Works of John Bunyan —BUNYAN IS BAPTIZED, AND ENTERS INTO COMMUNION WITH A CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT BEDFORD- 5th Period

BUNYAN SUFFERS PERSECUTION, AND A LONG AND DANGEROUS IMPRISONMENT, FOR REFUSING TO ATTEND THE COMMON PRAYER SERVICE, AND FOR PREACHING.

Informer, art thou in the tree?
Take heed, lest there thou hanged be:
Look likewise to thy foot-hold well;

Lest, if thou slip, thou fall to hell.'

In many cases the justices considered a field preacher to be equally guilty with a regicide. One of the informers, named W. S., was very diligent in this business; 'he would watch a-nights, climb trees, and range the woods a-days, if possible to find out the meters, for then they were forced to meet in the fields.' At length, he was stricken by the hand of God and died a most wretched object. The cruelties that were inflicted upon Dissenters are scarcely credible. Penn, the Quaker, gives this narrative of facts:—The widow's mite hath not escaped their hands; they have made her cow the forfeit of her conscience, not leaving her a bed to lie on, nor a blanket to cover her; and what is yet more barbarous, and helps to make up this tragedy, the poor helpless orphan's milk, boiling over the fire, was flung away, and the skillet made part of their prize; that, had not nature in neighbors been stronger than cruelty in informers and officers, to open her bowels for their relief, they must have utterly perished. One of these infamous, hard-hearted wretches in Bedford, was stricken, soon after, with death; and such had been his notorious brutality, that his widow could not obtain a hearse, but was obliged to carry his body to the grave in a cart.

It is gratifying to leave these horrors—these stains upon our national history—for a moment, to record an event that took place about fifty years back. The Rev. S. Hillyard, the pastor of Bunyan's church, thus writes:—'When our meeting-house was lately repaired, we were allowed, by the Lord Lieutenant and the justices, to carry on our public worship, for a quarter of a year in the town-hall, where, if it had been standing in Mr. Bunyan's time, he must have been tried and committed to jail for preaching.' How different is our position from that of our pilgrim forefathers?

The justices, if the law had allowed them, would, from the first, have prevented Bunyan's preaching. When they had the power, he possessed nothing to excite the cupidity of an informer: this, with the caution of his friends, saved him, for some months, from being apprehended; they met privately in barns, milk-houses, and stables, or in any convenient place in which they were not likely to be disturbed. In addition to these services, every opportunity was embraced to visit his friends—praying with them, administering consolation, arming them with a steady resolve to be patient in suffering and to trust in God for their safety and reward. At length, a piece of information was laid, and he was caught in the very act of worshipping God with some pious neighbors. Bunyan's account of this event is deeply interesting; but the want of sufficient space prevents my from giving more than an abstract of it, referring the reader to his Grace Abounding for fuller details.