to the disturbance of the public
peace, he ordered that a strong watch should be kept about the house, "as
if," Bunyan says, "we did intend to do some fearful business to the
destruction of the country." The intention to arrest him oozed out, and
on Bunyan's arrival the whisperings of his friends warned him of his
danger. He might have easily escaped if he "had been minded to play the
coward." Some advised it, especially the brother at whose house the
meeting was to take place. He, "living by them," knew "what spirit" the
magistrates "were of," before whom Bunyan would be taken if arrested, and
the small hope there would be of his avoiding being committed to gaol.
The man himself, as a "harbourer of a conventicle," would also run no
small danger of the same fate, but Bunyan generously acquits him of any
selfish object in his warning: "he was, I think, more afraid of (for) me,
than of (for) himself." The matter was clear enough to Bunyan. At the
same time it was not to be decided in a hurry. The time fixed for the
service not being yet come, Bunyan went into the meadow by the house, and
pacing up and down thought the question well out. "If he who had up to
this time showed himself hearty and courageous in his preaching, and had
made it his business to encourage others, were now to run and make an
escape, it would be of an ill savour in the country. If he were now to
flee because there was a warrant out for him, would not the weak and
newly-converted brethren be afraid to stand when great words only were
spoken to them. God had, in His mercy, chosen him to go on the forlorn
hope; to be the first to be opposed for the gospel; what a discouragement
it must be to the whole body if he were to fly. No, he would never by
any cowardliness of his give occasion to the enemy to blaspheme the
gospel." So back to the house he came with his mind made up. He had
come to hold the meeting, and hold the meeting he would. He was not
conscious of saying or doing any evil. If he had to suffer it was the
Lord's will, and he was prepared for it. He had a full hour before him
to escape if he had been so minded, but he was resolved "not to go away."
He calmly waited for the time fixed for the brethren to assemble, and
then, without hurry or any show of alarm, he opened the meeting in the
usual manner, with prayer for God's blessing. He had given out his text,
the brethren had just opened their Bibles and Bunyan was beginning to
pr