In

founded in the Scriptures; but this obstructed | church consisted of one hundred and fifty memhis advancement in the Established Church, and bers. After this the persecution broke out with prejudiced against him the divines who were at greater fury, and it suffered much till King the head of ecclesiastical affairs. He preserved, James's declaration for liberty of conscience rehowever, the character of a man of abilities and vived their drooping spirits, and were almost great learning. After Episcopacy and the Com-twenty years destitute of a pastor. Mr. Chear mon Prayer were laid aside, he was for some was a laborious and successful preacher. time minister at Bedford. In 1645 he came to his cofinement he wrote several religious tracts, London, and was one of the principal managers and letters to his friends full of Christian exon the part of the Baptists in a public dispute hortations to constancy and steadfastness. One concerning infant baptism at Aldermanbury of these, an acknowledgment of some provisions Church, to which a stop was afterward put by sent to him and his fellow-prisoners, most exthe government. In the year 1646, when seven pressive of cheerfulness in their sufferings and churches in London, called Anabaptists, pub- gratitude to their benefactors, is preserved by lished a confession of their faith, and presented Crosby. During his illness, almost to his last it to Parliament, his name, in behalf of one moment, he continued glorifying God, and exof those congregations, was subscribed to it. horting all who visited him to perseverance in Though, when the act of Uniformity, in 1662, those perilous times; speaking with earnest took place, he at first conformed, yet his con- concern about the guilt contracted in these nascience soon after upbraiding him for that step, tions by persecuting God's faithful servants; he obeyed its dictates by throwing up his living, and with great joy and assurance concerning and died a Nonconformist and a Baptist, in a the delight which God takes in his suffering very advanced age; for Mr. Baxter, with whom saints, and the ample recompense he will herehe had a dispute by word of mouth and by wri-after render for their present sorrows; particuting, called him, at the beginning of the civil wars, an ancient minister. He suffered imprisonment for his opinions concerning baptism in the city of Coventry.*

Here is a proper place for observing, that at the Restoration, several parishes were found to have Baptist ministers fixed in them. The cause of this was, that in the year 1653, when a certain number of men called triers were authorized to examine and approve candidates for the ministry, Mr. Tombs, notwithstanding his difference in opinion from the rest, such was the estimation in which his character was held, was appointed to be one of them. Among other good effects that followed upon this, one was, that the commissioners agreed to own Baptists their brethren; and that if any such applied to them for probation, and appeared in other respects duly qualified, they should not be rejected for holding their sentiments.f

The history of the Baptists from the accession of James II. to the Revolution is confined to some brief accounts of the sufferings and characters of several ministers who were in estimation among them, and died in this period.

:

larly on the Lord's Day preceding his dissolution. About three hours before it, a friend, perceiving him under great pressures, said softly to him, "They looked unto the Lord, and were lightened a right look will bring down relief under all difficulties." "Yea," he replied, with great strength and earnestness," and their faces were not ashamed."*

In the reign of James II. died, at Kelby in Leicestershire, where he was a minister of a Baptist congregation, Mr. Richard Farmer, the friend of Mr. Clarke and Mr. Shuttleworth, eminent ejected ministers in that county. He was a hard student and an affecting preacher, and frequently officiated among the Independ ents. He had a small estate to live upon, in which he suffered greatly for his religious principles, as distress was made by virtue of a justice's warrant upon his goods; and they took from him, in one year, to the value of £110.+

learning and piety, of great moderation and catholicism, though of a bold spirit, which feared no danger. In 1671 he was, on the death of Mr. Ewins,‡ invited to be pastor of a congrega

