Bunyan's integrity

John Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, and would have been released, if only he would consent not to preach. Bunyan had four children under the age of ten when he was imprisoned, one of whom was blind; their mother had little means to care for them with their father imprisoned. Yet he would not consent not to preach, and his wife, though severely strained by that choice could not have given him a stronger support. In 1661, she went to the authorities to plead again for his release, and this was their exchange:

"Would he stop preaching? "
"My lord, he dares not leave off preaching as long a he can speak."
"What is the need of talking?"
"There is need for this, my lord, for I have four small children that cannot help themselves, of which one is blind, and we have nothing to live upon but the charity of good people."
Matthew Hale with pity asks if she really has four children being so young.
"My lord, I am but mother-in-law to them, having not been married to him yet full two years. Indeed, I was with child when my husband was first apprehended; but being young and unaccustomed to such things, I being smayed at the news, fell into labor ,and so continued for eight days, and then was delivered; but my child died."
Hale was moved, but other judges were hardened and spoke against him. "He is a mere tinker!"
"Yes, and because he is a tinker and a poor man, therefore he is despised and cannot have justice."
One Mr. Chester is enraged and says that Bunyan will preach and do as he wishes.
"He preacheth nothing but the word of God!" she says.
Mr. Twisden, in a rage: "He runneth up and down and doeth harm."
"No, my lord, it is not so; God hath owned him and done much good by him."
The angry man: "His doctrine is the doctrine of the devil."
She: "My lord, when the righteous Judge shall appear, it will be known that his doctrine is not the doctrine of the devil!"
Bunyan's biographer comments, "Elizabeth Bunyan was simply an English peasant woman: could she have spoken with more dignity had she been a crowned queen?" Source

I want to live like the Bunyans, in utter integrity, believing that this Good News is more to be valued than freedom, comfort, and life