solemne lifting up of their hands) call forth and appoint our bro: John Bunyan to the pastorall office or eldership: And he accepting thereof, gave up himself to serve Christ." It appears that one of the pastors, Mr. Whiteman,* died in 1671, and Bunyan was probably appointed in his place. Samuel Fenn, who was at first co-pastor with Whiteman, served afterward with Bunyan in the same capacity for ten years.

It may appear strange to some, that Bunyan should have been elected to this office while still in confinement; but it should be remembered that he now enjoyed considerable liberty, regularly attending all the private meetings of the church.

Shortly after his ordination Bunyan published "A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification by Jesus Christ," in reply to a treatise on "The Design of Christianity," by Dr. Fowler, who attributes justification to human merit. He did not get the doctor's book till the 13th of November, 1671, yet he finished his refutation on the 27th of the following month. At the close of it he says, "The points in controversy between us are (as I do heartily believe) fundamental

*In the church "Booke" there is, in 1660, a minute directing "that Brother Bunyan do prepare to speak," and "that Brother Whiteman fail not to speak to him of it." Whether Whiteman was then a pastor we cannot say.

truths of the Christian religion.

Let all men

know, that I quarrel not with him about things I wherein I dissent from the Church of England; but do contend for the truth contained in these very Articles from which he hath so deeply revolted."

Of this work Mr. Philip thus speaks ::-"It is a very remarkable treatise on justification by faith; and must have completed the confidence of the church in their choice of Bunyan to the pastorate. They had long known him as a good minister of Jesus Christ, and this proved him to be an able minister of the New Testament."

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Fowler in reply got up a scurrilous pamphlet of seventy-eight pages, entitled, "Dirt Wip't off: or a manifest discovery of the gross ignorance, erroneousness, and most unchristian and wicked spirit of John Bunyan, Lay Preacher in Bedford; which he hath shown in a vile pamphlet." "This tirade," says Mr. Philip, was published in 1672. It does not bear Fowler's name; but pretends to be the work of an anonymous friend. And it may have been written by an amanuensis; but, throughout, it is evidently the dictate of Fowler himself. I am compelled to say this, after many zealous efforts to remove the odium of vulgar scurrility from a

scholar who reached the bench." Fowler was afterward made a bishop.

Bunyan's next publication was entitled, * A Confession of my Faith, and a Reason of my Practice; or with who, and who not, I can hold Church Fellowship, or the Communion of Saints: Shewing by divers Arguments, that though I dare not communicate with the open Profane, yet I can with those visible Saints that differ about Water Baptism; wherein is also discoursed, whether that be the entering Ordinance into Fellowship or no." This was published in 1772. It is customary among the dissenters in England for preachers to make a confession of their faith when set apart to the work of the ministry. Whether the work just mentioned is the statement of his doctrine, given by Bunyan at his ordination, we cannot tell; but, from its appearing so shortly after that event, it is highly probable that it is so. The latter part of it, which treats on the terms of communion, brought him into a controversy with some of his Baptist brethren, which we shall hereafter have occasion to notice.

In the address "To the Reader," prefixed to this work, which was written but a few months before his release, Bunyan thus refers to the subject of his long-continued confinement :

"I marvel not that both yourself and others do think my long imprisonment strange, or rather strangely of me for the sake of that; for verily I should also have done it myself, had not the Holy Ghost long since forbidden me. 1 Pet. iv, 12; 1 John iii, 13. Nay, verily, that notwithstanding, had the adversary but fastened the supposition of guilt upon me, my long trials might by this time have put it beyond dispute. For I have not hitherto been so sordid as to stand to a doctrine, right or wrong; much less when so weighty an argument as above eleven years' imprisonment is continually dogging of me to weigh and pause, and pause again, the grounds and foundations for those principles for which I thus have suffered; but having not only at my trial asserted them, but also since, even all this tedious track of time, in cold blood, a thousand times, by the word of God, examined them, and found them good, I cannot, I dare not now revolt or deny the same, on pain of eternal damnation. And that my principles and practice may be open to the view and judgment of all men, though they stand and fall to none but the word of God alone, I have, in this small treatise, presented to this generation, "A Confession of my Faith, and a Reason of my Practice in the Worship of God;" by which, although it be

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brief, candid Christians may, I hope, without a violation to faith or love, judge I may have the root of the matter found in me."

Faith and holiness are my professed principles, with an endeavor, so far as in me lieth, to be at peace with all men. What shall I say? Let mine enemies themselves be judges, if anything in these following doctrines, or if aught that any man hath heard me preach, doth. according to the true intent of my words, savour of heresy or rebellion. I say again, let they themselves be judges if aught they find in my writing or preaching doth render me worthy of almost twelve years' imprisonment, or one that deserveth to be hanged, or banished for ever, according to their tremendous sentence. Indeed, my principles are such as lead me to a denial to communicate in the things of the kingdom of Christ, with the ungodly and open profane. Neither can I, because commanded to the contrary, consent that my soul should be governed by the superstitious inventions of this world, in any of my approaches to God. Wherefore, excepting this one thing, for which I ought not to be rebuked, I shall, I trust, in despite of slander and falsehood, discover myself at all times a peaceable and obedient subject. But if nothing will do, unless I make of conscience