JOHN BUNYAN SENT TO PRISON BY HIS ‘CHRISTIAN’ GOVERNMENT

A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan, Minister of the Gospel at Bedford, in November, 1660: Foster: `…We must not enter into…dispute now; but if you will say you will call the people no more together, you may have your liberty; if not, you must be sent away to prison.’ `

Bunyan: `Sir, I shall not force or compel any man to hear me…’

Foster: `That is none of your work; you must follow your calling, and leave off preaching…to have any such meetings is against the law…’

Bunyan: `I do not make any such promise, for my conscience will not suffer me to do it…I look upon it as my duty to do as much good as I can…’

Foster: `You are ignorant and do not understand the Scriptures; for how can you understand them when you know not the original Greek?’

Bunyan: `It is your opinion that none can understand the Scriptures but those that had the original Greek, then but very few of the poorest sort should be saved (this is harsh,) yet the Scripture saith, that God hides his things from the wise and prudent (that is, from the learned of the world,) and reveals them to babes and sucklings.’

Foster: `There is none that hear you but a company of foolish people.’

Bunyan: “There are the wise as well as the foolish that do hear me; and again, those that are most commonly counted foolish by the world are the wisest before God. Also, God has rejected the wise and mighty and noble, and chosen the foolish and base.’

(The Complete Works of John Bunyan, 1874)