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\ 



THE 



PRACTICAL WORKS 



OF 



THE REV. RICHARD BAXTER: 



WITH 



A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, 



AND 



A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF 11 IS WHinsas, 

BY THE 

REV. WILLIAM ORME, 



AVTHOR OP "the LIFE OF JOHN OWEN, n.I>. ;" " BIBLIOTMECA Bini.ICA/' KTC. 



VOL. I. 
IN TWENTY. THRKE VOLlJMElS. 



LON DON: 
JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



MDCCCXXX. 



LONDON I 

PHINISD BY MILLS, JOWBTT, •AWD lIHXt, 
BOLT-COUBT, FLE&TrSTBEXT* 



CONTENTS TO PART I. 



CHAPTER I. 



1615—1638. 



P««e 



Birth of Baxtei>-Cbaracter of bis Father— Low State of Religion- 
Baxter's first reli^ous Impressions— His early Education — Progress 
of his Religious Feelings — Residence at Ludlow Castle — Escapes ac- 
quiring a Taste for Gaming — ^Returns Home — Illness and its Effects — 
Nature and Progress of his Education — Its Defects — ^Troubled with 
Doubts— Distress of Mind— Diseased Habit of Body— Goes to Court- 
Remarkable Preservation — Death of bis Mother — His Attachment 
to the Ministry — His Conformity — Becomes acquainted with the 
NonconformistS'-^rdained to the Ministry I 



CHAPTER II. 

1638—1642. 

Baxter preaches his First Sermon — Examines the Nonconformist Con- 
troversy — Adopts so^e of the principles of Nonconformity — Progress 
of his Mind — Residence in Bridgnorth — The Et-csetera Oath — Exa- 
mines the subject of Episcopacy — In danger from not Conforming— 
The Long Parliament — Petition from Kidderminster — Application to 
Baxter — His Compliance — Commences bis Labours — General View 
of the State of Religion in the Country at this time — Causes of the 
Civil War — Character of the Parties engaged in it — Baxter blames 
both — A decided Friend to the Parliament — Retires for a time from 
Kidderminitcr • • • . • 19 



VI CONTBNTS TO PART 1. 

CHAPTER III. 

1642—1646. 



P*«e 



Baxter goes to Gloucester— Returns to Kiddemiiiister— Viaits Alcester 
—Battle of Edghill— Residence in Coventry— Battle of Naseby— 
State of the Parliamentary Army — Consults the Ministers about 
going into it — Becomes Chaplain to Colonel Whalley's reg;iment — 
Opinions of the Soldiers — Disputes with them-7-Battle of Langport — 
Wicked Report of an Occurrence at this place — The Army retires to 
Bridgwater and Bristol — Becomes ill — ^Various Occurrences in the 
Army — Chief Impediments to his Success in it— Cromwell — Harri- 
son — Berry — Advised by the Ministers to continue in it — Goes to 
London on account of his Health — Joins the Army in Worcestershire 
Attacked with violent Bleeding — Leaves the Army — Entertained by 
Lady Rous—- Remarks on his Views of the Army, and conduct in it • 39 



CHAPTER IV. 

1646—1656. 

The Reli{rious Parties of the Period— The Westminster Assembly- 
Character of the Erastians — Episcopalians — Presbyterians — Inde- 
pendents* — Baptists — State of Religion in these Parties— Minor Sects 
— Vauists — Seekers — Ranters —Quakers — Behmenists — Review of 
this period 68 



CHAPTER V. 
1646—1660. 

Baxter resumes his Labours at Kidderminster — His Account of Public 
Aflfairatill the Death of Charles I. — Conduct while in Kidderminster 
towards Parliameut — ^I'owards the Royal Party — His Ministry at 
Kidderminster — His Employments—His Success— His Advantages — 
Remarks on the Style of his Preaching— His Public and Private 
Exertiom—Tbeir lasting Bffects 99 



• « 



CONTBNTS TO PART I. Vll 

CHAPTER VI. 

1648—1660. 

Page 

The CommoDweaUb — CromweH'a Trettment of hl)i Pftrliainent— The 
Trien — Committee of FundameotaU^PriDciplet ou which Baxter 
acted towards Cromwell— Preaches before him— Interviews with him 
—Admission of the Benefits of Cromwell's Govemmeot — Character 
of Cromwell — Remarks on that Character— Richard's Succession and 
Retirement — ^The Restoration— Baiter goes to London— Preachen 
before Parliament— Preaches before the Lord Mayor— The Kinfi^'s 
Arrival in London — Reception by the London Ministers — Notices of 
various Labours of Baxter during his second residence in Kidder* 
miuster — Numerous Works written during this period— Extensive 
Correspondence — Concluding Observations 136 



CHAPTER VII. 

1660—1062. 

The Restoration — Views of the Nonconformists— Conduct of the Court 
towards them — Baxter's desire of Agreement — Interview with the 
King — Baxter's Speech — The Ministers requested to draw up their 
Proposals — Meet at Sion College for this purpose — Present their 
Paper to the King — Many Ministers ejected already — The King's De- 
claration — Baxter's Objections Ut it— Presented to the Chancellor in 
the form of a Petition — Meeting with his Majesty to hear the De- 
claration — Declaration altered— Baxter, Calamy, and Reynolds, of- 
fered Bishopricks — Baxter declines — Private Interview with the King 
— The Savoy Conference — Debates about the Mode of Proceeding — 
Baxter draws up the Reformed Liturgy — Petition to the Bishops — 
No Disposition to Agreement <»n their part— Answer to their former 
Papers — Personal Debate — Character of the lending Parties on both 
bides — Issue of the Conference 171 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1661—1665. 

Baxter endeavours to p^ain Possession of Kidderminster— The King and 
Claremlon favourable to it— Defeated by Sir Ralph Clare and Bishop 
Morlej^-^^nduct of Sir Ralph Clare to the People of Kidderminster 

h2 



VIU CONTENTS TO PART I. 

Page 
—Baxter's spirited ReinoDstraDce— Insurrection of the Fifth Mo- 
narchy Men — Baxter's Preaching in London — Obtains a License from 
the Archbishop of Canterbury — Attempts to negociate with the Vicar 
of KidJerrbin&ter — ^Treatment of the People by the Bishop and Clergy 
—Baxter entirely separated from Kidderminster — ^Takes leave of Uie 
Church — Act of Uniformity — Its Injustice, Impolicy, and Cruelty- 
Its injurious Effects — Baxter's Marriage — Declaration of Indulgence 
—Death and Character of Ash — Nelson — Hardships of the Noncon- 
formists — Death of Archbishop Juxon — Succeeded by Sheldon — ^Act 
against Private Meetings— Sufferings of the People — Baxter retires to 
Acton — Works written or published by him during this period — Cor- 
respondence — Occasional Communion — Consulted by Ashley— >Con- 
dudiog Memorials of the year 1665 215 



CHAPTER IX. 

1665—1670. 

k The Plague of London — Preaching of some of the Nonconformists— 
The Five-Mile Act— The Fire of London— Benevolence of Ashurst 
and Gouge — The Fire advantageous to the Preaching of the Silenced 
Ministers — Conformist Clergy — More Talk about Liberty of Con- 
science — The Latitudinarians — Fall of Clarendon — ^The Duke of 
Buckingham — Sir Orlando Bridgman— Preaching of the Noncon- 
formists connived at — Fresh Discussions about a Comprehension- 
Dr. Creighton — Ministers imprisoned — Address to the King — Non- 
conformists attacked from the Press— -Baxter's Character of Judge 
Hale— Dr. Ryves — Baxter sent to Prison— Advised to apply for a 
Habeas Corpus — Demands it from the Court of Common Pleas— Be- 
haviour of the Judges— Discharged— Removes to Totteridge — His 
Works during this period — Correspondence with Owen 254 



CHAPTER X. 

1670—1676. 

Conventicle Act renewed^-Lord Lauderdale— Fears of the Bishops about 
the increase of Popery — ^Bishop Ward — Groves-Serjeant Fountain 
—Judge Vaughan— The King connives at the Toleration of the Non- 
conformists — Shuts up the Exchequer — ^The Dispensing Declaration 
•—License applied for on Baxter's behalf— >Finner's Hall Lecture— 



CONTENTS TO PART I. IX 

Pag« 
Baxter fictachei at different places— The Kind's Declaration voted 
ille|ral bj Pteliameut— The Test Act— Baxter desired by the Earl of 
Orrery to draw up new Terms of Agreement — Healings Measure pro- 
posed in the House of Comnons, which fails — Conduct of some of the 
Conformists — Baxter's Afflictions — Preaches at St. James's Market- 
House — Licenses recalled — Baxter employs an Assistant-* Appre- 
hended by a Warrant— Escapes beings imprisoned — Another Scheme 
of Comprehension— Informers— City Ma^strates— Parliament falls 
on Lauderdale and others— The Bishops' Test Act— Baxter's Goods 
distrained — Various Ministerial Labours and Sufferiogs— Controversy 
with Penn — Baxter's Danger— His Writings during this period . • 285 



CHAPTER XL 

1676—1681. 

Baxter resumes Preaching in the Parish of St. Martin — Nonconformists 
again persecuted — ^Dr. Jane— >Dr. Mason— Baxter preaches in Swallow- 
street — Compton, Bishop of London — Lamplugh, Bishop of Exeter- 
Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester — Various Slanders against Baxter — Death 
of Dr. Manton — Pinner's Hall Lecture— Popish Plot — Earl of Dan by 
— Baxter's Interference on behalf of banished Scotsmen — Hungarians 
—The Long Parliament of Charles If. dissolved— Transactions of the 
New Parliament — Bill of Exclusion — Meal-Tub Plot— Baxter's Re- 
flections on the Times — Writings — Death of Friends — Judge Hale — 
Stubbs — Corbet — Gouge — Ashurst — Baxter's Step-mother— Mrs. 
Baxter 322 



CHAPTER XII. 

1681—1687. 

The continued Sufferings of Baxter— Apprehended and his Goods dis- 
trained— Could obtain no Redress— General Sufferings of the Dis- 
senters— Mayofs Legacy— Baxter again apprehended and bound to 
his good behaviour— Trial of Rosewell for High Treason— Baxter 
brought before the Justices, and again bound over— His concluding 
Reflections on the State of his own Times— Death of Charles II.— 
Fox's notice of the Treatment of the Dissenters, and of the Trial of 
Baxter-Apprehended on a Charge of Sedition— Brought to Trial*. 



CONTENTS TO PART I. 



Paj?e 



lodictment— £iLtrflu>rdinai7 Behaviour of Jefferies to Baxter and his 
CouDsel — Found Guilty— -Endeavours to procure a New Trial, or a 
mitigated Sentence— His Letter to the Bishop of London— Pined and 
imprisoned— Remarks on the Trial — Conduct of L'Estrange — Sher- 
lock—Behaviour While in Prison— The Fine remitted— Released 
from Prison— Assists Sylvester in the Ministi^ ••••••.• .146 



CHAPTER XIII. 

1687—1691. 

Baxter's Review of his own Life and Opinions, and Account of his ma- 
tured Sentiments and Feelings — Remarks on that Review — ^The 
Public Events of his last Years— The Revolntion— -The Act of Tolera- 
tion — Baxter's sense of the Articles required to be subscribed by this 
Act — Agreement of the Presbyterian and Independent Ministers of 
London — Last Years of Baxter — Preaches for Sylvester — His Writings 
— Visited by Dr. Calamy— 'Account of his last Sickness and Death, by 
Bates and Sylvester— Calumnious Report respecting the State of his 
Mind— Vindicated by Sylvestei^Buried in Chris^church— His Will 
—William Baxter— Funeral Sermons by Sylvester and Bates — Sketch 
of his Character by the latter— Concluding Observations on the Cha- 
racteristic Piety of Baxter • 378 



CONTENTS TO PART U. 



CHAPTER I. 

WORKS ON THE EVIDENCES OP RELIGION. 



Pa(« 



latroductory Observations on the Theologicftl Literature of the period 
— Arran^ment of this Pftrt of the Worit — Importance of the Evi- 
dences of ReligionF— * Unreatonablelietf of Infidelity '-^Dedication to 
Brai^lttil— Intended as a Replj to Clement Writef-^Nature and Plan 
of tke Work— >* Reasons of the Christian Relisrion '—View of the 
Work—* More Reasons for the Christian Religion '—Intended as a 
Reply to Lord Herbert-^ On the Immortality of the Soul '—Notice of 
First Attack in English on this Doctrine— Glanvil— Dr. Henry More • 
—Baxter's Notions of the Soul's Immateriality — ' Certainty of the 
World of Spirits ' — Singular Nature of this Book — Remarks on Witch- 
craft and Apparitions — Baxter, the First Original Writer iu Eug^lisli 
00 th^ Evidences of Revelation — Momay — Grotius — Bishop Fotherby 
—Stillin^fleet— Concluding^ Observations 415 



CHAPTER II. 

DOCTRINAL WORKS. 

Introductory Observations—' Aphorisms of Justification ' — Animadver- 
sions on the Aphorisms by Burgess, Warreu, Wallis, Cartwright, and 
Lawson— Other Antagonists — ' Apology ' — Molineus, Crandon, Eyres 
— ' Confession of Faith ' — * Perse?erance ' — Kendal — Barlow — Shep- 
herd — * Saving Faith' — * Dissertations on Justification * — ' On Justify- 
ing Righteousness ' — Controversy with Tully — * Original Sin ' — * Uni- 
versal Redemption' — * Catholic Theology ' — * Methodus Theologie ' 

' End of Doctrinal Controversies ' — Geoeral View of Baxter's doc- 
trinal Seiitimeuts — Strictures ou his Manner of conducting Contro- 
refgy — CoacIusJaa ^ , ^ ^ w^ 



Xli CONTENTS TO PART II. 



CHAPTER III. 

WORKS ON CONVERSION. 



Paff» 



Introductory Remarks— < Treatise of Conversion '— ' Call to the Un* 
converted ' — < Now or Never ' — * Directions for a Sound Conversion ' 
«— 'Directions to the Converted '— < Character of a Sound Christian ' 
— * Mischiefs of Self-i^orance ' — ^The Countess of Balcarras — Con- 
troversy with Bishop Morley— >< A Saint or a Brute'— > Various smaller 
Treatises— Concluding Observations •.••••••••• 485 



CHAPTER IV. 

VrORKS ON CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

Introductory Remarks—' Right Method for settled Peace of Con- 
science '—Colonel Bridges—' The Crucifyinf^ of the World '—Thomas 
Foley, Esq.— < Treatise on Self-Denial '— < Obedient Patience'— < Life 
of Fdth* — * Knowledge and Love compared '«— Sir Henry and Lady 
Diana Ashurs^-* God's Goodness indicated ' — Various Discourses — 
* Cure of Melancholy ' — Baxter's Experience among Persons thus 
afflicted— Conclusion 511 



CHAPTER V. 

WORKS ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 

Introductory Observations — Systematic Theoloi^ — The Fathers — 
Schoolmen— Casuists— Reformers— Calvin's Institutions— Works of 
Perldns— Archbishop Usher's System— Leigh's Body of Divinity- 
Baxter's < Christian Directory '—Intended as the Second Part of his 
* Methodtts '—-His own Account of it — Remarks on the Arrangement 
— 'Opposed to the Politics of Hooker — Progress of the Doctrine of 
Passive Obedience'in England — Character of the * Directory ' — Com- 
pared with the * Diictor Dubitantium ' of Taylor— < The Reformed 
Pastor'—' Reasons for Ministerial Plainness ' — * Poor Man's Family 
Book'— < The Catechising of Families '— < The Mother's Catechism ' 
— * Sheets for the Poor and Afflicted '— ' Directions to Justices of the 
Peace'—* How to do Good to Many ' — * Counsels to Young Men '— ^ 
The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day — Concluding Remarks • 538 



CONTENTS TO PART II. V& 



CHAPTER VI. 

I 

WORKS ON CATHOLIC COMMUNION. 



Pas* 



Unity of the Early Christians — Causes of Separatioo— Meant of Re- 
union — Sentinaents of Hall on this Subject— Baxter, the Orig^ina^ 
tor, in Modem Hmes, of the true Principle of Catholic Comma- 
Dion — His various Labours to [>romote it— ' Christian Concord'— 
Baiter's Church Communion at Kidderminster — ' Ag^reement of 
Ministers in Worcestershire' — * Disputations of Right to the Sacra- 
ments '—Sir William Morice — * Confirmation and Restauration '— 
* Disputations on Church Government '-^Dedicated to Richard Crom- 
well — * Judgment concerning Mr. Dury '—Some Account of Dury 
— < Universal Concord '—Baxter's Efforts in promoting Union re- 
tarded by the Restoration—' Catholic Unity '—'True Catholic and 
Catholic Church' — ' Cure of Church Divisions '—Controversy with 
Bagshaw — ' Defence of the Principles of Love ' — ' Second Admonition 
to Bagshaw ' — * Church told of Bagshaw's Scandal ' — Further Ac- 
count of Bagshaw — ' True and Only Way of Concord ' — * Catholic 
Communion Defended,' in Five Parts — ' Judgment of Sir Matthew 
Hale ' — * Baxter's Sense of the Subscribed Articles ' — ' Church Con- 
cord ' — ^^ Of National Churches ' — ^* Moral Prognostication ' — Summary 
View of Baxter's Sentiments on Catholic Communion and Church 
Government • 573 



CHAPTER VII. 

WORKS ON NONCONFORMITY, 

Introductory Observations on the History of Notaconformity — 'The 
Nonconformist Papers'— Never answered — ' Sacrilegious Desertion of 
the Ministry — • The Judgment of. Nonconformists of the Office of 
Reason in Matters of Religion '— * Of the Difference between Grace 
and Morality '— * About Things Indifferent '— * About things Sinful '— 
* What Mere Nonconformity is not '- ' Nonconformists' Plea for 
Peace' — Second Part of Ditto— Defence of Ditto— Correspondence 
with Tillotson— ' Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet '— ' Second Defence of 
the Mere Nonconformist ' — * Search for the English Schismatic ' — 
'Treatise of Episcopacy ' — ' Third Defence of the Cause of Peace' 
— * Apology for the Nonconformists' Ministry ' — * English Noncon- 
formity '-HCondosiou • • • 614 



19T CONTJINTS TO BAHT |f» 

CHAPTER VIII. 

WORKS ON POPERY. 

Page 

Introductory Observations— < The Safe Religion'—* Winding-Sbeet for 
Popery '—* GroMan Religion '—Controversy vrith Peirce, Wom^ck, 
Heylittj and Bramball— ' Key for Catholics '— * Successive Visibility 
of the Cburch * — Controversy with Johnson — * Fair Warning ' — ' Dif- 
ference between the Power of Church Pastors and the Roman 
Kingdom' — 'Certainty of Christianity without Popery' — ' Full and 
Easy Satisfaction, which is the True Religion' — Dedicated to Lau- 
derdale — * Christ, not the Pope, the Head of the Church '— < Roman 
Tradition Examined ' — < Naked Popery '—Controversy with Hutchin- 
son — * Which is the True Church ' — ' Answer to Dodwell '— ' Dissent 
from Sherlock ' — * Answer to Do4weirs Letter calling for more An- 
swers ' — * Against Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction ' — ' Protestant 
Religioatruly stated'— Conclusion •••••• 641 



CHAPTER IX- 

WORKS ON ANTINOMIANISM. 

The Nature of Antioomianism — Its Appearance at the Reformation — 
Originated in Popery — Origin in England — ^The Sentiments of Crisp — 
Baxter's early Hostility to it— The chief Subject of bis < Confession of 
Faith'— Dr. Fowlei^-Baxter's * Holiness, the Design of Christianity' 
— < Appeal to the Light '— < Treatise of Justifying Rigbteousness '— 
Publication of Ci-isp's Works— Controversy wbich ensued— Baxter's 
* Scripture Gospel Defended '—The lofiueuce of his Writings and 
. Preacbipg on Antioomianisni^— Leading Errors of the System . . • 650 



CHAPTER X. 

WORKS ON BAPTISM, QUAKBRISM, AND MILLBNARIANISM. 

Introductory B.emarkfi— Controversy with Tombes— * Plain Proof of 
Infant Baptisvi ' — Answered by Tombes— < More Proofs of Infant 
ChorcU<^eiiibership '— Contravefsy with DaAvers-^* Rtivieii of the 
$4^ vf Chfisiiau Ipfviti'-rControYer^ with the. guftkfrtooSMl^ 



gWTINTS TO FAirt u« ^ 

Behaviour of the Quakers—* Worcestershire Petition to Parliament *— 
« PetitioQ Defended*—* Qaaker's Catechism ^— • Single Sheets ' re- 
bsiog to thelQuakers— Controversy with Beverley on the Millenium— 
Account of Beverley—* The Glorloue Kingdom of Christ described ' 
—Answered by Bevcrlcy^Baxter's * Reply '- Conclusion .... 



680 



CHAPTER XL 

POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS. 

Introductory Oheenrations — * Humble Advice '— * Holy Commonwealth ' 
•-Origia and Design of the Work-*-lnvolved the Author in much 
Trouble— The Political Principles which it avows— Recalled by Bax- 
ter^Motives for doing so— 'Church History of Bishops '—Attacked by 
Morice— < True History of Bishops and Councils Defended '— < Bre- 
viat of tlie Life of Mrs. Baxter'— < Penitent Confession '-Conduct 
of Long towards Baxter — ' Reliquiie Baxterians ' — Character of this 
Work— Imperfectly Edited by Sylvester— CaliMny'f Account of it, and 
its Reception — His Abridgment of it — Controversy to which it led • 702 



CHAPTER XII. 



DEVOTIONAL WORKS. 



Introductory Observations—* The Saint's Everlasting: Rest '-Written 
for his own use iu the time of Sickness — Composed in Six Months 
—Notices of Brook, Pym, and Hampden, whose names are omitted 
in the later Editions— Description, Character, and Usefulness, of 
the Work — Attacked by Firmin— Baxter's ' Answer to his Exceptions' 
— * The Divine Life ' — Occasioned by a request of the Countess of 
Balcarras — Its Object and Excellence — * Funeral Sermons ' for vari- 
ous Persons—' Treatise of Death '— * Dying Tbougiits' — * Reformed 
Liturgy ' — * Paraplirase on the New 1 cstament ' — * Monthly Pre- 
parations for the Communion ' — * Poetical Fragments ' — * Additions ' 
to the Fragments—* Paraphrase of the Psalms '—General Review of 
his Poetry— Conclusion ....••••• 7J4 



Xn^ CONTENTS TO PART II, 

CHAPTER XIII. 

f 

GBN£RAL CONCLUSION. 

Page 
Baxter, the author of Prefaces to many Books by others— Leaves vari- 
ous Treatises in MauuKcript-^His extensive Correspoudeuce still pre- 
served—Letter to Increase Mather— Account of Transactions with 
his Bookselleni — Concurrence of Opinions respecting him as a Wri- 
ter — Barrow — Boyle — Wilkins — Usher — Manton —Bates — ^Dod- 
drid|^ — Kippis — Orton —Addison — Johnson — Granger— Wilber- 
force — His own Review of his Writings— Its characteristic candour 
and fidelity — ^The magnitude of his Labours as a Writer — ^The num- 
ber and variety of his Works — His Readiness — His Style — Sometimes 
injudicious, both in his Writings and his Conduct— Deficient in the 
full statement of Evangelical Doctrine — Causes of this Deficiency- 
Conclusion •••«.••• 763 



ChroDologicalListofthe Works of Baxter 793 



THE 

LIFE AND TIMES 

OP • 

RICHARD BAXTER- 



CHAPTER I. 

1615—1638. 



Birth of BuLter«>Cliaracter of bis Fatker— I^w State of Religion— Qaxter'^ 
first relif^us Impressions — His early Education — Profess of his religious 
Feelings — Residence at Ludlow Castle— Escapes acquiring a Taste for Gam- 
iog— Returns Home— Illness and its Effects— Nature and Progress of his 
Education— lU Defects— Troubled with DoubU— Distress of Mind— Dis- 
eased Habit of Body— Goes to Court— Remarkable Preservation— Death of 
his Mother- His Attachment to the Ministry— His Conformity— Becomes 
acquainted with the Nonconformists — Ordained to the Ministry. 

The excellent person whose life and writings constitute the 
subject of the following memoirs, was the son of Richard Bax- 
ter, of Eaton-Constantine, in Shropshire. His mother's name 
was Beatrice, a daughter of Richard Adeney, of Rowton, near 
High-Ercall, the seat of Lord Newport, in the same county. 
At this place Richard Baxter was born, on the 1 2th • of No- 
vember, 1615 ; and here he spent, with his grandfather, the 
first ten years of his life. 

His father .was a freeholder, and possessed of a moderate 
estate ; but having been addicted to gaming in his youth, hia 

* It seems rather singular that Baxter should be guilty of a mistake re« 
tpectiug the day of his own birih. There is, however, a discrepaucy between 
the date here given by himself, and that iu the parish register. The 
following extract from it, made by my frieud Mr. Williams, of Shrewsbury, 
shows that either Mr. Haxter or the parish clerk must have made a mistake. 
"Richard Sonne and heyr of Richard Baxter of Eatou Constantyne and 
Beatrice his wife, baptized the sixth of November, 1615." If he was baptised 
on the sixth, he coukl not be boru on the twelfth! But perhaps sixth is a 
mistake in the register for tixieenth, 

V0L« U B 



2 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

property became so deeply involved, that much care and frugality 
were required to disencumber it at a future period of his life. 
Before, or about the time that Richard was born, an important 
change took place in his father. This was effected chiefly by the 
reading of the Scriptures, as he had, not the benefit of christian 
association, or of the public preaching of the Gospel. Indeed, the 
latter privilege could scarcely then be enjoyed in that county. 
There was little preaching of any kind, and that little was cal- 
culated to ipjure, rather thi^ to benefit. ' In High ^all, there 
were four readers in the course of six years ; all of them igno- 
rant, and two of them immoral men. At Eaton-Constantine, 
there was a reader of eighty years of age. Sir William Rogers, 
who never preached; yet he had two livings, twenty miles apart 
from each other. His sight failingy he repeated the prayers 
without book, but to read the lessons, he employed a com- 
mon labourer one year, a tailor another ; and, at last, his own 
Qonj the best stage-player and gamester in all the country, got 
ord^rdt and supplied one of his places* Within a few miles 
round were nearly a dozen more ministers of the mne descrip- 
tion : poor, ignorant readers, and most of them of dissolute 
lives. ^ Three or four, who were of a different obaracter, though 
all conformists, were the objects of popular derision and hatred, 
as Puritans. When such was the character of the priests, we 
need not Wonder that the people were profligate, and despisers 
of them that were good. The greater part of the Lord's-day 
was spent by the inhabitants of the village in dancing round a 
may*pole, near Mr. Baxter's door, to the no small distress and 
disturbance of the family. 

To his father's instructions and example, young Richard was 
indebted for his first religious convictions* At a very early pe • 
riod, his mind was impressed by his serious conversation about 
God and the life to come. His conduct in the family also, and 
th^ manneir in which he was reproached by the people as a 
iPuritan and hypocrite, g^ve additional effect to his conversa- 
tion. Parents should be careful what they say in the pre- 

^ In bis Third Defence of the Cause of Peace, Baxter g:ive8 the names of aU 
the incltirlduals above referred to, with adtJitl«»nal drcuroatances of a disgrace- 
M nature in the history of each. The stateneut is a v«rj shocking oue, even 
In the moAt nilti|;ated form in which I could present it; but justice to Baxter 
'and toblf nccount of the times, required tliat the facu should not be withheld. 
They ^ve a deplorable view of the state of the period, and show, very power- 
fully, the necessity of some of the measures which were pursued at a future 
period for the purification of the church. 



OP RICHAAD BAXTBIU . S 

aeiice of children, as well aa what they say to them ; for if 
occasional addresses are not supported by a regular train of 
holy and consistent conduct, they are not likely to produce sa* 
httary effect. There must have been some striking indications of 
religions feeling in Baxter, when a child ; for bis father remark- 
ed to Dr. Bates, that he would even then reprove the improper 
conduct of other children, to the astonishment of those who 
heard him. ^ The account, too, which he gives of the early 
visitings of bis conscience, sliows that something was operating 
in him, the nature and design of which he did not then fully 
understand* He was addicted, during his boyhood, to vari- 
ous evils — such as lying, stealing ^fruit, levity, pride, disobe-*' 
dience to parents. These sins made him occasionally very un^ 
easy, even in his youth, and cost him considerable trouble to 
overcome. It would be improper, however, to attach mucb 
importance to these uneasy feelings, as such emotions have fre^ 
qaendy been experienced in early life, yet never followed by 
any evidence of decided change of character. It is only when 
they continue, or are afterwards accompanied by an entire 
change of life, that they ought to be considered as of heavenly 
origin. This was happily the case in the present instance. 
Baxter's early impressions and convictions, though often like 
the morning cloud and early dew, were never entirely dissipated; 
but at last fully established themselves in a permanent influence 
on his character. 