Another, who suffered much in this period for his nonconformity, and was several times prisoner at York, at Leeds, and at Chester, was Mr. Thomas Hardcastle, ejected from Bramham, in the county of York. He was born at Barwick-upon-Holm, and received his education But we should first mention one whose name under Mr. Jackson, of that town, a learned dishould have been introduced in the preceding vine. He had not been long in the ministry reign Mr. Abraham Chear, a native of Ply- when the Act of Uniformity passed: he preachmouth, who, though he did not enjoy a liberal ed afterward at Shadwell Chapel and other plaeducation, knew the Scriptures from his child-ces. He was a man of pregnant parts, eminent hood, and delighted in searching them. About 1648 he was baptized, and joined the Baptist church in that town, and was soon after invited to be their pastor, for which character he was fitted by peculiar gifts and graces. In 1661 he suffered three months' imprisonment in Exeter jail, on the Conventicle Act. In 1662 he was again cast into that prison; after his release he was imprisoned at the Guildhall in Plymouth; then, after a month's detention, he was confined, under military guard, in the Isle of Plymouth, where, after full five years' imprisonment in different jails, and enduring many inhumanities from merciless jailers, he yield ed up his spirit without pang or considerable groan, the 5th of March, 1668. At his death the † lbid., p. 289.

* Crosby, vol. i., p. 353, 354.

Thompson's Collections, MSS., and Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. iii., p. 11-24. + Ibid., p. 118, 119.

though he was no scholar, and had been a mechanic, Mr. Ewins was ejected from a living in Bristol: he was esteemed as a judicious, methodical preacher; was remarkable for his meekness, patience, and charity in his ministerial duties he was popular, laborious, and successful, ready to preach on most days when not otherwise employed; grave and serious everywhere, and full of good discourse. He accept no tithes nor salary, but only free gifts. The was so scrupulous about maintenance, that he would

Bishop of Bristol invited him to conform, but he could

the Lord's Day, spending the afternoon and evening in religious exercises among themselves. Mr. Cann, the author of the marginal references to the Bible, preached adult baptism to them, and settled them in church order, without making baptism a term of communion. On Mr. Hardcastle's settlement with them, they took four rooms on the Lamb pavement, Broadmead, and made them into one of sixteen yards long and fifteen broad. At Bristol he was sent to the House of Correction; he died suddenly, 20th of August, 1678, universally lamented. He published one practical treatise.* He was succeeded by another ejected minister.

tion of Baptists, who had separated from the Establishment early in 1640, though they continued their attendance at sermon, but not at the prayers, in the parish church on the morning of by no means be satisfied to comply. When, in 1651, he was invited by the Separatists at Bristol to become their minister, he was a Pædobaptist. About 1654 he embraced the opinions of the Baptists, and was baptized in London. In 1660 the members of his society were turned out of the churches, and in 1662 he was ordained their pastor. He went through a variety of persecutions, and was often in prison, once for a whole year, when he preached twice a day. There he contracted a lethargic distemper, of which he died, aged about sixty, in April, 1670, greatly lamented. He was buried in St. James's churchyard, April 29, and a vast concourse of people attended his funeral. He was sometimes abused in the streets, but would not attempt to retaliate; for he said, "Vengeance is God's; my duty is patience."-Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. ii., p. 351; and Thomp-thirty-one were Pædobaptists. Mr. Fownes was son's Collections, MSS.

The following letter, addressed to Mr. Ewins by the mayor, aldermen, and steward of Bristol, inviting him to Bristol from his parish at Lanvaughas, clearly proves his high reputation as a preacher: the church of which he became pastor still exists, and is known as the Broadmead Church:

Mr. George Fownes, who settled with this society September 16, 1679, found the number of members, which amounted, when Mr. Hardcastle became their pastor, to a hundred, increased to one hundred and sixty-six, of which

He

education at Shrewsbury, where his grandson, born in Shropshire, and received his classical the ingenious and learned Mr. Joseph Fownes, was for many years a dissenting minister. His. father dying, he was sent to Cambridge. was an able preacher, and a man of great learn"Good Sir-In pursuance of an act of Parliamenting, and was conversant in law, physic, and for the better maintenance of ministers to preach the Gospel, we, the commissioners by the said act appointed, being met together to consider and advise of able and godly men to preach the Gospel in Bristol, having much assurance of your faithfulness and sufficiency for that work, do desire you, sir, that you will please to come unto us, and perform the work and service of a faithful dispenser of the Word of the Gospel in this city; and forasinuch as there is a power given us by the said act to make provision for a competent number of good ministers, we doubt not but we shall provide a sufficient and comfortable maintenance for you. We shall expect to hear from you, and remain, sir, your loving friends, &c.

