John Bunyan, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
It was no defiance of the King, and no quietism either. Look at what I was taken doing. I had promised some friends to teach at Samsell, and the justice, Mr. Wingate, sent his warrant and set a strong watch about the house as though we meant some fearful business to the ruin 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 begun in prayer.1
I was offered a way out and I would not take it. My friend, being timorous, asked whether the meeting had not better be dismissed and I depart. I told him no, our cause was good, and to preach God's Word is so good a work that we shall be well rewarded if we suffer for it.1 Besides, I had made it my business to encourage others; if I now ran, what would my weak and newly converted brethren think but that I was not so strong in deed as in word?1
Before the justice the bargain was put plainly: promise to call the people no more together and go home, or go to prison. I said I would force no man to hear me, but where people were met I would, as I had skill, exhort them to seek the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their souls. Mr. Foster told me it was not my work; I must follow my calling.
I answered that I could follow my calling and preach the Word too, and looked upon it as my duty to do both.2 Mark what that is. I raised no hand, plotted nothing, and claimed no power over any man. I refused one thing only, to be silenced where God had given me work. And I said the same from the gaol when the twelve years were nearly run. Faith and holiness are my principles, with an endeavour to be at peace with all men, and I called my very enemies to be judges whether anything I preached savoured of heresy or rebellion.
I will not communicate in the things of Christ's kingdom with the ungodly and openly profane, nor let my soul be governed in my approaches to God by the superstitious inventions of this world; except in that one thing, I trust I shall be found a peaceable and obedient subject.3 I would sooner lie till the moss grew on my eyebrows than make my conscience a slaughter-shop.3
The sermon the constable cut off was upon this text, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?", which is hardly a trumpet for insurrection.3 Now for the counsel to sufferers. Saul charged David with rebellion, Amos was charged with conspiring against the king, and Christ himself was accused of forbidding tribute to Caesar. So the charge proves nothing, and the question is whether thou hast given to God the things that are God's and to Caesar the things that are his.
If thy conscience clears thee, count thyself happy, and say, I am counted a rebel, and yet am loyal.4 But I gave the other half of it too: take no part in talk against governors, do not mock men in place and power, for it is bad jesting with God's ordinance, and the magistrate bears the sword.5 If thy heart cannot rest in what he does, thou art commanded to suffer, and discontent in the mouth sometimes puts a halter about the neck.5
That is not quietism. A quietist would have promised Mr. Foster and gone home. I gave the magistrate his honour, and I would not give him my conscience. Where he commands in civil things I obey; where he commands what God forbids I do not obey, and I do not resist, I suffer, and I commit my soul to a faithful Creator.4 A rebel will not suffer, and a timeserver will not refuse. I did neither.
The magistrate bears the sword from God and is to be obeyed in all civil things, and a Christian who suffers for evil-doing suffers justly.67 But no magistrate can command a man to lay down a calling God has given him, and so he would not promise to stop preaching; he took the gaol rather than the oath of silence, and he would take it again.
The Christian's resistance is suffering, prayer and patience, never the sword or the plot. Within the dissenting churches he would make no wall of water baptism: a church receives those whom Christ receives.8910
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
I could follow my calling and that too, namely, preaching the Word; and I did look upon it as my duty to do them both, as I had an opportunity.A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
Faith and holiness are my professed principles, with an endeavour, so far as in me lieth, to be at peace with all men.A Confession of My Faith and a Reason of My Practice
I am counted a rebel, and yet am loyal; I am counted a deceiver, and yet am trueSeasonable Counsel, or Advice to Sufferers
It is given to them to bear the sword, and a command is to thee, if thy heart cannot acquiesce with all things with meekness and patience, to suffer.Seasonable Counsel, or Advice to Sufferers
Magistrates, to punish sin, though it be the sin of Christians. They are the ministers of God, revengers, to execute wrath, the wrath of God upon them that do evil (Rom 13). Wherefore, though the Christian as a Christian is the only man at liberty, as called thereunto of God; yet his liberty is limited to things that are good: he is not licensed thereby to indulge the flesh.Seasonable Counsel, or Advice to Sufferers
Such an one bereaves not only his own soul of peace, and his name of credit, but himself of life, his friends of all cause of rejoicing, and casteth reproach upon religion, as he is stepping out of the world. What shall I say, Christians as Christians have other things to do than to concern themselves in evil things, or to meddle in other men's matters.Seasonable Counsel, or Advice to Sufferers
'Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you' (Acts 13:40,41, see also John 10:35, 12:37-41, 3:17-19). 5.A Confession of My Faith and a Reason of My Practice
The causes of this are many, some of which I shall now briefly touch upon. (1.) Sin is in the best of men: and as long as it is so, without great watchfulness, and humble walking with God, we may be exposed to shame and suffering for it. What sin is it that a child of God is not liable to commit, excepting that which is the sin unpardonable?Seasonable Counsel, or Advice to Sufferers
For he that keeps within the compass of God's Word, hurts no man, gives just offence to no man, though he complieth not with all that are modes and ways of worship in the world. Nor can this appeal be judged injurious, if it be not attended with intercessions against them that hate us. But we will pass this, and come to a second thing.Seasonable Counsel, or Advice to Sufferers
The ground on which he has been claimed as a radical and as a quietist; the texts hold together a refusal to obey and a refusal to resist.