain and arrived drenched to the skin. He preached the following Sunday, became ill a few days later, and, after an illness of ten days, like Christian of whom he wrote, crossed the river and entered the Celestial City.