His influence among the common people was such that the government would willingly have bestowed on him some municipal office: but his vigorous understanding and his stout English heart were proof against all delusion and all temptation.

He felt assured that the proffered toleration was merely a bait intended to lure the Puritan party to destruction; nor would he, by accepting a place for which he was not legally qualified, recognise the validity of the dispensing power.

One of the last acts of his virtuous life was to decline an interview to which he was invited by an agent of the government.

[256] Great as was the authority of Bunyan with the Baptists, that of William Kiffin was still greater.

Kiffin was the first man among them in wealth and station.