It is, perhaps, hard for us to imagine today that the friends and advisers of John Bunyan were greatly divided with regards to the publication of the Pilgrim's Progress.
Bunyan tells us how he came to his decision as he paced the floor of his cell in Bedford jail. "I am in a strait: what is best to do? One brother says, Print it; others say, Not so! My friends, since you are thus divided, I will print it! So that decides the case, and I will put the book to the test, and so prove which of you, my neighbour-friends, advised the best."
When he was released from prison he made his way to London, consulted with the great John Owen who, in turn, recommended the work to his own publisher who bore one of those magnificent names and addresses of the publishers of that day - Mr Nathaniel Ponder, at the Sign of the Peacock, in the Poultry, near Cornhill, in the City of London." The work was published, and formally licensed on February 18th, 1678, and now we know "which of" his "neighbour-friends advised the best."