Bedford is an ordinary English town that has little to attract travellers not interested in John Bunyan; but for Christians, it is a major religious site. Bunyan was born in 1628 in Elstow, just south of Bedford. After a short spell in the Parliamentary army, during which he was active as a lay preacher, he returned to Elstow in 1647, married, and had four children. In 1653, he joined Pastor Gifford’s Independent Church in Bedford. By 1655 Bunyan and his family were living in St Cuthbert's Street in Bedford, and by 1659 he was recognised beyond the county border as a gifted preacher.
After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the English government sought to enforce religious uniformity by requiring everyone to conform to the Church of England and the Book of Common Prayer, and by prohibiting preaching without a licence. Yet Bunyan continued to preach. When told by a magistrate that he would be imprisoned until he agreed to conform, he famously replied, "If I am freed today, I will preach tomorrow."
He was imprisoned in Bedford County Gaol from 1660 to 1672, during which time he wrote, among other works, The Pilgrim’s Progress Part 1 and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Bunyan was released in 1672 when King Charles II issued a Declaration of Religious Indulgence but was jailed again for a short time after the declaration was withdrawn in 1675. Pilgrim’s Progress was first published in 1678. Bunyan later wrote Pilgrim’s Progress Part 2 (1685) and The Holy War. He spent the rest of his life preaching mainly in the Bedford area. He died in 1688 while on a visit to London, and is buried at Bunhill Fields, London.
Pilgrim’s Progress was a well-loved and immensely influential book in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was even more popular in Scotland and colonial America. It is one of the most well-known books ever written and has been translated into over 2000 languages. Bunyan’s greatness was recognised by such literary giants as Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Macauley. His unforgettable imagery grew out of the classical Reformation teachings concerning man’s fallen nature, grace, justification, and the atonement. Theologically, Bunyan was a Puritan in that he held a Calvinist view of grace but was an independent in his view of the church.
It is sometimes claimed that Bunyan became a Baptist preacher but, according to a little book I bought at the Bunyan Museum, that view is mistaken. David Marshall, in An Introduction to the Life and Works of John Bunyan (Bishopsgate Press, 1989), writes:
There is no record that Bunyan was baptized by immersion (parish records in Elstow indicate that his children were christened), and it is certain that Gifford's congregation was a Union church made up of both Baptists and Independents. Hence there is no ground whatever to assert, as so many have done, that Bunyan became a Baptist preacher. In his Differences in Judgement about Water Baptism (1673) he incurred the anger of prominent Baptists by arguing that adult baptism was a non-essential.
The town of Bedford has done much to preserve and honour the memory of one of the English-speaking world’s most celebrated and influential writers. An important and inspiring museum was opened in 1998, adjacent to the Bunyan Meeting Free Church, where he served as minister from 1672 to 1688.
There are many other places in Bedford with Bunyan associations. A plaque on the house at 17 St Cuthbert’s Street marks the location of the cottage where Bunyan and his family lived from 1655. The cottage was demolished in 1838. The County Gaol where Bunyan was imprisoned from 1660 to 1672 and from 1676 to 1677 was demolished in 1801. At its former location on the corner of High Street and Silver Street, a plaque has been set in the pavement.
The photo at left shows the StatDaughter and me standing by the nine-foot bronze statue of Bunyan that stands on St Peter’s Green at the north end of High Street. It was presented to the city in 1874 by Hastings, Duke of Bedford. Around the base are three bronze panels illustrating scenes from Pilgrim’s Progress.
(As always, click on photos for larger views.)
The John Bunyan Museum is the main Bunyan site in Bedford. Its collection of exhibits, papers, and early editions of Bunyan’s books was lovingly assembled by Christian believers who raised over £1 million to create the museum through donations to the Bunyan Trust. Government aid was refused because government funds for museums and galleries derive partly from lottery revenues, which Bunyan would have considered immoral. Among the many items of interest is this pulpit from which Bunyan preached.
The Bunyan Meeting Free Church was founded as an Independent church in 1650 by a group of twelve Nonconformists. The first pastor was John Gifford, under whose ministry John Bunyan was converted to Christ in 1653. Bunyan began preaching in 1657 and, as already mentioned, had run afoul of the law by 1660. Shortly after his release in 1672, he was called to be the minister here and remained in that office until his death.
In 1672, Bunyan and a few others purchased a barn and orchard for £50 at the church’s present site on Mill Street. The barn was used as the place of worship until 1707 when the first church was built here. This was replaced by the present structure in 1850, which was expanded in 1868 and 1892. A new extension, housing the Bunyan Museum, was built in 1998.
The church today is a thriving congregation in fellowship with the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Congregational Federation, and the United Reformed Church of England and Wales. The great bronze doors at the entrance to the church were presented by Hastings, Duke of Bedford, in 1876. The doors’ ten panels depict scenes from Pilgrim’s Progress.
The church has eight stained glass windows, installed between 1927 and 2000. Seven show scenes from Pilgrim’s Progress, while this one shows Bunyan writing at a desk in prison. The words around the outside edge are the opening words from his great book: "As I walk’d through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream". A postcard showing this window was the only mail to reach church mediator Terry Waite during his captivity in Beirut from January 1987 to November 1991. The reminder that Bunyan spent all those years in prison for his faith in Christ gave Terry Waite hope to persevere. He later spoke highly of the encouragement he received from its message during his years of solitary confinement.
This window shows Christian, his pack having been loosed from his back, kneeling at the cross. The text around the outside comes from Revelation 5:12, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. The text across the bottom of the window says, "He hath given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death".
In closing, here is the one hymn John Bunyan is credited with writing. It first appeared in Pilgrim’s Progress Part 2. In my experience, this hymn is rarely sung in church today; in fact, I first heard it sung in a church history class at Regent College. The professor, Dr Donald Lewis, often illustrated particular classes by leading us in a hymn from the time period we’d been studying. At the end of a class on religion in 17th-century England, we sang this:
Who Would True Valour See
Who would true valour see,
Let him come hither;
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather
There's no discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim.
Whoso beset him round
With dismal stories
Do but themselves confound;
His strength the more is.
No lion can him fright,
He'll with a giant fight,
He will have a right
To be a pilgrim.
Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
Can daunt his spirit,
He knows he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He'll fear not what men say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.
I've only heard one recorded rendition of Bunyan's hymn, but it's a good one. Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band recorded a full CD of traditional, folk-oriented arrangements of a well-chosen collection of 17th, 18th, and early 19th century English hymns. The CD is entitled Sing Lustily and with Good Courage. I recommend it.
Here is the home page of the John Bunyan Society. A map showing Bedford’s location is here.
Links to all my blog posts about British churches and Christian sites can be accessed through the box located at the top of the page.
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