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He was born at Elstow, in Bedfordshire, in 1628; and, to use his own words, his "father's house was of that rank which is the meanest and most despised of all the families of the land." His father was a tinker, and the son followed the same calling, which necessarily brought him into association with the lowest and most depraved classes of English society.
Varrse, Richard Spensley, John Donne, Michael Cooke, Edward Covinson, Tho. These to the Lord Generall Cromwell, and the rest of the councell of the army, present. Bunyan's daughter Elizabeth was born at Elstow, April 14, 1654, and a singular proof of his having changed his principles on baptism appears in the church register.
John Bunyan, the author of the book which has probably passed through more editions, had a greater number of readers, and been translated into more languages than any other book in the English tongue, was born in the parish of Elstow, in Bedfordshire, in the latter part of the year 1628, and was baptized in the parish church of the village on the last day of November of that year.
He returned at the end of the year to his tinker's work at Elstow, much as he had left it. The saints, if he had met with saints, had not converted him. 'I sinned still, he says, 'and grew more and more rebellious against God and careless of my own salvation. An important change of another kind, however, lay before him. Young as he was he married.
The change in the constitution of it, even when it came, did not much alter its practical character in the country districts. At Elstow, as we have seen, there was still a high place; there was still a liturgy; there was still a surplice. The Church of England is a compromise between the old theology and the new.
He was born at Elstow, in Bedfordshire, in 1628; and, to use his own words, his "father's house was of that rank which is the meanest and most despised of all the families of the land." His father was a tinker, and the son followed the same calling, which necessarily brought him into association with the lowest and most depraved classes of English society.
And who, looking back to the green spots in his childish experiences, does not bless the good Tinker of Elstow? And who, that has reperused the story of the Pilgrim at a maturer age, and felt the plummet of its truth sounding in the deep places of the soul, has not reason to bless the author for some timely warning or grateful encouragement?
See. p. lxxii. After he had lain in jail five or six days, an application was made to a liberal justice at Elstow, named Crumpton, to release him on bail; but he declined, fearing to give offence. He, however, so felt for this persecuted servant of Christ, as to sell him an edifice and barn, which, upon his release, was converted into a large meeting-house. Vol. ii., p. 107.
And foremost amid that band of liberty-loving and God-fearing men, "The slandered Calvinists of Charles's time, Who fought, and won it, Freedom's holy fight," stands the subject of our sketch, the "Tinker of Elstow." Of his high merit as an author there is no longer any question.
He "shook the sermon out of his mind," and went out to his sports with the Elstow lads on the village green, with as "great delight" as ever.
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