BLIZABBTH BUNYAN, appears from this deed that he had resumed his business as a brazier, -a superior kind of tinker. The worldly circumstances of the Bunyans were, however, now tolerably easy, " for," says Charles Doe, " though by reason of the many losses he sus- tained by imprisonment and spoil, his chargeable sickness, &c. (for he had had a very serious illness), his earthly treasure swelled not to excess, yet he always had sufficient to live decently and creditably." Though, as Southey observes, " all that Bunyan had to lose by ` spoil ' was his occupation as a tinker, which, fortunately for him and all the world, was put an end to earlier than in the course of his preacher's progress he could otherwise have cast it off. That progress raised him to a station of respect- ability and comfort, and he was too wise and religious a man to desire riches either for himself or his children." A wealthy London citizen pro- posing to take one of his sons as an apprentice without a premium, the single-minded John Bunyan " declined the friendly and advantageous offer, saying, ` God did not send me to advance my family, but to preach the Gospel.' " " No doubt," adds Southey, "he saw something in the business, or in the way of life to which it led, unfavourable to the moral character." A very strict discipline was kept up in his family, in " prayer and exhorta- tions, and according to what little is known of his children, they went on in the way they had been trained." His son Thomas, who joined his Church in 1673, was forty-five years a member of the 38
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=