John Bunyan, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
I went to prison for preaching, and for nothing else I can name. In the month of November 1660, after five or six years of freely preaching the gospel, the devil took his opportunity to stir up the hearts of his vassals against me, till I was laid out for by a justice's warrant, taken and committed.1 I had been asked by friends to teach at Samsell, by Harlington, and I promised to come if the Lord permitted.
Mr. Francis Wingate, the justice, got wind of it, issued his warrant, and set a strong watch about the house as if we meant some fearful business for the destruction of the country. When the constable came in, he found us only with our Bibles in our hands, ready to speak and hear the Word of God, and we had already begun in prayer.2 I might have run.
There was whispering that day that a warrant was out, and my friend, being timorous, asked whether the meeting had best be dismissed. I told him no, by no means. I had been hearty in my preaching and had made it my business to encourage others, and if I now fled, what would my weak and newly converted brethren think but that I was not so strong in deed as I was in word?3
The justice offered to let me go on surety for my appearing at the sessions, but he committed me all the same, because my sureties would not consent to be bound that I should preach no more.4 At the sessions I was indicted as an upholder of unlawful assemblies and conventicles and for not conforming to the national worship of the Church of England.
The justices took my plain dealing for a confession of the indictment and sentenced me to perpetual banishment. Because I would not conform, I was delivered again into the jailer's hands, and there I lay twelve years complete.4 The sermon I should have preached when the constable came in was upon the question, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
I meant to show the absolute need of faith in Jesus Christ. I set my principles down in my Confession of My Faith: faith and holiness, and a desire to be at peace with all men, and I let my enemies judge whether anything in my preaching savoured of heresy or rebellion, or deserved almost twelve years' imprisonment. What I would not do was commit my soul to superstitious inventions in my approaches to God, nor make of my conscience a continual butchery and slaughter-shop. I had determined to suffer rather, till the moss grew on my eyebrows.5
the devil, that old enemy of man's salvation, took his opportunity to inflame the hearts of his vassals against me, insomuch that at the last I was laid out for by the warrant of a justice, and was taken and committed to prison.A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
the constable, when he came in, found us only with our Bibles in our hands, ready to speak and hear the Word of God; for we were just about to begin our exercise.A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
what will my weak and newly converted brethren think of it, but that I was not so strong in deed as I was in word?A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
because my sureties would not consent to be bound that I should preach no more to the people.Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
unless I make of my conscience a continual butchery, and slaughter-shop... I have determined... to suffer, if frail life might continue so long, even till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles.A Confession of My Faith and a Reason of My Practice