KEEL. Justice KEELIN said that that was a truth.
BUN. And I say further, as to your
saying that one man may
convince another of sin, and that faith comes by
hearing, and that
one man may tell another how he should pray, etc., I say men may
tell each other of their sins, but it is the Spirit that must
convince them.
And though it be said that FAITH COMES BY HEARING: yet it is the
Spirit that worketh faith in the heart through
hearing, or else
THEY ARE NOT PROFITED BY HEARING. Heb. iv. 12.
And that though one man may tell another how he should pray: yet,
as I said before, he cannot pray, nor make his condition known to
God, except the Spirit help. It is not the Common Prayer-Book that
can do this. It is the SPIRIT THAT SHOWETH US OUR SINS, and the
SPIRIT THAT SHOWETH US A SAVIOUR, Jn. xvi. 16, and the Spirit that
stirreth up in our hearts desires to come to God, for such things
as we stand in need of, Matt. xi. 27, even sighing out our souls
unto Him for them with GROANS WHICH CANNOT BE UTTERED. With other
words to the same purpose. At this they were set.
KEEL. But says Justice KEELIN, What have you against the Common
Prayer-Book?
BUN. I said, Sir, if you will hear me, I shall lay down my reasons
against it.
KEEL. He said I should have liberty; but first, said he, let me
give you one
caution; take heed of
speaking irreverently of the
Common Prayer-Book; for if you do so, you will bring great damage
upon yourself.
BUN. So I proceeded, and said, My first reason was, because it was
not commanded in the Word of God, and
therefore I could not use it.
ANOTHER. One of them said, Where do you find it commanded in the
Scripture, that you should go to ELSTOW, or BEDFORD, and yet it is
lawful to go to either of them, is it not?
BUN. I said, To go to ELSTOW, or BEDFORD, was a civil thing, and
not material, though not commanded, and yet God's Word allowed me
to go about my
calling, and
therefore if it lay there, then to go
thither, etc. But to pray, was a great part of the Divine
worshipof God, and
therefore it ought to be done according to the rule of
God's Word.
ANOTHER. One of them said, He will do harm; let him speak no
further.
KEEL. Justice KEELIN said, No, no, never fear him, we are better
established than so; he can do no harm; we know the Common Prayer-
Book hath been ever since the apostles' time, and it is
lawful for
it to be used in the church.
BUN. I said, Show me the place in the
epistles, where the Common
Prayer-Book is written, or one text of Scripture, that commands me
to read it, and I will use it. But yet,
notwithstanding, said I,
they that have a mind to use it, they have their liberty; that is,
I would not keep them from it; but for our parts, we can pray to
God without it. Blessed be His name!
With that, one of them said, Who is your God? Beelzebub?
Moreover, they often said, that I was possessed with the spirit of
delusion, and of the devil. All which
sayings I passed over; the
Lord
forgive them! And further, I said, Blessed be the Lord for
it; we are encouraged to meet together, and to pray, and exhort one
another; for, we have had the comfortable presence of God among us.
For ever
blessed be His holy name!
KEEL. Justice KEELIN called this pedler's French,
saying, that I
must leave off my canting. The Lord open his eyes!
BUN. I said that we ought to exhort one another daily, while it is
called to-day, etc.
KEEL. Justice KEELIN said that I ought not to
preach; and asked me
where I had my authority? with other such like words.
BUN. I said that I would prove that it was
lawful for me, and such
as I am, to
preach the Word of God.
KEEL. He said unto me, By what Scripture?
BUN. I said, By that in the first
epistle of Peter, chap. iv. 10,
11, and Acts xviii., with other Scriptures, which he would not
suffer me to mention. But said, Hold; not so many, which is the
first?
BUN. I said this: AS EVERY MAN HATH RECEIVED THE GIFT, EVEN SO
LET HIM MINISTER THE SAME UNTO ANOTHER, AS GOOD STEWARDS OF THE
MANIFOLD GRACE OF GOD. IF ANY MAN SPEAK, LET HIM SPEAK AS THE
ORACLES OF GOD, ETC.
KEEL. He said, Let me a little open that Scripture to you: AS
EVERY MAN HATH RECEIVED THE GIFT; that is, said he, as every one
hath received a trade, so let him follow it. If any man have
received a gift of tinkering, as thou hast done, let him follow his
tinkering. And so other men their trades. And the
divine his
calling, etc.
BUN. Nay, sir, said I, but it is most clear, that the apostle
speaks here of
preaching the Word; if you do but compare both the
verses together, the next verse explains this gift what it is,
saying, IF ANY MAN SPEAK, LET HIM SPEAK AS THE ORACLES OF GOD. So
that it is plain, that the Holy Ghost doth not so much in this
place exhort to civil
callings, as to the exercising of those gifts
that we have received from God. I would have gone on, but he would
not give me leave.
KEEL. He said, We might do it in our families, but not otherways.
BUN. I said, If it was
lawful to do good to some, it was
lawful to
do good to more. If it was a good duty to exhort our families, it
was good to exhort others; but if they held it a sin to meet
together to seek the face of God, and exhort one another to follow
Christ, I should sin still; for so we should do.
KEEL. He said he was not so well versed in Scripture as to
dispute, or words to that purpose. And said,
moreover, that they
could not wait upon me any longer; but said to me, Then you
confessthe
indictment, do you not? Now, and not till now, I saw I was
indicted.
