nations flocking into it.[252]

In these times of severe persecution, two of the church members,
S. Fenn and J. Whiteman, were ordained joint pastors. Fenn has
just been delivered out of prison; yet they ventured to brave the
storm, and in this year, although the lions prowled before the
porch, a number were added to the church. Thus was their little
Jerusalem built 'even in troublous times.'

Bunyan's popularity and fame for wisdom and knowledge had spread
all round the country, and it naturally brought him visitors, with
their doubts, and fears, and cases of conscience. Among these a
singular instance is recorded in the Life of Badman. 'When I was
in prison,' says the narrator, 'there came a woman to me that was
under a great deal of trouble. So I asked her, she being a stranger
to me, what she had to say to me? She said she was afraid she should
be damned. I asked her the cause of those fears. She told me that
she had, some time since, lived with a shopkeeper at Wellingborough,
and had robbed his box in the shop several times of money, and pray,
says she, tell me what I shall do? I told her I would have her go
to her master, and make him satisfaction. She said she was afraid
lest he should hang her. I told her that I would intercede for her
life, and would make use of other friends to do the like; but she
told me she durst not venture that. Well, said I, shall I send
to your master, while you abide out of sight, and make your peace
with him before he sees you? and with that I asked her master's
name. But all she said in answer to this was, pray let it alone
till I come to you again. So away she went, and neither told me
her master's name nor her own; and I never saw here again.'[253]
He adds, 'I could tell you of another, that came to me with a like