His early education was very imperfectly conducted. From 
six to ten years of age, he was under the four successive curates 
of the parish, two of whom never preached, and the two who 
had the most learning of the four drank themselves to beggary, 
and then left the place. At the age of ten he was removed to 
his father's house, where Sir William Rogers, the old blind man 
of whom we have already spoken, was parson. One of his 
curates who succeeded a person who was driven away on being 
discovered to have officiated under forged orders, was Baxter's 
principal schoolmaster. This man had been a lawyer's clerk, 
but hard drinking drove him from that profession, and he turned 
curate for a piece of bread. He only preached once in Baxter's 
timev and then was drunk ! From such men what instruction 
could be expected ? How dismal must. the state of the country 
have been, when they could be tolerated either as ministers or 

' Funeral Serinoo foe Baiter* 
b2 



4 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

teachers ! His next instructor, who loved him much, he tells 
us, was a grave and eminent man, and expected to be made a 
bishop* He also, however, disappointed him ; for during no 
less than two years, he never instructed him one hour; but spent 
his time, for the most part, in talking against the factious Puri- 
tans. In his study, he remembered to have seen no Greek book 
but the New Testament ; the only father was Augustine de Ci- 
vitate Dei ; there were a few common modern English works, 
and for the most of the year, the parson studied Bishop 
Andrews' Sermons.*^ 

Of Mr. John Owen, master of the free-school at Wroxeter, 
he speaks more respectfully. To him he was chiefly indebted 
for his classical instruction. He seems to have been a re- 
spectable man, and under him Baxter had for his schoolfel- 
lows the two sons of Sir Richard Newport, one of whom be- 
came Xiord Newport; and Dr. Richard Allestree, afterwards a 
distinguished loyalist^ for which he was made Regius Professor 
of Divinity, at Oxford, and Provost of Eton College.* When 
fitted for the University by Owen, his master recommended that 
instead of being sent to it, he should be put under the tuition of 
Mr. Richard Wickstead, chaplain to the Council at Ludlow, who 
was allowed by the king to have a single pupil. From him, as 
he had but one scholar, to whom he engaged to pay par- 
ticular attention, much was naturally expected. But he also 
neglected his trust. He made it his chief business to please the 
great and seek preferment ; which he tried to do by speaking 
against the religion and learning of the Puritans, though he had 
no great portion of either himself. The only advantage young 
Baxter had with him, was the enjoyment of time and books. 

Considering the great neglect of suitable and regular instruc- 
tion, both secular and religious, which Baxter experienced in 
his youth, it is wonderful that he ever rose to eminence. Such 
disadvantages are very rarely altogether conquered. But the 
strength of his genius, the ardour of his mind, and the power of 
his religious principles, compensated for minor defects, subdued 
every difficulty, and bore down with irresistible energy every 
obstacle that had been placed in his way. As the progress of 
his religious character is of more importance than that of his 
learning, it is gratifying that we are able to trace it very minutely. 

^ Apolo^ for the Nooconformist Ministry^ p. 58. 
* Athen. Oxon. vol. u. p. 505. 



OF aiCHARD BAXTER. 5 

The oonyictions of his childhood were powerfully revived 
when about fifteen years of age, by reading an old torn book^ 
knt by a poor man to his father. This little work was called 
^ Bunny's Resolution/ being written by a Jesuit of the name of 
Parsons, but comeeted by Edmund Bunny/ Previously to this 
be had never experienced any real change of heart, though he 
had a sort of general love for religion. But it pleased Qod to 
awaken his soul, to show him the folly of sinning, the misery of the 
wicked, and the inexpressible importance of eternal things. His 
convictions were now attended with illumination of mind, and 
deep seriousness of heart. His conscience distressed him, led 
him to much prayer, and to form many resolutions; but 
whether the good work was then begun, or only revived, he 
never could satisfactorily ascertain. Hiis is a circumstance of 
little importance. R^neration can take place but once, but 
more conversions than one are required in many an individual's 
life.' If we are assured that the great change has really been 
effected, the time and circumstances in which it occurs are of 
small moment. 

Another work which was very useful to him at this time, is 
better known ; ^ The Bruised Reedj' by Dr. Richard Sibbs ; a 
book which has passed through many editions, and has been ho- 
noured to do good to many. Here he discovered more clearly the 
nature of the love of God, and of the redemption of Christ; and 
was led to perceive how much he was indebted to the Redeemer. 
1111 these things are understood, and their influence felt, no 
man can be considered as converted. The works of Perkins 
* On Repentance,' on ' Living and Dying well,' and ^ On the 
Government of the Tongue,' also contributed to instruct and im- 
prove him. Thus, by means of books rather than of living 

' This work was ori^'nally written on the principleg of Popery ; but Bun- 
ny expunf^ and altered whatever was unsuitable to the Protestant belief, 
and published it in an improved form. The Jesuit was naturally enoug^h dis- 
pleased at the freedom used with his work, which led Mr. Bunny to write a 
pamphlet in defence of his conduct. Bunny was a Puritan of the oldest class. 
He was rector of Bolton Percy, and enjoyed some other preferments in the 
church ; but he was a man of apostolic zeal, and travelled much throu^ the 
country for the purpose of preaching the gospel. He died in 1617. ^' Athen. • 
Oson.' vol. 1. p. 364.) The work edited by Bunny was useful to others as 
weU as to Baxter. Two other Nonconformist ministers, Mr. Fowler and Mr. 
Michael Old, were first seriously impressed by it; and Baxter tells us that he 
had beafd of iU success with others also. (Baxter against Revolt to a Foreign 
IttrisdictioD, p. 540.) 

t Luke xxii. 32. 



6 TRfi LfFB AND TIMJBS 

instruments, Odd was pleased to lead him to himself. Hid con- 
nexions with men tended to injure and to stumble him rather 
than to do him good. Among the things he mentions which 
had no tendency to promote his spiritual profit, was his confirm- 
ation by Bishop Morton, to whom he went when about four- 
teen, with the rest of the boys. He asked no questions, re- 
quired no certificate, and hastily said, as he passed on, three or 
four words of a prayer, which Baxter did not understand.^ The 
careless observance of the forms of religion, whether these forms 
be of human or divine ordination, is never defensible: and must 
always have a hardening effect on the mind. 

While residing at Ludlow Castle with Mr. W^ckstead, he 
was exposed to great temptation. When there, he formed 
an acquaintance with a young man, who afterwards unhappily 
apostatised, though he then appeared to be decidedly religious. 
They walked together, read together, prayed together, and 
were little separate by night or by day. He was the first person 
Baxter ever heard pray extempore, out of the pulpit ; and who 
taught him to do the same. He appeared full of zeal and dili- 
gence, of liberality and love; so that, from his example and con- 
versation he derived great benefit. This young man was first 
drawn from his attachment to the Puritans by a superior, then 
led to revile them, and finally to dishonour his profession by 
shameful debauchery. Such frequently is the progress of reli- 
gious declension. 

During his short residence at Ludlow Castle, Baxter made a 
narrow escape from acquiring a taste for gaming, of which he 
gives a curious account. The best gamester in the house under- 
took to teach him to play. The first or second' game was sw 
nearly lost by Baxter, that his opponent betted a hundred to one 
against him, laying down ten shillings to his sixpence. He told 
him there was no possibility of his winning, but by getting one 
cast of the dice very often. No sooner was the money down, than 
Baxter had every cast that he wished ; so that before a person 
could go three or fou^ times round the room the game was won. 
This so astonished him that he believed the devil had the com- 
mand of the dice, and did it to entice him to play ; in conse- 
quence of which he returned the ten shillings, and resolved never 
to play more. Whatever maiy be thought of the fact or of 
Baxter's reasoning on it, the result was to him important and 
beneficial. 

^ Third Defence of Noncon. p. 40. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 7 

On retdrmng from Ludlow Castle to his fiather's, he found 
his old sehoolmaster,' Owen, dying of a consumption. At the 
request of Lord Newport, he took charge of the school till it 
should appear whether the master would die or recover. In about 
a cpiarter of a year his death relieved Baxter from this office, 
and as he had determined to enter the ministry, he placed him* 
self under Mr. Francis Qarbet, then minister of Wroxeter, for 
further instmction in theology. With him he read logic about 
a month, but was seriously and long interrupted, by symptoms 
of that complaint which attended him to his grare. He was at- 
tacked by a violent cough, with spitting of blood, and other indi- ' 
cadons of consumption. These symptoms continued to distress 
him for two years, and powerfully tended to deepen his religious 
feelings. A common attendant on such a state of body, depreft* 
Am of spirits, Baxter also experienced. He became more anxious 
about his eternal welfare, entjsrtained doubts of his own sincerity, 
and questioned whether he had any spiritual life whatever. He 
complafaied grievously of his insensibility: *^I was not then," he 
says, ^'sensible of the incomparable excellence of holy love, and 
delight in God ; nor much employed in thanksgiving and praise ; 
but all my groans were for more contrition, and a broken heart } 
I prayed most for tears and tenderness.'' 

Ezekid Culverweirs ^Treatise on Faith,' and some other good 
books, together ^MHth the assistance of Mr. Garbet, and other 
excellent men, were the means of comforting and still further 
ins tructin g him. The apparent approaches of death on the one 
hand,, however, and the smitings of conscience on the other, 
were the discipline which, under gracious influence, produced 
the most valuable results. They made him appear vile and 
loathsome to himself, and destroyed the root of pride in his 
800L They restrained that levity and folly to which he was, Iry 
age and constitution, inclined. They made this world appear 
to him 88 a carcass without life or loveliness, and undermined 
the love of literary fame, of which he had before been ambi-* 
iious. They produced a higher value for the redemption of 
Christ, and greater ardour of devotedness to the Redeemer him^ 
self. They led him to seek first the kingdom of heaven, and to 
r^rd all other things as of subordinate and trifling import- 
snee. The man who experienced such benefits from the divine 
treatment, had reason to rejoice, rather than to complain of 
k ; and so did Baxter. 

In consequence of these thii^s, divinity was not merely«anaed oa 



r> : ' 



8 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

with the rest of his studies^— -it had always the first and chief p.aee. 
He was led to stndy practical theology in the first place^ in the 
'TOost practical books, and in a practical order. He did this for the 
purpose of instructing and reforming hb own soul. He read a 
multitude of the best English theological works, before he read 
' any foreign systems of divinity. Thus his afiections were exdted» 
while his judgment was informed ; and having his own benefit 
\4!hiefly in view, he pursued all his studies with the greater ardour 
{ I and profit. It is matter of regret that theology is often studied 
ly more with a view to the benefit of others than of the student 
]^\ himself. It is pursued as aprofesaon, rather than as belonging 
to personal character and enjoyment. Hence it firequently 
^t produces a pernicious instead of a salutary effect on the mind, 
and debases rather than elevates' the character. Familiarity 
with divine things, which does not arise from personal interest 
in them, is to be dreaded more than most eWls to which man is 
liable. 

The broken state of his health, the irregularity of his teachers, 
and his never being at any university, materially injured his learn- 
ing and occasioned lasting regrets. He never acquired any great 
knowledge of the learned languages. Of Hebrew he scarcely 
knew any thing ; his acqumntance with Greek was not profound ; 
and even in Latin, as his works show, he must be regarded by a 
sdiolar as little better than a barbarian. Of mathematics he 
knew nothing, and never had a taste for them. Of logic and 
metaphysics he was a devoted admirer, and to them he dedi* 
cated his labour and his delight. Definitions and distuietioni 
were in a manner his occupation ; the quodmiy the qmd $ii^ and 
quotuplex — modes, eonseguenees, and a^juneU, were his vooditt- 
lary. He never thought he understood any thing till he could 
anatomize it, and see the parts distinctly ; and, certainly, very 
few have handled the knife more dexterously, or to so great 
an extent. His love of the niceties of metaphysical disquisition 
plunged him very early into the study of controversial divinity. 
The schoolmen were the objects of his admiration ; Aquinas, 
Scotus, Durandus, Ockham, and their disciples, were the teachers 
from whom he acquired no small portion of that acuteness for 
which he became so distinguished as a dispute^, and of that 
logomachy by which most of his writings are more or less 
drformed. 

Early education exerts a prodigious power over the foture pur- 
suits and habits of t)^e individuiflt )ts imperfections or 



OF RICUARB BAXTBR. 9 

ties win generally appear^ if he ^attempt to make any figure in 
the scieiitific or literary world. The advantages of a university or 
academical education will never be despi^d except by him who 
never enjoyed them, or who affects to be superior to their 
necewty. It cannot be denied, however, that some of our most 
eminent men in the walks of theology, as well as in other 
departments, never enjoyed these early advantages. The cele- 
brated Erasmus,— -'' diat great honoured name,'' and Julius 
Cksbt Scaliger, had neither of them the benefit of a regular early 
education. As theological writers, few men, among our own 
countrymen, have been more useful or respected than Andrew 
Fuller, Abraham Booth, and Archibald Maclean, yet none of 
Aem received much education in his youth. Dr. Carey is a pro- 
digy, as an oriental scholar, and yet never was twelvemonths at 
sebool in hb life. Among these, and many other men of emi- 
nence, who never walked an academic porch, Richard B^ter 
holds a prominent place. In answer to a letter of Anthony 
Wood, inquiring whether he was an Oxonian, he replied, with 
beautiful and dignified simplicity — ^^ As to myself, my faults are 
no disgrace to any university, for I was of none ; I have little but 
what I had out of books, and inconsiderable helps of country 
tutors. Weakness and pain helped me to study how to die ; 
that set me on studying how to live ; and that on studying the 
doctrine from which I must fetch my motives and comforts : 
b^inning with necessities, I proceeded by degrees, and now 
am going to see that for which I have lived and studied.''^ 

Academical education is valuable, when it excites a taste for 
learning, sharpens the natural powers, and smoothes the path of 
knowledge ; but when it is substituted in after life for diligent 
q>plication, and is supposed to supply the lack of genius or 
industry, it renders comparatively little service to its possessor. 
Hiose who have not enjoyed it, firequently make up the defi- 
ciency by the greater ardour of their application, and the power- 
fill energy of natural talent. This was eminently the case with 
Baxter. Conscious of the imperfections of his early education, 
he applied himself with indefatigable diligence ; and though he 
never attained to the elegant refinements of classical literature, 
in all the substantial attainments of sound learning he excelled 
most of his contemporaries. The regrets which he felt at an 
early period, that his scholarship was not more eminent, he has 
expressed with a great degree of feeling, if not with the highest 
poetical elegance. 

* Athen. Ox. vol. ii. 1125. 



f 



10 THfi LtVB AND TfMBS 

** Thy methods cmt'd m j ways : my yfMmg desiM 
To academic f^lory did aspire. 
Fain I'd have sat in such a nurse's lap. 
Where I mi|^t Iod^ hare had a slu^g^rd't nap ; 
Or have been dandled on her reverend kncet» 
And known by honoured titles and defies ; 
And there have spent the flower of my days 
In soaring^ in the air of hnman praise. 
Yea,, and 1 thouf^ht it needfoi to H^ ends. 
To make the prejudiced world my friends ; 
That so my praise might go before thy grace , 
Preparing men thy message to embrace ; 
Also my work and ofl&ce to adorn. 
And to avoid profane contempt and scorn. 
But these were not thy thoughts ; thou didst foresee 
That such a course would not be best for me. 
Thou mad'st me know that men's contempt and scorn 
Is such a cross as must be daily borne." 

Referring to what had once been his feelings^ he expresses 
himself with great indignation^ and then gives utterance to the 
hig^ satisfaction he felt in the enjoyments God had bestowed 
on him-^better far than titles and learning. 

** My youthful pride and folly now I see. 

That grudged for want of titles and degree ; ' 

That blushed with shame when this defect was known ; 

And an inglorious name could hardly own. 

Forgive this pride, and break the serpent's brain ; 

Pluck up the poisonous root till none remain. 

Honours are shadows, which from seekers fly. 

But fbtlow after those who them deny. 

I brought none with me to thy work ; but there 

1 found more than I easily could bear : 

Although thou would'st not give me what I would, 

Thon gavest me the promised hondred*fold» 

O my dear God ! bow precious is thy love! 

Thy waysy not ours, lead to the Joys above." ^ 

Dming many of his early years, Baxter was greatly troubled 
with doubts about his own salvation. These were promoted 
in a considerable degree, perhaps^ by the particular cast of his 
mind, and the state of his body. They respected various things 
which discover the imperfection of his knowledge at the time } 
but which, aa they may be useful to others, are worthy of somd 
attention. 

He was distressed because he could not trace, so distinctly, 
the nirorkings of the Spirit on his hearty as they are described 
by some divines ; because^he could not ascertain the time of bis 
conversion ; because he felt great hardness of heart, and a want 
of lively apprehension of spiritual things ; because he had felf 

k Poetical Pntgfbeiits, pp. dl^-^. 



Of RICHARD BAXTER. U 

XDimctions from his childhood^ and more of the influence of 
fear than of love in the regulation of his conduct; and because 
his grief and humiliation^ on account of sin, were not greater* 
He was afterwards satisfied that these were not sufficient or 
scriptural grounds for doubting his personal interest in the sal- 
vadon of Christ. He found that the mind is, in general, too 
dark and confused, at the commencement of the divine work^ 
to be able to attend to the nature or order of its own operations; 
and that the first communications of gracious influence, in most 
cases, it is impossible to trace. He perceived that, while in 
the body, the influence of spiritual and eternal things is greatly . 
impeded, or counteracted, in all. He saw that education and 
early convictions were the way in which Ood communicates his 
salvation to many; and that the soul of a believer is but gradually 
delivered from the safe, though troublesome, operations of fear^ 
till it arrives at the high and excellent enjoyments of love. 

Persons who are agitated with perplexities similar to those of 
Baxter, are frequently directed to means little calculated to 
afford relief. Refined disquisitions on the nature of spiritual ope- | f 
ration, on the AtnJ or degree of conviction which must be possess- 
ed at the time of conversion, or afterwards ; on the evidences of 
faith and repentance, are not much fitted to remove the fears and 
anxieties of conscience. It is very questionable, indeed, whether 
any individual will ever obtain comfort by making himself, or the 
eridences of personal religion, the object of chief attention. All 
hope to the guilty creature is exterior to himself. In the human 
character, even under christian influence, sufficient reason for 
condemnation, and therefore for fear, will always be found. It 
is not thinking of the disease, or of the mode in which the remedy 
operates, or of the description given of these things by others, but 
using the remedy itself, that will effect a cure. The Gospel is the / 
heavenly appointed balsam for all the wounds of sin, and Jesus is ^ 
the great Physician : it is to him, and to his testimony, therefore \ 
as the revelation of pardon and healing, that the soul must be ^ 
directed in all the stages of its spiritual career. When the glory •* 
of his character and work is seen, darkness of mind will be 
dissipated, the power of sin will be broken, genuine contrition 
will be felt, and joy and hope will fill the mind. It is from the. 
Saviour and his sacrifice that all proper excitement in religion 
must proceed ; and the attempt to produce that excitement by 
the workings of the mind on itself, must inevitably fail. Self- 
examination to discover the power of truth and the progress of 



M 



12 THB LIFE AND TIBfSS 

principle in us, U highly important; but when employed with a 
view to obtain comfort under a sense of guilt, it never can suc- 
ceed : nothing but renewed application to the cross can produce 
the latter effect. 

Baxter himself, long before his death, arrived at these very 
vieiWs. ** I was once,'' he says, ** wont to meditate most on my 
own heart, and to dwell all at home. • I was still poring over 
either my sins or wants, or examining my sincerity. But now,. 
^ { though I am greatly convinced of the need of heart-acqu^ntance 
aild employment, I see more the need of higher work ; and that 
] I should look oftener on God, and Christ, and heaven, than upon 
' my own heart. At home, I can find distempers to trouble me, 
and some evidences of my peace ; but it is above that I must 
I .find matter of delight, and joy, and love, and peace itself. I 
i would therefore have one thought at home, on myself and 
I sins, and many thoughts above, on the amiable and beatifying 
'^ objects.*' > 

But the thing which distressed him most, and from which he 
found it most difficult to obtain deliverance, was the conviction 
that, after his change, he had sinned knowingly and deliberately. 
Every wilful transgression into which he fell, renewed and per- 
petuated his distress on this account. He was led, however, to 
understand that though divine grace implants in the soul enmity 
to every known sin, which appears in general in the supe- 
riority which it maintains over evil, yet it is not always in such 
a degree as to resist strong temptation. That will sometimes 
prevail against the Spirit and the love of God ; not, however, to 
the extinction of love, or the destruction of the habit of holi- 
ness. There is but a temporary victory : the bent and ardour o{ 
the soul are still most towards God ; the return to him after 
transgression, when the mind has been humbled and renewed to 
repentance, shows more evidently than ever the fixed character 
of the Christian : as the needle in the compass always returns to 
the pn^er point, when the force that turned it aside is withdrawn; 
and as the running stream appears to flow clearer than before, 
when that which polluted it is removed. The' continual enjoy- 
ment of divine^ strength, and the actud presence of spiritual 
motives in the mind, can alone preserve it from the evil to which 
it is here exposed. Sin will always generate fears, which will 
increase in proportion as it has been wilful or persevered in; 
80 that the best way to keep off doubts and alarms, and to main- 

1 I«ife, part i. 129. 



OF RICHARD -BAXtSR. IS 

tain comfort, is to keep up obedience and dependence on God, 
or qiuckly and penitently to return when we have sinned. But 
^ Who can understand his errors ? Cleanse thou us from .secret 
faults : keep back thy servants from presumptuous sins, that they 
may not have dominion over them/' 

Other perplexities, and the means of their removal, are stated 
at great length, and with great minuteness, by him, in his own life 
A specimen of them has been given above ; and if these are un- 
derstood^ all the rest, which are only varieties of the same disease 
and subject to the application of the same remedy, vrill be suifi- 
dently comprehended. As it is dangerous for persons afflicted 
with nervous disorders to read medical books, so those who are 
much troubled with perlexity about their spiritual state, are 
liable to be injured, rather than benefited, by descriptions of 
mental disease. The disquisitions of such a spiritual metaphy- 
sician as Baxter are more likely, if deeply pondered, to perplex 
the generality of Christians, than to enlighten and comfort them. 

Notice has already been taken of Baxter's consumptive com- 
plaints : it may be proper, once for all, to give some particulars 
respecting his state of health, which will save the trouble of 
subsequent repetitions, throw light on his state of mind and pecu« 
liarities of teiSper, and enable us more correctly to appreciate, 
and more strongly to admire, the unconquerable ardour and de- 
votedness of soul which could accomplish such peculiar labours 
with so feeble and diseased a body. 

His constitution was naturally sound, but he was always very 
thin and weak, and early affected with nervous debility. At 
fourteen years of age, he was seized with the small-pox, and 
soon after, by improper exposure to the cold, he was affected 
with a violent catarrh and cough. This continued for about 
two years, and was followed by spitting of blood, and other 
phthisical symptoms. He became, from that time, the sport of 
medical treatment and experiment. One physician prescribed 
one mode of cure, and another a different one; till, from 
first to last, he had the advice of no less than thirty-six profes- 
sors of the healing art. By their orders he took drugs without 
number, till, from experiencirlg how little they could do for him, 
he forsook them entirely, except some particular symptom 
urged him to seek present relief* He was diseased literally from 
head to foot; his stomach flatulent and acidulous; violent 
rheumatic headachs; prodigious bleedings at the nose; his 
blood so thin and acrid that it oozed out from the points of his 



14 THB UFB AND TIMB8 

fingersy and kept them often raw and bloody; bis legs swelled and 
dropsical, &c« His physicians called it hypochondria, he himself 
considered \tpr4Bmatura senectui — premature old age; so tbat^ 
at twenty he had the symptoms^ in addition to disease, of 
fourscore ! To be more particular would be disagreeable i and 
to detail the innumerable remedies to which he was directed, or 
which he employed himself, would add little to the stock of 
medical knowledge* He was certainly one of the most diseased 
and afflicted men that ever reached the full ordinary limits of 
human life. How, in such circumstances, he was capable of the 
exertions he almost incessantly made, appears not a little myste- 
rious. His behaviour under them is a poignant reproof to many, 
who either sink entirely under common afflictions, or give way 
to indolence and trifling. For the acerbity of his temper we are 
now prepared with an ample apology. That he should have 
been occasionally fretful, and impatient of contradiction, is not 
surprising, considering the state of the earthen vessel in which 
his noble and active spirit was deposited. No man was more 
sensible of his obliquities of disposition than himself ; and no 
man, perhaps, ever did more to maintain the ascendancy of 
Christian principle over the strength and waywardness of 
passion. 

We return to the regular narrative of his life. In 1633, 
when he was in his eighteenth year, he was persuaded by 
Mr. Wickstead, to give up his design and preparation for the 
ministry, and to go to London and try his fortune at court. 
His parents, having no great desire that he should be a minister, 
advised him to follow the recommendation of his former tutor ; 
who, in consequence, introduced him to Sir Henry Newport, 
then master of the revels. With him he lived about a month 
at Whitehall, but soon got enough of a court life, being enter- 
tained with a play instead of a sermon, on the Lord's Day after- 
noon, and hearing little preaching, except what was against 
the Puritans, These were the religious practices of the court, 
in the sober times of king Charles the martyr, apd furnish us 
with a practical commentary on the book of sports, Tired 
and disgusted with the situation in which he was now placed, 
and his mother being il], and desiring his return, he left court, 
and bade farewell to all its employments and promises. 

While in London at this time, he foriped an acquaintance 
with Humphrey Blunden, afterwards noted as a chemist, and for 
procuring to be translated and published the writings of Jacob 



or RICHAID BAXTIR. IS 

Befameiu Blondeii was then apprentice to a bookseller^ and 
powfaaed of connderaUe knowledge and piety; to hia letters, con- 
icnation respecting books, and christian consolation, Baxter was 
mnch indebted. On his way home, about Christmas, he met with ^ 
a remarkable deliverance. There was a violent storm of snow \ 
sDcceeding a severe frost ; on the road he met a loaded waggon, 
which he could pass only by riding on the side of n bank | his 
horae slipped, the girths broke, and he was tlirown immediately 
before the wheel* Without any discernible cause, the horses 
stopped when he was on the verge of destruction, and thus hia 
life was marvellously preserved 1 How inexplicable to us are 
the ways and arrangements of Providence ! In some cases, the 
snapping of a hair occasions death ; in other, life b preserved x 
by an almost miraculous interference. 

On reaching home, he found his mother in the greatest extre- 
mity of pun, and after uttering heart-piercing groans the 
whole winter and spring, she took her departure on the 10th of 
May, 1634. Of her religious character he says nothing, except 
whan noticing the religion of the family ; from which we have 
reason to believe that there was hope in her end. His father, 
sbout a year afterwards, married Mary, the daughter of Sir 
Thomas Hunks, a woman who proved an eminent blessing to the 
{Eunily. She reached the advanced age of ninety-six; and 
her holiness, mortification, contempt of the world, and fer* 
vency of prayer, rendered her an honour to religion, and a 
pattern to all who knew her. 

Baxter's mind was now more than ever impressed with the 
importance of the christian ministry. He did not expect to 
live long, and having the eternal world, as it were, immediately 
before him, he was exceedingly desirous of communicating to 
the careless and ignorant the things which so deeply impressed 
himself. He was very conscious of his own insufficiency for 
the work, arising from defective learning and experience ; and 
he knew that his want of academical hououra and degrees 
would affect his estimation and usefulness with many. Be- 
lieving, however, tiiat he would soon be in another world ; that 
he possessed a measure of aptness to teach and persuade men ; 
and satisfied that, if only a few souls should be converted 
by his instrumentality, he would be abundantly rewarded ; he 
got the better of all his fears and discouragements, and resolved 
to devote himself to the work of Christ. So powerful, indeed| 
were his own convictions of the madness and wretchedness of 
presuniptuous biniiera, and of the clearness and force of those 



16 THB LIFB AND TIMB8 

reasons which ought to persuade •men to embrace a godly life, 
that he thought the man who was properly dealt with^ and yet 
capable of resisting them^ and persevering in wickedness, fitter 
for Bedlam than entitled to the character of sober rationality* 
He was simple enough to think, he had so much to say 
on these subjects, that men would not be able to withstand 
him ; forgetting the experience of the celebrated reformer, who 
found, '^ that o M A dam was too strong for young Melancthon/' 

mi this time, he^as a Conformist in principle and practice. 
His family, though serious, had always conformed. His ac- 
quaintances were almost all of the same description ; and, as 
Nonconformist books were not easily procured, his reading 
was mostly on the other side, Mr, Garbet, his chief tutor^ of 
whose learning and piety he had a high opinion, was a strict 
churchman ; he supplied him with the works of Downham, 
Sprint, Burgess, Hooker, and others, who had written strongly 
against {he Nonconformists. ™ One of that party also, Mr, 
Bamel, of Uppington, though a worthy, blameless man, was but 
an inferior scholar, while the Conformists around him were 
men of learning. These things increased his prejudices at 
the cause, which he afterwards embraced. By such means he 
was led to think the principles of churchmen strong, and the 
reasonings of the Nonconformists weak. 

With the exception of Hooker, the other episcopal writers 
here mentioned are now little known or attended to. The 
' Ecclesiastical Polity ' of that distinguished man both super- 
seded and anticipated all other defences of the church of Eng- 
land. In it the strength of the episcopal cause is to be found, 
and, from the almost superstitious veneration with which his 
name is invariably mentioned, by the highest, as well as the 
more ordinary, members of the church, it is evident how much 
importance they attach to his labours. Of the man whom 
popes have praised, and kings commended, and bishops, 
without number, extolled, it may appear presumptuous in me to 
express a qualified opinion. But truth ought to be spoken. 
The praise of profound erudition, laborious research, and 
gigantic powers of eloquence, no man will deny to be due to 
Hooker. But, had his celebrated work been written in defence 
of the Popish hierarchy, and Popish ceremonies, the greater 
part of it would have required little alteration. Hence we 
need not wonder at the praise bestowed on it by Clement VIIL| 

■ Apology for Nonconformisti, p« §9. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 17 

or that James II. should have referred to it as one of two books 1 1 
which promoted his conversion to the church of Rome. His 
views of the authority of the church, and the insufficiency of 
Scripture, are much more Popish than Protestant; and the 
greatest trial to which the judiciousness of Hooker could have 
been subjected, would have been to attempt a defence of the Re- 
formation on his own principles. His work abounds with 
sophisms, with assumptions, and with a show of proof when 
the true state of the case has not been given, and the strength 
of the argument never met. The quantity of learned and in- 
genious reasoning which it contains, and the seeming candour 
and mildness which it displays, have imposed upon many, and 
procured for Hooker the name of ^^judiciouSy' to which the 
solidity of his reasonings, and the services he has rendered to 
Christianity, by no means entitle him." 

