“would have been our greatest allegory if the earlier allegory had never been written,” the “Holy War made by Shaddai upon Diabolus.”  Superior to “The Pilgrim’s Progress” as a literary composition, this last work must be pronounced decidedly inferior to it in attractive power.  For one who reads the “Holy War,” five hundred read the “Pilgrim.”  And those who read it once return to it again and again, with ever fresh delight.  It is a book that never tires.  One or two perusals of the “Holy War” satisfy:  and even these are not without weariness.  As Mr. Froude has said, “The ‘Holy War’ would have entitled Bunyan to a place among the masters of English literature.  It would never have made his name a household word in every English-speaking family on the globe.”

Leaving the further notice of these and his other chief literary productions to another chapter, there is little more to record in Bunyan’s life.  Though never again seriously troubled for his nonconformity, his preaching journeys were not always without risk.  There is a tradition that when he visited Reading to preach, he disguised himself as a waggoner carrying a long whip in his hand to escape detection.  The name of “Bunyan’s Dell,” in a wood not very far from Hitchin, tells of the time when he and his hearers had to conceal their meetings from their enemies’ quest, with scouts planted on every side to warn them of the approach of the spies and informers, who for reward were actively plying their odious trade.  Reference has already been made to Bunyan’s “deed of gift” of all that he possessed in the world—­his “goods, chattels, debts, ready money, plate, rings, household stuff, apparel, utensils, brass, pewter, bedding, and all other his substance whatsoever—­to his well-beloved wife Elizabeth Bunyan.”  Towards the close of the first year of James the Second, 1685, the apprehensions under which Bunyan executed this document were far from groundless.  At no time did the persecution of Nonconformists rage with greater fierceness.  Never, not even under the tyranny of Laud, as Lord Macaulay records had the condition of the Puritans been so deplorable.  Never had spies been so actively employed in detecting congregations.  Never had magistrates, grand-jurors, rectors, and churchwardens been so much on the alert.  Many Nonconformists were cited before the ecclesiastical courts.  Others found it necessary to purchase the connivance of the agents of the Government by bribes.  It was impossible for the sectaries to pray together without precautions such as are employed by coiners and receivers of stolen goods.  Dissenting ministers, however blameless in life, however eminent in learning, could not venture to walk the streets for fear of outrages which were not only not repressed, but encouraged by those whose duty it was to preserve the peace.  Richard Baxter was in prison.  Howe was afraid to show himself in London for fear of insult, and had been driven to Utrecht.  Not