now drawn from its rusty sheath to strike terror
into the hearts of Nonconformists. It did not prove very effectual. All
the true-hearted men preferred to suffer rather than yield in so sacred a
cause. Bunyan was one of the earliest of these, as he proved one of the
staunchest.

Early in October, 1660, the country magistrates meeting in Bedford issued
an order for the public reading of the Liturgy of the Church of England.
Such an order Bunyan would not regard as concerning him. Anyhow he would
not give obeying it a thought. One of the things we least like in Bunyan
is the feeling he exhibits towards the Book of Common Prayer. To him it
was an accursed thing, the badge and token of a persecuting party, a
relic of popery which he exhorted his adherents to "take heed that they
touched not" if they would be "steadfast in the faith of Jesus Christ."
Nothing could be further from his thoughts than to give any heed to the
magistrates' order to go to church and pray "after the form of men's
inventions."

The time for testing Bunyan's resolution was now near at hand. Within
six months of the king's landing, within little more than a month of the
issue of the magistrate's order for the use of the Common Prayer Book,
his sturdy determination to yield obedience to no authority in spiritual
matters but that of his own conscience was put to the proof. Bunyan may
safely be regarded as at that time the most conspicuous of the
Nonconformists of the neighbourhood. He had now preached for five or six
years with ever-growing popularity. No name was so rife in men's mouths
as his. At him, therefore, as the representative of his brother
sectaries, the first blow was levelled. It is no cause of surprise that
in the measures taken against him he recognized the direct agency of
Satan to stop the course of the truth: "That old enemy of man's
salvation," he says, "took his opportunity to inflame the hearts of his
vassals against me, insomuch that at the last I was laid out for the
warrant of a justice." The circumstances were these, on November 12,
1660, Bunyan had engaged to go to the little hamlet of Lower Samsell near
Harlington, to hold a religious service. His purpose becoming known, a
neighbouring magistrate, Mr. Francis Wingate, of Harlington House, was
instructed to issue a warrant for his apprehension under the Act of
Elizabeth. The meeting being represented to him as one of seditious
persons bringing arms, with a view