About his twentieth year, he became acquainted with Mr. 
Symonds/ Mr. Cradock,^ and some other zealous Nonconformist 

^ A very important 'and curious note respecting^ the Ecclesiastical Polity 
the reader wiU find in M'Crie's * Life of Melville/ vol. ii. p. 461. The edition 
of Hooker's Works, which has lately issued from the press of Holdsworth and 
Ball, is the only correct edition which' has appeared fur many years ; while 
the cmrious notes of the editor furnish much important illustration of 
Hooker's meaning, as well as supply some of the arguments of his adver- 
saries, to which he often replies very unfairly. 

" There were several Nonconformist ministers of the name of S^'mouds; 
so that it is difficult to determine to which uf them Baxter refers. One 
of them was originally beneficed at Sandwich, in Kent, and went to London 
during the civil wars, where he became an Independent, and a Baptist, if we 
may believe Edwards. According tu that abusive writer, he preached strange 
things « for toleration and liberty for all men to worship God according to 
their conscience"* !" He appears, also, to have been one of Sir Thomas Fair- 
fax's chaplains; and was afterwards appointed one of the itinerant ministers 
ofWaleJi, by the House of Commons. — Edwards's Gangrena, part iii. passim. 
Another Mr. Joseph Symonds was sometime assistant to Mr. Thomas Gata- 
ker, at Rutherhithe, near London, and Rector of St. Martin's, Ironmonger- 
lane. He afterwards became an Independent, and went to Holland, where he 
was chosen pastor of the church at Rotterdam, in the place of Mr. Sydrach 
Sympsou. He preached before Parliament in 1641. — Brook* t Puritans, 
vol. iii. pp. 39, 40. it is probable that one of these two respectable men 
was Baxter's acquaintance at Shrewsbury. 

** Mr. Walter Cradock, a Welsh mau, on account of his Puritanical sen- 
timents, was driven from the church in 1634, shortly before Baxter became 
acquainted with him. He formed an Independent church at Llanfaches, 
in Wales, in the year 1639. He was one of the most active labourers iu the 
principality during the Commonwealth, and procured the New Testament to 
be printed in Welsh, for the use of the common people. He died about 1660, 
leaving some sermons and expositions, wbicli were collected and printed in 
two vols. 8vo, in ISOO.^ Brook's lAves, vol. iii. pp.382— 386. 

VOL. I, C 



18 THB UFS ANP TIMES 

mmbtera, in Shrewsbury and the neighbourhood. Their fervent 
piety ftnd exoellent conversation profited him exceedingly; and 
discovering that these were the people persecuted by the bishops^ 
he began to imbibe a prejudice against the hierarchy on that ac- 
count ; and felt persuaded that those who silenced and troubled 
such men could not be followers of the Liord of love« Stilly when 
he thought of ordination he had no scruple about subscription. 
And why should he ? for he tells us himself ^' that he never 
once read over the book of ordination ; nor the half of the book 
of homilies ; nor weighed carefully the liturgy ; nor sufficiently 
understood some of the controverted points in the thirty*niae 
articles. His teachers and his books made him think, in 
general^ that the Conformists had tlie better cause ; so that he 
kept out all particular scruples by that opinion/' It is very 
easy to keep free from doubts on any subject, by restraining the 
freedom of inquiry, and giving full credit to the statements and 
reasonings of one side. 

About this time, 1638, Mr. Thomas Foley, of Stourbridge, in 
Ayorcestershire, recovered some lands at Dudley, which had 
been left for charitable purposes ; and adding something of his 
own, built and endowed a new school-house. The situation of 
head master he offered to Baxter. This he was willing to ac- 
cept, as it would also aflbrd him the opportunity of preaching in 
some destitute places, without being himself in any pastoral rela- 
tion, which office he was then indisposed to occupy. Accordingly, 
accompanied by Mr. Foley, and his friend Mr. James Berry, he 
repaired to Worcester, where he was ordained by Bishop ll)orn- 
borough ;P and received a licence to teach the school at Dud- 
ley. Thus was he introduced to that ministry, the duties of 
which he discharged with so much diligence and success for 
many years ; which proved to him a source of incessant solici- 
tude, and of many trials ; but its blessedness he richly expe- 
nenced on eaKh, and now reaps the reward in heaven. 

* Of Thorntiorfitf^h, 1 have not observed that Baxter has said any (hin<^. 
He Kvetl to a ffeat nge, dyin^ in the year 19'! 1, io his uiuety fniirth year. He 
wan the author of a few pamphlets of a philosophiral and political nature. 
H'bat h« was, as a reli|^oiis Dian, I cannot UfW,— ^ootTs AtKen. Oxon. (Kdit. 
mist,) vol. Hi. p. 3. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 19 



CHAPTER 11 

1638—1642. 



Buter preaches bli First Sermpn—Examinei the Nonconformist Controversy 
—Adopts some of the principles of Noncoufonnity— >Progres8 of his &iin4 
—Residence in Bridgnorth— The Et-csetera Oath— Examines the subject 
*of Episcopacy — In danger from not conforming— The Long Parliament-^ 
Petition from Kidderminster*-Application to Baxter— His Compliance—* 
Commences his Labours-r-General View of the State of Religion in the 
Country at this time — Causes of the Civil War— Character of the t'arties 
engaged in it— Baxter blames both — A decided Friend to the Parliament 
— Re4res for a tiine from Kidderminster. 

Baxter preached his first public sermon in the upper church 
of Dudley, and while in that parish began to study with greater 
attention than he had formerly done the subject of Noncon- 
formity. From some of the Nonconformists in the place, he 
received books and manuscripts which he had not before seen; 
and though all his predilections were in favour of the church as 
it was, he determined to examine impartially the whole contro- 
versy. 

On the subject of episcopacy, Bishop Downham had satisfied 
him before ; but he did not then understand the dbtinction 
between the primitive episcopacy, and that of the church of 
England. He next studied the debate about kneeling at the 
Bacraikient, and was satisfied, by Mr. Paybody, of the lawfulness 
of conformity to that mode. He turned over Cartwright and 
Whitgift; but, having procured Dr. Ames' * Fresh Suit against 
Human Ceremonies in God's Worship,'** and the work of Dr. 

4 Ames' * Fresh Suit,' 4to, 1633, is one of the most able works of the period, 
on the subject on which it treats. Its author was a man of profound learuinj?, 
I^reat acuteness, and eminent piety. This work enters very fully into all the 
^reat points relating to the exercise of human authority in the tfainf^ of God, 
aud the introduction of human customs and ceremonies Into divine worship ; 
tnd though not professedly an answer to Hooker's EU:clesiaslical Polity, 
embraces every thing of importance in that noted work. It has also the ad- 
vantage of the Polity, in the higher respect it everywhere discovers for the 
Word of God, and the decided appeal it uniformly makes to it. In a sentence or 
two of the Preface, he gives the turning point of the whole controversy c— " The 
state of this war is this : we, as it becometb Christians, stand upon the suM- 
ciency of Christ's institutions for all kind of worship, ne word^ say we, and 

c 2 



20 THB LIFB AND TIMES 

Burgess/ on the other side, he devoted himself chiefly to the 
examination of these two works as containing the strength of 
the cause on both sides. The result of his studies at this time^ 
according to his own account, was as follows : 

Kneeling at the sacrament he thought lawfuh The propriety 
of wearing the surplice he doubted; but was, on the whole, 
inclined to submit to it, though he never wore one in his life. 
The ring in marriage he did not scruple ; but the cross in baptism 
he deemed unlawful. A form of prayer and liturgy he thought 
might be used, and, in some cases, might be lawfully imposed ; 
but the church liturgy he thought had much confusion, and 
many defects in it. Discipline he saw to be much wanted; but 
he did not then understand that the very frame of diocesan 
episcopacy precluded it ; and thought its omission arose chiefly 
from the personal neglect of the bishops. Subscription he 
began to judge unlawful, and thought that he had sinned by his 
former rashness ; for, though he yet approved of a liturgy and 
bishops, to subscribe, ex animOy that there is nothing in the 
articles, homilies, and liturgy, contrary to the word of God, was 
what he could not do again. So that subscription, the cross 
in baptism, and the promiscuous giving of the Lord's supper to 
drunkards, swearers, -and all who had not been excommunicated 
by a bishop, or his chancellor, were the three things to which 
at this time he became a nonconformist. Although he came to 
these conclusions, he kept them, in a great measure, to himself; 
and still argued against the Nonconformists, whose censorious* 
ness and inclination to separation he often reproved. With 
some of them he maintained a dispute in writing, on kneeling 
at the sacrament, and pursued it, till they were glad to let it 
drop« He laboured much to repress their boldness, and bitter* 

nothlni^ but the word, in matters of religious worship. The prelates rise up 
on the other side, and win ntcdfi have us allow i^ud use certain human cere- 
monies in our Christian worship. W6 desire to be excused, as holding them 
unlawful. Christ we know, and aU that cometh from him we arc ready to 
embrace : but these human ceremonies we know not, nor can have anything 
to do with them. Upon this they make fierce' war upon us ; and yet lay aU 
the fault of this war, and the mischiefs of it, on our backs." 

' The work of Dr. John Burgess, to which the * Fresh Suit' was a reply, ii 
his * Answer to the Reply to Dr. Morton's Defence.' 4to. 1631. Bishop Mor*' 
ton had written ' A Defence of the Innocence of the three Ceremonies of the 
Church of England^the Surplice^ the Cross aiVer Baptism, and Kneeling at 
the Sacrament.' 4to. 1618. To this Dr. Ames published a reply. Morton did 
not think proper to meet Ames himself, but devolved the task on Burgess, who 
gave hard and abusive words in abundance, but great poverty of argument| 
as the work of.Ames very successfully shows. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 21 

ness of language against the bishops, and to reduce them to 
greater patience and charity. But he found that what they suf- 
fered from the bishops was the great impediment to his success ; 
that he who will blow the coals must not wonder if some of the 
sparks fly in his face; and that to persecute men and then 
invite them to charity, is like whipping children to make them 
give over crying. He who will have children, must act as a 
father ; but he who will be a tyrant, must be content with 
slaves. 

It is gratifying and instructive to be furnished with such an 
account of the progress of Baxter's mind. It strikingly dis« 
plays his candour, and his fidelity to his convictions. Whether 
he employed the best means of arriving at the truth, may be 
questioned; the shorter process, of directly appealing to tlie 
Bible, might have saved him a great deal of labour and perplex- 
ity; but this was not the mode of settling controversies then 
generally adopted. The conclusions to which he came, were 
fewer than might have been expected, or than afterwards satis- 
fied his own mind ; but they probably prepared him for further 
discoveries, and greater satisfaction. He who is faithful to that 
which he receives, and who studies to know the mind of God^ 
will not only be made more and more acquainted with it, but 
will derive increasing enjoyment from following it. 

Baxter continued in the town of Dudley about a year. The 
people were poor but tractable ; formerly they were much ad- 
dicted to drunkenness, but they became ready to hear and obey 
the word of God. On receiving an invitation to Bridgnorth, 
the second town in Shropshire, however, he saw it his duty to 
leave Dudley, and to remove thither. Here he acted as assist- 
ant to Mr. William Madstard, whom he describes as '^ a grave 
and severe divine, very honest and conscientious ; an excellent 
preacher, but somewhat afflicted with want of maintenance, but 
more with a dead-hearted, unprofitable people." In this place 
Baxter had a very full congregation to preach to; and was 
fireed from all those things which he scrupled or deemed unlaw- 
fiil. He often read the Common Prayer before he preached ; 
but he never administered the Lord's Supper, never baptised a 
child with the sign of the cross, never wore a surplice, and never . 
appeared at any bishop's court. The inhabitants were very 
ignorant. The town had no general trade, and was full of inns 
and alehouses ; yet his labours were blessed to some of the 
people, though not to the extent in which they were successful 



! 



32 THA LlfB AND TIMKS 

m some other places. He mentions that he was then in th^ 
ftrvour of his affections, and never preached with more vehement 
desires of men's conversion ; but the applause of the preacher^ 
was the only success he met with from most of the people. 

The first thing which tried him, while here, and, indeed, 
threatened his expulsion, was the Et-CfBtera oath. This oath 
formed part of certain canons or constitutions enacted by a con- 
vocation held at London and York, in 1640. The main thing 
objected to in it, was the following absurd clause : '^ Nor will I 
ever give my consent to alter the government of this church by 
archbishops, bishops, deans, and archdeacons, &c., a^ it stands 
now established and ought to stand.''' This oath was ordered to 
be taken by all ecclesiastical persons on pain of suspension and 
deprivation. Alarmed at this imposition, the ministers of Shrop* 
shire, though all friends to episcopacy, appointed a meeting at 
Bridgnorth, to take it into consideration. Here the subject was 
argued fro and C(m by Mr. Christopher Cartwright, a man of 
profound learning, on the one side, and by Baxter on the other. 
Baxter's objections to the oath appeared to the ministers more 
formidable than the answers were satisfactory, so that the meet- 
ing broke up in a state of great consternation. An oath binding 
fallible men never to change themselves, or give their consent to 
alterations however necessary, and including in an ^^ et ce^tera** 
nobody knows what, is among the greatest instances of eccle- 
staatical despotism and folly on record. A measure more ruinous 
to the ohufoh could scarcely have been devised. 

Its eflfect on Baxter was, not only a resolution never to sub- 
scribe to it, but a determination to examine mpre thoroughly the 
nature of that episeopacy , the yoke of which he began to feel so in- 
supportable. For this purpose he procured all the books he could 
get on both sides, and examined them with great care. Bucer 
de Gubernatione Ecdesiae, Didoclavii Altare Damascenum,^ 

• Neal, ii. ^03. 

,* Tbe * Altare DamasceDum/ is the woric of David Calderwood, author of 
the 'True History of the Church of Scotland,' and otie of the objects of Janes 
ttie Fiftl'f iinpiacable dislike. It was published in HoUaod, io 1623, wheiv 
th« author wa« in »xile, qp account of his opposition to the court and 
episcopacy. It is intended as a refutation of < Lin wood's Description of the 
Pbliey of the Church of Enj^Und ;' but it embraces all the leading questions 
at istne between EpUcopallans and Presbyterians. It attracted forest «tien* 
tioa at ttie line ; so that King James himself is said to have read it» and r»» 
plied to one of the bishops, who affirmed it would be answered— « What the 
devil will you aaswef, man ? There is nothiD|°^ here bu\ Scripture, reason, and 
the ftitliert.'* 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 23 

Jacob," nirker,' and Baynes/ on the one side ; and Down- 
ham, Hooker, Saravia,' Andrews, &c. on the other. Tlie 
consequence of these researches, was his full conviction that the 
English episcopacy is a totally different thing jFrom the primitive, 
that it had corrupted the churches and the ministry, and de- 
stroyed all christian discipline.* Thus this Et-eatera oath, which 
was framed to produce unalterable subjection to prelacy, was a 
chief means of alienating Baxter and many others from it. 
Their former indifference was shaken off by violence, and those 
who had been disposed to let the bishops alone, were roused by 
Ae terrors of an oath, to look about th^m and resist. Many 
also, who were formerly against the Nonconformists, were led by 
the absurdity of this oath, to think more favourably of them : so 
that on the whole it proved advantageous rather than injurious 
to their cause. 

The imposition of the service book on Scotland, at this time^ 
produced great disturbances there also, and led the Scots first to 
enter into a solemn covenant against Popery and superstition^ 
and afterwards to march an army into England. The imposi- 
tioii of ship-money, which occasioned the celebrated resistance 
of Hampden, excited great and general discontent in Englandf 
and hastened on those civil commotions which so long agitated 
the country, and from which the most important effects arose. 

The King met the Scots at Newcastle, and after a time form- 
ed an agreement with them. The Earl of Bridgewater, lord 
president of the Marches of Wales, passing through Bridgnorth 

* Jacob wafi a BrownUt, and one of the earliest Indepeudents in England. 
The work referred to by Baxter, was probably hit * Reaioos taken out of the 
Word of God and the b<»it human Testtmonies, proving a Necessity for reform- 
iBi; our churches in England/' 1604. It is written with very considerable 
abnity ; and, pmoogst pther things, endeavours to prove " that for two hun- 
dred y^ars after Christ, the churches were not diocesan, but congregational.** 

*■ The work of Parker, < De Politeia Ecdesiastica Christi, et Hierarchica 
oi>posita, Libri Tres,' 4to, 1621, was posthumous, the author having died in 
Holland, 1614. He was a learned and pious man : his work against ' Sym- 
bolising with Antichrist in Ceremonies/ produced a great effect, and occa- 
iioned much trouble to the writer. Parker was, in sentiment, partly Presby- 
terian, and partly Independent. 

^ Paul Baynes was the author of ' The Diocesan*s Trial,' in answer to Dr. 
Bownham's Defence. 

* Adrian Sararia wat a celebrated scholar, a native of Hedln in Artois, but 
who lived many years in England, and was one Of the warmest supporters of 
episcopacy.^ He publii^hed, among other things, a treatise on 'The divers 
Degrees of Ministers of the Gospel," and a reply to Beza's tract * DeTriplic! 
EpiscopaUi.' He was one of the translators of the Bible appointed by King 
James, and died shortly after the finishing of that work| io his eigtity-second 
year.r — Mhen, Oxon, vol. L p. 765. 

* Baxter's 'Treatise of Episcopacy ;*«-Preface. 



24 THE LIFB AND TIMB8 

to join his majesty, was informed on Saturday evening, that 
neither Mr. Madstard nor Baxter used the sign of the cross ; 
that they neither wore a surplice^ nor prayed against the Scots. 
These were crimes of no ordinary magnitude in those days of 
terror. His lordship told them that he would come to church 
on the morrow, and see what was done. Mr. Madstard went 
away, and left* the reader and Baxter to face the danger. On 
the sabbath, however, his lordship suddenly changed his purpose, 
and went to Litchfield, so that nothing came out of the affair. 
"Thus I continued," says Baxter, " in my liberty of preaching 
the Gospel at Bridgnorth, about a year and three quarters, which 
I took to be a very great mercy in those troublesome times." 

The Long Parliament now began to engage attention, and its 
proceedings produced the most powerful effects on the country. 
The members soon discovered their hostility both to ship-money, 
and the Et-ccetera oath ; while their impeachment of Strafford and 
Laud, showed their determination to resist the civil and ecclesias- 
tical domination, under which the country had so long groaned. 
The speeches of Faulkland, Digby, Grimstone, Pym, Fiennes, 
and others, were printed and greedily bought. These excited a 
strong sense of danger among the people, and roused their in- 
dignation against the king and the bishops. 

The unanimity of this celebrated assembly in its opposition to 
prerogative and high-church claims, did not arise from the mem- 
bers being all of one mind on religious subjects. One party cared 
little for the alterations which had been made in the church ; 
but said, if parliaments be once put down, and arbitrary govern- 
ment set up, every thing dear to Englishmen will be lost. 
Another party were better men, who were sensible of the value 
of civil liberty, but were most concerned for the interests of 
religion. Hence they inveighed chiefly against the innovations 
in the church, bowing to altars, Sunday sports, casting out 
ministers, high-commission courts, and other things of a similar 
nature. And because they agreed with the former party in assert- 
ing the people's rights and liberties, that party concurred with 
them in opposing the bishops and their ecclesiastical proceed- 
ings 

When the spirit of the Parliament came to be understood, the 
people of the different counties poured in petitions full of com- 
plaints. The number of ministers who had been silenced by the 
bishops, and of individuals and families who had been banished on 
account of religion, was attempted to be ascertained. Some 
who bad been condemned to perpetual imprisonment, after 



OF RICHABD BAXTBU. 25 

suffering the basest indignities, were released and brought home 
in triumph. Among these were Mr. Peter Smart,^ Dr. Leighton,^ 
Mr. Henry Burton/ Dr. Bastwick/ and Mr. Prynne ;' all of whom 

^ Mr. Smart, for preaching^ a sermoD, in wbich be spoke Tery freely ai^aiost 
the ceremonies of the church* was fined* excommunicated* degraded* de- 
prived* and imprisoned nearly twelve years. The damage be sustained 
amounted to several thousand pounds* for which be afterwards received some 
compensation by order of Parliament. Laud and Cosins were his chief per- 
secutors. — FuUer's Chereh Hist, b. xi. p. 173. 

* " Leigbton , (says Heylin) was a Scot by birth, a doctor of physic by 
profession, a fiery Puritan in faction." — lA/e of Laud^ p. 126. His crime 
consisted in the publication of ' An Appeal to Parliament* or Sion*s Plea 
against Prelacy.' For this offence he was condemned to suffer the loss of 
both ears* to have his nostrils slit* his fo^head branded, to be publicly whip« 
pcd, fined ten thousand pounds, and perpetually imprisoned ! When this sen- 
tence was pronounced, Laud* it is said, took off his hat, and g^ve thanks to 
God. The sentence* in all its parts, was executed with shocking barbarity. 
At the end of his twelve years imprisonment, when set at liberty by the Par- 
liament, be could neither see, bear, nor walk. ' Sion's Plea* is certainly 
written with much acerbity, and some parts of it are liable to misconstruction. 
When Heylin alleges that be incites Parliament « to kill all the bishops^ 
and smite them under the fifth rib," he lies and defames. The last expres- 
sion* indeed, occurs ; but that it does not refer to the persons of the bishops, 
the following sentence from the conclusion of the appeal clearly shows— 
*^ We fear they (the bishops) are like pleuritic patients, that cannot spit* 
whom nothing but incision will cure, we mean of their callings, not of their 
perams, to whom we have no quarrel, but wish them better than they either 
wish to us or to themselves." (p. 179.) Some of his language is certainly un- 
guarded, but in moderate times would have been liable to no misinterpretation. 
The physician had, no doubt, more of asperity and vindictiveness in bis tem- 
per than bis son, the amiable, enlightened, and heavenly- minded Bishop of 
Dumblaoe. 

^ Henry Burton was an Independent, and originally engaged about court* 
when Charles I. was Prince of Wales. To the loss of his place, Heylin* 
with his usual charity, ascribes bis hostility to the hierarchy. — Life of Laud^ 
p. 98. His own account is more deserving of credit. By several publica- 
tions* he provoked the wrath of the High Commission Court ; but for one* 
' For God and the King,' he was sentenced to be punished in a similar man- 
ner to Leighton* and suffered accordingly. A narrative of himself* which he 
published, and the substance of wbich was reprinted in the * Cong. Mag.' for 
1820* is uncommonly interesting. If I may judge from this memoir, and his 
' Vindication of the Churches commonly called Independeut*' he was a man 
of piety, talents, and moderation. 

« Dr. Bastwick, a physician at Colchester, for pulilishiog a Latin book which 
reflected on the bishops, and denying their superiority to presbyters, was excom- 
municated, debarred the exercise of bis prufessiou, lined one thousand pounds, 
and imprisoned till be should recant For another hook, supposed to be writ- 
ten by him while in prison, the same sentence was pai^sed and executed on 
him as on Burton and Prynne. Dr. Bastwick, I doubt not, was a good man; 
but his spirit was very violent. His book, < The Utter Routing of all the In- 
dependent Army,' in which his fellow- sufferer Burton Is the chief object of 
attack, is shameful for a Christian to have written. 
' William Prynne, <* a bencher, late of Lincoln's Inn," was the most extra- 



26 THB LIFE AND T1MS5 

had been treated with the most wanton and unmerited eraelty. 
Acts were passed against the High-commission court, and the 
secular power of churchmen ; and for the continuance of the par- 
liament till it should dissolve itself. A committee was appointed 
to receive petitions and complaints against the clergy, which pro- 
duced multitudes of petitions from all parts of the country. As 
a specimen of what was brought in, White, the chairman, pub- 
lished ^ One Century of Scandalous Ministers,' in which a most 
dreadful exposure is made of the ignorance, immoralityt and in- 
competency of many of the established teachers. 

The town of Kidderminster, amongst other places, prepared 
9 petition against their minister, whose name was Dance. They 
represented him as an ignorant and weak man, who preached 
but once a quarter, was a frequenter of alehouses, and sometimes 
drunk. His curate was a common tippler and drunkard, a 
railler, and trader in unlawful marriages. The vicar knowing his 
incompetency, offered to compound the business with the town. 
'Instead of his present curate, he offered to allow sixty pounds 
per annum to a preacher whom a committee of fourteen of them 
shodd choose. This person he would permit to preach when' 
he pleased ; and he himself would read prayers, and do any 
other part of the parish routine. The town having agreed to 
this, withdrew their petition. 

After trying a Mr, Lapthorn, the committee of Kidderminstei; 
applied to Baxter to become their lecturer on the above terms. 
This invitation is dated the 9th of March, 1640. The legal 
instrument appointing him to the situation, bears the date of 
April Sth^ 1641, and is signed by about thirty individuals. He 
also received a very affectionate letter from a number of persons 

ordioaiy man of all the sufTerere. His first crime consisted in writing^ the " His- 
triomastixyor a treatise against plays, masquerades," &c.; for this his ears were 
cropped, &c. His second crime was a libel a^inst the bishops ; for which he 
received sentence along with the other two. As his ears had formerly been 
cut off, the stumps were now literally sawed off, or in the words of a coarse, 
humorous epitaph composed for him, "they fanged the remnant of his 
lugs." He wrote more books, and quoted more authorities, than any man of 
his time ; and did much to expose the unconstitutional and lawless mea- 
sures which had been long pursued by the bishops and the court. He seems 
to have been an Erastian respecting church government. It is wonderfoli 
that after having suffered so much from government Interference in religion, be 
should have written a book to prove ** that Christian Kings and Magistrates 
have authority, under the Gospel, to puoish idolatry, apoatasy, heresy, blas- 
phemy, and obstinate schism, with pecuniary, corporal, and in some casesi with 
capital punishments."— ^M^. Ox, ii.pp. 311 — 327, 



of irttfARD BAXTBR. 27 

beloqgiiig to the congregation.* With this invitation he waa very 
wflling to comply, as, on Tarious accounts, he felt disposed to 
labour in that place* The congregation was large, and the 
church very convenient. The people were ignorant, rude, and 
loose in their manners; but had scarcely ever enjoyed any 
fiuthfiil, evangelical preaching. There was, at the same time, 
a small number of pious people among them, who were humble 
and holy, and fit to assist a minister in instructing the rest. The 
state of Bridgnorth had made him resolve never to settle among 
people who had been hardened under an awakening ministry; but 
that he would go either to those who never had enjoyed such a 
blessing, or to those who had profited by it. He accordingly re- 
paired to the place, and, after preaching only one day, was chosen 
by the electors nemine caniradieenie, ** Thus,'' says he, *^ I was 
brought^ by the gracious providence of Ood, to that place which 
hsd the chiefest of my labours, and yielded me the greatest fruits 
of eomibrt ; and I noted the mercy of God in this, that I never 
vent to any place in my life which I had before desired, or 
diought of, much less sought, till the sudden invitation did sur- 
prise me.'* 

His attachment to Kidderminster remained through all the 
duuigea of his future life. Speaking of it many years after he 
had left it^ he says, with much feeling and beauty, 

" Bat among all, dodc did to much abound 
With fruitful mercies , as that barren g^roundy 
Where I did make my best and lonj^t stay. 
And bore the heat and burden of the day. 
Merciea grew thicker there than summer flowers. 
They over-numbered my days and hours. 
There was my dearest flock and special charge, 
Our hearts with mutual love Thou didst enlarge : 
'Twas there thy mercy did my labours bless. 
With the most great and wonderful success."^ 

His removal to Kidderminster took place in 1640. His pre- 
vious ministry had been »pent, he tells us, under the infirmities 
already noticed, which made him live and preach in the constant 
prospect of death. This was attended with incalculable benefit 
to himself and others ; it gave much of that earnestness and unc- 
tion to his preaching for which it was so eminently distinguished, 
and without which no one will ever preach with much success. 

s All these documents are still preserved among the Baxter MSS. in the 
library at Red Cross-street. 
^ Poetical Fragments, p. 34. 



28 t THB. LIFE AND T1M88 

His iiffiictions greatly weakened his temptations, excited great 
contempt of the world, taught him the inestimable value of time, 
and ^^ stirred up his sluggish heart to speak to sinners with some 
compassion, as a dying man to dying men." 

With these feelings he began his labours in the place which 
his name has immortalised. He continued in it about two years 
at first, till the civil wars drove him away ; and after his return, 
at the distance of several years, he remained about fourteen 
more. During all this time he never occupied the vicarage house, 
though authorised to do so by an order of parliament ; but al- 
lowed the old vicar to live in it without molestation. He found 
the place like a piece of dry and barren earth, overrun with ig- 
norance and vice ; but by the blessing of God on his labours, 
it ultimately became rich in all the fruits of righteousness. Op- 
position and ill-usage, to a considerable extent, he had to en- 
counter at the beginning ; but, by patient continuance in well- 
doing, he overcame all their prejudices, and produced universal 
love and veneration. At one time the ignorant rabble raged 
against him for preaching, as they supposed, that God hated all 
infants; because he had taught the doctrine of original sin. At 
another time they actually sought his life, and probably would 
have taken it, had they found him at the moment of their rage ; 
because, by order of parliament, the churchwardens attempted to 
take down a crucifix which was in the church-yard. His cha- 
racter was slandered by a false report of a drunken beggar, which 
all who disliked him and his fidelity chose to believe and to 
propagate ; but none of these things moved him, or diminished 
the ardour of his zeal to do good to the unthankful and the 
unholy. 