Bristol, the 14th of July, 1651." Thus Mr. Ewins was settled over the church, and by the mayor appointed city lecturer. He was to preach at St. Nicholas's "every third day" (Tuesday). On Lord's Day morning he preached to his own people at Christ Church; and in the afternoon, at the desire of the corporation, at the church of St. Maryleport. In summer he frequently preached at St. Thomas's and St. Philip's, they being spacious, and capable of accommodating a large number of hearers. On a Friday he preached alternately at St. Philip's and St. Michael's almshouses, besides attending the conference meetings of his own church on Thursdays. A sermon which was preached by him on the narrative of Blind Bartimeus was the means of the conversion of many; and in those halcyon days of prosperity, liberty, and peace," it pleased the Lord to favour his church with a large increase of light and purity. Mr. Ewins was remarkable for meekness, patience, and charity; and so scrupulous about maintenance, that he would accept neither tithes nor salary, but only free gifts.

This noble feeling cannot be too highly commend. ed. It was a source of satisfaction to an inspired apostle. Not that he thought it wrong to receive remuneration on the contrary, he pleaded for it not as a favour, but as a right. But he gloried in being able to decline receiving that to which he and all faithful ministers are entitled. It is much to be deplored that, in the present degenerate state of the Church, free gifts" would not always be adequate; and yet they should be; and in proportion as we appreciate the Gospel, and the value of the soul, they will be. A penurious church cannot expect a blessing from a bountiful Lord.-The Rise and Progress of Dissent in Bristol, chiefly in relation to Broadmead Church, by J. G. Fuller, 1840, p. 31, 32.-C.

VOL. II.-DDD

other branches of science. He voluntarily quitted the parish church before the Restoration, though he continued preaching in different places till he fixed at Bristol. About the time of what was called the Presbyterian Plot, he was taken in the pulpit, and committed to Newgate; but, by virtue of a flaw in the mittimus, he was in six weeks removed by a habeas corpus to the King's Bench, and acquitted. He was afterward apprehended on the highway in Kingswood, on suspicion of only coming from a meeting, and committed to Gloucester jail, for refusing the corporation oath, and riding within five miles of a corporation : witnesses were suborned to swear a riot against him, though no other rioter was named in the bill; he pleaded his own cause very pleasantly, telling them "that he and his horse could not be guilty of a riot without company;" and the jury brought in their verdict, Not guilty: yet he was returned back to prison; and refusing to give a bond for good behaviour, of which he knew preaching would be interpreted to be a forfeiture, he was detained there for two years and a half, till God released him by death in December, 1685. He was afflicted with the stone, and a physician declared "that his confinement was his death; and that it was no less murder than if they had run him through the first day he came in, and

more cruel."t

Another eminent minister and writer among the Baptists at this time was Mr. Henry d'Anvers, a worthy man, of unspotted life and conversation, a joint elder of a Baptist congregation at Aldgate, London, and author of "A Treatise of Baptism," which drew him into a controversy with Mr. Wills, Mr. Blinman, and Mr. Baxter, in whose writings, if we may credit a letter published by Mr. d'Anvers, and sent

*Thompson's Collections, MSS. Crosby, vol. iii., p. 27, 28; and Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. ii., p. 557.

+ Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. i., p. 243, &c. Crosby, vol. iii., p. 28, 29; and Thomp son's Collections, MSS.

to him by a person of quality, of known worth, ability, and moderation, "there were more heat, passion, and personal reflections, than of reason or a sober inquisition of truth." Mr. d'Anvers was descended from honourable parents, his father being a gentleman who had an estate of £400 a year; he himself was governor of Stafford, and a justice of peace, some time before Oliver's usurpation, and well beloved by the people. He was noted for one who would take no bribes. At Stafford he first embraced the opinions of the Baptists.*

(I am sure the reader will be pleased to possess an additional record to the memory of men of whom the world was not worthy; I therefore subjoin a valuable article from Dr. Toulmin's very respectable work entitled "The History of the Protestant Dissenters," London, 1814.

Dr. Toulmin remarks that there were many individuals particularly esteemed, and regarded as men of talents and influence, and says,

"Among these was Mr. William Kiffin, who began his ministry with the Independents, but afterward taking a part in the conferences that were held in the congregation of Mr. Henry Jessey, when the majority of them adopted the sentiments of the Baptists, Mr. Kiffin at that time changed his opinion, and joined himself to the church of Mr. John Spilsbury. A difference arose between them about permitting an indi

In 1687, May 14th, died Mr. Thomas Wilcox, minister of a congregation, which met, previous to the plague, at his own house in Cannon-street, but afterward at the Three Cranes in the Borough, Southwark; and author of a popular little piece, which has been frequently reprinted, entitled "A Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ." He was born at Linden, in the coun-vidual to preach to them who had not been inity of Rutland, August, 1622; was several times confined in Newgate for nonconformity, and suffered very much. He was a moderate man, and of catholic principles, well beloved by all denominations, and frequently preached among the Presbyterians and Independents.

tiated into the Christian Church by immersion, as if the conscientious omission, on one side, of a rite considered as an institution of Christ by the other party, could vitiate the functions of the minister, or as if a mutual indulgence to the dictates of conscience could be a criminal connivance at error. On this point these good men parted, but to their credit they kept up a friendly correspondence. Mr. Kiffin became the pastor of a Baptist congregation in Devonshire Square, London. After the Restoration he had great influence at court, both with the king and Chancellor Hyde; and possessing opulence, is reported to have supplied his majesty, on pressing

pounds. He improved his interest with the king to obtain an order for the examination, in council, of a scurrilous and malignant pamphlet, meant to defame the Baptists, entitled Baxter baptized in Blood.' Another effect of his influ

were condemned to death at Aylesbury for refusing to conform to the Established Church, under a clause in the Conventicle Act of the 35th

October 3, 1687, died, aged fifty-three, Mr. John Gosnold, who had been a scholar at the Charter House, and a student at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, a man of great learning and piety, a pious, practical preacher, of singular modesty and moderation; intimately acquainted with Tillotson, whose weekly lecture he used to attend, and was much esteemed and valued by other men of note and dignity in the Estab-emergencies, with a present of ten thousand lished Church, who kept up a correspondence with him. He was educated for the pulpit in the Establishment, but, by the Act of Uniformity, made incapable of any settlement in it. He was chaplain to Lord Grey. Having joined the Baptists, he was chosen pastor of a congrega-ence was the pardon of twelve Baptists, who tion at Barbican, in London, and was one of the ministers who subscribed the apology presented to Charles II. on occasion of Venner's conspiracy. Though he was always peaceably-of Queen Elizabeth, by the justices of the counminded, he was often forced to conceal himself. ty at a quarter sessions: a proceeding which His flock held him in great respect, and his surprised the king, who could scarcely believe preaching was so popular as to draw after him that any law to justify putting his subjects to people of all denominations. His audience was death for religion only could be in force. Mr. usually computed to be near three thousand; Kiffin himself had, in the time of the Commonand among them very often six or seven clergy- wealth, been prosecuted under the ordinance of men in their gowns, who sat in a convenient Parliament, enacted with a designed reference place, under a large gallery, where they were to Mr. Riddle, for punishing blasphemies and seen by few. The number of his auditors, and heresies. On the 12th of July, 1655, he was the figure which some of them made, occasion- summoned before the lord-mayor, and charged ed, after the fire of London, an application from with a breach of this ordinance, by preaching the officers of the parish of Cripplegate to re- that the baptism of infants was unlawful.' quest a collection for the poor, who abounded That magistrate being busy, the execution of in that parish. The request was complied with, the penalty incurred was referred to the followupward of £50 was raised, and the church vol-ing Monday. The influence which he had at untarily continued the collection for above twen-court, instead of abashing malignity, provoked ty years. His publications were a small trea- it, and increased the number of his enemies, tise entitled "The Doctrine of Baptism;" and and they formed a design upon his life, which another concerning "The Laying on of Hands." coming to his knowledge by a letter that was He was buried in Bunhill Fields, with this sim-intercepted, he was so happy as to escape. He ple inscription: and Mr. Knollys advocated the principles of the Baptists against Dr. Grew and Dr. Bryan, in a disputation held at Coventry; in which both sides claimed the victory, but which was conducted with good temper and great moderation, * Crosby, vol. ii., p. 181, and vol. iii., p. 5. Ibid., vol. i., p. 215.

