BEGINNING WHERE HE LEFT OFF, AND CONCLUDING WITH THE TIME AND MANNER OF HIS DEATH AND BURIAL; TOGETHER WITH HIS TRUE CHARACTER, ETC.

READER, The painful and industrious author of this book has already given you a faithful and very moving relation of the beginning and middle of the days of his pilgrimage on earth; and since there yet remains somewhat worthy of notice and regard, which occurred in the last scene of his life; the which, for want of time, or for fear some over-censorious people should impute it to him as an earnest coveting of praise from men, he has not left behind him in writing; wherefore, as a true friend, and long acquaintance of Mr. Bunyan’s, that his good end may be known, as his evil beginning, I have taken upon me, from my knowledge, and the best account given by other of his friends, to piece this to the thread too soon broke off, and so lengthen it out to his entering upon eternity.

He has told you at large, of his birth and education; the evil habits and corruptions of his youth; the temptations he struggled and conflicted so frequently with; the mercies, comforts, and deliverances he found; how he came to take upon him the preaching of the Gospel; the slanders, reproaches, and imprisonments that attended him, and the progress he notwithstanding made, by the assistance of God’s grace, no doubt to the saving of many souls. Therefore take these things, as he himself has methodically laid them down in the words of verity; and so I pass on as to what remains.

After his being freed from his twelve years’ imprisonment, and upwards, for nonconformity, wherein he had time to furnish the world with sundry good books, etc., and by his patience, to move Dr. Barlow, the then Bishop of Lincoln, and other churchmen, to pity his hard and unreasonable sufferings, so far as to stand very much his friends, in procuring his enlargement, or there perhaps he had died, by the noisomeness and ill usage of the place; being now, I say, again at liberty, and having, through mercy, shaken off his bodily fetters, for those upon his soul were broken before, by the abounding grace that filled his heart, he went to visit those that had been a comfort to him in his tribulation, with a Christian-like acknowledgment of their kindness and enlargement of charity; giving encouragement by his example, if it happened to be their hard haps to fall into affliction or trouble, then to suffer patiently for the sake of a good conscience, and for the love of God in Jesus Christ. towards their souls, and by many cordial persuasions, supported some, whose spirits began to sink low, through the fear of danger that threatened their worldly concernment, so that the people found a wonderful consolation in his discourse and admonitions.

As often as opportunity would admit, he gathered them together, though the law was then in force against meetings, in convenient places, and fed them with the sincere milk of the word, that they might grow in grace thereby. To such as were any where taken and imprisoned upon these accounts, he made it another part of his business to extend his charity, and gather relief for such of them as wanted.

He took great care to visit the sick, and strengthen them against the suggestions of the tempter, which at such times are very prevalent; so that they had cause for ever to bless God, who had put it into his heart, at such a time, to rescue them from the power of the roaring lion, who sought to devour them. Nor did he spare any pains or labor in travel, though to the remote counties, where he knew, or imagined any people might stand in need of his assistance; insomuch that some of these visitations that he made, which were two or three every year, some (though in a jeering manner no doubt) gave him the epithet of Bishop Bunyan, whilst others envied him for his so earnestly laboring in Christ’s vineyard; yet the seed of the word he all this while sowed in the hearts of his congregation, watered with the grace of God, brought forth in abundance, in bringing in disciples to the church of Christ.

Another part of his time he spent in reconciling differences, by which he hindered many mischiefs, and saved some families from ruin; and in some fallings-out, he was uneasy until he found a means to labor a reconciliation, and become a peace-maker, on whom a blessing is promised in holy writ; and indeed, in doing this good office he may be said to sum up his days, it being the last undertaking of his life, as will appear in the close of this paper.