The nature and success of Baxter's ministry at Kidderminster 
will be noticed with more propriety when we come to the period 
of his second residence. In the mean time, we must advert to 
the civil commotions in which the country was involved, and 
which, more or less, implicated all who were placed in public 
situations. To understand the nature of those commotions, and 
the part which Baxter took in them, it will be necessary to ad- 
vert to the. state of religion in the country at large ; without a 
knowledge of which, it is impossible to form a correct opinion 
of the disastrous circumstances which produced so much tnisery, 
and have occasioned so much misrepresentation. 

It has often been alleged, that the civil convulsions of the coun- 
try were chiefly promoted by the Puritanical sticklers for presby- 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 29 

terianism and independency ; who, instigated by hatred of the 
episcopal hierarchy , were determined to accomplish its overthrow. 
Nothing can be more erroneous, as the following account, drawn 
tip by Baxter many years afterwards, with great candour and 
clearness, fully shows. It gives a most melancholy view of the 
wre&hed condition of religion in England, before and at the 
commencement of the wars, and very naturally accounts for the 
turn which affairs took during their progress, by which the whole 
ecclesiastical system was finally reduced to ruin. It shows that 
the number of Nonconformists at the commencement of the civil 
troubles was so very small, that they could have excited no dis- 
turbance, had they even wished to do it ; and that the chief cause 
of their increase was the injurious treatment they experienced 
from the bishops and their officers. 

^^ Where I was bred, before 1640, which was in divers 
places, I knew not one presbyterian clergyman or layman, and 
but three or four nonconforming ministers. Till Mr. Ball wrote 
in favour of the liturgy, and against Canne, Allen, &c., and 
till Mr. Burton published his ' Protestation Protested,' I never 
thought what presbytery or independency was, nor ever spake 
with a man who seemed to know it. In the place where 1 first 
lived, and the country about, the people were of two sorts. The 
generality seemed to mind nothing seriously, but the body and 
the world : they went to church, and could answer the parson 
in responses, and thence to dinner, and then to play. They 
never prayed in their families ; but some of them, on going to 
bed, would say over the creed and the Lord's prayer, and some 
of them the Hail Mary. They read not the Scriptures, nor any 
good book or catechism : few of them indeed could read, or 
had, a Bible. They were of two ranks ; the greater part were 
good husbands, as they called them, and minded nothing but 
thejr business or interest in the world : the rest were drunkards. 
Most were swearers, though they were not all equally gross ; 
both sorts seemed utter strangers to any more of religion than I 
have named, though some hated it more than others. 

" The other sort were such as had their consciences awakened 
to some regard for God and their everlasting state, and, accord- 
ing to the various measures of their understanding, did speak 
and live as serious in the christian faith, and would inquire 
what was duty, and what was sin, and how to please God and 
make sure of salvation ; and make this their business and inte- 
rest, as the rest did the world. They read the Scriptures, and 



30 TBS LIFB AKD TIMBS 

such bdoks ds <The Practice of Piety/ < Dent's Plain Man's 
Pathway/ and ^ Dod on the Commandments/ &c. They used 
to pray in their families, and alone ; some with the book, and 
some without. They would not swear, nor curse, nor take Ckxl's 
name lightly. They would go to the next parish church to hear 
a sermon when they had none at their own ; and would read the 
Scriptures on the Lord's day, when others were playing. There 
were, where I lived, about the number of two or three families 
in twenty, which, by the rest, were called Puritans, and derided as 
hypocrites and precisians, that would take on them to be holy | 
yet hardly one, if any, of them ever scrupled conformity $ and 
they.were godly, conformable ministers whom they went from 
^ home to hear. These ministers being the ablest preachers, and 
\ ^ men of serious piety, were also the objects of vulgar oUoqny^ 
' \as Puritans and precisians. 

^^ This being the condition of the vulgar where I was, when I 
came into the acquaintance of many persons of honour, and 
power, and reputed learning, I found the same seriousness iii 
religion as in some few before described, and the same daily 
scorn of that sort of men in others, but differently clothed } (or 
these would talk more bitterly, but yet with a greater show of 
reason, against the other, than the ignorant country people did* 
They would, also, sometimes talk of certain opinions in religion, 
and some of them would use part of the common prayer in their 
houses ; others of them would swear, though seldom, and these 
small oaths, and lived soberly and civilly. But serious talk of 
God or godliness, or that which tended to search and reform the 
heart and life, and prepare for the life to come, they would at 
least be very averse to hear, if not deride as puritanicaL 

'^ lliis being the fundamental division, some of those who 
were called Puritans and hypocrites, for not being hypocriteS| 
but serious in the religion they professed, would some* 
times get together ; and, as drunkards and sporters would 
meet to drink and play, they would, in some very few places 
where there were many of them, meet after sermon on the Lord's 
days, to repeat the sermon, and sing a psalm, and pray. For 
this, and for going from their own parish churches, tl)ey were 
first envied by the readers and dry teachers, whom they soroe« 
times went from, and next prosecuted by apparitors, officials^ 
archdeacons, commissaries, chancellors, and other episcopal in- 
\ struments. In former times there had been divers presbyte* 
rJau Nonconformists, who earnestly fkVeaded (ot ^mv^K discipline i 



OF RICHARD RAXTRR. 81 

to sabdiie wboi% divers canons were made^ which served the 
torn against these meetings of the conformable Puritans, and 
i^gainst going from their own parish churches^ though the old 
Presbyterians were dead, and very few succeeded them. About 
as many Nonconformists as counties were left ; and tliose few 
stock most at subscription awd ceremonies, which were the hin- 
derance of their ministry, and but few of them studied, or un- 
derstood^ the Presbyterian or Independent, disciplinary causes. 

^ But when these conformable Puritans were thus prosecuted, 
it bred in them hard thoughts of bishops and their courts, as 
oiemies to serious piety, and persecutors of that which they 
should pcomote. Suffering induced this opinion and aversiou ; 
and the ungodly rabble rejoiced at their troubles, and applauded 
the bishops for it, and were everywhere ready to set the appa- 
ritors on them, or to ask them, ' Are you holier and wiser than 
the bishops ?' So that by this time the Puritans took the bishops 
to be captains ; and the chancellors, archdeacons, commissaries, 
officials, and apparitors, their officers, and the enemies of 
serious godliness ; and the vicious rabble to be as their army to 
suppress true conscientious obedience to God, and care of men's 
salvation. The censured clergy and officers, on the other hand, 
took the censurers to be schismatics, and enemies to the church, 
unfit to be endured, and fit to be prosecuted with reproach and 
punishment; so that the said Puritans took it to be but die 
common enmity that, since Cain's days, hath been in tlie world, 
between the serpent's and the woman's seed. When the 
persons of bishops, chancellors, officials, apparitors, &c., were 
come under such repute, it is easy to believe what would be 
said against their office. And the more the bishops thought to 
cure this by punishment, the more they increased the opinion 
that they were persecuting enemies of godliness, and the ca|>* 
tains of the profane. 

^^ VV^hen such sinful beginnings had prepared men, the civil 
contentions arising, those called Puritans, were mostly against 
that side to which they saw the bishops and their neighbours 
enemies. And they were for their punishment the more, because 
it seemed desirable to reform the bishops, and restore the liberty 
of those whom they prosecuted for the manner of their serving 
God. Yet they desired, wherever I was, to have lived peaceably 
at home ; but the drunkards and rabble that formerly hated 
them, when they saw the war beginning, grew enraged : for if a 
man did but;>rav' mid swg a psalm in his house, tliey wouM ctv^ 



32 THE LIFB AND TIMES 

^Down with the Roundheads !' (a word then new made for them,) 
and put them in fear of sudden violence. Afterwards they brought 
the King's soldiers to plunder them of their goods, which made 
them fain to run into holes to hide their persons: and when 
their goods were gone, and their lives in continual danger, they 
were forced to fly for food and shelter. To go among those that 
1 hated them, they durst not, when they could not dwell among 
\ such at home. And thus thousands ran into the parliament's gar- 
i risons, and, having nothing there to live upon, became soldiers.*'^ 

The circumstances which led to an open rupture between the 
king and his parliament, Baxter regarded as attaching blame to 
both parties. The people who adhered to the Parliament, he 
alleges, were indiscreet and clamorous, and, in some instances, pro- 
ceeded to open acts of violence. Some members of the Hciuse 
themselves were imprudent, and carried things too high. Am9ng 
these he reckoned Lord. Brook and Sir Henry Vane as leaders. 
To these causes must be added the want of confidence in the 
King which was generally felt ; and which arose partly from the 
offence they had given him, which they feared he rather dissem- 
bled than forgave ; and partly from indications of His Majesty's 
insincerity, which they early began to discover. 

On the part of the King the war was hastened by the calling 
up of the northern army ; by the imposing of a guard upon the 
House of Commons ; by his entering it in a passion to seize the 
five members ; by the conduct of Lord Digby, and other cavaliers; 
and, above all, by the Irish massacre and rebellion, the blame o. 
which was charged on, the King and his advisers. 

In a state of great exasperation, Charles left London, and 
erected his standard at Nottingham. The parliament assembled 
an army under the Earl of Essex, and thus both sides prepared 
to settle, by force of arms, what they could not determine in 
council. It is no part of the design of this work to describe 
the progress of this fearful contest ; but a view of the rank and 
character of the parties which were engaged in it, may enable 
the reader to understand its bearings on religion. 

A great part of the nobility forsook the Parliament and join- 
ed the King, particularly after the battle of Edge-Hill. Many 
members of the House of Commons, and a great number of the 
knights and men of family in the several counties, had been with 
him from the beginning. The tenantry of the aristocracy, also^ 

^ Baxter's True History of Councils Eolarged, pp. 91—93. 



OF RfCHARD BAXTER. 33 

• 

and a great body of the common people^ who may be said to be 
constitutionally loyal, were for the monarch. He had thus the 
two ends of the chain, but wanted the middle and connecting 
links. The parliament was supported by the inferior gentlemen 
in the country, and by the body of merchants, freeholders, and 
tradesmen, in all the principal towns and manufacturing districts* 
Among these persons, religion had much greater influence than 
it had either on the highest or the lowest ranks. Whatever 
power the love of political liberty exercised, it was the appre- 
hension of danger to religion, which chiefly roused them and 
filled the army of the parliament. The body of the persons 
who were called Puritans, and precisians ; and who discovered 
by their conduct that they were in earnest on the subject of reli- 
gbn, adhered to the cause of the parliament. On the other 
hand, the gentry, who were not. so precise— who scrupled not 
atauoath^ who. loved gaming, plays, and drinking; and the 
ministers and people, who were for the King's book, and for 
dancing and recreations on the Lord's day ; who went to church 
to bear common prayer, and relished a sermon which lashed the 
Puritans— these for the most part opposed the parliament. 

The difference between the two parties was very strongly 
marked, it arose from the opposite characters which they sus- 
tained, and accounts for many of the events which occurred. 
*^ There is somewhat,*' says Baxter, " in the nature of all world- 
ly men which makes them earnestly desirous of riches and ho- 
nours in the world. They that value these things most will seek 
them ; and they that seek them are more likely to find them 
than those that despise them. He who takes the world and 
preferment for his interest, will estimate and choose all means 
accordingly ; and, where the world predominates, gain goes for 
godliness, and serious religion, which would mortify their sin, 
is their greatest enemy. Yet, conscience must be quieted, and 
reputation preserved ; which cannot be done without some reli- 
gion. Therefore, such a religion is necessary to them, as is 
consistent with a worldly mind : which outside formality, lip 
service, and hypocrisy, are ; but seriousness, sincerity, and spi- 
rituality, are not. 

" On the other side, there is that in the new nature of a be- 
liever, which inclineth him to things above, and causeth him to 
look at worldly grandeur and riches as things more dangerous 
than desirable. He is dead to the world, and the world to him^ 
by the cross of Christ. No wonder, thereforey if few such at- 

VOU U D 



l! 



/ 



84 THB U9B AND TI1IB8 

tain to greatness, or ever arrive at much preferment on earth, 
lliey are more fearful of displeasing God than all the world, 
and cannot stretch their consciences, or turn aside when the inte- 
rest or will of man requireth. As before, he that was born after 
the flesh persecuted him that was bom after the Spirit | so it 
was here, llie rabble of the great and little vulgar did every 
where hate those that reproved their sin, and condemned them 
by a holy life. This ignorant rabble, hearing also that the 
bishops were against the Puritans, were the more emboldened 
against them. They cried up the bishops on this account, and 
because thoy loved that mode of worship which they found 
most consistent with their ignorance and carelessness. Thus, 
the interests of the bishops, and of the profane people of Eng- 
land, seemed to be twisted together.'* 

The majority of the Nonconformists and serious people were 
opposed to the prelates, and those who espoused their «de ; be- 
cause the high-church party derided and abused them ; because 
■D many scandalous and incompetent men were among the con- 
forming clergy | because the piety and talents of the Noncon- 
formist ministers, many of whom had been silenced, were mdre 
distinguished than those of the other party ; because they liked 
a scriptural mode of worship better than the liturgy, though 
they did not deem it unlawful; because the bishops' courts 
made fasting and prayer more perilous than swearing and 
drunkenness ; because they regarded the bishops as supporters 
of the book of sports, and discouraged afternoon lectures even 
by conforming ministers; because when they saw bowing 
at the altar and other innovations introduced, they knew not 
where they would end ; and, because they saw that the bishops 
approved of ship money and other encroachments on their civil 
rights. 

These were the true and principal reasons why so great a num^ 
ber of those persons who were counted most religious fell iu with 
the parliament ; and why the generality of the serious, diligent 
preachers joined it ; not taking arms themselves, but support- 
ing it by their influence and their presence. The King's party, 
indeed, alleged that the preachers stirred up the war ; but this 
is far from correct, it is true, they discovered their dislike to 
many corruptions in church and state ; and were glad that the 
parliament attempted a reformation of them. But it was con- 
forming ministers who did even this ; for the bishops had 
ejeoied mesl of the nonconforming ministers long before. 
Those who made up the Westminster assembly, and who were 



/( 



OV RICHARD BAXTBR. 35 

the honour of the parliamentary party throagh the land^ were \ ! 
almost all such as had till then conformed. » 

Names of contempt and reproach, as might be expected, 
were plentifully used on both sides at the beginning and during 
the continuance of this unnatural war. Rebels and roundheads 
were the common appellations bestowed on the parliamentary 
party, in addition to Puritan and formalist.^ Malignants, cava- 
liers, dam-mes, were the designations used or retaliated by the 
other.* 

Reasons, many and VRrious, were assigned for the lawfulness 
ot the war by both parties ; and men generally adopted that 
side to which their interests or their feelings chiefly inclined^ 
Those who opposed the war on the part of the Commons^ 
were of different sentiments. Some thought no king might be 
resisted ; others that our king might not be resisted, because 
we had sworn allegiance and submission to him ; and a third 
party, which granted that he might be resisted in some cases, 
contended that a sufficient case had not been made out. They 
maintained that the law g^ve the king the power of the militia, 
which the parliament sought to wrest from him; that the 
oommons began the war by permitting tumults to deprive the 
members of their liberty, and to insult the king ; that the mem* 
bers of parliament are themselves subjects, and bound by their 
oath of allegiance ; that it Is not lawful for subjects to defend 
religion or reformation against their sovereign by force ; that 
it is contrary to the doctrine of Protestants, the practice of the * 
ancient Christians, and the injunctions of Scripture, to resist 
the higher powers ; that the King was falsely accused as if he 
were about to destroy liberty, religion, and parliaments ; that the 
allegations of Papists respecting the rebellious tendency of Pro* 
testantism were supported by this war ; that it proceeded from 
impatience and distrust of God ; and that religion is best pro^ 
moted by patient sufferings. 

^ The term Rmmdiiead was bestowed either because the Puritaos uMuiIly wore 
short haify and the royal paity lon^; or because soiua say, the Queen, atStraf- 
furd's trial, asked, in reference to Prynne, who \.\i2it round'headed man was, who 
spoke so strongly. The device on the standard of Colonel Cook, a fmrUaiaent- 
iry officer, was a raao in armour cutting off the corner of a square cap with 
a sword. His motto was JihUo quadrata rotuttdis. 

^ Fuller's derivation of Malignant is in his usual witty style; "The deduc- 
tion thereof being disputable ; whether from bad fire, or bad fuel, maim igniMy 
or wuUum lignum t but this is surf > betwiat both* the name roadv a great com- 
bustion." 

1)2 



36 THB LIFB AND TIMES 

Some of these reasons are plausible, and others have consider* 
able force ; they Are partly derived from the constitution of 
England, and partly from the nature and obligations of religion* 
To all of them the writers on the side of the parliament replied 
at great length ; and justified the resistance of the people to the 
arbitrary measures of government^ on other and unanswerable 
grounds. Instead of stating these at length, I shall here give* 
the reflections of Baxter^ which embrace the strength of them^ 
in his own words. 

^* For my own part, I freely confess that I was not judicious 
enough in politics and law to decide this controversy.. Being 
astonished at the Irish massacre, and persuaded fully tx)th of the 
parliament's good endeavours for reformation, and of their real 
danger, my judgment of the main cause, much swayed my 
judgment in the matter of the wars ; and the arguments h fine, 
et a naiura, et necessitate, which common wits are capable of 
discerning, did too far incline my judgment in the cause of the 
war, before I well understood the arguments from our particular 
l^ws. The consideration of the quality of the persons also, that 
sided for each cause, did greatly work with me, and more than 
it should have done. I verily thought that if that which a judge 
in court saith is law, must go for law to the subject, as to the 
decision of that cause, though the king send his broad seal 
against it ; then that which the parliament saith is law, is law 
to the subject about the dangers of the commonwealth, what- 
ever it be in itself. ' 

^^ I make no doubt that both parties were to blame, as it 
commonly falleth out in most wars and contentions ; and I will 
not be he that will justify either of them. 1 doubt not but the 
headiness and rashness of the younger inexperienced sort of 
religious people, made many parliament men and ministers 
overgo themselves to keep pace with those Hotspurs. No doubt 
but much indiscretion appeared, and worse than indiscretion in 
the tumultuous petitioners ; and much sin was committed in the 
dishonouring of the king, and in the uncivil language against 
the bishops and liturgy of the church. But these things came 
chiefly from the sectarian, separating spirit, which blew the coak 
among foolish apprentices. And as the sectaries increased, so 
the insolence increased. One or two in the House, and five or 
six ministers that came from Holland, and a few relicts of the 
Brownists that were scattered in the city, did drive on others^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 37 

and sowed the seeds which aftenvard spread over all the 
land.*" 

^ But I then thought, whoever was faulty, the people's liberties 
and safety should not be forfeited. I thought that all the sub- 
jects were not guilty of all the faults of king or parliament when 
they defended them : yea, that if both their causes had been bad 
as against each other ; yet that the subjects should adhere to 
that party which most secured the welfare of the nation, and might 
defend the land under their conduct without owning all their 
caose. And herein I was then so zealous, that I thought it was 
a great sin for men that were able to defend their country, to be 
neuters. And I have been tempted since to think that I was a 
more competent judge upon the place, when all things were be« 
fore our eyes, than I am in the review of those days and actions 
so many years after, when distance disadvantageth the appre- 
hension/' ° 

It is evident from these statements, that Baxter was a de- 
cided friend to the parliamentary cause. The reasons which 
influenced his judgment were those which probably guided the de« 
termination of the great body of persons who espoused that side, 
in the momentous controversy which then divided the country. 
Many of those who were incapable of judging in the nume« 
rous political questions and altercations, which the grand 
subject involved, were well enough qualified to form an opinion 
respecting the substantial merits of the difference between the 
king and the people. The love of religion, and the desire of 
liberty, were the great inspiring principles. The resistance 
which they met with only increased their vigour, and thus in- 

■ It is very singular that Baxter should attribute so much evil to the dis- 
scntiD^ brethren of the Westminster assembly, and the sectaries of whom 
tbey were the reputed leaders, especially after his own account of the former 
state of thin^ which we have given. The civil wars produced or occasioned 
the sects, not the sects the wars. The lung parliament had taken some of its 
stroogett measures before the five Independent ministers returned to England 
from Holland. A good while must have elapsed after their return before their 
influence could extend far ; and without violent and unreasonable opposition 
to their fair and moderate request for a toleration, their influence at no time 
would have been great. Compared with many of their opponents, both their 
Uogoage and their temper were moderate ; and it might be easy to show that 
the exaggerated lamentations and insulting abuse of their adversaries were 
calculated to produce, and actually did produce, a worse effect on the country 
than anything done by the Independents either in or out of parliament. On 
Ibis subject farther particulars will be furnished in a subsequent part of tbit 
work. 

* life, part i. p. 39. 



38 THB LIFB AND TIMBS 

Bured their success* Though they were guilty of occasional evil^ 
and produced temporary confusion, the great objects which they 
contemplated were never lost sight of« and the result of the 
struggle was in a high degree glorious* 

We have already glanced at the trouble Baxter experienced 
at Kidderminster, from the ignorant rabble, which disliked 
his preaching and his strictness. Towards the end of 1642, 
the heat of the parties became so great that he was ex-» 
posed to considerable danger. The king's declarations were read 
in the market-place, and a country gentleman, who officiated on 
the occasion, stopped at sight of Baxter, and called out ^^ There 
goes a traitor/' The commission of array was set on foot^ 
which increased the rage of the rioters. ^^ Down with the round- 
heads," became the watch-word; and knocking down every person 
whose hair was short and his dress respectable immediately 
followed. In consequence of these things, Baxter was advised to 
withdraw for a short time from the scene of his labours. The 
county of Worcester was devoted to the king ; so that no one 
who was known to be for the parliament could then be of service* 



OF RICHARD BAXTER, 39 



CHAPTER III. 

1642-1646. 



Batter fOM to Glouoe^r— Returns to KiddenniD8ter-.Vi8it8 Alceatei^Btttla 
of EdghiU— RtsSdeiiee in Coventry— Battle of Naseby— State of the Par- 
liamtptary Army— Consults the Ministers about goiB|^ into it — Becomes 
Chaplain to Colonel Whalley's re^ment — Opinions of the Soldiers — ^Disputes ^ 
with them — ^Battle of Laa^port— Wicked Report of an Occurrence at this 
place — ^The Army retires to Bridgewater and Bristol — ^Becomes ill — Various 
Occurrences in the Army — Chief Impediments to his Success in it — Crom- 
well — Harrlson-^Berry — ^Advised by the Ministers to continue in it— Ones 
to London on account of his Health— Joins the Army in Worcestershire— 
Attacked with violent Bleedings— Leaves the Army— Entertained by Lady 
Roue— Ramarka on his Views of the Anny» and conduct in it» 

Thb immediate cause of Baxter's withdrawment from Kidder- 
minster was a violent attack on his life^ and on that of the church- 
warden, by a mob, excited by a parliamentary order for defacing 
images of the Trinity in churches, and removing crucifixes ; to 
which they considered Baxter a party, though the execution of 
the order had not been attempted. This brutal outrage shows 
the ignorant and degraded state of the people. On leaving 
Kidderminster, he went to Gloucester, where he found the people 
civil and religious, as different from those of the former place as 
if they had lived under another government. Here he remained 
for a month, during which many political pamphlets were pub- 
lished on both sides. Here, also, he first witnessed the conten- 
tions between the ministers and the Baptists, and other sects, 
which then frequently took place in the country. A public arena 
was chosen ; judges, or moderators, were appointed ; champions 
on each side bade defiance : while the public were called to 
witness the religious tournament, and to applaud the victor. 
Truth was generally claimed by both parties j but if the justice 
of the cause depended on the spirit and weapons of the cham- 
pions, in most instances she would have disclaimed both. About 
a dosen young men, in Gloucester, of considerable parts, had 
been re-baptised, and laboured, as was very natural, to draw 



40 THB UP£ AND TIMES. 

Others after them. The minister of the place, Mr* Winnd, 
being hot and impatient, excited rather than calmed them. He 
wrote a book against them, which produced little effect on the 
Baptists, and led the people of the country to blame him for his 
violence and asperity. This was the commencement^ Baxter 
says, of much evil at Gloucester. 

\Vhen he had remained in it about a month, his friends at 
Kidderminster wished him to return, which he accordingly did $ 
but, after continuing a short time, he found the state of matters 
so little improved, the fury of the rabble and of the king's 
Soldiers being still great, that he was under the necessity of 
withdrawing agun. The war was now in active operation in 
that part of the country ; the main army of the king, com- 
manded by Prince Rupert, and that of the parliament, under 
the Earl of Essex, occupying the county of Worcester. After 
noticing some petty skirmishes, he gives the following account 
of the battle of Edghill, and his subsequent proceedings : 

^^ Upon the Lord's day, October 23, 1642, 1 preached at Al* 
cester for my reverend friend, IVlr. Samuel Clark. As I was 
preaching, the people heard the cannon play, and perceived that 
the armies were engaged. When the sermon was done, in the 
afternoon, the report was more audible, which made us all long 
to hear of the success. About sun-setting, many troops fled 
through the town, and told us that all was lost on the parlia- 
ment's side ; and that the carriages were taken, and' the wag* 
gons plundered, before they came away. The townsmen sent a 
messenger to Stratford-on-Avon, to know the truth. About four 
o'clock in the morning he returned, and told us that Prince 
Rupert wholly routed the left wing of the Earl of Essex's army j 
but while his men were plundering the waggons, the nuun body 
and the right wing routed the rest of the king's army; took his 
standard, but lost it again ; killed General, the Earl of lindsay^ 
and took his son prisoner : that few persons of quality, on the 
side of the parliament, were lost, and no nobleman but Lord, 
St. John, eldest son to the Earl of Bolingbroke : that the loss 
of the left wing happened through the treachery of Sir Faithful 
Fortescue, major to Lord Fielding's regiment of horse, idio 
turned to the king when he should have charged : and that the 
victory was obtained principally by Colonel Hollis's regiment of 
London red-coats, and the Earl of Essex's own regiment and 
life guard, where Sir Philip Stapleton, Sir Arthur Haselrigge^ 
and Colonel Urrey, did much. 



OP RICUARD BAXTER. 41 

^ Nest monung, bdng desirous to see the fields I went to 
SdgUlI, and finmd the Earl of Essex^ with tlie remaining part 
of his army, keeping the ground^ and the king's army facing 
them upon the hUl about a mile off. There were about a thou- 
•and dead bodies in the field between them; and many I suppose 
were buried before* Neither of the armies moving towards each 
otiier^ the king's army presently drew off towards Banbury, and 
then to QxfenL The Earl of Essex's went back to provide for 
the wmmded, and refiresh themselves at Warwick Castle, be- 
longing to Lord Brook.*^ 

^ For myself, I knew not what course to take. To live at 
home^ I was uneasy 3 but especially now, when soldiers on one 
side or other would be frequently among us, and we must still 
be at the mercy of every furious beast that would make a prey 
of na. I had neither money nor firiends : I knew not who would 
receive me in any place of safety ; nor had I any thing to satisfy 
them for my diet and entertainment* Hereupon 1 was per- 
suaded, by one that was with me, to go to Coventry, where an old 
acqnaintuce, Bilr. Simon King, was minister ; so diither I went, 
widi s purpose to stay there till one side or other had got the 
irictory, and the war was ended: for so wise in matters of war 
was I, and all the country beside, that we commonly supposed 
that a very few days or weeks, by one other battle, would end 
the wars. Here I stayed at Mr. King's a month ; but the war 
was then as far from being likely to end as before. 

^ While I was thinking what course^ to take in this necessity, 
the committee and governor of the city desired me to stay vrith 
diem, and lodge in the governor's house, and preach to the 
soldiers. The offer suited well with my necessities ; but I re- 
solved that I would not be chaplain to a regiment, nor take 
a commission : yet, if the mere preaching of a sermon once or 
twice a vreek to the garrison would saUsfy them, I would accept 
of the offer, till I could go home again. Here, accordingly, I 
fived in the governor's house, followed my studies as quietly as 
in a time of peace, for about a year ; preaching once a week to 
the soldiers, and once, on the Lord's day, to the people ; taking 
nothing from either but my diet." ^ 

* Baztei's accouut of this battle is substantimlly the same with Ciarendon'sy 
tiioaffa the latter eodeavoiin to show that the victory was rather on the side 
of the king than of the parliament. The coosequenoes which followed, how. 
ever, aflbrd convindni^ proof that the advantages were on the side of the par« 
liaoMot. 

• Life, port i. pp. 43, 44* 



42 THS LIFE AND TIMBS 

Ac the end of this period, the war, so far from being termi- 
nated, had spread almost over the whole cowitryt In moet of 
the counties there were garrisons and troops belonging to both 
parties, which caused conflicts in every quarter. There were few 
paC^ishes in which blood, at some time or other, was not shed | 
so general and determined was the hostility of the parties 
to each other. Baxter removed from Coventry to Shropsbiie 
for about two months; during which time, he was near some of 
the skirmishes which then almost daily took place. Having^t 
his father relieved from prison at LillshuU, he returned to Co- 
ventry, and spent another year in his old employment, studying 
the Scriptures and preaching to the army. 

In his audience in this place, he mentions that there were many 
godly and judicious persons. Among these were, Sir Rtcbard 
Skeffington, Colonel Godfrey Bosville, Mr. Mackworth, and Mr# 
George Abbot, known by his Paraphrase on the Book of Job« 
There were also about thirty worthy ministers, who bad fled to 
Coventry for safiety, from the soldiers and popular fury, thotigb 
they never meddled in the wars : Mr. Richard VineSy Mrt 
Anthony Burgess, Mr. Burdall, Mr. Brumskill, Dr* Bryan, Dr« 
Grew, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Cradock, Mr. Morton of Bewdley^ 
Mr. Diamond, old Mr. Overton, and many more. 