Here lieth the body of Mr. John Gosnold, a faithful minister of the Gospel, who departed this life October the 3d, 1678, and in the fiftythird year of his age."

* Crosby, vol. iii., p. 90. This individual is severely treated in Wall's History of Baptism.-C.

commendation and praise. A casual conference also with four poor women, into whose company he fell at Bedford, on the subject of

and closed without any diminution of friendly regards. Mr. Kiffin lived to be very old, and preached to the last. He was a man of considerable parts, had learning, and was an acute dis-the new birth, left very serious impressions on putant. It is a sign of his weight, and of the estimation in which he was held by the religious and political communities, that he was one of the five Baptists who were made aldermen by King James II. when he deprived the city of London of its charter.*

his mind. He himself, it appears, ascribed his conversion principally, or in the first instance, to a sudden voice from Heaven, saying, 'Wilt thou leave thy sins, and go to heaven; or have thy sins, and go to hell?' and accosting him when he was at play with his companions. This excited such an astonishment, that he immediately left his sport, and looking up to heav

"Another individual who obtained distinction among the Baptists of that day, and was the author of a treatise in 4to on the subject of bap-en, whence the voice seemed to come, he thought tism, was Mr. Thomas Patient, who began his he saw the Lord Jesus looking down upon him ministry among the Independents in New-Eng- and threatening him with some grievous punland; but, by his own reflections in reading the ishment for his irreligious practices. This supScriptures, was led to conclude that infant bap- posed phenomenon indicated a state of mind tism had no foundation in them. This change previously much agitated and affected with conof sentiments provoked the resentment of his scious guilt, aided by the force and vivacity of brethren, and exposed him to much suffering, an imagination strongly tinctured with enthusiand which induced him to emigrate to England, asm, of the influence of which his history affords where he became co-pastor with Mr. William various instances; for on other and future ocKiffin. He accompanied General Fleetwood to casions he conceived that he saw visions and Ireland, and settled there; and after Dr. Winter heard voices from heaven. The turn of his was removed by the general, usually preached thoughts, and the natural power of fancy, prein the cathedral. The interest of the Baptists senting images suitable to his remorse and fears, was much advanced by his labours in that king-were as really the means which a gracious Provdom, and he is thought to have formed the Bap-idence employed to bring him to repentance, tist church at Cloughkeating, which, in the and the effect was the same, as if a real superyear 1740, consisted of between two or three hundred members united in one communion, though some were of the general and others of the particular persuasion. This church was implicated in the prosecutions which followed the suppression of Monmouth's insurrection, and the ininister and all the members were tried for their lives. The foreman of the jury swore, before he went into the court, that he would not leave it till he had brought them all in guilty: a rash and profane way of prejudging a cause. As soon as he entered the court he died, and the rest of the jury acquitted them.t

natural impression had been made on his ear, or a miraculous scene had been presented to his eye. He became a man of sincere piety and blameless morals; though the latter did not screen him from malicious and groundless calumnies, and the former was unhappily accompanied with great bigotry and a censorious spirit. When he married, he was extremely poor, not having so much furniture as even a dish or a spoon, and all the portion his wife brought him consisted in two books, The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven,' and 'The Practice of Piety,' After his conversion he was baptized by Mr. Gifford, the minister of the Baptist church in Bedford, and admitted a member of it about the year 1655.* His talents, and gifts, and reli

