being ever 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 those who persecuted him to the Lord.

6

"In his family he kept up a very strict discipline in prayer and exhortations, being, in this, like Joshua, as that good man expresses it,' But as for me and my house,' whatsoever others may do, 'we will serve the Lord.' And, indeed, a blessing waited on his labours and endeavours, so that his wife, as the Psalmist says, was like a pleasant vine upon the walls of his house, and his children like olive branches around his table; for so shall it be with the man that fears the Lord.' Though, by reason of the many losses he sustained by imprisonment and other trials, his earthly treasure swelled not to excess, he always had a sufficiency to live decently and creditably, and with that he had the greatest of all treasures, which is content.

"Where content dwells, even a poor cottage is a kingly palace; and this happiness Bunyan had all his life long; not so much minding this world, as knowing that here he was a pilgrim and stranger, and had no continuing city, but looked for one not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. At length he was worn out with sufferings and age, and often teaching, till the day of his dissolution drew near, and death, that unlocks the prison of the 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 is denounced. Even his

last act or undertaking was a labour of love and charity; for it so falling out, that a young gentleman, a neighbour of Bunyan's, happening to fall into the displeasure of his father, and being much troubled in mind upon that account, and also for that he heard his father purposed to disinherit him, or otherwise deprive him of what he had to leave, he pitched upon 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's heart was mollified, and the son restored to his favour.

"But Bunyan, after he had disposed all things to the best for accommodation, returning to London, and being overtaken with excessive rains, and coming to his lodgings 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, which is far better. In that case he esteemed death as gain, and life only a tedious delaying of the felicity expected. Finding his vital strength decay, having also settled his mind and his affairs as well as the shortness of time and the violence of his disease would permit, with a constant and Christian patience he resigned his soul into the hands of his most merciful Redeemer, following his Pilgrim from the City of Destruction to the New Jerusalem; his better part having been all along there in holy contemplation, panting and breathing after the hidden manna and water of life, evidenced by the many holy and divine consolations expressed in his letters to several persons in prison."

He died at the house of his friend Mr. Strudwick, a grocer, at the sign of the "Star," on Snow Hill, and was buried in that friend's vault in Bunhill Fields burialground. His age and the date of his decease are thus recorded in his epitaph: "Mr. John Bunyan, author of the Pilgrim's Progress,' ob. 12 August, 1683, æt. 60.

The Pilgrim's Progress now is finished,

And Death has laid him in his earthly bed."

A new monument was erected by public subscription in May, 1862, under the presidency of the Earl of Shaftesbury. On the top of the tomb is a carved stone effigy of Bunyan in a reclining posture, with a book in his hand, his head resting on a pillow. On the north side is a carved panel, representing Christian starting on his journey, and on the south side he stands before the cross, while his burden falls from his back.

The character of Bunyan is thus described: "He was eminent as a Christian, and as a minister of Christ, making that which God had called him to his business and delight. He was laborious in his work of preaching, at home and abroad, and diligent in his preparation for it, not doing the work of God negligently. He was faithful in dispensing the Word, and in doing his duty to God and man. When he saw cause of reproof, he did not spare for outward circumstances, whether in the pulpit or not, and was ready to administer comfort and succour to the tempted. A son of consolation to the broken-hearted and afflicted; yet a son of thunder to secure and dead sinners.

"He knew the worth of an interest in Christ by his own experience of the goodness of God, showing him, on the one hand, his natural defilement, guilt, and enmity, and the wrath that was due to him thereby,

as also the virtue of the blood of Christ, on the other hand, to cleanse from all sin; and from that experimental knowledge did flow hearty desires, and fervent prayers, that the work of God might be effectually wrought on sinners, especially among those whom he laboured in the word and doctrine, and matter of grief was it to him when he did not see conversion work on foot. Indeed, in the beginning of his ministry, God did own him in that work beyond what is ordinary; and in his latter years, few, if any, were more successful in their work, we mean in respect to conversion. God was with him from first to last, and it might be said of him, as of David, 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: and I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth,' 2 Sam. vii. 8, 9.

"His long continuance in the work of the ministry was a great blessing to the Church of God in and about Bedford, over which the Holy Ghost made him an overseer; his ministry being blessed to the edification, comfort, and establishment of the saints, as well as to the conversion of sinners.

"He was also very useful as an elder or pastor, first by his example, he being full of zeal and affection at all times, according to knowledge; more especially at the administration of the Lord's supper, it was observable that tears flowed from his eyes in abundance, from his sense of the sufferings of Christ, that are in that ordinance shadowed forth. He was useful also by the accuracy of his knowledge of church discipline, and readiness to put that into practice in the church as occasion offered, which he saw was agreeable to the

word of God; whether admonition, or edification, or making up differences, or filling up vacancies, or paring off excrescences. And as he was useful to that church, so to the country round about, and to other churches, where he frequently bestowed his labours.

"He appeared to be of a stern and rough temper, but in his conversation mild and affable, not given to loquacity, or much discourse in company, unless some urgent occasion required. It was observed he never spoke of himself, or of his talents, but rather seemed low in his own eyes, and submitted himself to the judgment of others, abhorring lying and swearing, and being just to his word as far as lay in his power.

"In his person he was tall of stature, strong-boned, but not corpulent, somewhat of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, wearing his hair on his upper lip, after the old British fashion. His hair reddish, but, in his latter days, time had sprinkled it with grey. His nose well set, but not declining nor bending, and his mouth moderately large, his forehead somewhat high, and his habit always plain and modest."

His widow put forth an advertisement, stating her inability to print the writings which he left unpublished. They are probably included in the folio edition of his works, which was published in 1692, the year of her decease, by Ebenezer Chandler, Bunyan's successor at Bedford, and John Wilson, a brother minister of the same denomination, who went, in Bunyan's lifetime, from the Bedford church to be the first pastor of the Baptist church at Hitchin, Herts.

Three children survived him; there were none by the second marriage. His blind daughter Mary, the only one it might have troubled him to leave with a scanty provision, died before him. His eldest son