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 labour and suffering, and for the satisfaction of all that shall 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 the 12th of _November_ taken, as he was edifying some good people that were 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 on 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 even the jailor took such pity of his rigorous sufferings, that he did as the Egyptian jailor 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 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 the 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 his 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 nonplussed 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 chapter of _St Matthew_, in our Saviour’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 or 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 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_, brings no railing accusation (but leaves the rebukers, those that persecuted him) to the Lord.
In his family he kept up a very strict discipline in prayer and exhortation; being in this like _Joshua_, as the 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 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 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_.