+

"Long before the year 1650, there were in this town and neighbourhood pious persons, who felt a and united in searching after Nonconformists, called detestation of Episcopal superstition and tyranny, in that day Puritans. The chief among these were the Rev. Mr. Man, Mr. John Grew, Mr. John Eston, and Mr. Anthony Harrington. They neither were nor desired to be formed into a church; but were zealous to edify each other, and to promote the Gospel by their liberality and friendship, always keeping a door open, and a table furnished, for those ministers and Christians who evinced a zeal for the purity and practice of religion. About the year 1650 came among them Mr. John Gifford, a native of Kent, who had been a great Royalist and a major in the king's army, but had recently been under deep religious impressions, and had commenced preacher. His labours in that character were acceptable, and successful in awakening in the minds of some a religious concern, and in engaging these friends of piety chosen the pastor or elder. to form themselves into a church, of which he was

"There did not arise among this denomination of Christians a more remarkable character, in many respects, than Mr. John Bunyan, who was born of honest but poor parents, at Elstow in Bedfordshire, in 1628. His father was a tinker: his education consisted only in being taught to read and write; and after he was grown up, he followed his father's occupation. In 1645 he served as a soldier in the Parliament's army at the siege of Leicester. In his youth he was very vicious, and greatly corrupted the manners of his young companions. He became at length a thoughtful and pious man. Different incidents seem to have awakened the principle of conscience in his breast, and to have led him into deep, serious, and penitent reflections. The reproof of a woman, a notoriously wicked character, addressed to him with sharpness, when he was cursing and swearing in a vehement manner, and reproaching him as able to spoil all the youth in the town, filled him with shame, and determined him to refrain from that profane practice. An accidental conversation with a poor man on religion induced him to apply him"The principles on which they entered into felself to reading the Scriptures; which was fol-lowship one with another, and on which they received lowed by such a reformation, both in his words and life, that the change in his manners filled his neighbours with astonishment, and converted their former censures of his conduct into

* Crosby, vol. iii., p. 3, 4, 5. † Ibid., vol. ii., p. 43.

new members into their Christian association, were faith in Christ and holiness of life, without respect to this or that circumstance of opinion in outward or circumstantial points. By these means faith and holiness were encouraged, love and amity were maintamed, disputing and occasional janglings were avoid

gious spirit attracted the attention of this con- | out a special license from the king, to be hanggregation, among whom he for some time gave ed.*