When in the late reign, liberty of conscience was unexpectedly given and indulged to dissenters of all persuasions, his piercing wit penetrated the veil, and found that it was not for the dissenters’ sakes they were so suddenly freed from the persecutions that had long lain heavy upon them, and set in a manner, on an equal foot with the church of England, which the papists were undermining, and about to subvert. He foresaw all the advantages that could redound to the dissenters, would have been no more than what Polyphemus, the monstrous giant of Sicily, would have allowed Ulysses, viz., That he would eat his men first, and do him the favor of being eaten last. For although Mr. Bunyan, following the examples of others, did lay hold of this liberty, as an acceptable thing in itself, knowing God as the only Lord of conscience, and that it is good at all times to do according to the dictates of a good conscience, and that the preaching the glad tidings of the Gospel is beautiful in the preacher; yet in all this he moved with caution and holy fear, earnestly praying for averting the impendent judgments, which he saw, like a black tempest, hanging over our heads for our sins, and ready to break upon us, and that the Ninevites’ remedy was now highly necessary. Hereupon he gathered his congregation at Bedford, where he mostly lived, and had lived and spent the greater part of his life; and there being no convenient place to be had for the entertainment of so great a confluence of people as followed him, upon the account of his teaching, he consulted with them for the building of a meeting-house, to which they made their voluntary contributions, with all cheerfulness and alacrity; and the first time he appeared to edify, the place was so thronged, that many were constrained to stay without, though the house was very spacious, every one striving to partake of his instructions, that were of his persuasion, and show their good will towards him, by being present at the opening of the place. And here he lived in peace and quiet of mind, contenting himself with that little God had bestowed upon him, and sequestering himself from all secular employments to follow that of his call to the ministry; for as God said to Moses, he that made the lips and heart, can give eloquence and wisdom, without extraordinary acquirements in an university.

During these things there were regulators sent into all cities and towns corporate, to new-model the government in the magistracy, etc., by turning out some, and putting in others. Against this Mr. Bunyan expressed his zeal with some warmness, as foreseeing the bad consequence that would attend it, and labored with his congregation to prevent their being imposed on in this kind: and when a great man in those days coming to Bedford upon some such errand, sent for him, as it is supposed, to give him a place of public trust, he would by no means come at him, but sent his excuse.

When he was at leisure from writing and teaching, he often came up to London, and there went among the congregations of the nonconformists, and used his talents to the great good-liking of the hearers; and even some, to whom he had been misrepresented, upon the account of his education, were convinced of his worth and knowledge in sacred things, as perceiving him to be a man of sound judgment, delivering himself plainly and powerfully; insomuch that many who came spectators for novelty, rather than to be edified and improved, went away well satisfied with what they heard; and wondered, as the Jews did at the apostles, viz., whence this man should have these things; perhaps not considering that God more immediately assists those that make it their business industriously and cheerfully to labor in his vineyard.

Thus he spent his latter years in imitation of his great Lord and Master, the ever-blessed Jesus; he went about doing good; so that the most prying critic, or even malice herself, is defied to find, even upon the narrowest search or observation, any sully or stain upon his reputation, with which he may be justly charged; and this we note, as a challenge to those that have had the least regard for him, or them of his persuasion, and have one way or other appeared in the front of those that oppressed him; and for the turning whose hearts, in obedience to the commission and commandment given him of God, he frequently prayed, and sometimes sought a blessing for them, even with tears; the effects of which, they may, peradventure, though undeservedly, have found in their persons, friends, relations, estates; for God will hear the prayers of the faithful, and answer them, even for those that vex them, as it happened in the case of Job’s praying for the three persons that had been grievous in their reproach against him, even in the day of his sorrow.

But yet let me come a little nearer to particulars, and periods of time, for the better refreshing the memories of those that knew his labor and sufferings, and for the satisfaction of all that read this book.

After he was sensibly convicted of the wicked state of his life, and converted, he was baptized into the congregation, and admitted a member thereof, viz., in the year 1655, and became speedily a very zealous professor. But upon the return of King Charles to the crown in 1660, he was, on the 12th of November, taken, as he was edifying some good people that was got together to hear the word, and confined in Bedford jail for the space of six years, till the act of indulgence to dissenters being allowed, he obtained his freedom by the intercession of some in trust and power, that took pity of his sufferings. But within six years afterwards, he was again taken up, viz., in the year 1666, and was then confined for six years more; when the jailer took such pity of his rigorous sufferings, that he did as the Egyptian jailer did to Joseph, put all the care and trust in his hand. When he was taken this last time he was preaching on these words, viz., “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” And this imprisonment continued six years; and when this was over, another short affliction, which was an imprisonment of half a year, fell to his share. During these confinements, he wrote these following books, viz., “Of Prayer by the Spirit,” “The Holy City’s Resurrection,” “Grace Abounding,” “Pilgrim’s Progress,” the first part.