At Coventry, Baxter took the covenant himself, and gave it 
to another, of which he afterwards bitterly repented. He also 
publicly defended it against a production of Sir Francis Nether*- 
sole's. He then supposed that it was only intended as a test 
for garrisons and soldiers, and did not anticipate that it would 
afterwards be made a test for the magistracy and miniatiy 
throughout the land $ though he acknowledges be might have 
foreseen this, had he attended to its tenor» Here, also» be 
openly declared himself for the parliament ; for which, in his 
^Penitent Confessions,' p he assigns thirty- two reasons; with 
which it is unnecessary here to trouble the reader. 

^^ The garrison of Coventry," he says, '^ consisted bulf of 
citizens, and half of countrymen. The latter were such as had 
been forced from their own dwellings, and were the most reli- 
gious men of the parts round about. One or two persons who 
came among us from New England, of Sir Henry Vane's party, 
and one Anabaptist tailor, had almost troubled all the garrison^ 
by infecting the honest soldiers with their opinions. But they^ 

p Penitent Confessions, p. 23. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 43 

faand not the success in Coventry which they had done in 
Cromwell's army* In public I was fain to preach over all the 
controversies against the Anabaptists first, and then against the 
separatists. In private, some of my Worcester neighbours^ and 
many ol the foot soldiers, were able to baffle both separatistSi 
Anabaptists, and Antinomians, and so kept all the garrison sound* 
Ob thtt, the Anabaptists sent to Bedford, for one Benjamin Cox^ 
an old minister of their persuasion, and no contemptible scholar^ 
the son of a bishop ; and he and I had first a dispute by word of 
mouthy and afterwards in writing. In conclusion, about a dozen 
poor townsmen were carried away ; but the soldiers, and the rest 
of the city, were kept sound from all infection of sectaries and 
dividers."^ Mr. Cox was desired to depart the first timej 
but coming down again and refusing to leave the city, the com- 
mittee imprisoned him. Some ascribed this to Baxter} but he 
declares that instead of using his influence to put him in^ he 
employed it to get him out/ Be this as it may, a Baptist church 
was then planted in Coventry, which has subsisted ever since. 
Imprisotung heretics will never check or destroy heresy ; and 
preaching controversies, is not the most useful method either of 
converting unbelievers or establishing saints. 

The detail which Baxter gives in his own life of the subsequent 
pK^ress of the civil war, which so long fearfully distracted the 
country, is too extended and minute to admit of being fully in- 
serted in this place. Many of the scenes which he notices, are 
better described by others who witnessed them, and with whose 
description the generality of readers are now well acquainted. 
More dependence also can be placed on his statements than on 
his reasonings ; on his record of what he saw, than on his hear- 
say reports. But as he himself acted with the parliamentary 
army for a considerable time, the account which he gives of 
what fell under his own observation, and of his personal conduct, 
is frequently important and interesting, and may always be re- 
ceived with the greatest confidence. To these things, I shall, 
therefore, confine my narrative. He thus describes the circum- 
stances which led to his joining the army, his employment whilst 
in it, and some of the events which happened during his con- 
nexion with it. 

" Naseby being not far from Coventry, where I was, and the 
noise of the victory being loud in our ears, and I having two or 

1 Life, part i. p. 46. 

' Baxter on * Infant Baptism/ Preface. 



44 TAB LIFE AND TIMES 

three h4io had been my intimate friends in CromwelKs army^ 
whom I had not seen for above two years, I was desirous of see-* 
ing whether they were dead or alive ; so to Naseby Field I went 
two days after the fight, and thence by the army's quarters be- 
fore Leicester, to seek my acquaintance.* When I found them^ 
I staid with them a night; and understood from them thet 
state of the army much better than ever I had done before* 
We that lived quietly in Coventry kept to our old principles, and 
thought all others had done so too* Except a very few inconside- 
rable persons, we were unfeignedly for king and parliament $ 
we believed that the war was only to save the parliament and 
kingdom from papists and delinquents, and to remove the divi- 
ders, that the king might again return to his parliament; and that 
tio changes might be made in religion, but by the laws which - 
had his free consent. We took the true happiness of king and 
people, church and state, to be our end, and so we understood 
the covenant, engaging both agfunst Papists and schismatics; 
and when the Court News-book told the world of the swarms of 
Anabaptists in our armies, we thought it had been a mere lie^ 
because it was not so with us, nor in any of the garrisons or 
county forces about us. But when I came to the army, among 
Cromwell's soldiers, I found a new face of things which I never 
dreamt of; I heard the plotting heads very hot upon that which 
intimated their intention to subvert both church and state. In- 
dependency and Anabaptistery were more prevalent; Antino- 
mianism and Arminianism were equally distributed ; and Thomas 
Moor's followers (a weaver of Wisbitch and Lynn, of excellent 

* The best account which I have met with of the battle of Naseby, is ia 
Spric^'s 'Ansiia Red! viva; Ea^land's Recovery; or, the History of the 
Army under the conduct of Sir Thomas Fairfax/ &c. 1647. Sprigf^ was 
General Fairfax's chaplain, and personally acquainted with the scenes and 
transactions which he describes. The booic is now very scarce ; but those 
who think the ministers of the army were mere fanatics, would do well to 
consult this work* As it comprehends the very period during^ which Baxter 
was in the army, it deserves to be compared with his account of th<« trans- 
actions which then took place. Springe's means of informatvon mus^ have 
been superior to Baxter's, as he was immediately connected with the g^eral 
himself; yet I am not aware of any important diflference between then in 
the statements of facts ; though they do not entirely ag^ree, as is noticed w a 
subsequent page, in their views of the character of the army. 1 should s^Mp- 
pose that Baxter did not occupy any veiy conspicuous place in the army, «■ 
hb name is never mentioned by Sprigge. Clement Walker calls SprlggJ^t 
< Anglia,' the ' Legeud, or Romance, uf this Army/ and insinuates that it mAu 
the production of Nath. Fieunes, second son to Lord Say : but this is probabl^ 
one of ^ legends of that mendacious writer. T 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 45 

parts) had made some shifts to join these two extremes to* 
gether* 

^Abundance of the common troopers and many of theofficers^ 
I found to be honest, sober, orthodox men ; others were tract- 
able, ready to hear the truth, and of upright intentions. But a 
few proud, self-conceited, hot-headed sectaries had got into the 
highest places, and were Cromwell's chief favourites ; and by 
dieirvery heat and activity, bore down the rest, or carried them 
alcMig with them. These were the soul of the army, though 
much fewer in number than the rest, being indeed not one to 
twenty in It; their strength being in the General's, in Whalley's 
and in Rich's regiments of horse, and among the new-placed 
oflicers in many of the rest. 

^ I perceived that they took the king for a tyrant and an enemy, 

and really intended absolutely to master him, or to ruin him, 

Iliey thought if they might fight against him, they might also 

killer conquer him; and if they might conquer, they were never 

more to trust him further than he was in their power. They 

dMMight it folly to irritate him either by war or contradiction 

in parliament, if so be they must needs take him for their king, 

and trust him with their lives when they 'had thus displeased 

him. * What, were the lords of England,' said they, ^ but 

William the Conqueror's cologels ; or the barons, but his majors; 

or the knights, but his captains ! ' They plainly showed that 

they thought God's providence would cast the trust of religion 

and the kingdom upon them as conquerers ; they made nothing 

of all the most wise and godly in the armies and garrisons, that 

were not of their way- Per fas aut nefasj By law or without 

it, they were resolved to take down, not only bishops, and liturgy, 

and ceremonies, but all who did withstand them. They 

were far from thinking of a moderate episcopacy, or of any 

healing method between the episcopalians and the presbyteri- 

aos ; they most honoured the separatists, anabaptists, and anti- 

nomians ; but Cromwell and his council took on them to join 

themselves to no party, but to be for the liberty of all. Two 

sorts, I perceived, they did so commonly and bitterly speak 

against, that it was done in mere design, to make them odious to 

the soldiers, and to all the land ; and these were the Scots, and 

with them all presbyterians, but especially the ministers ; whom 

they called priests, and priestbyters, dryvines, and the dissembly- 

meo, and such like. The committees of the several counties, 

ttid all the soldiers that were under them, that were not of their 



46 THB LIFB ANB TIMBS • 

mind and way, were the other objects of their ditpleasnre. Some 
orthodox captains of the •army partly acquainted me with all 
this, and I heard much of it from the mouths of the leaduig 
sectaries themselves. This struck me to the very heart, and 
made me fear that England was lost by those that it had taken 
for its chief friends. 

'^ Upon this I began to blame other ministers and myself* I 
saw that it was the ministers that had lost all, by forsaking the 
army, and betaking themselves to an easier and quieter way of 
life. When the Earl of Essex went out first, each regiment bad 
an able preacher ; but at Edghill fight, almost all of them went 
home] and as the sectaries increased, they were the more averse 
to go into the army. It is true, I believe now, that they had 
little invitation ; and it is true, that they could look for little wel- 
come, and great contempt and opposition, beside all other diffi«f 
culties and dangers ; but it is as true, that their worth and 
labour, in a patient, self-denying way, would probably have pre* 
served most of the army, and have defeated the contrivances of 
the sectaries, saved the king, the parliament, and the land* 
And if it had brought reproach upon themselves from the mali* 
cious, who called them Military Levites, the good which they 
had done would have wiped off that blot, much better than the 
contrary course would have done. 

*^ I reprehended myself also, who had before rejected an invi-r 
tation from Cromwell, when he lay at Cambridge with that 
famous troop with which he began his army. His officers pur- 
posed to m^e their troop a gathered church, and they all suIh 
scribed an invitation to me to be their pastor, and sent it me to 
Coventry. I sent them a denial, reproving their attempt, and 
told them wherein my judgment was against the lawfulness and 
convenience of their way, and so I heard no more from them ; 
but afterwards meeting Cromwell at Leicester, he expostulated 
with me for denying them. These very men that then invited 
me to be their pastor, were the men that afterwards headed 
much of the army, and* some of them were the forwardest in all 
our changes } which made me wish that I had gone among 
them, however it had been inteipreied; for then all the fire 
was in one spark. 

^' When I had informed myself, to my sorrow, of the state of 
the army. Captain Evanson (one of my orthodox informers) 
desired me yet to come to their regiment, which was the 
most religious, most valiant, and most successful of all the 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 4^ 

m 

army ; but in as much danger as any one whatsoever. I was 
unwilling to leave my studies, and friends, and quietness, at 
Coventry, to go into an army so contrary to my judgment ; 
but I thought the public good commanded me, and so 1 gave 
Mm some encouragement. Whereupofi he told his colonel 
(Whall^), who also was orthodox in religion, but engaged by 
kindred and interest to Cromwell 5 who invited me to be chaplain 
to his regiment. I told him I would take but a day's time to 
deliberate, and would send him an answer or else come to him. 

^ Am soon as I came home to Coventry, I called together an 
anembly of ministers ; Dr. Bryan, Dr. Grew, and many others. 
I told them the sad news of the corruption of the army, and 
that I thought all we had valued was likely to be endangered by 
them I seeing this army having first conquered at York, and 
now at Naseby, and having left the king no visible army but 
Qoring'si the fate of the whole kingdom was likely to follow the 
dtsposition and interest of the conquerors. We had sworn to be 
troe to the king and his heirs in the oath of allegiance. All our 
soidiera here think that the parliament is faithful to the king, and 
have no other purpose themselves* If the king and parliament, 
church and state, be ruined by those men, and we look on and 
do nothing to hinder it, how are we true to our allegiance and 
to the covenant, which bindeth us to defend the king, and to be 
against schism, as well as against Popery and profaneness ? 
For my part, said I, I know that my body is so weak, that it is 
likely to hazard my life to be among them ; I expect their 
fury should do little less than rid me out of the way ; and I 
know one man cannot do much among them : but yet, if your 
judgment take it to be my duty, I will venture my life ; perhaps 
some other minister may be drawn in, and then some more of 
the evil may be prevented. 

"The ministers finding my own judgment for it, and being 
moved with the cause, did unanimously give their judgment for 
my going. Hereupon, I went straight to the committee, and told 
tliem that I had an invitation to the armv, and desired their con- 
sent to go. They consulted awhile, and then left it wholly to 
the governor, saying, that if he consented they should not hin- 
der me. It fell out that Colonel Barker, the governor, was 
just then to be turned out, as a member of. parliament, by the 
self-denying vote. And one of his companions (Colonel WiU 
loughby) was to l>e colonel and governor in his place. Here- 
upon Colonel Barker was content, in his discontent, that I 



48 THR LIFR AND TIMES 

should go out with him, that he might be missed the moie ; 
and so gave me his consent. 

*^ I then sent word to Colonel Whalley that^ to-morroW 
God willing, I would come to him. As soon as this was done, * 
the elected governor was much displeased; and the soldiers were 
so much offended with the committee for consenting to my 
going, that the committee all met again in the nighty and sent 
for me, and told me I must not go. I told them that, by their 
consent, I had promised, and therefore must go* They told 
me that the soldiers were ready to mutiny against them, and 
they could not satisfy them, and therefore I must stay. 1 tdid 
them that I would not have promised, if they had not consented^ 
though, being no soldier or chaplain to the garrison, but only 
preaching to them, I took myself to be a free man, and I could 
not break my word, when I had promised by their consent. 
They seemed to deny their consent, and said they only referred 
me to the governor. In a word, they were so angry with me, 
that I was fain to tell them all the truth of my motives and 
design, what a case I perceived the army to be in, and that I 
was resolved to do my best against it. I knew not, till after- 
wards,, that Colonel William Purefoy, a parliament-man, one of 
the chief of them, was a confident of Cromwell's; and as 
soon as I had spoken what I did of the army, magisterially he 
answereth me, ' Let me hear no more of that : if Nol Crom* 
well 'should hear any soldier but speak such a word, he would 
cleave his crown : you do them wrong. It is not so.' I told 
him what he would not hear, he should not hear from me : 
but I would perform my word though he seemed to deny his. 
And so I parted with those that had been my very great friendsj 
in some displeasure. The soldiers, however, threatened to stop 
the gates and keep me in ; but, being honest, understanding 
men, I quickly satisfied the leaders of them by a private inti- 
mation of my reasons and resolutions, and some of them ac- 
companied me on my way. 

*^ As soon as I came to the army, Oliver Cromwell coolly bade 
me welcome, and never spake one word to me more while I was 
there; nor once, all that time, vouchsafed me an opportunity to 
come to the head-quarters, where the councils and meetings 
of the officers were ; so that most of my design was thereby 
frustrated. His secretary gave out that there was a reformer 
come to the army to undeceive them, and to save church and 
statCj with some such other jeers; by which I perceived that 



OF RICHARD BAXTBA. 49 

all I had said the night before to the committee^ had come to 
Cromwell before me, I believe by Colonel Purefoy's means : 
but Colonel Whalley welcomed me, and was the worse thought 
of for it by the rest of the cabal* 

^ Here I set myself, from day to day, to find out the corrup- 
tions of the soldiers, and to discourse and dispute them out of 
their mistakes, both religious and political. My life among 
them was a daily contending agiunst seducers, and gently argu- 
ing with the more tractable ; but another kind of warfare I had 
than theirs. 

^l found that many honest men, of weak judgments and 
little acquaintance with such matters, had been seduced into a 
disputing vein, and made it too much of their religion to talk 
for this opinion and for that; sometimes for state democra- 
cy, and sometimes for church democracy ; sometimes against 
forms of prayer, and sometimes against infant baptism^ 
which yet some of them did maintain; sometimes against 
set times of prayer, and against the tying of ourselves to 
any duty before the Spirit move us; and sometimes about 
free-grace and free-will, and all the points of Antinomian- 
ism and Arminianism. So that I was almost always, when 
I h^ opportunity, disputing with one or other of them ; 
sometimes for our civil government, and sometimes for church 
order and government; sometimes for infant baptism, and oft 
against Antinomianism, and the contrary extreme. But their 
most frequent and vehement disputes were for liberty of con- 
science, as they called it ; that is, that the civil magistrate had 
nothing to do to determine any thing in matters of religion, 
by constraint or restraint ; but every man might not only hold, 
but preach and do, in matters of religion, what he pleased : 
that the civil magistrate hath nothing to do but with civil 
things, to keep the peace, protect the church's liberties, &c.^ 

^ It is very interestiag^ to find that, amidst all the heresies which infected 
the army, of which Baxter speaks su strangely, the heresy, as it was then 
deemed, of reli^ous liberty, so extensively prevailed. It is a pleasing feature 
Iq the character of the army, that it contended more vehemently for this thaa 
for any other point of doctrine or form of relig^ion. The fanatical Baptists 
and Independents of the parliamentary forces, maintained, two hundred years 
1^, the doctrine to which the enlightened parliament of Georg^e the Fourth, 
in the years 1828 and 1829, was brouf^ht to submit; not by practised politi- 
cians, or spiritual lonls, but by a man accustomed from his earliest youth to 
the use of arms, and the arbitrary command of an army. Among soldiers, 
religious freedom was first fiercely contended for; and by a soldier iti 

VOL, U V 



50 THs itFB ksb fiuks 

'' I fduite that dne-hftif dmdst^ of the M^tiuB pHit^ iami^ 
th^ncl, were such ui were either drthodbx, bi bdt tery tSil^tlf 
touched iHth heterodoxy ; aiid almost andthe^ hklf were hodMt 
men, that stepped further into the contending Way than ,iney 
ctitild Well get otit Of again; hut wh6, with coni^etent help, 
inight be recbtei^ed. There Wete a ftw fierjr,- self-fcdnciited 
ttieti atnoilg th^m, iirhd kihdled the ^est, arid made kU thfc hdtse 
and btlstle, and carried about the artny as they pieced : fiif 
the greatest pdrt bf thfe eomthon sdldieni, especially df t}Hi fddt^ 
were ignorant men, of little religion ; abundance of theiri iirere 
buch Its had been taken prisdriers,5r ttitned dilt of garmdns tinder 
the king, arid had beeh sbldiei^ hi his kfmf. The^ wddd 
db any thing to please Iheir officers; arid were I'cady liiStHi- 
ments for the seducers, especially ih thei^ grfeat #brkj #>iieh 
was to cry ddwti the cbtetiarit, to villify illl parish (rilriist^^^ but 
especially the Scots ahd Presbyterians ; tbt the mbst ot the sol- 
diers that i sfioke withj riever tdbk the cdvertarit, becdHiie ii tttfd 
them to deferid the king's persdtij arid to extirpatb h^t^y atfd 
schism. 

*^ When I perceived that it was a feW; then, Who bbfe tN^ 
bell, and did all the hurt ambng ihem^ I aequairited thyself wItH 
those men, and would be oft dlsputlhg with them> iri the hekr- 
ihg of the rest. I forind that they were riien whb had been iri 
London, hatched up among the old separatists, and had madfe it 
all the matter of their study and religion to rail against minis- 
ters, parish churches, and Presbyterians ; and who had llttte 
other knoivledge, or discourse of any thing about the heart, or 
heaven. They were fierce with pride and self-concdtedriess^ 
and had gotten a very great conquest over their charity, both 
to the Episcopalians and Presbyterians : where&s many of those 
honest soldiers who Were tainted but with sbme doubts about 
liberty of conscience or Independency, were meii whb wduld dis- 
course of the points of sanctification and christian experience 
v^ry seriously, t so far prevailed ih opening the lolly of 
these revilers and self- conceited men, as that some of thetn lie- 
carile the laughing-stock of the soldiers before I left therii; fthd 
wheh they pi-eacKed, for great prieachers they were, their weafe^ 
ness exposed them to contempt. A great part of the mischief 
was ddne atnbng the soldiers by pamphlets, which Were abttri- 

trtuiiipbt have bee n rompletM. I re|^ret that 1 cAnioot place Baxter Itt tMl 
frunt rauks of its friends. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 51 

dantiy dispersed^ such as Overton^ Martin Mar-Priest, and 
more of his ;■ and some of J. Lilburn's, who was one of the 
preaching officers ; and divers against the king, and against the 
ministry, and for liberty of conscience, &c. llie soldiers being 
usually dispersed in quarters, they had such books to read, when 
they had Hone to contradict them. 

*^ But there was yet a more dangerous party than thes^ 
among the soldiers, who took the direct Jesuitical way. They first 
most vehemehtly declaimed against the doctrine of election, and 
for the power of free-will, and all other points which are con- 
troverted between the Jesuits and Dominicans, the Arminians 
atid Calvinists. They then as fiercely cried down our present 
translation of the Scriptures, and debased their authority, i 
though they did not deny them to be divine. They cried \ 
down ali bur ministry, episcopal, presbyterian, and independent, ) 
and all our churches. They vilified almost all our ordltiary 
worship ; they allowed of no argument from Scripture, but what 
was brought in its express words ; they were vehement against 
both king and all government, except popular: and against 
magistrates meddling in matters of religion. All their disputing 
was with as much fierceness as if they had been ready to draw 
their swords upon those against whom they disputed. They 
trusted more to policy, scorn, and power, than to argument. 
They would bitterly scorn me among their hearers, to preju- 
dice them before they entered into dispute. They avoided me 
as much as possible ; but when we did come to it, they drowned 
all reason in fierceness, and vehemency, and multitude of words. 
Tliey greatly strove for places of command 5 and when any 
place was due by order to another that was not of their mind, 
they would be sure to work him out, and be ready to mutiny if 
they had not their will. I thought they were principled by thfe 
Jesuits, and act^d all for their interest, and in their way. But 
the secret spring was out of sight. These were the same tnefi 
that afterwards were called Levellers, who rote up against Crbitl^ 

* These pamphlets were imitations of the Martin Mar- Prelate attacks 
upou the bishops and clergy in the reif^n of Elizabeth. They partake of the 
severity, and, indeed, scurrility, of their prototypes, and were (Calculated to 
prodttcte very considerable effect. They were Itiostly anonymous, but hatfe 
been commonly ascribed to Overton, Lilburn, and persons of that class. Aa 
admirable account of Lilburn, with a very correct view of his character, is 
given in Godwin's History of the Commonwealth.' 0%'erton, I suspect, was 
an infidel — a character then rather uncommon. He wrote a pamphlet to prove 
inau's iiiaterialitv, which made considerable noise at the time. 

e2 



52 THE UFB AND TIMES 

well, and were surprised at Burford, having then deceived and . 
drawn to them many more. Thompson, the general of the 
levellers, who was slain then, was no greater a man than one of 
the corporals of Bethel's troop; the cornet and others being 
much worse than, he.' 

"Thus," concludes Baxter^ "have I given you a taste of my 
employment in the army." For such employment he was of 
all men singularly qualified. Nothing but an extraordinary 
taste for disputation, could have disposed him to enter on, or 
have enabled him to continue in, such a service. Making 
allowance for the colouring, which the state of his mind, and 
the extraordinary nature of his circumstances, must have pro* 
duoed, it will be granted, that such another army as that of 
the Parliament, at this period, the world never saw before, or 
since. Baxter endeavours to account for its peculiar character, 
from the influence of a few individuals. But, whatever may 
be ascribed to them as the proximate causes of particular events, 
it is certain tliat other and more powerful causes formed the 
characters of these soldiers, and are necessary to account for the 
appearance which they presented. Civil and ecclesiastical n 
oppression had goaded many to desperation; the hope and 
love of liberty inspired that heroic ardour, wiiich nothing could \ 
subdue ; the detection of many a false pretence, and the discovery 
of many important errors, by which they had long been abused 
and deluded, induced suspicions and doubts, and instigated to a 
licentious freedom of inquiry. Authority had lost all its weight; 
and truth, stripped of all adventitious ornament and recommend* 
ation, seemed clothed with irresistible charms. The period of 
darkness and the reign of terror were regarded to have passed 
away ; and the dawn of peace, liberty, and religion, all over the | 
the world, was supposed to have commenced. Baxter's exertions 
to stem the progress of these men, however well-meant, were like i 
attempts to check a volcano, by throwing stones into the crater; 1 
or to resist the mountain torrent by a wicker embankment. The V 
tempest which bad been long collecting at length burst with 
tremdidous fury; but, though, for a time, it scattered dismay and 
desolation all around, it finally cleared the political and reli* 
gious atmosphere, and rendered it capable of being breathed by 
free men and Christians. 

As Baxter's account of the army is drawn up under the influ* 

' Life> part i. pp« dO^S-l. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 53 

ence of strong feeling, arising probably from the disappointment 
he experienced in his attempts to cool down their ardour, and 
reconcile their theological quarrels, it may be proper to present 
to the reader the character of these soldiers, as drawn by another 
who was very intimate with them, and whose testimony is en- 
titled to much respect. 

" The officers of this army," says Sprigge, " werc^uch as knew 
little more of war than our own unhappy wars had taught them, 
except some few. Indeed, I may say this, they were better 
Christians than soldiers ; wiser in faith than in fighting; and could 
believe a victory sooner than contrive it ; yet were they as wise in 
soldiery as the little time and experience they had could make 
them. Many of the officers, with their men, were much engaged 
in prayer and reading the Scriptures ; an exercise that soldiers, 
till of late, have used but little; and thus they went on* and pros- 
pered. Men conquer better as they are saints than soldiers ; \ 
and in the counties where they came, they left something of 
God as well as of Caesar behind them ; something of piety aa 
well as pay. 

^'The army was, what by example and justice, kept in good 
order, both in respect of itself and of the country ; nor was it 
their pay that pacified them ; for, had they not had more civility 
than money, things had not been so fairly managed. There 
were many of them differing in opinion, yet not in action or 
business ; they all agreed to preserve the kingdom ; they pros- 
pered more in their amity than uniformity. Whatever their 
opinions were, they plundered none with them, they betrayed 
none with them, nor disobeyed the state with them ; and they 
were more visibly pious and peaceable in their opinions than 
those we call more orthodox.''^ 

This is the testimony of one whom Baxter would perhaps 
have called a sectary ; but he was chaplain to the good ortho- 
dox Presbyterian, General Fairfax, and could not, therefore, have 
been very wild. Besides, his whole account is characterised by 
sobriety, and accounts better for the conduct and success of the 
army, than some parts of Baxter's description. It is a duty, 
while recording events, and describing characters as they really 
existed, to embrace every fair opportunity of vindicating the brave 
and, I must call them, enlightened men, who fought the battle of 
England's liberties, and to whose memories a large debt of 
gratitude still remains undischarged. 

y Sprigge's • Anglia Rccliviva,' pp. 324, 325. 



\ 



54 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

^^As soon as I came to the army/' Baxter proceeds, ^'it 
marched speedily down into the west, because the king had no 
army left there but the Lord Goring's, and it would not suffer the 
fugitives of Naseby-fight to come thither to strengthen them. We 
Came quickly down to Somerton, when Goring was at Langport ^ 
which lying upon the river, Massey was sent to keep him in on 
the further side, while Fairfax attended him on this side, with 
his army* One day they faced each other, and did nothing ; the 
next day they came to their ground again. Betwixt the two 
armies was a narrow lane, which went between some meadows in 
a bottom, and a small brook crossed the lane with a narrow 
bridge. Goring planted two or three small pieces at the head of 
the lane to keep the passage, and there placed his best horse ; so 
that none could come to them, but over that .narrow bridge, and 
up that steep lane, upon the mouth of those pieces. After many 
hours facing each other, Fairfax's great ordnance affrighting, 
Viore than hurting, Goring's men, and some musqueteers being 
sent to drive them from under the hedges, at last Cromwell bi4 
Whalley send three of his troops to charge the enemy, and bo 
sent three of the General's own regiment to second them } all 
being of Cromwell's own regiment. Whalley sent Major Bethel, 
Captain E\canson, and Captain Grove, to charge ; M lyor Des* 
borough, with another troop or two, came after ; as they could go 
but one or two abreast over the bridge. By the time Bethel 
an4 Evanson, with their troops were got up to the top of the 
l^j^, thjsy m^t with a select party of Goring's best horse, and 
ch^ged thepi at sword's point, whilst you would count three or 
(our hundred, and then put them to retreat. In the flight they 
pursued them too far to the main body ; for the dust was so 
great, being in the very hottest time of summer, that they who 
were in it could scarce see each other; but I, who stood 
oyer them upon the brow of the hill, saw all. When they «saw 
themselves upon the face of Goring's army, they fled back ip 
baste, and by the time they came to the lane again. Captain 
Grove's troop was ready to relieve them, and Pesborough be- 
hind him. They then rallied again, and the five or six troops 
togetlier marched towards all Goring's army ; but before they 
G^me to the front, I could discern the rear begin to run, and so 
bjeginning in the rear, they all fled before they endured any 
charge ; nor was there a blow struck that day, but by Bethel's 
and Evanson's troops, on that side, and a few musqueteers in the 
hedges. Goring's army fled to Bridgewater ; and very few of 



OF BICHARI) BAXTER. 55 

them were either killed or taken in the fight or the purspit. I 
hi^pened to be next to Major Harrison as soon as the flight 
began^ and hieard him with a loud voice break forth into the 
praises of God with fluent expressions^ as if he had been in 4 
rapture/'* 

It was while at Langport, that a remarkable circumstance 
took place, which continued fpr a long time to be privately cir- 
culated to the great prejudice of Baxter's character. WiU 
the reader believe tliat he was actually charged with killing a 
man in cold blood with his own hand 1 At last it was publicly 
laid to his charge by Major Jennings himself, in the form of an 
affidavit, and published by Vernon, in the preface to his life of 
Dr. Heylin. The following is a copy of this extraordinary 
document, with Baxter's answer to it : 

'' Mr. Baxter may be pleased to call to mind," says that in« 
veterate enemy of the Nonconformists, '^ what was done to one 
&Iajor Jennings the last war, in that fight that was between 
Lyndsel and Langford, in the county of Salop } where the king's 
party having unfortunately the worst of the day, the poor mail 
was stripped almost naked, and left for dead in the field, 
Mr. Baxter, and one Lieutenant Hurdman, taking their walk 
among the wounjded and dead bodies, perceived some life left 
in the Major, and Hurdman run him through the body in cold 
blood. Mr. Baxter all the while looking on, and taking off, with 
his own hand, the king's picture from about his neck, told 
him, psbe was swimming in his gore, that he was a popish rogue, 
and that wa^ his crucifix. This picture was kept by Mr. 
Baxter for many years, till it was got from him, but not without 
much difficulty, by one Mr. 3omerfield, who then lived with Sir 
lliomas Rous. He generously restored it to the poor man, now 
aliye at Wick, near Pershore, in Worcestershire, although, at the 
fight, supposed to be dead ; being, after the wounds given him, 
dragged up and down the field by the merciless soldiers. Mr. 