BUN. I said, This I
confess, we have had many meetings together,
both to pray to God, and to exhort one another, and that we had the
sweet comforting presence of the Lord among us for our
encouragement;
blessed be His name
therefore. I
confessed myself
guilty no otherwise.
KEEL. Then, said he, bear your judgment. You must be had back
again to prison, and there lie for three months following; and at
three months' end, if you do not
submit to go to church to hear
Divine service, and leave your
preaching, you must be banished the
realm: and if, after such a day as shall be appointed you to be
gone, you shall be found in this realm, etc., or be found to come
over again without special
licence from the king, etc., you must
stretch by the neck for it, I tell you
plainly: and so he bid my
jailor have me away.
BUN. I told him, as to this matter, I was at a point with him; for
if I were out of prison to-day, I would
preach the Gospel again to-
morrow, by the help of God.
ANOTHER. To which one made me some answer: but my jailor pulling
me away to be gone, I could not tell what he said.
Thus I
departed from them; and I can truly say, I bless the Lord
JESUS CHRIST for it, that my heart was
sweetly refreshed in the
time of my
examination, and also afterwards, at my returning to the
prison. So that I found Christ's words more than bare trifles,
where He saith, I WILL GIVE YOU A MOUTH AND WISDOM, WHICH ALL YOUR
ADVERSARIES SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO GAINSAY, NOR RESIST. Luke xxi.
15. And that His peace no man can take from us.
Thus have I given you the substance of my
examination. The Lord
make this
profitable to all that shall read or hear it. Farewell.
THE SUBSTANCE OF SOME DISCOURSE HAD BETWEEN THE CLERK OF THE PEACE
AND MYSELF; WHEN HE CAME TO ADMONISH ME, ACCORDING TO THE TENOR OF
THAT LAW, BY WHICH I WAS IN PRISON.
WHEN I had lain in prison other twelve weeks, and now not knowing
what they intended to do with me, upon the third of April 1661,
comes Mr Cobb unto me (as he told me), being sent by the justices
to
admonish me; and demand of me
submittance to the church of
England, etc. The
extent of our
discourse was as followeth.
COBB. When he was come into the house he sent for me out of my
chamber; who, when I was come unto him, he said, Neighbour BUNYAN,
how do you do?
BUN. I thank you, Sir, said I, very well,
blessed be the Lord.
COBB. Saith he, I come to tell you, that it is desired you would
submit yourself to the laws of the land, or else at the next
sessions it will go worse with you, even to be sent away out of the
nation, or else worse than that.
BUN. I said that I did desire to demean myself in the world, both
as becometh a man and a Christian.
COBB. But, saith he, you must
submit to the laws of the land, and
leave off those meetings which you was wont to have; for the
statute-law is directly against it; and I am sent to you by the
justices to tell you that they do intend to
prosecute the law
against you if you
submit not.
BUN. I said, Sir, I
conceive that that law by which I am in prison
at this time, doth not reach or
condemn either me, or the meetings
which I do
frequent; that law was made against those, that being
designed to do evil in their meetings, making the exercise of
religion their
pretence, to cover their wickedness. It doth not
forbid the private meetings of those that
plainly and simply make
it their only end to
worship the Lord, and to exhort one another to
edification. My end in meeting with others is simply to do as much
good as I can, by
exhortation and
counsel, according to that small
measure of light which God hath given me, and not to
disturb the
peace of the nation.
COBB. Every one will say the same, said he; you see the late
insurrection at LONDON, under what
gloriouspretences they went;
and yet, indeed, they intended no less than the ruin of the kingdom
and commonwealth.
BUN. That practice of
theirs, I abhor, said I; yet it doth not
follow that, because they did so,
therefore all others will do so.
I look upon it as my duty to
behave myself under the King's
government, both as becomes a man and a Christian, and if an
occasion were offered me, I should
willinglymanifest my
loyalty to
my Prince, both by word and deed.
COBB. Well, said he, I do not
profess myself to be a man that can
dispute; but this I say, truly, neighbour BUNYAN, I would have you
consider this matter
seriously, and
submit yourself; you may have
your liberty to exhort your neighbour in private
discourse, so be
you do not call together an
assembly of people; and, truly, you may
do much good to the church of Christ, if you would go this way; and
this you may do, and the law not abridge you of it. It is your
private meetings that the law is against.
BUN. Sir, said I, if I may do good to one by my
discourse? why may
I not do good to two? And if to two, why not to four, and so to
eight? etc.
COBB. Ay, saith he, and to a hundred, I
warrant you.
BUN. Yes, Sir, said I, I think I should not be
forbid to do as
much good as I can.
COBB. But, saith he, you may but
pretend to do good, and instead,
notwithstanding, do harm, by seducing the people; you are,
therefore, denied your meeting so many together, lest you should do
harm.
BUN. And yet, said I, you say the law tolerates me to
discoursewith my neighbour; surely there is no law tolerates me seduce any
one;
therefore if I may by the law
discourse with one, surely it is
to do him good; and if I by discoursing may do good to one, surely,
by the same law, I may do good to many.
COBB. The law, saith he, doth
expresslyforbid your private
meetings;
therefore they are not to be tolerated.
BUN. I told him that I would not
entertain so much
uncharitableness of that Parliament in the 35th of ELIZABETH, or of
the Queen herself, as to think they did, by that law, intend the
oppressing of any of God's ordinances, or the interrupting any in
way of God; but men may, in the wresting of it, turn it against the
way of God; but take the law in itself, and it only fighteth