a word of exhortation, or led their worship, till "His wife, to whom, at the time of his comthey called him to the character of a public min-mitment, he had been married almost two ister, and set him apart to that office by fasting years,† on the following assizes addressed herand prayer. He was a popular preacher, and self to the judges; but the justices had prejugenerally spoke with much fluency and with diced them to the utmost they could against great effect. A Cambridge scholar, who after- him. Sir Matthew Hale, who was one of them, ward became a very eminent minister in the and appeared to know nothing of his history, incounty, is particularly mentioned as an instance deed, had the matter come judicially before him, of the power and success of his preaching. Mr. seemed desirous to afford him relief, and adBunyan was to appear on a week day in the vised his wife to procure a writ of error: but pulpit of a church in a country village in the Bunyan and his friends were either too poor, or county, and a great number of people was col- too little acquainted with such matters, to take lected together to hear him. The Cambridge the necessary steps to obtain his enlargement. student riding by at the time inquired, What The sentence of banishment was never execumeant the concourse of people? He was told ted against him; but he was detained in prison that one Bunyan, a tinker, was to preach there; from sessions to sessions, from assizes to assiin a sportive mood he committed his horse to zes, without being brought before the judges, the care of a boy, saying he was resolved to and obtaining permission to plead his cause, till hear the tinker prate,' and went into the church. his imprisonment lasted twelve years. He enHis attention was fixed; he was affected and dured the evils of this long confinement with perimpressed; he came out serious and thought- fect resignation and patience; learned to make ful, and much changed, and would, when he long tagged thread-laces, and supported himself could gratify his taste, hear none but the tinker by it; and wrote many of his tracts, though his for a long time.* The learned Dr. Owen, the library is said to have consisted only of his Bivice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, coun-ble and the Book of Martyrs. His enlargement tenanced his ministerial labours, and attended his sermons. The intolerance of the government, in a few years, put a stop to this course of services. On the 12th of November, 1660, he was requested to preach at Gansel, near Harlington, in Bedfordshire; and there he was apprehended by virtue of a warrant granted by Francis Wingate, Esq., a justice of peace, before whom he was taken, and then committed to Bedford jail. After an imprisonment of seven weeks he was tried on an indictment at Bedford quarter sessions, charged with having devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear Divine service; and with 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.' All, it has been justly observed, that John Bunyan had been guilty of, though it was alleged to be thus 'devilish and pernicious, and so wickedly calculated to disturb and distract the good people of England,' was merely worshipping GoD according to the dictates of his own conscience, and endeavouring to propagate his own religious opinions. But even the facts stated in this ri"After his enlargement, he employed himself diculous indictment were not proved, no wit-in preaching and writing, and made journeys nesses were produced against him; but some words which came from him in the course of a conversation with the justices, were taken for a conviction and recorded he was sent back to prison, under this sentence, to lie there for three months; and if he did not then engage to hear Divine service, and attend in the church, and desist from preaching, to be banished the realm; and in case of not leaving the realm on an appointed day, or of returning to it withed, and many that were weak in the faith were confirmed in the principles of eternal life." In consistency with the large basis on which this church was constituted, its next minister, Mr. Bunyan, was an advocate for the mixed communion of Christians who differed in opinion on the questions relative to baptism. * Crosby, vol. iii., p. 65. *Thomson's Collections, vol. i., Bedford MSS.

at last is ascribed to the compassion and interest of the worthy prelate Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, and to the interference of Dr. Owen.‡ There was an existing law, which invested a bishop with the power to release a prisoner situated as was Mr. Bunyan, if any two persons would join in a cautionary bond that he should conform in half a year. Dr. Owen readily consented, on being requested, to give his bond. The bishop, on application being made to him, declined availing himself of his Episcopal prerogative; but as the law provided that, in case of a bishop's refusal, application should be made to the lord-chancellor to issue out an order to take the cautionary bond and release the prisoner, the bishop proposed this mode of proceeding as more safe for himself at that critical time, as he had many enemies, and promised a compliance with the order of the chancellor. This measure, though it was not so direct as the other, and was more expensive, was adopted, and Mr. Bunyan was released. In the last year of his imprisonment, 1671, on the death of Mr. Gifford, he had been unanimously chosen to sueceed him in the pastoral office.

into various parts of the kingdom to visit pious persons of his own religious views, which visitations fixed on him the title of Bishop Bunyan.' When James II. published his declaration for the liberty of conscience in 1687, though he saw it proceeded not from kindness to Protestant Dissenters, and his piercing judgment anticipated the black cloud of slavery which the sunshine of transient liberty was intended to introduce, yet he thought it right to improve the present day; and by the contributions of his followers built a public meeting-house at Bedford, in which he constantly preached to large congregations. It was his constant practice

Biographia Britannica, by Kippis and others, vol. iii, article Bunyan, page 12, note 1. † She was his second wife. British Biography, vol. vi., p. 106.