r, methought, I had
seen a penny loaf bought with a penny. . . O let the saints know that
unless the devil can pluck Christ out of heaven he cannot pull a true
believer out of Christ." In a striking passage he shows how, by turning
Satan's temptations against himself, Christians may "Get the art as to
outrun him in his own shoes, and make his own darts pierce himself."
"What! didst thou never learn to outshoot the devil in his own bow, and
cut off his head with his own sword as David served Goliath?" The whole
treatise is somewhat wearisome, but the pious reader will find much in it
for spiritual edification.

CHAPTER IV.

We cannot doubt that one in whom loyalty was so deep and fixed a
principle as Bunyan, would welcome with sincere thankfulness the
termination of the miserable interval of anarchy which followed the death
of the Protector and the abdication of his indolent and feeble son, by
the restoration of monarchy in the person of Charles the Second. Even if
some forebodings might have arisen that with the restoration of the old
monarchy the old persecuting laws might be revived, which made it
criminal for a man to think for himself in the matters which most nearly
concerned his eternal interests, and to worship in the way which he found
most helpful to his spiritual life, they would have been silenced by the
promise, contained in Charles's "Declaration from Breda," of liberty to
tender consciences, and the assurance that no one should be disquieted
for differences of opinion in religion, so long as such differences did
not endanger the peace and well-being of the realm. If this declaration
meant anything, it meant a breadth of toleration larger and more liberal
than had been ever granted by Cromwell. Any fears of the renewal of
persecution must be groundless.

But if such dreams of religious liberty were entertained they were
speedily and rudely dispelled, and Bunyan was one of the first to feel
the shock of the awakening. The promise was coupled with a reference to
the "mature deliberation of Parliament." With such a promise Charles's
easy conscience was relieved of all responsibility. Whatever he might
promise, the nation, and Parliament which was its mouthpiece, might set
his promise aside. And if he knew anything of the temper of the people
he was returning to govern, he must have felt assured that any scheme of
comprehension was certain to be rejected by them. As Mr. Froude has
said, "be