The Life of John Bunyan [51]
is recorded is eminently characteristic. We see him
constantly engaged in the great work to which he felt God had
called him, and for which, "with much content through grace," he
had suffered twelve years' incarceration. In addition to the
regular discharge of his pastoral duties to his own congregation,
he took a general oversight of the villages far and near which had
been the scene of his earlier ministry, preaching whenever
opportunity offered, and, ever unsparing of his own personal
labour, making long journeys into distant parts of the country for
the furtherance of the gospel. We find him preaching at Leicester
in the year of his release. Reading also is mentioned as receiving
occasional visits from him, and that not without peril after the
revival of persecution; while the congregations in London had the
benefit of his exhortations at stated intervals. Almost the first
thing Bunyan did, after his liberation from gaol, was to make
others sharers in his hardly won "liberty of prophesying," by
applying to the Government for licenses for preachers and preaching
places in Bedfordshire and the neighbouring counties, under the
Declaration of Indulgence. The still existing list sent in to the
authorities by him, in his own handwriting, contains the names of
twenty-five preachers and thirty buildings, besides "Josias
Roughead's House in his orchard at Bedford." Nineteen of these
were in his own native county, three in Northamptonshire, three in
Buckinghamshire, two in Cambridgeshire, two in Huntingdonshire, and
one in Hertfordshire. The places sought to be licensed were very
various, barns, malthouses, halls belonging to public companies,
&c., but more usually private houses. Over these religious
communities, bound together by a common faith and common suffering,
Bunyan exercised a quasi-episcopal superintendence, which gained
for him the playful title of "Bishop Bunyan." In his regular
circuits, - "visitations" we may not improperly term them, - we are
told that he exerted himself to relieve the temporal wants of the
sufferers under the penal laws, - so soon and so cruelly revived, -
ministered diligently to the sick and afflicted, and used his
influence in reconciling differences between "professors of the
gospel," and thus prevented the scandal of litigation among
Christians. The closing period of Bunyan's life was laborious but
happy, spent "honourably and innocently" in writing, preaching,
visiting his congregations, and planting daughter churches.
"Happy," writes Mr. Froude, "in his work; happy in the sense that
his influence was daily extending - spreading over his own country
and to the far-off settlements of America, - he spent his last
years in his own land of Beulah, Doubting Castle out of sight, and
the towers and minarets of Immanuel's Land growing nearer and
clearer as the days went on."
With his time so largely occupied in his spiritual functions, he
could have had but small leisure to devote to his worldly calling.
This, however, one of so honest and independent a spirit is sure
not to have neglected, it was indeed necessary that to a certain
extent he should work for his living. He had a family to maintain.
His congregation were mostly of the poorer sort, unable to
contribute much to their pastor's support. Had it been otherwise,
Bunyan was the last man in the world to make a trade of the gospel,
and though never hesitating to avail himself of the apostolic
privilege to "live of the gospel," he, like the apostle of the
Gentiles, would never be ashamed to "work with his own hands," that
he might "minister to his own necessities," and those of his
family. But from the time of his release he regarded his
ministerial work as the chief work of his life. "When he came
abroad," says one who knew him, "he found his temporal affairs were
gone to wreck, and he had as to them to begin again as if he had
newly come into
constantly engaged in the great work to which he felt God had
called him, and for which, "with much content through grace," he
had suffered twelve years' incarceration. In addition to the
regular discharge of his pastoral duties to his own congregation,
he took a general oversight of the villages far and near which had
been the scene of his earlier ministry, preaching whenever
opportunity offered, and, ever unsparing of his own personal
labour, making long journeys into distant parts of the country for
the furtherance of the gospel. We find him preaching at Leicester
in the year of his release. Reading also is mentioned as receiving
occasional visits from him, and that not without peril after the
revival of persecution; while the congregations in London had the
benefit of his exhortations at stated intervals. Almost the first
thing Bunyan did, after his liberation from gaol, was to make
others sharers in his hardly won "liberty of prophesying," by
applying to the Government for licenses for preachers and preaching
places in Bedfordshire and the neighbouring counties, under the
Declaration of Indulgence. The still existing list sent in to the
authorities by him, in his own handwriting, contains the names of
twenty-five preachers and thirty buildings, besides "Josias
Roughead's House in his orchard at Bedford." Nineteen of these
were in his own native county, three in Northamptonshire, three in
Buckinghamshire, two in Cambridgeshire, two in Huntingdonshire, and
one in Hertfordshire. The places sought to be licensed were very
various, barns, malthouses, halls belonging to public companies,
&c., but more usually private houses. Over these religious
communities, bound together by a common faith and common suffering,
Bunyan exercised a quasi-episcopal superintendence, which gained
for him the playful title of "Bishop Bunyan." In his regular
circuits, - "visitations" we may not improperly term them, - we are
told that he exerted himself to relieve the temporal wants of the
sufferers under the penal laws, - so soon and so cruelly revived, -
ministered diligently to the sick and afflicted, and used his
influence in reconciling differences between "professors of the
gospel," and thus prevented the scandal of litigation among
Christians. The closing period of Bunyan's life was laborious but
happy, spent "honourably and innocently" in writing, preaching,
visiting his congregations, and planting daughter churches.
"Happy," writes Mr. Froude, "in his work; happy in the sense that
his influence was daily extending - spreading over his own country
and to the far-off settlements of America, - he spent his last
years in his own land of Beulah, Doubting Castle out of sight, and
the towers and minarets of Immanuel's Land growing nearer and
clearer as the days went on."
With his time so largely occupied in his spiritual functions, he
could have had but small leisure to devote to his worldly calling.
This, however, one of so honest and independent a spirit is sure
not to have neglected, it was indeed necessary that to a certain
extent he should work for his living. He had a family to maintain.
His congregation were mostly of the poorer sort, unable to
contribute much to their pastor's support. Had it been otherwise,
Bunyan was the last man in the world to make a trade of the gospel,
and though never hesitating to avail himself of the apostolic
privilege to "live of the gospel," he, like the apostle of the
Gentiles, would never be ashamed to "work with his own hands," that
he might "minister to his own necessities," and those of his
family. But from the time of his release he regarded his
ministerial work as the chief work of his life. "When he came
abroad," says one who knew him, "he found his temporal affairs were
gone to wreck, and he had as to them to begin again as if he had
newly come into