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58 HISTOET OF ENGLAND.

crrAp. into gaol Had driven Howe into banishment; and, soon afterBaxter had been let out of the King’s Bench prison, Howereturned from Utrecht to England. It was expected at White-hall that Howe would exert in favour of the Court all theauthority which he possessed over his brethren. The Kinghimself condescended to ask the help of the subject whom hehad oppressed. Howe appears to have hesitated: but theinfluence of the Hampdens, with whom he was on terms ofclose intimacy, kept him steady to the cause of the con-stitution. A meeting of Presbyterian ministers was held athis house, to consider the state of affairs, and to determineon the course to be adopted. There was great anxiety at thepalace to know the result. Two royal messengers were inattendance during the discussion. They carried back theunwelcome news that Howe had declared himself decidedlyadverse to the dispensing power, and that he had, after longdebate, carried with him the majority of the assembly. *

Bunyan ^o the names of Baxter and Howe must be added thename of a man far below them in station and in acquiredknowledge, but in virtue their equal, and in genius theirsuperior, John Bunyan. Bunyan had been bred a tinker,and had served as a private soldier in the parliamentary army.

Early in his life he had been fearfully tortured by remorsefor his youthful sins, the worst of which seem, however, tohave been such as the world thinks venial. His keen sen- >sibility and his powerful imagination made his internal con-flicts singularly terrible. He fancied that he was under sen-tence of reprobation, that he had committed blasphemyagainst the Holy Ghost, that he had sold Christ, that he wasactually possessed by a demon. Sometimes loud voices fromheaven cried out to warn him. Sometimes fiends whisperedimpious suggestions in his ear. He saw visions of distant.mountain tops, on which the sun shone brightly, but fromwhich he was separated by a waste of snow. He felt the Devil

* Calamy’s Life of Howe. The share which the Hampden family hadin the matter I learned from a letter of Johnstone of Waristoun, datedJune 13 .1688.