* Major- General Harrison was the son of a g^razier at Nantwicb, in Che- 
shire* and bred an attorney, but quitted that prufessiuu in the bi'g;iuinng of 
the civil war. He was a man of courajje and of great volubility, and was of 
siu^uiar use to Cromwell in subduing the Presbyterians. He was one of those 
who pleaded for a legal trial of Charles I., whom he undertook to bring from 
Hurst Ca.^tle, for that purpose, lie is said to have amused Fairfax with long 
prayers, for which he had an admirable talcut, at the time of the king's exe- 
cution. He was one of the ten regicides, as they were called, who were exe- 
cuted in October, 16(i0, and died exulting in the cause for which he suflered. 
—Granger's Biog, Hist, vol. iii. p. fi5. 



56 TUB LIFB AND TIMES 

Baxter approved of the inhumanity by feeding his eyes with 
80 bloody and so barbarous a spectacle. 

*^ ], Thomas Jennings, subscribe to the truth of this narrative, 
and have hereunto put my hand and seal, this second day of 
March, 1682/'» 

In reply to this extraordinary charge, Baxter says : 

^' I do not think Major Jennings knowingly made this lie ; 
but was directed by somebody's report, and my sending him the 
medal* I do solemnly protest, that to my knowledge, I never 
saw Major Jennings ; that I never saw a man wound, hurt, 
atrip or touch him ; that I never spake a word to him, much less 
any word here affirmed ; that I neither took the picture from 
about his neck, nor saw who did it ; that I was not in the field 
when it was done; that I walked not among any wounded or dead, 
nor heard of any killed, but of one man; and that the picture 
was never got from me with difficulty; but that this is the truth,— 
The parliament had a few men in Langford House, and the king 
at Lyndsel, about a mile and a half asunder, who used oft to 
skirmish and dare each other in the fields between* Mv innocent 
father being prisoner at Lyndsel ; and I, being at Langford, re- 
solved not to go thence till he was delivered; I saw the soldiers 
go out, as they oft did, and in another field discerned them to meet 
and fight. I knew not that they had seen Jennings ; but, being 
in the house, a soldier showed a small medal of gilt silver, 
bigger than a shilling, and told us that he wounded Jennings, and 
took his coat, and took that medal from about his neck; I bought 
it of him for eighteen-pence, no one offering more. Some 
years after, the first time that I heard where he was, I finely 
desired Mr. Somerfield to give it him from me, who had never 
seen him ; supposing it was a mark of honour which might be 
^usefiil to him. And now these lies are all the thanks that ever 
I had."** 

Such is Baxter's fiill and satisfactory explanation of one of 
the most improbable and wicked calumnies that ever was pro- 
pagated against a man of God. It is a curious illustration of the 
state of the times, that such a base story could find reporters and 
believers, not only among the ignorant and the profligate, but 
even among the respectable part of the clerg)'. It was believed 
and circulated not merely by such persons as Vernon, and Long, 
and Lestrange; but by Dr.Boreman, of Trinity College, Cam- 

* Baxter's True Hist, of Councils, pp. 1—6, 
^ Ibid. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 57 

bridge ; and Dr. Allestry, of Oxford. The latter, however, 
much to his credit, wrote him a letter of apology. But we must 
now retam to the account of the army. 

^Goring immediately fled with his army further westward, 
to Exeter ; but Fairfax stayed to besiege Bridgewater ; and after 
two days it was taken by storm, in which Colonel Hammond's 
service was much magnified. Mr. Peters, having come to the army 
from London but a day before, went presendy back with the 
news of Goring's rout : when an hundred pounds reward was 
voted to himself for bringing the news, and to Major Bethel for 
hb service ; but no reward was given to Captain Evanson, be- 
cause he was no sectary. Bethel alone had all the glory and 
applause from Cromwell and that party. 

^ From Bridgewater the army went back towards Bristol ; 
where Prince Rupert was taking Nunny Castle and Bath in 
the way. At Bristol they continued the siege about a month. 
After the first three days, I fell sick of a fever, the plague being 
roond about my quarters. As soon as I felt my disease, I rode 
six or seven miles back into the country, and the next morn- 
ing, vndi much ado, I got to Bath. Here Dr. Venner was my 
careful physician : and when I was near death, far from all my 
acquaintance, it pleased God to restore me ; and on the «four- 
teentb day the fever ended in a crisis. But it left me so emaci- 
ated and weak, that it was long ere I recovered the little 
strength I had before. I came back to Bristol siege three or 
four days before the city was taken. The foot, which were to 
storm the works, would not go on unless the horse, who had no 
service to do, went with them. So Whalley*s regiment was 
fain to go on to encourage the foot, and to stand to be shot at 
before the ordnance, while the foot stormed the forts. Here M^or 
Bethel, who in the last fight had his thumb shot, had a shot 
in his thigh, of which he died, and was much lamented. The 
outworks being taken. Prince Rupert yielded up the city, upon 
terms that he might march away with his soldiers, leaving their 
ordnance and arms. 

"After this, the army marched to Sherborne Castle, the Earl 
of Bristol's house ; which, after a fortnight's siege, they took by 
storm ; and that on a side which one would think could never 
have been that way taken. While they were there, the country- 
men, called clubmen, rose near Shaftsbury, and got upon the 
top of a hill. A party was sent out against them, who marched 



58 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

up the hill, and routed them ; though some qf th.e yaUwtett 
men were slain in the front. 

" When Sherborne Castle was taken, part of the army werjt 
back and took in a small garrison by Salisbury, called Lang- 
ford house, and so marched to Winchester Castle, and took that 
after a week's siege, or little more. From thence Cromwell 
went, with a good party, to besiege Basing-housey the Marquis 
of Winchester's, which had frustrated great sieges hpifjto* 
fore. Here Colonel Hammond was taken prisoner into the 
house, afterwards the house was taken by stprm, and he aayed 
the Marquis and others; and much riches were taken by the 
soldiers.^ 

*^ In the mean time the rest of the army marched down agsip 
towards the Lord Goriug, and Cromwell came after them* 
When we followed Lord Goring westward, we foun^ tbat, 
above all other armies of the king, his soldiers were most bat^ 
by the people, for their incredible profi^neneis?, and their (m- 
merciful plundering, many of them being foreigners. A sober 
gentleman, whom I quartered with at South Pederton, in $Qine^* 
I setshi^e, averred to me, that, when with him, a company of them 
pricked their fingers, and let the blopd run into the cuoy and 
i drank a health to the devil in it : and no place cQuLd I come 
') into, but their horrid impiety and outrages made them odious. 
"The army marched d^own by Hynnington to Exeter 5 where 
I continued near three weeks among them at the siege^ and 
then Whalley's regiment, with the General's, Fleetwood's, and 
others, being sent back, 1 returned with them and left the ^ege: 
which continued till the city was taken. The army follpyrisfg 
Goring info Cornwall, th.ere forced him to l^y down a^ms^ his 
men j^oing away beyond $.ea, or .elsewhere, without their a^^ : 
and at last, Pendennis Castle, and all the garrisons there, were 
taken. 

" In the mean time, Whalley was to command the return of 
the party of horse, to keep in the garrison of Oxford till the ar^y 
could come to besiege it : and so in the extreme winter^ he 
quartered about six weeks in Buckinghamshire : and then was 
sent to lay siege to Banbury Castle, where Sir William Comptou 
was governor, who had wearied out one long siege before. 
There I was with them abpve two months, till the castle was 
taken ; and then he wjvs sent to lay siege to Worcester, with the 

« Life, purt 1. pp. jM, 55. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 59 

help of the Northampton, and Warwick, and Newport Pagnel 
soldiers, who had assisted him at Banbury, At Worcester, be 
lay in siege eleven weeks : and at the same time, th^ army 
being come up from the west, lay in siege at Oxford. 

*^ By this time. Colonel Whalley, though Cromweirs kinsman, 
and commander of the trusted regiment, grew odious among the 
sectarian commanders at the head quarters. For my sake he 
was called a Presbyterian, though neither he nor I were of that 
judgment in several points ; Major Salloway not omitting to 
use his industry in the matter to that end. When he had brought 
the city to a necessity of present yielding, two or three days 
before it yielded. Colonel Rainsborough was sent from Oxford, 
which had yielded, with some regiments of foot to command in 
chief; partly that he might be governor there, and not Whal- 
ley, when the city was surrendered. So when it was yielded, 
Rainsborough was governor, to head and gratify the sectaries, 
and settle city and coupty in their way : but the committee of 
the county were for Whalley, and lived in distaste with Rains* 
borough^ and the sectaries prospered there no further than 
Worcester city itself, a place which deserved such a judgment ; 
but all the country was free from their infection. 

^^All this while, as I had friendly converse with the sober 
part, so I was still employed with the rest as before, in preach* 
ing, conference, and disputing against their confounding 
errors ; and in all places where we went, the sectarian soldiers 
much infected the counties, by their pamphlets and converse. 
The people admiring the conquering army, were ready to re- 
ceive whatsoever they commended to them; and it was the way of 
the faction to represent what they said, as the sense of the army, 
and to make the people believe that whatever opinion they vent- 
ed, which one in forty of the army owned not, was the army's 
opinion. When we quartered at Agmondesham, in Bucking- 
hamshire, some sectaries of Chesham had set up a public meet- 
ing for conference, to propagate their opinions through all the 
country 5 and this in the church, by the encouragement of ^n 
ignorant sectarian lecturer, one Bramble, whom they had got in, 
while Dr. Cook, the pastor, and Mr. Richardson, his curate, durst 
not contradict them. When this public talking-day came. 
Bethel's troopers, with other sectarian soldiers, must be there to 
confirm the Chesham men, and make men believe that the armv 
was for them. I thought it my duty to be there also, and 
took divers sober officers with me, to let them see that more of 



60 THB JJFfi AND TIMES 

the army were against them than for them. T took the reading 
pew, and Pitchford's comet and troopers took the gallery. And 
there I found a crowded congregation of poor well-meaning 
people, who came in the simplicity of their hearts to be deceived. 
Then did the leader of the Chesham men begin, and afterwards 
Pitchford's soldiers set in, and I alone disputed against them 
from morning until almost night ; for I knew their trick, that if 
I had but gone out first, they would have prated what boasting 
words they listed when I was gone, and made the people believe 
that they had baffled me, or got the best ; therefore, I stayed it 
out till they first rose and went away. The abundance of non- 
sense which they uttered that day, may partly be seen in Mr* 
Edward's ^ Gangraena ;' for I had wrote a letter of it to a friend in 
London, so that and another were put into Mr. Edward's book| 
without my name.^ But some of the sober people of Agmondes- 
ham, gave me abundance of thanks for that day's work, which 
they said would never be there forgotten ; I heard also that this 
sectaries were so discouraged that they never met there any 
more. I am sure I had much thanks from Dr. Cook, and Mr. 
Richardson, who, being obnoxious to their displeasure for being 
for the king, durst not open their mouths themselves. After the 
conference, I talked with the lecturer, Mr. Bramble, and found 
him little wiser than the rest. 

^' The chief impediments to the success of my endeavours, I 
found, were only two : the discountenance of Cromwell, and the 
chief officers of his mind, which kept me a stranger from their 
meetings and councils ; and my incapacity of speaking to mimy, 
as soldiers' quarters are scattered far from one another, and 
I could be but in one place at once. So that one troop at a 
time, ordinarily, and some few more extraordinary, was all that 
I could speak to. ^The most of the service I did beyond 
Whalley's regiment was, by the help of Capt. Lawrence, with 
some of the General's regiment, and sometimes I had converse with 
Major Harrison and a few others ; but! found that if the army 
had only had ministers enough, who would have done fiuch littie 
as I did, all their plot might have been broken, and king, parlia- 
ment, and religion, might have been preserved. I, therefore, sent 
abroad to get some more ministers among them, but I could get 
none. Saltmarsh and Dell were the two great preachers at the 

* This letter appears io the third part of that precious collection of ab« 
surdity, calumuj, and lyiu^. It is to be regretted that Baxter should have 
otfutribttted any thiog; to such a farrago of nonsense and wickedness. 



OF BICHARD BAXTER. 81 

held qnarten ; but honest and judicious Mr. Edward Bowles, 
kept still with the General.® At last 1 got Mr. Cook, of Foxhull^ 
to come to assist me ; and the soberer part of the officers and 
soldiers of Whalley's regiment were willing to remunerate him 
o«it of their own pay. A month or two he stayed and assisted 
me ; but was quickly weary, and left them again. He was a 
fery worthy, humble, laborious man, unwearied in preaching, 
bat weary when he had not opportunity to preach, and weary of 
tbe spirits he had to deal with. 

^ All this while, though I came not near Cromwell, his designs 
were visible, and I saw him continually acting his part, ^fhe 
Lord General suffered him to govern and do all, and to choose 
almost all the officers of the army. He first nuLde Ireton com- 
missary-general ; and when any troop or company was to be 
disposed of, or any considerable officer's place was void, he was 
sure to put a sectary in the place : and when the brunt of the 
war was over, he looked not so much at their valour as their 
opinions ; so that, by degrees, he had headed the greatest part 
of the army with anabaptists, antinomians, seekers, or separatists, 
at best. All these he led together by the point of liberty of 
conscience, which was the common interest in which they did 
unite. . Yet all the sober party were carried on by his profession, 
that he only ])romoted the universal interest of the godly, with- 
out any distinction or partiality at all ; but still, when a place 
fell void, it was twenty to one a sectary had it ; and if a godly 
man, of any other mind or temper, had a mind to leave the 
army, he would, secretly or openly, further it. Yet did he not 
openly profess what opinion he was of himself: but the most 
that he said for any was for Anabaptism and Antinomianism, 
which he usually seemed to own. Harrison, who was then great 
with him, was for the same opinions. He would not dispute 
with me at all ; but he would, in good discourse, very fluently 
pour out himself in the extolling of free grace, which was 
savoury to those that had right principles, though he had some 
misunderstandings of free grace himself. He was a man of ex- 
cellent natural parts for affection and oratory, but not well seen 
in the principles of his religion ; of a sanguine complexion, 

* Mr. Bowles left tlie army in January, 1645, for his charg^e at York, and 
was succeeded by Dell, as chaplain to the General. He and SaJtmarsh were 
both inclined to Antinumianism. The latter was a complete mystic ; though 
perhaps both went further afterwards, than when they were about Fairfax, 
who seems to have been a moderate, sober-minded mnu^^Sprig^ge's Jnglia, 
p. 166. 



62 THfi LIFB AHH TIMBS 

natuhdl J of stidh vivacity^ hilarity, and alaciity, as tiMoth^r man 
hath when hd hath drunken a cup too much; but naturally, alsoi 
80 far from humble thoughts of himself, that pride was his ruin. 
*^ All the two years that I was in the army, even my old bosom 
ftiehd, wh6 had liyed in my house and been dearest to me, James 
Betty, then captain, after colonel and inajdr-general, then 
lord of the Upper House, who had formerly inrited me to Crbm- 
weirs old troOp, did never oncfe invite me to the krmj at first, 
nor invite me to his quarters after, nor ev^r once came to visit 
me, or even saW tne, save twice or thrice that Hve met accident- 
ally. So potent is the interest of ourselves and our opiniotis 
with us, against all other bonds whatever. He that fdrsalceth 
himself in forsaking his own opinions, may well be expected to 
forsake his friend, who adhereth to the tvay which he forsaketh; 
dud that chitiige which maketh hitti think he was hiinself ah 
Ignorant, misguided man before, must needs riiake him thifak 
his friend to be still ignorant and misguided, and value him ac- 
cdrditigly. He was a man, I verily think, befdre the wart, 
of great sincerity; of very good natural parts, especially 
mathematical and mechanical; affectionate in religion, and 
while conversant with humblihg providences, dbctrihes, and 
company, he carried himself as a Very great enemy to pride : 
but when Cromwell made him his favourite, and his extraordi- 
nary valour was crowned with extraordinary success, and when 
he had been awhile most conversant with those, who, in religion, 
thought the old Puritan ministers were dull, self-conceited men, 
of a lower form, and that new light had declared I know ndt 
what to be a higher attainment, his mind, his aim, his talk akid 
pM were altered accordingly. And as ministers of the old way 
\ikrefe IbWer, and seetaries tntich higher, in his esteem than for- 
fanerly ; s6 he iVilS hibch higher in his owii esteem wheli he 
thbtight h^ had attained tnuch higher, than he was befor^j iVheh 
he sat With his Kllotvs in th^ comhidn form. i3eillg neter well 
Hiidied in tlie bddy of divinity, but taking his light attidhg the 
sectaries, befdre the light which Idnger and patient studies df 
divinity should hate possessed him iVitht he lived after as ho^ 
iiestly as edtild be expeeted in one that taketh errbr for tHith| 
and evil to be good. 

" After this, he was president of the agitators, a major-gene^ 
ral and lord, a jpriiicipal person in the changes, and the cfaie^ 
executioner in pulling down Hichard Cromwell ; and then one 
of the governing council of state. All this was promoted by 



OF RICHARI) BAXTBR. 6S 

th^ misithdetstattditig bf Profidehce; for He Tftrily thought 
thit Gd^ by thdf rietories^ hM so called thehi id look after thb 
gtftatiment bf the iand^ laid sd entrusted them iHth the welfare 
of all hte pMple bere^ thkt ihjty Hrere responsible for it, ithd 
itti^t lioff iti cbhscience stand Itill while any thing was done 
which they thbiight was ifcgaihst that interest which th^ judged 
to be the interest of the people of Odd. 

''As he itits the chief in jiiilling down, hfe was one of the first 
that fell t {of Sir Arthur Hoselrigge taking Pottshiduth, his 
regiment of hor^to^ sent to block it up, went most of theih 
to Sir Arthur. And irhen the ariny was inelted to nothing, 
ibd the king ready to cdihe iii, the council of state imprisoned 
biiH, becadUte he would not promisief td live p^aceiibly; and after- 
wards he (being ohb df the four whohi Oienehd Moiik had the 
Worst thoughts df) was closelj^ cdhflned in Scarboh>ugh Castle ; 
baty being released, hb Mlbadici a gardener, and li? ed in a safer 
state than in all his greatness/ 

^ Wheti Worcester si«fge wils ov^r^ hating fteen, with joy, Kid- 
denninstery abd my frietlds there once again, the country being' 
now dleHred^ ihy old flock expected that I should return to 
them, and settle in peace amdhg them. I accordingly went 
to Coventry, and called the ministers again together^ i^hd 
voted me into the army. I told them, that the forsaking of 
the army, by the old ministers, and the neglect of supplying 
their places by others, had undone us ; that I had laboured 
among them with as much success as could be expected in the 
narrow sphere of my capacity: but that was little to all the 
army ; that the active sectaries were the smallest part of the 
army among the common soldiers, but that Cromwell had lately 
put so many of them into superior, command, and their indus- 
try was so much greater than othet-s, they were like to have 
ttoir will ; that whatever bbedience they pret^ndbd, I doubted 
not but they would pull dot^ all that stood in th^ir Wily; in 
btate and church, bdth king^ parliaments tmd mihi&U^H, and 

' I am iHclibed to think thitt BiixUtT has ekpresled s morh utifblroiirAhl^ 
opiuiuD of Uerry than he deserved. He probably found it iiieX|»edieiit ur even 
daD^eruiis, to cuiintenance Baxter's zeal in endeavuuriuf^ to reform the ai'my 
aiJd tlbftruct tiib dfesi^ii iif its ifeadere ; (o avoid qiiarreiiin^ with aii inofTeiislve 
»Dd well-iiieaiiiu^ but, as he i*oUlil rfrguM him, a n roil «^- headed thatt, he 
i(rpt out of bis way. Berry wbs a man of talents And eoerg;y ; one of the med 
who %va< formed by the times ; who lived in the tempest and the eartbciuaice. 
fciiil <lifik \UU> i}bS(-UHl5' lb the caliii. 1 have uutic'ed him in ibe Memoirs uf 
Owen, p. 27y, 2d edit. 



64 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

set up themselves. I told them that for the little that I had 
done, I had ventured my life, and weakened my body (weak 
before), but that the day, which I expected, was yet to come ; 
and that the greatest service with the greatest hazard was yet 
before. The wars being now ended, I was confident the leaders 
would shortly show their purpose, and set up for themselves : and 
when the day came, all that were true to king, parliament, and 
religion, ought to appear, if there were any hope, by contradict- 
ing them, or drawing off the soldiers from them, as it was all the 
service that was yet possible to be done. I was likely to do no 
great matter in such an attempt ; but there being so many in 
the army of my mind, I knew not what might be till the day 
should discover it : and though I knew it was the greatest hazard 
of my life, my judgment was for staying among them till the 
crisis, if their judgment did concur. Whereupon they all voted 
me to go and leave Kidderminster yet longer, which accord- 
ingly 1 did. 

^^ From Worcester I went to London to Sir Theodore Mayem, 
about my health : he sent me to Tunbridge Wells, and after 
some stay there to my benefit, I went back to London, and so 
to my quarters in Worcestershire, where the regiment was. 
My quarters fell out to-be at Sir Thomas Rous's, at Rous- 
Lench, where I had never been before. The Lady Rous was a 
godly, grave, understanding woman, and entertained me not as 
a soldier, but a friend. From thence I went into Leicestershire, 
Staffordshire, and at last into Derbyshire. One advantage of 
this moving life was, that I had opportunity to preach in many 
counties and parishes ; and whatever came of it afterward, I 
know not ; but at the time, they commonly seemed to be much 
affected. 

^^I came to Major, Swallow's quarters, at Sir John Cook's 
house, at Melbourn, on the edge of Derbyshire, beyond Ashby- 
de-Ia-Zouch, in a cold and snowy season : and the cold, toge- 
ther with other things coincident, set my nose on bleeding. 
When I had bled about a quart or two, 1 opened four veins, 
but that did no good. I used divers other remedies, for several 
days, to little purpose ; at last 1 gave myself a purge, which 
stopped it. This so much weakened me, and altered my com- 
plexion, that my acquaintances who came to visit me, scarcely 
knew me. Coming after so long weakness, and frequent loss 
of blood before, it made the physicians conclude me deplorate^ 
supposing I could never escape a dropsy. 



or BICHARD BAXTBB. 65 

^ Thus God unavoidably prevented all the efiiect of my pur- 
poses in my last and chiefest opposition of the army; and took 
me off the very time when my attempt should have begun. My 
purpose was to have done my best^ fir^t to take off that regi* 
ment which I was with, and then, with Captain Lawrence, to 
have tried upon the General's, in which two were Cromwell's 
chief confidents; and then to have joined with others of the same 
mind ; for the other regiments were much less corrupted. But the 
determination of God against it was most observable: for the 
very time that I was bleeding, the council of war sat at Notting- 
ham, where, as I have credibly heard, they first began to open 
their purpose and act their part; and, presently after, they en- 
tered into their engagement at Triploe Heath. As I perceived 
it was the will of God to permit them to go on, so I afterwards 
found that this great affliction was a mercy to myself; for they 
were so strong, and active, that I had been likely to have had 
small success in the attempt, and to have lost my life among 
them in their fury. And thus I was finally separated from the 
army. 

^' When I had staid at Melboum, in my chamber, three weeks, 
being among strangers, and not knowing how to get home, I 
went to Mr. Nowell's house, at Kirby-Mallory, in Leicester- 
shire, where, with great kindness, I was entertained three weeks. 
By that time, the tidings of my weakness came to the Lady 
Rous, in Worcestershire, who sent her servant to seek me out ; 
and when he returned, and told her I was afar off, and he 
could not find me, she sent him again to find me, and bring me 
thither, if I were able to travel. So, in great weakness, thither 
I made shift to get, where I was entertained with the greatest 
care and tenderness, while I continued the use of means for my 
recovery : and when I had been there a quarter of a year, I re- 
turned to Kidderminster."^ 

Thus terminated Baxter's connexion with the army. In review- 
ing his account of it,'we cannot help admiring the disinterested- 
ness of the motives by which he appears to have been influenced, 
and the self-denial which he exercised. He entered the army 
by the advice of his friends, and with the sincere intention of 
doing good ; but with greater confidence in the effects to be pro- 
duced by his labours than the circumstances warranted. These 
high-minded soldiers, accustomed to dispute as well as to fight, 

V Life, part l.pp. 55—59. 
VOL. !• F 



66 THS LIFE AND TIICKS 

and who were no less confident of victory in. the pol^nic lurena 
than of triumph in the field of battle^ were not to be put down 
by the controveVsial powers of Baxter, great as those powers 
were. To his metaphysical distinctions, they opposed their 
personal feelings and convictions, which were produced by a 
very different process, and not to be altered by any refinements 
of disquisition. When he contended against the justice of 
their cause, to his arguments they opposed their success ; and 
often must he have lost in their estimation as a politician^ what 
he had gained by his talents and piety as a divine. Mover 
ment^ and dispersion, which were death to him^ were life 
to them. It kept up their spirits and their excitement, by 
giving them fresh opportunities of exercising their gifts, both 
of the sword and of the tongue. Much as the leaders of the 
army respected religion, they had too much discernment to 
encourage the influx of many such ministers as Baxter. Crom- 
well and his officers had no objection to an occasional theolo- 
gical contest among the soldiers, or, even to engage in one 
themselves. It relieved the tug of war: it operated as a diver- 
tisement from other subjects on which their minds would have 
been less profitably employed ; while it often excited that very 
ardour of soul, on which the success of the army of the Com* 
monwealth mainly depended. 

I am not sure that even the ministers themselves were not 
pleased, in this manner to be rid of Baxter. It is remarkable^ 
that while they warmly approved of his going into the army and 
remaining with it, few of them were disposed to follow his 
example. This could not arise from the apprehension of per* 
sonal danger, for they could have little to fear of this nature. Iq ' 
fact, they must generally have been safer with the army than in 
the towns to which they sometimes resorted for protection. While 
associating with Baxter, they must have remarked the fearless 
character of his mind, his recklessness of danger, and his regard- 
lessness of consequences. His love of disputation, his qualifica- 
tions as a debater, and his devotedness to what he regarded as 
the cause of his Master, all fitted him for such a field as the army 
presented. The very qualities, however, which fitted him for 
the camp, rendered him less desirable as a companion in the 
retired and secluded walks of life. A company of ministers, 
shut up in a provincial town with Baxter for twelve months, 
probably found him a troublesome friend. The restless activity 
of his mind could not, in such circumstancesj find scope or em- 



OF RICHA1U> BAXTBRi 6? 

ploymenL By advising lum^ then, to follow his own convictions, 
and join the army, they at once did homage to his talents, and 
gratified his love of employment ; while, by remaining in retire-^ 
ment and safety themselves, they showed either their love of 
ease, or that thev had Kttie Confidence in the wisdom or success 
of Baxter's attempt to save his qpuntry, and deliver his king, , 
by ministerial influence over the soldiers. 

Whatever weight may be due to these reasonings, it is evident 
that, in the army, Baxter was neither an idle nor an unconcerned 
spectator. He laboured indefatigably, and persevered amidst all 
diseovragements. He failed in his main object ; but he suc- 
ceeded in repressing evil, and in eneduraging tnuch that was 
good. He acquired considerable additions to his stock of ex- 
perience, and his knowledge of men, and has left us some im- 
portant information respecting the characters and events of this 
period* 

During the latter part of the time which he spent in the 
army, and chiefly when lud aside by severe illness, he wrote, 
though they were not then published, his ' Aphorisms of Justi- 
fication,' and his ' Saint's Rest.' The last work chiefly occu- 
pied his thoughts and his pen, though the other appeared first. 
His disputes with the antinomian soldiers led to his ^Aphorisms, 
while his labours and aiHictions produced his meditations oh . 
'The Saint's Everlasting Rest.' A work begun and finished in 
these circumstances might be supposed to betray traces of haste 
and crudeness ; but of this, such is far from being the case. It 
discovers the maturity and elevation of mind to which he had 
efen then risen ; and had he never written more, it would have 
stamped his character as one of the most devotional, and most 
eloquent men of his own, or of any other age. 



f2 



68 THB LIFE AND TIBIV8 



CHAPTER IV. 

1646—1656. 



The Relij^iouf Parties of the Period— The Westminster Assembly--ChaTacter 
of the Erastians^EpiscopaiiaDS — Presbyterians— IndepeDdents — Baptists- 
State of Relipon in these Parties — Minor Sects— Vanists— Seekers— Ranters 
— Quaicers — ^Behmenists — ^Review of this period. 

Having, in the preceding chapter, given a view of the civil 
and military affairs with which Baxter was^ connected, from the 
commencement of his ministry till the time of his leaving the 
army, we must now attend to the religious state of the nation, 
which was no less full of distraction, and of which he has left 
a very particular account. If this part of our narrative should 
carry us into the period of the commonwealth, it will save future 
repetition, as most of the sects which then swarmed, had either 
commenced their existence during the civil wars, or naturally 
sprung out of the excitement and turbulence which those wars 
produced. 

