1672 To 1688
In the same month as his release, John Bunyan became pastor of the Independent church. On 9 May, Bunyan was the recipient of one of the first licences to preach under the new law. He was licenced as an Independent. A barn in Mill Street, Bedford was purchased by the church and set up as a Meeting House for the church on the site that is the present-day location of the Bunyan Meeting House that is affiliated with both the Congregational and Baptist Churches.
By his preaching, Bunyan became popular in Bedfordshire and several surrounding counties, including Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire. His own congregation at the independent church in Bedford grew strongly at this time, and many village chapels for miles around Bedford owed their roots to John Bunyan’s influence. He would even speak to large crowds and congregations as far away as London and, as his fame and popularity as a preacher increased, he became affectionately known as 'Bishop Bunyan'.
In March 1675, following Charles II's withdrawal of the Declaration of Religious Indulgence, John was again imprisoned for preaching. This was not, as formerly thought, in the Bedford town jail on the stone river bridge, but once again in the county gaol. (The original warrant, discovered in 1887, is published in facsimile by Rush and Warwick, London).
It was the Quakers who most probably helped secure Bunyan's release. When the King asked for a list of names to pardon, the Society gave Bunyan's name along with those of their own members. Within six months, John was free and, as a result of his popularity, was never arrested again. He was, however, said to have dressed for a time like a waggoner, whip in hand, when he visited his various congregations, so as to avoid another arrest.
When, in 1687, the King James II of England asked Bunyan to oversee the royal interest in Bedford, John declined this influential post because James refused to lift the tests and laws which served to persecute nonconformists.
In 1688, John served as chaplain to the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Shorter.
As John Bunyan was riding from Reading, Berkshire to London, to resolve a disagreement between a father and son, he caught a cold and developed a fever. He died at the house of his friend John Strudwick, a grocer and chandler on Snow Hill in Holborn, on 31 August 1688.
John Bunyan's grave lies in the cemetery at Bunhill Fields in London.
In 1862 a recumbent statue was created to adorn his grave. He lies among other historic nonconformists, George Fox, William Blake and Daniel Defoe.
In 1874, a bronze statue of John Bunyan, sculpted by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, was erected in Bedford. This stands at the south-western corner of St Peter's Green, facing down Bedford's High Street. The site was chosen by Boehm for its significance as a crossroads. Bunyan is depicted expounding the Bible, to an invisible congregation, with a broken fetter representing his imprisonment by his left foot. There are three scenes from "The Pilgrim's Progress" on the stone plinth: Christian at the wicket gate; his fight with Apollyon; and losing his burden at the foot of the cross of Jesus. The statue was unveiled by Lady Augusta Stanley, wife of the Dean of Westminster, on Wednesday 10 June 1874. There is another statue of him in Kingsway in London, and there are memorial windows in various churches including Elstow Abbey and Bunyan Meeting in Bedford.
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