In the last year of his twelve years’ imprisonment, the pastor of the congregation at Bedford died, and he was chosen to that care of souls, on the 12th of December, 1671. And in this charge he often had disputes with scholars that came to oppose him, as supposing him an ignorant person; and though he argued plainly, and by Scripture, without phrases and logical expressions, yet he non-plussed one who came to oppose him, in his congregation, by demanding, Whether or no we had the true copies of the original Scriptures? And another, when he was preaching accused him of uncharitableness for saying, “It was very hard for most to be saved:” saying, by that he went about to exclude most of his congregation. But he confuted him, and put him to silence, with the parable of the stony ground, and other texts out of the 13th of Matthew ( Matthew 13), in our Savior’s sermon out of a ship; all his methods being to keep close to the Scriptures, and what he found not warranted there, himself would not warrant nor determine, unless in such cases as were plain, wherein no doubts nor scruples did arise.

But not to make any further mention of this kind, it is well known that this person managed all his affairs with such exactness as if he had made it his study, above all other things, not to give occasion of offence, but rather suffer many inconveniences to avoid it, being never heard to reproach or revile any, what injury soever he received, but rather to rebuke those that did. And as it was in his conversation, so it is manifested in those books he has caused to be published to the world; where, like the archangel disputing with Satan about the body of Moses, as we find it in the Epistle of St. Jude, he brings no railing accusation, but leaves the rebukers, those that persecuted him, to the Lord.

In his family he kept very strict discipline, in prayer and exhortations, being in this like Joshua, as that good man expresses it, viz., “Whatsoever others did, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” And indeed a blessing waited on his labors and endeavors; so that his wife, as the Psalmist says, “was like a pleasant vine upon the wall of his house, and his children like olive-branches round his table; for so shall it be with the man that fears the Lord;” and though by reason of the many losses he sustained by imprisonment and spoil, of his chargeable sickness, etc., his earthly treasure swelled not to excess, he always had sufficient to live decently and creditably; and with that he had the greatest of all treasures, which is content: for as the wise man says, “that is a continual feast.”

But where content dwells, even a poor cottage is a kingly palace; and this happiness he had all his life long, not so much minding this world, as knowing he was here as a pilgrim and stranger, and had no tarrying city, but looked for one not made with hands, eternal in the highest heavens.

But at length, worn out with sufferings, age, and often teaching, the day of his dissolution drew near; and death, that unlocks the prison of his soul, to enlarge it for a more glorious mansion, put a stop to his acting his part on the stage of mortality. Heaven, like earthly princes, when it threatens war, being always so kind as to call home its ambassadors before it be denounced. And even the last act or undertaking of his was a labor of love and charity: for it so falling out, that a young gentleman, a neighbor of Mr.

Bunyan’s, happening into the displeasure of his father, and being much troubled in his mind upon that account, as also for that he had heard his father purposed to disinherit him, or otherwise deprive him of what he had to leave, he pitched upon Mr. Bunyan as a fit man to make way for his submission, and prepare his father’s mind to receive him; and he, as willing to do any good office as it could be requested, as readily undertook it; and so riding to Reading in Berkshire, he there used such pressing arguments and reasons against anger and passion, as also for love and reconciliation, that the father was mollified, and his bowels yearned towards his returning son.

But Mr. Bunyan, after he had disposed all things to the best for accommodation, returning to London, and being overtaken with excessive rains, coming to his lodging extremely wet, fell sick of a violent fever; which he bore with much constancy and patience, and expressed himself as if he desired nothing more than to be dissolved, and be with Christ, in that case esteeming death as gain, and life only a tedious delaying felicity expected; and finding his vital strength decay, having settled his mind and affairs, as well as the shortness of time and the violence of his disease, would admit, with a constant and Christian patience, he resigned his soul into the hands of his most merciful Redeemer, following his pilgrimage from the city of Destruction to the New Jerusalem, his better part having been all along there, in holy contemplation, pantings and breathings after the hidden manna, and water of life, as by many holy and humble consolations, expressed in his letters to several persons in prison, and out of prison; too many to be here inserted at present. He died at the house of one Mr. Straddock, a grocer at the Star on Snowhill, in the parish of St.