my first meddling with these matters," he says, "was as followeth Upon a certain fast-day, I being together with my brethren in our prison-chamber, they expected that, according to our custom, something should be spoken out of the Word for our mutual edification; but at that time I felt myself, it being my turn to speak, so empty, speechless, and barren, that I thought I should not have been able to speak among them so much as five words of truth with life and evidence; but at last it so fell out that providentially I cast mine eye upon the 11th verse of the one-and-twentieth chapter of this prophecy (Rev. xxi. 11); upon which, when I had considered a while, methought I perceived something of that jasper, in whose light you there find this Holy City is to come or descend: wherefore, having got in my eye some dim glimmerings thereof, and finding also in my heart a desire to see further thereunto, I with a few groans did carry my meditations to the Lord Jesus for a blessing, which he did forthwith grant, according to his grace; and, helping me to set before my brethren, we did all eat and were well refreshed; and behold also, that while I was in the distributing of it, it so increased in my hand that of the fragments that we left, after we had well dined, I gathered up this basketful. Methought the more I cast mine eye upon the whole discourse the more I saw lie in it. Where fore setting myself to a more narrow search through frequent prayer to God, what first with doing and then with undoing, and after that with doing again, I then did finish it." In the process of "doing and undoing, and doing again," we can imagine Bunyan trying his strength as a spiritual designer. His own complacency in his newly-found gift is obvious. He is like a man who, i laboriously striving to learn a task, suddenly finds himself in possession of a more cunning way of doing it. He has started a spring of hidden accomplishment, which works in him henceforth with a joyous and fruitful activity. But the accomplishment is not without its snares. Its very facility to one like Bunyan-all whose thoughts are images-is its danger; and it cannot be said that he has escaped this danger. Certainly he has not done so in his first attempt. In the Holy City there is too little concentration-too much of the mere straggling play of fancy-catching at every point, and stretching its capricious tendrils around every clause, and even word. It is tedious in its minute spiritualising, and frequently overdone and mistaken in its applications; but it shows, at the same time, a wonderful consistency and life of treatment. Almost any taste but that of Bunyan's, with its singular instinct of truthfulness, even where it is following out a wrong idea, would have gone lamentably astray in the execution of such a task as he attempted. * Bunyan tried his new powers not merely in prose, but in verse. His poems are supposed to have been chiefly written during his imprisonment. They have feeling and tenderness, and a quaint grace of expression; but more can scarcely be said in their behalf. They have none of the imaginative vigour and life of his allegories. His Profitable Meditations, his One Thing is Needful, and Ebal and Gerizzim, or the Blessing and the Curse, may interest the curious, and even excite the admiration of certain minds; but in them we see Bunyan, not in his strength, but in his weakHis rhymes at times are deplorable, as any one may judge from looking at the poetical prologues to ness. * A beautiful edition of these, edited by Mr Offor, has just appeared. the two parts of the Pilgrim's Progress. Yet there is a strange, careless felicity here and there—and especially in his Divine Emblems. In these, more than elsewhere, he really rises at times into poetry; and the simple tenderness of his imaginative brooding breaks forth into touching and expressive pictures.* During the last three or four years of his imprisonment, its strictness was greatly relaxed. He was permitted, as before, to visit his friends, and even to preach. So little was his action fettered, that he was really designed to the pastoral office among his old Bedford congregation before he had formally obtained his freedom. He renewed his interest in religious discussion by making a vigorous attack upon a book then making some noise, The Design of Christianity, by Dr Fowler, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester. This book marked the rising of the new spirit which was so soon to leaven the theology of the Church of England. It was the design of Christianity, according to it, not so much to free man from guilt, and to grant a free and gracious pardon, as to restore his nature to its original state of soundness and moral harmony. It spoke of a righteousness as a "sound *For example, in the following lines on the "Sun's Reflection upon the Clouds on a Fair Morning" "Look yonder! Ah! methinks mine eyes do see They look as if they saw the golden face That makes black clouds most beautiful with grace. Unto the Saint's sweet incense of their prayer, These smoky curled clouds I do compare; For, as these clouds seem edged or laced with gold, If this is scarcely poetry, it is, perhaps, something better; and there are others, such as the lines on a "Fruitful Apple-Tree," and those on the "Child with a Bird at the Bush," that show the same rich simplicity of language, and the same sweet plaintive tone. complexion of zeal, such as maintains in life and vigour whatsoever is essential to it, by the force and power whereof a man is enabled to behave himself as a creature indued with a principle of reason, keeps his supreme faculty on its throne, brings into due subjection all his inferior ones, his carnal imagination, his brutish passions and affections." The purity of human nature-the essence of the Divine-was represented as consisting in a "hearty approbation of, and an affectionate compliance with, the eternal laws of righteousness, and a behaviour agreeable to the essential and immutable differences of good and evil." His Such principles were peculiarly obnoxious to Bunyan. They came into conflict with all his own deepest experiences, as well as with his views of Scripture. Christianity, viewed as a mere moral system, was to him no Gospel at all; and he no sooner heard of the book, than he was anxious to see it and reply to it. It was brought to him in prison in February 1672, and in the course of forty-two days he had written his answer to it, under the title of A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in Jesus Christ, proving that Gospel Holiness flows from thence. defence is a vigorous and lively argument-not very systematic or coherent, but making up for the want of system by the cleverness and energy of its detailed attacks. He makes short work with the learning and philosophy of the Design of Christianity; and, taking his stand on the simple letter of Scripture, on many points very successfully encounters Fowler. His whole heart was in the work, and he is not sparing in his epithets. He begins as follows:-"Sir,-Having heard of your book entitled The Design of Christianity, and that in it was contained such principles as gave just offence to Christian ears, I was desirous of a view thereof, that, from my sight of things, I might be the better able to judge. But I could not obtain, till the 13th of this 10th month, which was too soon for you, Sir, a pretended minister of the Word, so vilely to expose to public view the rottenness of your heart on principles diametrically opposite to the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. And, had it not been for the consideration, that it is not too late to oppose open blasphemy (such as endangereth the souls of thousands), I had cast by this answer as a thing out of season." Such a mode of attack was too easily retorted; and Fowler replied in a style that far outdid Bunyan's abuse. His answer was entitled, Dirt Wiped Off, and, in the course of it, he designated Bunyan by such epithets as " a wretched scribbler," "a most blackmouthed calumniator," "so very dirty a creature, that he disdains to dirt his fingers with him." Bunyan was pardoned and liberated in September 1772, at the time of the Declaration of Indulgence, after Charles had formed his secret plans for the reestablishment of Popery. The story has been, that Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, and Dr Owen, were concerned in his liberation; but there seems no good ground for this story. His old enemies, the Quakers, appear to have had more to do with it. When Charles had issued his Indulgence, some of the Quakers sued for a special act of pardon, which they are said to have obtained, in consideration of the services which one of their number had rendered to the King, in assisting his escape after the battle of Worcester. Greatly to their honour, the Quakers used their temporary access to the royal favour, not merely for the |