to evade the penalties, with a stern determination to worship God
in the way that their conscience led them. They met their beloved
ministers in private places, and at the most unseasonable hours.
It is said that Bunyan, to avoid discovery, went from a friend's
house disguised as a carter; with his white frock, wide-awake cap,
and his whip in his hand, to attend a private meeting in a sheltered
field or barn. To prevent these meetings, severe and almost
arbitrary penalties were enforced, a considerable part of which
went to the informers--men of debauched habits and profligate
principles. With all their vigilance, these prohibited meetings
could not be prevented. In some cases, the persecuted disciples of
a persecuted Lord took houses adjoining each other, and, by opening
internal communications, assembled together. In some cases, the
barn or room in which they met, had a door behind the pulpit, by
which the preacher could escape. A curious letter, preserved in
the archives at Devonshire House, states, that when a Christian
assembly was held near Devonshire Square, while the minister was in
his sermon, the officers and trained bands entered the meeting-house.
The preacher immediately ceased preaching, and gave out the lines
of a hymn, which the congregation joined in singing, and the officers
waited till the devotional exercise was ended. The preacher, taking
advantage of their hesitation, made his escape by a door at the
back of the pulpit; 'thus,' says the quaint Quaker, 'he choked
the informers off with his hymn.' In the Life of Badman are some
illustrative anecdotes relating to informers and their violent ends,
with an interesting cut of a religious meeting in the fields. One
informer is in a neighbouring tree, to identify the meeters; while
in the distance, another is running for the officers, with this
verse under the print:--