While Baxter lived in Coventry, the celebrated Westminster 
Assembly was convened by order of parliament. He was not 
himself a member of that body; but he was well acquainted 
with its chief transactions, and with the leading men of the 
several parties which composed it: and, as he has given his 
opinion of them at considerable length, it may be proper here 
to introduce it. 

^^ lliis Synod was not a convocation, according to the diocesan 
way of government ; nor was it called by the votes of the minis- 
ters, according to the presbyterian way : for the parliament, not 
intending to call an assembly which should pretend to a divine 
right to make obligatory laws or canons, but an ecclesiastical 
council, to be advisers to itself, thought it best knew who were 
fittest to give advice, and therefore chose them all itself. Two 
were to be chosen from each county, though some counties had 
but one, that it might seem impartial, and give each party 
liberty to speak. Over and above this number, it chose many 
of the most learned, episcopal divines ; as. Archbishop Usher, 
Dr. Holdswortb, Dr. Hammond^ Dr. Wincop, Bishops Westfield 



OK RICHARD BAXTER. 69 

and Prideaux, and many more ; but they would not come, be- 
cause the king declared himself against it. Dr. Featley, and a . 
few more of that party, however, came ; but at last he was 
charged with sending intelligence to the king, for which he was 
imprisoned. The divines there congregated, were men of emi- 
nent learning, godliness, ministerial abilities, and fidelity : and 
being not worthy to be one of them myself, I may the more 
freely speak the truth, even in the face of malice and envy; 
that, as far as I am able to juc)ge by the information of all 
history of that kind, and by any other evidences left us, the 
Christian world, since the days of the apostles, had never a synod 
of more excellent divines than this and the synod of Dort. 

*^ Yet, highly as I honour the men, I am not of their mind 
in every part of the government which they would have set up. 
Some words in their Catechism, I wish had been more clear : 
and, above all, I wish that the parliament, and their niore skil-, 
fill hand, had done more than was done to heal our breaches, 
and had hit upon the right way, either to unite with the Episco- 
palians and Independents, or, at least, had pitched on the terms 
that are fit for universal concord, and left all to come in upon 
those terms that would." • 

This account of the Westminster Assembly is, doubtless, more 
impartial than the character which has been given of it, either 
by Clarendon or Milton. Both these writers were under the 
influence, though in different ways, of strong prejudices against 
it. The formerj by his monarchical and episcopal predilections ; 
the latter, by his republicanism. . Clarendon hated presbyterian- 
ism, with all the cordiality of a cavalier, who regarded it as a 
religion unfit for a gentleman, and as synonymous with all that 
is vulgar, hypocritical, and base. Milton abhorred it on account 
of its intolerant spirit, and the narrow-minded bigotry of many 
of its adherents ; as well as for private reasons. The Assembly 
was, in the estimation of both, the personification of all that 
should be detested by enlightened and high-bom men } they 
hated and reviled it accordingly. Baxter knew the members 
better than Clarendon or Milton did, and was better qualified to 
judge their motives and appreciate their doings. As he was not 
one of them, he had no temptation to speak in their favour ; and 
from his well-known love of truth, had he known any thing to 
their prejudice, he would not have concealed it. The persons 
who composed the Assembly, were generally men of approved 

' Life, part i. p. 93. 



70 TAB hVm AND TIMES 

christian character and abilities, and several of them distinguished 
for learning. But both the men and their doings have been too 
highly extolled by some, and too much undervalued by others.** 

^ Itord Ciarepdon's account of tbe Assenibly U as follows :—*' And oow t|if 
pfirliaineot sjiuvred what cuqsultation they meant to have with |^ly and 
lirarued divines, and what reformation they intended, by appointing the 
knights and burgesseA to bring in the names of such divines fur the several 
cpunties, as they thought fit to constitute an assembly for the framing a new 
model for the government of the churchy which was done acrorUi4gly ; those 
whp were true sons of the church, not so much as endeavouring the nomina- 
tion of sober and learned men, abhorring such a reformation as began with 
the invasion and suppression of the church's rights, in a synod as well knowu 
as Ma^^a Chartfi : and if any well-affected member, not ^ miugh con- 
sidering the; scandal and the consequence of that violation, did name an 
orthodox and well- reputed divine to assist in that assembly, it was argument 
eooogh against him, that he was nominated by a person in whom tliey bad no 
coQ^dence ; and they only bad reputation enough to coromeqd to this cousulta^ 
tion those who were known to desire the u^ter demolishing of the whole fabric of 
the church : so that of about one hundred and twenty of which that asseipbly 
ijfas to consist, though by the recommendation of two or three members of the 
Comm^ps, whom they yv^re not %villing tp displease, apd by the authori^ of 
the Lpirds, who adfled a small numiber to those named by the Houte of Com- 
mons, a few very reverend and worthy men were inserted ; yet, of the whole 
number there were not above twenty who were not declared and avowed enemies 
to the doctrine or discipline of the church of England ; some of them infamous 
in their lives and conversations, and most of thf;m of very mean parts in learn- 
ing, if not of scandalous ignorance ; and of no other reputation than of malice 
to the church of England. So that that convention hath not since produced 
any thing that n^ight not then reasonably have been expected from it." — Hiti, 
9f (ike RthtU/t^m^ vol. i. pp. 530, 531. Edit. 1720. 

The charges contained in the latter part of this paragraph, are utterly un- 
founded. The members of the Assembly were, in general, respectable for their 
talents and learning ; and aU of them were highly respectable in point of cha- 
ract^. It is equally untrue that all, or ewn any considerable number of 
theqs, ifere enemies to the church of England. 

The passage in which Milton attacks the Assembly, Is written with his usual 
force, or, as I ought rather to say, acrimony, when he was excited by opposition. 

f' And if the state were in this plight, religion was not in much better; ta re- 
form which, a certain number of divines were called, neither chosen l^ any 
rule or custom ecclesiastical, nor eminent for either piety or knowledge 
above others left out ; only as each member of parliament, in his private fanc}', 
thought fit, so electee) one by one. The most part of them were such aa bad 
preached and cried down, with great ^how of zeal, th? avarice and pluralities 
of bishops and prelates ; that, one cure of souls was a full employment for one! 
spiritual pastor, how able soever, if not a charge rather above human strength. 
Yet th^a^ copsci^ntiqus men (ere any part of the work was done for which they 
came together^ and that on the public salary) wanted not boldness, to thet 
Ignominy and scandal of their pastor-like profession, and especially pf their 
boasted reformation, to seize into their hands, or not unwillingly to accept, 
(besides oue, sometimes two or more, of the best livings) collegiate masterships 
in U^e ynive^sity, rich lectures in the city ; setting sail to all winds that migbl 
blow gain mto thieir covetous bosoms : by which means these great rebukers 
of non-residence^ among so many distant cures, were not ashamed to be seen so 



OF ftlCHAtU) BAXTBR. 71 

It seems very doubtful whether the parliament wished that 
the Assembly should unite in a form of church government to be 
imposed on the country. It was called, to engage the attention 
of the Puritans^ and to please the s^ots which were invited to send 
members to it. The leading politicians of the period, were too 
wise to suppose that men, so widely different in sentiment as 

quickly pluralltts aod Don-residento themselves, to a fearful eondemuatioiiy 
duobtleMy by their own mouths. And yet the main doctrine for which they 
look su^ pay, and insisted upon with more vehemence than Gospel, was bu^ 
to teU ua, in eflfiect, that their doctrine was worth nothing, and the spiritual 
power of their ministry less available than bodily compulsion ; persuading the 
nagittimte to use it as a stronger means to subdue and bring in conscicnce» 
thaa evanf elical persuasion : distrusting the virtue of their own spiritual 
weapons which were given them, if they might be rightly called, with full 
warrant of sufficiency to pull down all thoughts and imaginations that exalt 
themselves against God. But while they taught compulsion without convince* 
peat, which, long before, they complained of as executed unchristianly against 
themselves, their contents are clear to have been no better than antichristian j 
setting up a spiritual tyranny by a secular power, to the advancing of their 
own authority above the msgistrate, whom they would have made their execu- 
tioner to punish church delinquencies, whereof civil laws have no cognisance. 

"And well did their disciples manifest themselves to be no better principled 
then their teachers ; trusted with committeeships and other gainful offices, 
upon their commendations for zealous and (as they hesitated not to term them) 
gudly men, but executing their places like children of the devil, nnfaithfuUy, 
unjustly, unmercifully, and, where not corruptly, stupidly. So that between 
them, the teachers, and tliese, the disciples, there hath not been a more igno- 
minious and mortal wound to faith, to piety, to the worlc of reformation, nor 
mure caus^ of blaspheming given to the euemies of God and truth, since the 
first preaching of the reformation.** 

This passage belongs to Milton's * Fragment of a History of England,* first 
published in 1670 ; but from which the quotation was expunged. It was first 
printed by itself, in 1681 ; and afterwards appeared in the edition of his works 
published in 1738. It should be remembered, that Milton did not assail the As- 
umbly till after some of them had denounced his work on the 'Doctrine and 
Discipline of Divorce ; ' which led to his being brought before the House of 
Lords for that publication. Nothing arose from this occurrence injurious to 
Milton ; but he never forgave the Presbyterian clergy the offence, and re- 
Tenges himself on the Assembly in the above tirade. It deserves to be noticed, 
that his work on * Divorce * is dedicated to this very Assembly, as well as to the 
Long Parliament ; both of which he afterwards so severely denounces. In that 
dedication, he speaks of them as a <* select assembly" — *' of so much piety and 
wisdom*' — *' a learned and memorable synod," in which ** piety, learning, 
and prudence, were housed." This dedication was written two years after the 
Assembly had met, and when its character must have been well known. When 
be published his < Tetrachordon,' in defence of the former work, he leaves out 
the Assembly in the dedication, and addresses it to the parliament only. In 
the * Colasterion,' he attacks the anonymous member of the Assembly, who 
had assailed bira, with the utmost scurrility ; and, from that time, never failed 
to abuse the Presbyterians and the Assembly. It is painful to detract from 
the fair fame of Milton; but even he is not entitled to vilify the character 
of a large and respectable body of men, to avenge his private quarrel. 



72 THB LIF£ AND TIMB8 

those who were chosen to sit in this convocation, would ever 
agree in the divine right and universal obligation of any eccle- 
siastical system ; and, that they did not wish them to agree, 
seems probable, from the fact, that in general, when there ap- 
peared an approach towards the completion of their ecclesiastical 
code, new difficulties or questions were always proposed to them, 
which occasioned protracted debates and increasing differences. 
The Assembly at last broke up without finishing its work.^ 

A short account of the several leading parties in the country, 
or which were represented in the Assembly, will justify these re- 
marks, and throw light on the life of Baxter, as well as on the 
state of the period. Baxter himself shall furnish the chief part of 
the information ; because he tells us what he liked and disliked 
in the Erastian, the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, and the Inde- 
pendent parties. 

The Erastian party, in the Assembly, was composed chiefly of 
lawyers, and other secular persons ; who understood the nature 
of civil government better than the nature, forms, and ends of 
the church of Christ; and of those offices appointed by him for 
purposes purely spiritual. The leading laymen among them) 
were Selden and Whitelocke, both lawyers, and men of pro- 
found learning and talents. Lightfoot and Coleman were 
distinguished as much among the divines for rabbinical know- 
ledge, as the two former were among the men of their own 
profession. 

"The Erastians," says Baxter, "I thought, were in the right, 
• in .asserting more fully than others, the magistrates' power in 
matters of religion ; that all coercion, by mulcts or force, should 
only be in their hands ; that no such power belongs to the pas- 
tors or people of the church ; and that the pastoral power is 
only persuasive, or exercised on volunteers." But he disliked in 
them, " that they made too light of the power of the ministry, 
churchy and excommunication ; that they made church com- 
munion more common to the impenitent, than Christ would 
have it ; that they made the church too like the world, by break, 
ing down the hedge of spiritual discipline, and laying it almost 
common with the wilderness ; and that they misunderstood and 
injured their brethren, affirming that they claimed as from God 
a coercive power over the bodies and consciences of men."** The 

« Bailie's Letter, and Journals passim ; Memoirs of Owen, pp. 53, 54, 400, 
2d edition. 
^ Life, part ii. p. 139. The following amusing account of the origin and pro- 



OF RICHARD BAXTBRi 7^ 

tendency and design of the system would oertAinly convert the 
church Into the world, and the world into the church. 

** The Episcopal party," he says, " seemed to have reason on 
their side in this, that in the primitive church there were apostles, 
evangelists, and others, who weYe general unfixed officers, not 
tied to any particular charge ; but who had some superiority 
over fixed bishops or pastors. And as to fixed bishops of par- 
ticular churches, that were superior in degree to presbyters, 
though I saw nothing at all in Scripture for them ; yet I saw 
that the reception of them was so very early, and so very gene- 
ral, I thought it most improbable that it was contrary to the 
mind of the apostles. 

'^ I utterly disliked their extirpation of the true discipline of 
Christ, not only as they omitted or corrupted it, but as their 
principles and church state had made it impracticable. They 
thus altered the nature of churches, and the ancient nature of 
bishops and presbyters. They set up secular courts, vexed 
honest Christians, countenanced ungodly teachers, opposed faith- 
ful ministers, and promoted the increase of ignorance and pro* 
faneness.''* 

No supporters of such views were in the Assembly ; but not a 

few of the members were partial to a limited episcopacy, such as 

that for which Baxter himself pleaded. Indeed, a number of 

them would not take the covenant when it came from Scotland, 

till it was explained that the episcopacy which they were called . j 

to disown, was only the hierarchy of England.*^ Among these 

were, Gataker, Burgess, Arrowsmith, and several other persons 

of some note. In the parliament there was a large proportion 

of persons of this description, who were much more disposed to 



^ressof Erastianisro, is from the pen of Mr. George Gillespie, one of the Scots 
commissioners to the Westminster Assembly, who wrote a volume against itun- 
der the title of * Aaron's Rod Blossoming.' — ** The father of it is the old serpent ; 
its mother is the enmity of our nature against the kingdom of oyir Lord Jesus 
Christ; and the midwife who brought this unhappy brood into the light of the 
^orld, was Thomas Erastus, doct(»rof mediciue, at Heidelberg. The Erastian 
(rror being born, the breast<( which gave it suck, were profaueucss and self; its 
^tron^food when advanced in growth, was arbitrary government ; and its careful 
tutor was Arminianism." — Book i. chap. 2. The book from which this curious 
<^>^tract is taken, is written with considerable ability, and contains unanswerable 
^r^uments in proof that the New Testament furnishes a form of churctf 
government, which Christians are bound to adopt. It deser>'es to be read as an 
iiDtidote to the plausible but fallacious reasonings of the ' Jrenicum/ of Bishop 
Stiliingfleet. 
* Life, part ii. p. 140. ' Neal, iii., p. 56. 



74 rHB LIVB AND TtMfiB 

acknowledge a limited episcopacy than to tiibinlt to the divini 
right of Presbytery, 

The great body of the Assembly, and of the Nonconformists, 
were Presbyterians, attached from principle to the platform of 
Geneva, and exceedingly desirous, in alliance with Scotland, of 
establishing Presbyterian uniformity throughout the kingdom. 
The leaders of this party in the Assembly were, Calamy, Twias, 
Whyte, Palmer, Marshall, and the Scottish commissioners. 
And in the House of Commons, Hoilis, Glyn, Maynard, Clement 
Walker, and William Prynne. They were supported by EsseXi 
Manchester, and Northumberland, among the peers } and by 
the body of the clergy of London, the mass of the religious 
professors in the metropolis, and some distinguished persons in 
the army. . To this class of professors Baxter was more attached 
than to any other, though it is evident, that while he eulogiaed its 
virtues, he was not blind to its faults. 

" As for the Presbyterians," he says, ^^ I found that the office 
of preaching presbyters, was allowed by all who deserved the 
name of Christians ; that this office did participate, sub-* 
serviently to Christ, in the propheticaly or teaching; the /PfJet^Ajf, 
or worshipping ; and the governing power | and that Scripture, 
antiquity, and the nature of church government, clearly show 
that all presbyters were church governors, as well as church 
teachers. To deny this, were to destroy the office and to en- 
deavour to destroy the churches. I saw, also, in Scripture, 
antiquity, and reason, that the association of pastors and churches 
for agreement, and their synods in cases of necessity, are a plain 
duty : and that their ordinary stated synods are usually very, 
convenient. I saw, too, that in England the persons who were 
called Presbyterians were eminent for learning, sobriety, and piety: 
and the pastors so called were those who went through the work 
of the ministry, in diligent, serious preaching to the people, and 
edifying men's souls and keeping up religion in the land."^ 

The following are the things in this body to which he objected: 
^^ I disliked their order of lay- elders, who had no ordination, or 
power to preach, or to administer sacraments : for though I grant 
that lay-elders, or the chief of the people, were often employed 
to express the people's consent, and preserve their libertiea; yet 
these were no church officers at all, nor had any charge of 
private oversight of the flocks. 

^* I disliked, also, the course of some of the more rigid of them^ 

K Life, part ii., p. 140. 



OF RICHAaD BAXTBR. 75 

who drew too near the way of prelacy^ by grasping at a kind of 
secular power 5 not using it themselves, but binding the magi- 
strates to confiscate or imprison men, merely because they were 
excommunicated ; and so corrupting the true discipline of the 
church, and turning the communion of saints into the com- 
munion of the^ multitude, who must keep in the church against 
their wills for fear of being imdone in the world. Whereas, a 
man whose conscience cannot fee) a just excommunication unless 
it be backed with confiscation or imprisonment, is no fitter to be 
a member of a Christian church, than a corpse is to be a member 
of a corporation. It is true they claim not this power as jure 
amo; but no mor^ do the prelates, though the writ de excom- 
munieaio capiendo is the life of all their censures. Both parties 
too much debase the magistrate, by making him their mere exe- 
cutioner ; whereas he ought to be the judge wherever he is the 
executioner, and ought to try the case at his own bar, before he 
be obliged to punish any delinquent. They also corrupt the 
discipline of Christ, by mixing it with secular force. They re- 
proach the keys, or ministerial power, as if it were a leaden 
iword, and not worth a straw, unless the magistrate's sword en- 
force it. What, then, did the primitive church for three hundred 
years ? Worst of all, they corrupt the church, by forcing in the 
rabble of the unfit and unwilling ; and thereby tempt many 
godly Christians to schisms and dangerous separations. Till 
magistrates keep the sword themselves, and learn to deny it to 
every angry clergyman who would do his own work by it, and 
leavethem to their own weapons — the word and spiritual keys— 
and, valeant quantum valere possunty the church will never have 
unity and peace. 

" I disliked, also, some of the Presbyterians, that they were 
not tender enough to dissenting brethren ; but too much against 
liberty, as others were too much for it ; and thought by votes 
and numbers to do that which love and reason should have 
done."^ 

While the reader must admire the candour of these remarks, 
as they bear on the party, with which Baxter was more identified 
than any other, he will no less cordially approve his enlightened 
>iews of the distinction between civil and ecclesiastical power. 
Had they been always thus viewed and distinguished, how many 
evils would have been prevented both in the church and in the 
world ! The governments of the earth would have been saved 

^ Life, part i!., pp. 143, 143. 



76 THB UFB AND TIMB8 

a vast portion of the perplexity and trouble which they have 
experienced in the management of their affairs ; and the church 
would have been preserved from much of that secularity which 
has attached to it, as well as from infinite suffering and sorrow. 
Unfortunately, Baxter was not always consistent with himself on 
these important points. The concluding sentence of this very 
extract shows, that while he was a friend of liberty, he was 
afraid of too much of it. He never would have been himself 
a persecutor ; but he would not have objected to the exercibe 
of a certain measure of coercion or restraint by others, in sup« 
port of what he might have considered the good of the indi- 
viduals themselves, or of what the interests of the community 
required. 

Baxter was less friendly to the Independents than to any 
other of the leading parties of his times. For this, various rea* 
sons may be assigned. His principles and dispositions induced 
in him a greater attachment to ministerial or priestly power, than 
accorded with the principles of that body. The influence of 
some of its more active and learned ministers, and the support 
which they derived from some of the public characters whose 
exertions were directed to the overthrow of civil and religious 
despotism, and the establishment of general liberty, were greater 
than Baxter was disposed to approve. Above all, as he consider-^ 
ed the great master-spirits of that agitating period, to be either 
really, or, for political reasons, professedly, attached to the polity 
of the Independents, he regarded the whole body with jealousy and 
dislike. I will not deny that he had some ground for part of the 
feeling which he entertained ; though 1 think he was mistaken 
in various particulars. The following account of the Indepen« 
dents, considering Baxter's opinions, is honourable both to the 
writer and to the body to which it refers. 

" Most of them were zealous, and very many learned, dis- 
creet, and godly men ; fit to be very serviceable in the church* 
In the search of Scripture and antiquity, I found, that, in the 
beginning, a governed church, and a stated worshipping church, 
were all one, and not two several things; and that, though there 
might be other by-meetings in places like our chapels or private 
houses, for such as age or persecution hindered to come to the 
more solemn meetings, yet churches then were no bigger, in 
respect of number, than our parishes now. These, were societies 
of Christians united for personal communion, and not only for 
communion by meetings of officers and delegates in synods, as 



OF RICHARD BAXT8R. 77 

many churches in association be. I saw, if once we go beyond 
the bounds of personal communion, as the end of particular 
churches^ in the definition, we may make a church of a nation, 
or of ten nations, or what we please, which shall have none of the 
natore and ends of the primitive, particular churches. I saw 
also a commendable care of serious holiness and discipline in 
most of the Independent churches; and I found that some epis- 
copal men, as Bishop Usher himself, did hold that every bishop 
was independent, as to synods, and that synods were not proper 
governors of the particular bishops, but only for their concord/'^ 

fn this passage, Baxter grants almost every thing for which the 
Independents have contended. It is rather surprising, consider- 
ing his acuteness, that he did not perceive the inferences which 
ought CO be drawn from the premises. If primitive churches 
were possessed of separate and independent authority, and con- 
listed only of those who appeared to be Christians 5 and if going 
beyond personal communion, as the great object of Christian 
association leaves every thing vague and indefinite, it seems very 
dear on which side the strength of the argument respecting 
church government and fellowship lies. In fact, Baxter was more 
ao Independent or congregationali8t,both in theory and practice, 
than he was generally disposed to admit. 

We have given the bright side of the picture of this party; we 
must now look at the dark. *^ In the Independent way," he 
says, '' I disliked many things. They made too light of ordina- 
tion. They also had their office of lay-eldership. They were 
commonly stricter about the qualification of church members, 
than Scripture, reason, or the practice of the universal church 
would allow ; not taking a man's bare profession as credible, and 
as sufficient evidence of his title to church communion ; unless 
either by a holy life, or the particular narration of the passages 
of the work of grace, he satisfied the pastors, and all the church, 
that he was truly holy ; whereas every man's profession is the 
valid evidence of the thing professed in his heart, unless it be 
disproved by him that qucstioneth it, by proving him guilty of 
heresies or impiety, or sins inconsistent with it. If once you go 
beyond the evidence of a serious, sober confession, as a credible 
and sufficient sign of title to church membership, you will never 
know where to rest. The church's opinion will be both rule 
and judge ; and men will be let in, or kept out, according to the 
various latitude of opinions or charity in the several officers or 

^ JJfe, part L, p, U0» 



78 THB LIFE ANB TIMB8 

churches ; so that he will h6 passable in one chdrcb^ who is in-* 
tolerable in another; and thus the churches will be hetero-* 
geneous and confused.^ There is in all this a little, if not more 
than a little, spiritual pride of the weaker sort of profestors^ 
affecting to be Ti.siblr set at a greater distance from the colder 
professors of Christianity, than God would have them, that no 
thejr may be more observable and conspicuous for their hoIine« 
in the world ; and there is too much uncharitableness in it^ when 
God hath given sincere professors the kernel of his mercies^ even 
grace and glory, and yet they will grudge the cold, hypocritical 
professors, so small a thing as the outward shell, and visible 
communion and external ordinances ; yea, though such are k^ 
in the church for the sake and service of the sincere. 

'' I disliked, also, the lamentable tendency of this their ymy to 
divisions and subdivisions, and the nourishing of heresies and 
sects. But above all I disliked, that most of them made the people 
by majoiity of votes, to be church governors, in excommunica* 
tions, absolutions, &c., which Christ hath made an act of office^ 
and so they governed their governors and themselves, lliey also 
too much exploded synods ; refusing them as stated, and admit- 
ting tliem but upon some extraordinary occasions. 1 disliked^ 
also, their over-rigidness against the admission of Christians cff 
other churches to their communion. And their making a 
minister to be as no minister to any but his own flock, and to 
act to others but as a private man; with divers others such 
irregularities and dividing opinions ; many of which the mode« 
ration of the New England synod hath of late corrected and dift* 
owned ; and so done very much to heal these breaches."^ 

Such is Baxter's account of the Independents of his timearf 
The number of their ministers who were members of the West- 
minster Assembly, did not exceed ten or t\telve. Of these^ 
Goodwin, Nye, Burroughs, Simpson, and Bridge, were reckoned 

^ I am not aware that Independents, either hi early or in latter times, rfe* 
quired more as the tvrm of religious fellowship than a credible prufession ; ihmt 
U, a profession entitled to belief, under all the circumstances in which it it 
made. As the tendency of humao nature is to be lax, rather than rigid, 
Baiter^s acc6nnt of the rigidity of the body is greatly to its honour. The coA* 
elodingr reflections in the shove paragraph, on the motives of the parties^ mod 
the defence of impure communion, are uu worthy of Baxter. Some of the other 
things to which he objects, if they existed in the infancy of the body, exist 
no longer; aod, therefore, do not reqnire any comment. The author most 
refer the reader to the * Memoirs of Dr.Owen,' for a fuller, and, as he coniidBrty 
« more correct view of Independency, than what is given by Baxteri or thaa 
it would be proper to introduce here. 

^Ufe, p»rt a., pp. 143, 14i« 



OF JUCHAAD ^XTBR* 70 

as the leaden^ and by the admission of all parties were among the 
most distinguUhed in that body for learning, talents, and address. 
Baxter, Baillie, Lightfoot, and others, unite in bearing this testi- 
mony to them, lliey threw every possible obstacle in the way 
of establishing Presbyterian uniformity ) and though outvoted 
by numbers, their resistance and perseverance, aided by the en- 
lightened friends of religious liberty in parliament, among whom 
must be reckoned Vane, Cromwell, Pym, and Harrison, suc- 
ceeded in preventing the ascendancy of a party, which, as it was 
then constituted, had it obtained sufficient power, would havd 
mercilessly persecuted all who opposed its progress or were ini- 
mical to its interests. 

These were the chief parties in England, when the West- 
minster Assembly was called, and which may be considered as 
represented in that 1>ody« Little difference existed among them 
on the leading principles of the Gospel ; which, as appears from 
the confession and catechisms published by the Assembly, they 
held decidedly in the Calvinistic view of those principles. There 
were, doubtless, many persons whose religion could not be called 
in question, who would not have gone so far as some of the ex- 
pressions in those documents ; but considering the Assembly as 
a tolerably fair representative of the religious community of 
England at that time, no doubt can be enteriained, that Calvin- 
ism was then the prevailing doctrinal system, both in the church 
and out of it. 

On other points, especially those of church government and 
discipline, it is equally clear that they differed widely from each 
other, and never would agree in any common system. Jure 
^xcmo prelatists, solemn- league-and -covenant presbyterians, 
latitudinarian Erastians, and tolerating independents, could 
not possibly coalesce as the friends and supporters of any scheme 
to which all should be required to submit. On leading points of 
ecclesiastical polity they were the antipodes of each other. 
Compromise was out of the question; submission to one another, 
where conscience was concerned, would have been regarded as 
sin against God ; and even liberty to others, to act according to 
their own convictions, was considered by some of them too im- 
portant a right to be admitted, or boon to be conferred. Mean 
tin^ the cause of civil and religious freedom steadily advanced, 
and finally gained ascendancy. While the parties differed 
among themselves, nothing could be enforced by authority ; and 
when the majority decided in favour of the divine right of prea- 



\\ 



80 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

byterianism^ the civil powers had* fallen into hands which took 
effectual care that it should not be established, llie friends of 
that system, grasping at too much, frustrated their own aim; and 
lost in the struggle for exclusive authority, their influence in re- 
ligion, and their importance in. politics. In the righteous retri- 
bution of Providence, those who had refused to grant political 
existence to others, finally lost their own. 

The account of the leading parties in the nation at this period, 
would be incomplete without noticing another^ — the Baptists. 
This body also attracted the attention of Baxter, and as he dis- 
tinguished himself in several controversies with its ministers, it is 
gratifying to find him record the following opinion of its chsi- 
racter : ^^ For the Anabaptists themselves, though I have written 
and said so much against them, as I found that most of them 
were persons of zeal in religion, so many of them were sober, 
godly people, who differed from others but in the point of infant 
baptism, or, at most, in the points of predestination, free-will, 
and perseverance. And .1 found in all antiquity, that though 
infant baptism was held lawful by the church, yet some, with 
Tertullian and Nazianzen, thought it most convenient to make 
no haste; and the rest left the time of baptism to every one's 
liberty, and forced none to be baptized : insomuch as not only 
Constantine, Theodosius, and such others as were converted at 
the years of discretion, but Augustine, and many such as were 
the children of Christian parents (one or both), did defer their 
baptism much longer than I think they should have done. So 
that, in the primitive church, some were baptized in infancy, 
and some in ripe age, and some a little before their death ; and 
none were forced, but all left free ; and the only penalty of their 
delay was, that so long, they were without the privileges of the 
church, and were numbered but with the catechumens or ex- 
pectants.*' "* I believe there were no Baptists in the Assembly, 
though they had existed long before^ were then in considerable 
number in the country, and could rank among themselves many 
excellent, and a few learned persons. 

Having thus exhibited Baxter's particular views of the great 
leading parties which then constituted the religious world, the fol- 
lowing summing up, by himself, is particularly worthy of atten* 
tion: — "Among all these parties,! found that some were natural- 
ly of mild, calm, and gentle dispositions ; and some of sour, ho^ 
ward, passionate^ peevish, or furious natures. Some were young, 

n Life, part U. pp. 140, Ul. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 81 

raw, and inexperienced, and these were like young fruit, sour 
and harsh ; addicted to pride of their own opinions, to self- 
conceitedness, turbulency, censoriousness, and temerity ; and to 
engage themselves for a cause and party before they understood 
the matter. They were led by those teachers and books that 
had once won their highest esteem, judging of sermons and per- 
sons by their fervency more than by the soundness of the matter 
and the cause. Some I found, on the other side, to be ancient 
and experienced Christians, that had tried the spirits, and seen 
what was of God, and what of man, and noted the events of both 
in the world. These were like ripe fruit, mellow and sweet; 
' first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of 
mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy; 
^ho, beuig makers of peace, did sow the fruits of righteousness 
in peace/ 

^^ But I found not all these alike in all the disagreeing parties, 
though some of both sorts were in every party. The Erastian 
party was mostly composed of lawyers, and other secular persons. 
The Diocesan party consisted of some grave, learned, godly 
bishops, and some sober, godly people of their mind ; and^ 
withal, of almost all the carnal politicians, temporizers, pro- 
fane,^ and haters of godliness, in the land, and all the rabble of 
the ignorant, ungodly vulgar. Whether this came to pass from 
any thing in the nature of their diocesan government, or from 
their accommodating the ungodly sort by the formal way of 
their public worship, or from their heading and pleasing them by 
running down the stricter sort of people whom they hated ; or 
all these together ; and also because the worst and most do 
always fall in with the party that is uppermost, I leave to the 
judgment of the considerate reader. The Presbyterian party 
consisted of grave, orthodox, godly ministers, together with 
the hopefulest of the students and young ministers, and the so- 
berest, godly, ancient Christians, who were equally averse to 
persecution and to schism ; and of those young ones who were 
educated and ruled by these ; as, also, of the soberest sort of 
the well-meaning vulgar who liked a godly life, though they 
had no great knowledge of it. This party was most desirous of 
peace. 

*' The Independent party had many very godly ministers and 
people, but with them many young, injudicious persons 5 inclined 
much to novelties and separations, and abounding more in zeal 
tlian knowledge; vsuaUy doing more for subd\v\s\ou^ iVv^w \\\^ 
yoL, I, G 



82 THB LIFB AND TIMES 

few sober persons among them could do for unity and peace ; 
too much mistaking the terms of church communion, and the 
difference between the regenerate (invisible), and the congregate 
(or visible) church. 

** The Anabaptist party consisted of some (but fewer) sober, 
peaceable persons, and orthodox in other points ; but, withal, 
of abundance of young,, transported zealots, and a medley of 
opinionists, who all hasted directly to enthusiasm and subdivi- 
sions, and by the temptation of prosperity and success in arms, 
and the policy of some commanders, were led into rebellions and 
hot endeavours against the ministry, and other scandalous crimes; 
and brought forth the horrid sects of Ranters, Seekers, and 
Quakers, in the land." ° 

In this description of parties we observe some of the marked 
peculiarities of Baxter. He was obviously disposed to do justice 
to all, and ready to acknowledge true religion wherever he found 
it; but a little more zeal in some particulars, than was suited to his 
* taste, was enough to induce him to speak more strongly of the 
parties than the case justified : besides, he was influenced not 
only by what he witnessed himself, but by what he heard from 
others. While he was acute and candid, he was credulous; 
more disposed to listen to vague and injurious reports than a 
tnan of his piety and experience ought to have been : but, after 
all, the picture that he draws of the parties which left the 
church is, on the whole, advantageous to them. It is evident 
that he considered there was a large preponderance of genuine 
religion among each ; which far more than outweighed all the 
dross and alloy belonging to them. They who imagine there 
was nothing but sectarian zeal, guided and excited by po- 
litical frenzy, entirely mistake the true state of things. There 
was much real religion in the parties which professed it, though 
mixed up with a great deal of what tended to injure it, or occa- 
sion misconception of its nature. 

Baxter was so fully convinced of the prevalence of true reli- 
gion among the persons composing the leading parties, that 
he made it much of the business of his life to convince 
them, that they differed less from each other than they them- 
selves supposed, and to induce them to act together in Christian 
fellowship. " I thought it my duty,'* he says, " to labour to 
bring them all to a concordant practice of so much as they were 
agreed in; to set all that together which was true and good 

» Life, part Uu pp. U4— U^. 



or RICHARD BAXIVR. 88 

among them ail, and to reject the reet; and especially to labour to 
revive Christian charity, which faction and disputes had lamenta- 
bly extidguished.''® This object he prosecuted in the most inde^ 
fatigable manner, by conversation, preaching, writing,aiid disputp- 
ing; and though he often compldns of disappointment, and 
deplores the divisions of the period, his success in uniting all 
parties in the town of Kidderminster, was complete ; and his 
influence over the serious people of the county at large, very 
considerable. 

Having given, chiefly in Baxter's words, an account of the 
leading religious parties of the period, I consider this the best 
place to introduce his remarks on the minor sects; some of which 
had but an ephemeral existence, while others have increased, 
extended, and still remain. I feel it to be my duty to record his 
statements, many of which are very curious, though I fear they 
are not always sufficiently free from the influence of that preju- 
dice and credulity to which I have just adverted. 

The variety of religious sects which sprung up during the 
period of which we are now treating, has been a fruitful topic of 
teproach and exultation to infidels and worldly ecclesiastics* 
The former of these classes glory in the fanaticism of the sects, 
as a proof of the absurdity of all religion whatever; the others 
refer to it as a beacon to warn men of the danger of departing 
from established faith and forms. Infidels forget, however, that 
sects, and enthusiastic ones too, are not confined to Christians. 
The elegant mythology of Greece and Rome presented, in the 
deities of a thousand groves and streams, any thing but a unity of 
opinion or worship ; while the conduct of the worthies of those 
elegant superstitions, so far from indicating the influence of a 
sober rationality, exhibited '^all monstrous, all prodigious things/' 
Nor were the haunts of philosophy in ancient, or the schools of 
philosophy in modern times, more free from sects and schisms, 
and from fierce and angry contentions. Ecclesiastics should re- 
member that unity is the boast of the Romish church, and divi- 
sion her reproach of Protestantism. Not that she is entitled to 
the claim of unity, or to fling the reproach of discord at others. 
She has her sects and her quarrels too. It is not to the dis- 
credit of the reformation that it gave rise to a diversity of opinion 
and practice among the reformers themselves, and afforded an 
opportunity for the manifestation of errors and improprieties 
which they all deplored. The excitement produced b^ XVvaX 

''Life, parti, p. Hi. 

q2 



I 



84 TBB LIFE AND TIMES 

glorious event was not likely to spend all its force on the minds 
which were capable of bearing it without injury ; it was neces- 
sarily extended to others, whose passions or imaginations were 
more powerful than their understandings. On such men, the 
pure fire which burned on the Protestant altar became wild fire ; 
not warming by its genial heat, or consuming evil by its steady 
flame, but scorching, and vagrant ; destroying in its ftiry both 
friends and fo^s. 

It cannot be matter of surprise that the civil commotions of 
England, which were but the bursting forth of a volcano, that 
had long been burning in secret, should be attended with similar 
effects. The convulsion which overturned the throne, over- 
whelmed the church, and nearly destroyed the constitution, was a 
shock which even the most powerful minds could scarcely sustain. 
It was natural to regard it as the crisis of religion as well as of 
politics, and to contemplate in it the approach or commence- 
ment of a new and splendid era. Politicians, astrologers, lawyers, 
physicians, and philosophers, as well as theologians, felt its 
po>Yer. Few comparatively of any class, could '^ sit on a hill 
apart,'' and contemplate, with calm serenity, the whirlwind and 
the storm which were then raging ; still fewer were capable of 
directing them, or of reducing the conflicting elements to order 
and harmony; and of those who made the attempt, not a few 
perished in it, or only exposed themselves to the insult and 
mockery which their imbecile temerity justly deserved. 

Religion, firom its infinitely greater importance than all other 
things,necessarily wrought most powerfiilly in these circumstances 
on those who were concerned for its interests. The zeal of such 
persons, was not always in proportion to the strength or the cor- 
rectness of their judgment. It was not too fervent, had it been 
sufficiently enlightened ; but being, in many instances, in the in- 
verse ratio of knowledge and prudence, it produced all sorts of 
wild and eccentric movements. We deplore that this should 
have been the case; but it U foolish to be surprised, or to sneer, 
at it. Circumstances produced sects in religion as they pro- 
duced parties in politics : they formed heresies in the church as 
thev created false theories in the state. If fanatics and heresi- 
archs abounded, so did quack doctors, and political empyrics. 
Spiritual nostrums were not more numerous or discordant than 
astrological conundrums, and philosophical dreams and visions. 
Let Baxter's account of the following sects be read under the 
inHuence of these remarks, and uotVuwg vj\\\ «l^)j^^x ^vlher unac* 
countable or extraordinary. 



OF RICHARJ) BAXTER. 85 

^* In these times/' referring particularly to the period of the 
Rump Parliament, *' sprang up five sects, at least, whose doctrines 
were almost the same,but they fell into seVeral shapes and names: 
the Vanists ; the Seekers; the Ranters; the Quakers; the 
Behmenists/' Of each of these^ we are furnished with a short 
account. 

"The Vanists, for I know not by what other name to make 
them known, were Sir Harry Vane's disciples ; and first sprang up 
under him in New England, when he was governor there. Their 
notions were then raw and undigested, and their party quickly 
confounded by God's providence ; as you may see in a little 
book of Mr. Thomas Weld's, of the rise and fall of Antinomian- 
ism and Familism in New England, p Sir Harry Vane being 
governor, and found to be the secret promoter and life of the 
cause, was fain fo steal away by night, and take shipping for 
England, before his year of government was at an end. 

" When he came over into England, he proved an instrument of 
greater calamity to a people more sinful and more prepared for 
God's judgments. Being chosen a parliament man, he was very 
active at first for the bringing of delinquents to punishment. He 
was the principal person who drove on the parliament to go too 
high, and act too vehemently against the king : and being of very 
ready parts, and very great subtilty, and unwearied industry, he 
laboured, not without success, to win others in parliament, 
citv, and countrv* to his wav. W'hen the Earl of Strafford was 
accused, he got a paper out of his father's cabinet (who was 
secretary of state) which was the chief means of his condemna- 
tion. To most of our changes, he was that within the House, 
which Cromwell was without. His great zeal to drive all into 
war, and to cherish the sectaries, especially in the army, made 
him, above all men, to be valued by that party. 

" His unhappiness lay in this, that his doctrines were so 
cloudily formed and expressed, that few could understand them, 
and therefore he had but few true disciples. The Lord Brook was 
slain before he had brought him to maturity : Mr. Sterry was 
thought to be of his mind, as he was his intimate friend ; but 
was so famous for obscurity in preaching, being, said Sir 
Benjamin Rudiard, too high for this world, and too low for the 

P I have not inserted aU that Baxter says about New England. The foolish. 
story about Mrs. Dyer is a proof only of the malevolence or folly of the inven- 
tors. Weld's book is the production of a weak, prejudiced ip^o, and eulitlecl 
to little respect as authority. 



h 



88 TRX UIB AND TfifBa 

Other, that he thereby proved almost barren also; and ponity 
and sterUUy were never more happily conjoined* ^ Mr. Sprigge 
is the chief of his more open dbcipies ; and too well known by a 
book of his sermons/ 

^^ This obscurity was imputed by some, to his not understand- 
ing himself; but, by others, to design, because he could speak 
plainly when he listed. The two courses, in which he had most 
success, and spake most plainly, Were his ^ Earnest Plea for Uni- 
versal Liberty of Conscience, and against the Magistrates inter- 
meddling with Religion ; * and his teaching his followers to revile 
the ministry, calling them, ordinarily, blackcoats, priests, and 
other names which then savoured of reproach ; and those gen- 
tlemen that adhered to the ministry, they said, were priest* 
ridden. 

^' When Cromwell had served himself by him, as his surest 
friend, as long as he could, and gone as far with him as their 

« Baxter's q)iDioii of Sterry underwent a great chan^ after this pminijif 
pftsaage was written. He thus speaks of bim in his ' Catholic Theology : ' 
'< It is long since I beard of the name and fame of Mr. Peter Sterry. His com- 
mon fame was, that his preaching was such as few, or none, could understand, 
which increased my desire to hare heard him, of which I still missed, tboofli 
I often attempted it. But now since his death, while my book is in the prets^ 
a posthumous tract of his cometh forth, of Free WiU : upon perusal of which, 
1 found in bim the same notions as in Sir Harry Vane ; but all handled with 
much more strength of parts, and rapture of highest derotion, and greater can- 
dour toward all others, than I expected. His preface is a most excellent per- 
suasive to universal charity. Love was never more extolled than throughout 
this book. Doubtless, bis bead was strong, bis wit admirably pregnant, his 
searching studies hard and sublime, and, 1 think, his heart replenished w^th 
holy love to God, and great charity, moderation, and peaceableness towardi 
men : insomuch, that I heartily repent that I so far believed fame as to think 
somewhat bardlier of bim and his few adherents, than I now think they deserve." 
— CSorM. TheoL part iii. p. 107. 

While this' passage does great credit to the candour and honesty of Baxter* 
it shows us with what caution we ought to receive his opinions of the sec- 
taries of the Commonwealth. Sterry has, like many of the men of that period, 
been most unrighteously abused. He was mystical ; but so were Feneloa, 
Madam Guion, Henry More, and many others, whose talents and piety bava 
never been questioned. His works prove that be was no fool, and bis conduct 
shows that he was not a knave. He was a man of a highly poetical mind, 
which soared far above the turbulent atmosphere by which he was surrounded, 
and most of the creatures who floated in it. His work on the Will, to which 
Baxter refers, is written with ability, though some parts of it are not very 
intelligible. 

' The book of Sermons by Sprigge, to which Baxter refers, is, I suppose, his 
* Testimony to an approaching Glory ; being an Account of certain Discourses 
lately delivered iu Pancras, Soperlane, London.' 12mo. 1649. The worst 
which can be said of these discourses is, that they are somewhat mystical \ 
otherwise they are creditable both to the piety aud talents of their author. 



OF mCHARP BAXIURf 87. 

my lay tacethar (Vane being fox a fanatie demoenMrf ^ and Crom- 
well for monarchy), at last, there was no remedy but they "taust 
put ; and when Cromwell east out the Rump, be called Vane a 
joggl^rjand Martin a whoremonger, to excuse his usage of the rest* 
Wboi Vane was thus Mi by, he wrote his book, called ^ Tho 
Retired Man's. Meditations,' wherein the best part of his opi« 
nions are so expressed as will make but few men bis disciplefl« 
His ^ Healing Question ' is more plainly written, . 

*^ When Cromwell was dead, he got Sir Arthur Haselrigge to 

be his close adherent on civil accounts, procured the Rump to 

be set up agmn, with a council of state, and got the power much 

into bis own hands. When be was in the height of this power, he 

set upon the forming of a new commonwealth, and, with some of 

his adherents, drew up the model, which was for popular go-* 

vemmeut ; but so that men of his confidence must be the people* 

'' Of my own displeasing him, this is the true account. It 

grieved me to see i^ poor kingdom tossed up and down in 

unquietness, the ministers made odious, and ready to be cast 

out, a reformation trodden underfoot, and parliament an4 

piety made a scorn, while scarce any doubted but he was the prin^ 

dpal spring of all. Therefore, being writing against the PapistSj 

and coming to vindicate our religion against them, when they im^ 

pnte to US the blood of the king, I fully proved that the Pro-> 

testants, and particularly the Presbyterians, abhorred it, and 

suffered greatly for opposing it; and that it was the act of 

CromwelFs army, and the sectaries, among which I named the' 

Vanists as one sort. I showed that the Friars and Jesuits were 

the deceivers, and, under several vizors, were dispersed among 

the people. Mr. Nye having told me that Vane was long in 

Italy, I said it was considerable how much of his doctrine he 

had brought from Italy ; whereas it appeared that he was only 

in Prance, and Helvetia, upon the.borders of Italy. By mistake, 

it was printed /rom Italy. I had ordered the printer to correct 

it ' towards Italy; ' but, though the copy was corrected, the im«« 

pression was not. Hereupon Sir Henry Vane, being exceedingly 

provoked, threatened me to many, and spake against me in the 

House ; and one Stubbs (that had been whipped in the Convo* 

cation House at Oxford) wrote for him a bitter book against 

me. He from a Vanist, afterwards turned a Conformist : since 

that, he turned physician ; and was drowned in a small puddle, 

or brook, as he was riding, near Bath.* 

* Henry Stubbs, accordio^ to Antiiony Wood, was '< tbe mgilnoVftd ^iwsQ. 



88 THE LIFB.AND TIMES 

^' I confess my writing was a means to lessen his reputation, and 
make men take him for what Cromwell, who better knew him, 
called him, a juggler. I only wish I had done so much in time ; 
but the whole land rang of his anger and my danger ; and all 
expected my present ruin by him ; but to show him that I was 
not about recanting, as his agents would have persuaded me, I 
wrote also against his * Healing Question,' in a preface before 
my 'Holy Commonwealth ;' and the speedy turn of affairs did 
tie his hands from executing his wrath upon me. 

^^ Upon the king's coming iii, he was questioned, along with 
others, by the Parliament, But seemed to have his life secured ; 
but being brought to the bar, he spake so boldly in justifying 
the Parliament's cause, and what he had done, that it exasperated 
the king, and made him resolve upon his death. When he 
came to Tower Hill to die, and would have spoken to the peo- 
ple, he began so resolutely as caused the officers to sound the 
trumpets and beat the drums, and hinder him from speaking. 
No man could die with greater appearance of gallant resolution 
and fearlessness than he did, though before supposed a timorous 
man ; insomuch that the manner of his death procured him 
more applause than all the actions of his life. And when he 
was dead, his intended speech was printed, and afterwards 
his opinions more plainly expressed by his friend than him- 
self. 

of hia age." He was the sod of a 'minister, and a prot^g^ of Sir Henry Vane*!t, 
by whose aid he was educated at Oxford ; where, through the influence of 
Owen, he was made one of the Keepers of the Bodleian Library. He possessed 
very considerable parts and learning. After passing through various changes, 
he became a physician, and finally settled down into regular connexion with 
the church. He wrote maoy pamphlets on all subjects. The book to which 
Baxter refers is, <A Vindication of that Prudent and Honourable Knight, Sir 
Henry Vane, from the Lies and Calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter, Minister 
of Kidderminster^ in a Letter to the said Mr. Richard Baxter.' 1659. It 
was honourable to Stubbs to defend his friend and patron ; hut he ought to 
have treated Baxter with more courtesy. The story of bis being whipped in the 
convocation, is probably entitled to little more attention than the whipping of 
Milton. The manner of his death proves nothing respecting bis former life or 
character, and was perhaps owing to no fault of his, though Wood's account 
is written with his characteristic spleen, and evidently intended to insinuate 
that he was intoxicated. ** He being at Bath attending several of his patients 
living in and near Warwick, then there, was sent for to come to another at 
Bristol in very hot weather : to which place, therefore, going a by-way, at 
ten of the cluck in the night, on the twelfth day of July, in sixteen hundred and 
teventy-six (bis bead being then intoxicated with bibbing, but more with 
talking and snuffing of powder), was drowned passing through a shallow river, 
wherein, as 'tis supposed, his horse stumbled j two miles distant from Bath/'— 
j//Aen, Ojton» voh iiLp, 1082. 



OF EICH AED ' BAXTBR. 89 

~ '^ Wben he. was cmidfinnedy some of his friends derired me to 
come to him, that I might see how iar he was from Popery, and 
in how excellent a temper (thinking I would hare asked him 
forgiveness for doing him wrong) ; 1 told them that if he had 
derired it, I would have gone to him ; but seeing he did not, I 
supposed he would take it for an injury ; as my conference was 
not likely to be such as would be pleasing to a dying man : for 
though I never called him 'a Papist, yet I still supposed he had 
done the Papists so much service, and this poor nation and re- 
ligion so much wrong, tliat we and our posterity are likely to 
have cause and time enough to lament it. So much of Sir 
Henry Vane and his adherents.^ 

*' The second sect which then rose up was that called Seekers. 
These taught that our Scripture was uncertain ; that present 
miracles are necessary to faith ; that our ministry is null and 
without authority, and our worship and ordinances unnecessary 
or vain ; the true church, ministry. Scripture, and ordinances, 
being lost, for which they are now seeking. I quickly found 
that the Papists principally hatched and actuated this sect, and 
that a considerable number that were of this profession, were 
some Papists and some infidels. However, they closed with the 
Vanists, and sheltered themselves under them, as if they had 
been the very same. 

** The third sect were the Ranters. These also made it their 
business, as the former, to set up the light of nature, in men, 
under the name of Christ, and to dishonour and cry down the 
church, the Scripture, the present ministry, and our worship and 
ordinances, lliey called men to hearken to Christ within them; 
but withal, they enjoined a cursed doctrine of libertinism, which 
brought them all to abominable filthiness of life. They taught, as 
the Familists, that God regardeth not the actions of the outward 
roan, but of the heart ; and that to the pure, all things are pure 
(even things forbidden) : and so, as allowed by God, they spake 
most hideous words of blasphemy, and many of them committed 
whoredoms commonly. 

* WhUe I hare extracted the i^reater part of Baxter's character of Sir Henry 
Vane, I cannot help expressing; my decided opinion that it is, iu various par- 
ticularsy incorrect. Baxter did not understand him, and, tlierefure, couhl not 
do him justice. He was brave, saj^cious, and disinterested ; the ardent and 
enUf^teoed friend of civil and reli«pous liberty ; distinguished in life by the 
deciiiion of his piety, and in death (thouf^h basely murdered in violation of all 
faith and justice) by his calm yet heroic behaviour. The man who was feared 
by Cromwell, bated by Charles, and praised by Miltou, could not have been a 
silly fanatic, or an unprincipled kDave. 



90 TUB un ANn timbs 

^^ There could never a sect arise in the world that waa a louder 
warning to professors of religion to be humble, fearful, and 
watchful ; never could the world be told more loudly, whither 
the spiritual pride of ungrounded novices in religion tendeth ) 
and whither professors of strictness in religion, may be carried 
in the stream of sects and- factions. I have seen myself, letters 
written from Abingdon, where, among both soldiers and people^ 
this contagion did then prevail, full of horrid oaths, curses, 
and blasphemy, not iit to be repeated by the tongue or pen of 
man ; and these all uttered as the effect of knowledge, and a part 
of their religion, in a fanatic strain, and fathered on the Spirit 
of God. But the horrid villanies of this sect, did not only 
speedily extinguish it, but also as much as ever any thing 
did, to disgrace all sectaries, and to restore the credit of the 
ministry, and of the sober, unanimous Christians; so that the devil 
and the Jesuits quickly found that this way served not their turn, 
and therefore they suddenly took another. 

^' And that was the fourth sect, the Quakers, who were but the 
Ranters, turned from horrid profaneness and blasphemy, to a 
life of extreme austerity, on the other side. Their doctrines were 
mostly the same with the Ranters ; they made the light which- 
every man hath within him to be his sufficient rule, and, conse^ 
quenlly, the Scripture and ministry were set light by. They spake 
much for the dwelling and working of the Spirit in us, but little 
of justification, and the pardon of sin, and our recouciliatioB 
with God through Jesus Christ. They pretend their depen^ 
dence on the Spirit's conduct, against set times of prayer, and 
against sacraments, and against their due esteem of Scripture 
and ministry. They will not have the Scripture called the 
Word of God ; their principal zeal lieth in railing at the minit-i 
ters as hirelings, deceivers, false prophets, &c. ; and in refusing 
to swear before a magistrate, or to put off their hat to any, or 
to say you instead of thou or iheCj which are their words to ail« 
At first they did use to fall into tremblings, and sometimes vomits 
ings, in their meetings, and pretended to be violently acted on by 
the Spirit ; but now that is ceased. They only meet, and he that 
pretendeth to be moved by the Spirit speaketh; and sometimes 
they say nothing, but sit an hour or more in silence, and then 
depart. One while divers of them went naked through several 
chief towns and cities of the land, as a prophetical act : some oi 
them have famished and drowned themselves in melancholy; and 
others^ undertaken^ by the power of the Spirit, to raise the dead. 



or RIGHAmD BAXTBJL 91 

Thrif dmf leader^ James Nayler, acted the part of Christy at 
Bristol, according to much of the history of the Gospel ; and 
was long laid in Bridewell for it, and his tongue bored, as a blas- 
phemer^ by the Parliament.^ Many Franciscan friars, and other 
Papists, have been proved to be disguised speakers in their 
assemblies, and to be among them ; and it is like are the very 
sou) of all theee horrible delusions. But of late one William 
Penn is become their leader, and would reform the sect, and set 
up a kind of ministry among them/ 

^' The fifth sect are the Behmenists, whose opinions go much 
towards the way of the former, for the sufficiency of the light 
of nature, the salvation of heathens, &s well as Christians, and 
a dependence on revelations, &c. But they are fewer in 
number, and seem to have attained to greater meekness, and 
conquest of passion, than any of the rest. Their doctrine is to 
be seen in Jacob Behmen*s books, by those that have nothing else 
to do than to bestow a great deal of time to understand him that 
was not willing to be easily understood, and to know that his 
bombastic words signify nothing more than before was easily 
known by common familiar terms. ^ 

* Ib iht tot volume of ' Burton's Diary/ lately edited by Mr. Towill Rutt, 
there is a curious account of the debate in parliament respecting Nayler. It 
lasted ten or eleTen days. A horrible sentence was pronounced and inflicted | 
but he made a very narrow escape for his life, as several of the members 
were for passing sentence of death upon him. Burton was a witness of the 
execution of the sentence, and bears testimony to the fortitude with which 
Nayler bore it. The Protector, g^reatly to bis honour, interested himself on 
Nayler's behalf. The conduct of the House of Commons was as unconstitu- 
tional as its sentence was brutal and unmerited. 

* Baxter*^s account of the Quakers, like his representations of the other sects 
to which be was opposed, must be received with some abatement, and with 
due allowance for the exaggerations to which various parts of the conduct of 
some of the early Friends naturally pave rise. They wished to carry refor- 
matioo further than most uf the parties of the period approved ; they were 
powerfully influenced by the doctrine of impressions, for which they so 
strenuously contended ; their zeal was roused to tlie very utmost by the oppo- 
sition which they experienced; and which, operating on some peculiarly-ex- 
cited minds, produced, at least, temporary insanity. This was probably the case 
with James Nayler, and a few others, whose conduct the Friends would now he 
far from approving ; and whose severe and unmerited sufferings reflect indelible 
disgrace on the parties who inflicted them. The heroic and persevering con- 
duct of the Quakers in withstanding the interferences of government with the 
rights of conscience, by which they flnaily secured those peculiar privi- 
leges they so richly deserve to enjoy, entitles them to the veneration of all 
the friends of civil and religious freedom ; and more than compensates for those 
irregularities and extravagancies which marked the early period of their 
history. 

f The writings of Jacob Behmen are probably better known now »nd mot« 



92 THB UFB AND TIMES 

'^ The chief of the Behmenists^ in England, are Dr .Pordage and 
his family, who live together in community, and pretend to hold 
visible and sensible communion with angels, whom they sometimes 
see, and sometimes smell. Mr. Fowler, of Reading, accosed 
him, before the committee, for preaching against imputed 
righteousness, and various other things, especially for famili- 
arity with devils, and conjuration. The doctor wrote a 
book to vindicate himself, in which he professeth to have 
/ 1 sensible communion with angels, and to know, by sights and 
smells, good spirits from bad. He saith, that indeed one 
month' his house was molested with evil spirits, which was 
occasioned by one Everard, whom he taketh to be a conjurer, 
who staid so long with him, as desiring to be of their communion. 
In this time, a fiery dragon, so big as to fill a very great 
room, conflicted with him, visibly, many hours; one ap- 
peared to him in his chamber, in the likeness of Everard, with 
boots, spurs, &c. ; and an im))ression was made on the brick 
wall of his chimney, of a coach drawn with tigers and lions, 
which could not be got out till it was hewed out with pickaxes : 
and another on his glass window, which yet remaineth^ &c. 
Whether these things be true or false, I know not.* 

'^ Among these, fall in many other sect-makers, as Dr. Gell^ of 
London, known partly by a printed volume, in folio ; * and one 

admired than they were in the days of Baxter. William Law and John Wes- 
ley both contributed, especially the first, to ^in gome credit for them iu Eng- 
land. Jacob was a very harmless enthusiast, or rather madman, whose dreams 
and visions bewildered himself, and the revelation of them bewildered others. 
That he should have found admirers in such a period of excitement as that 
which Eng^land experienced during the Commonwealth, cannot be matter of 
surprise, when we find that he obtained followers in the quiet reign of the 
Georges. Those who do not choose to misspend their time in the eKaminatioa 
of his mystical conundrums, will find enough of the same in the works of Law; 
or may amuse themselves by looking at a small life of Behmen, by his devoted 
admirer, Francis Okely; formerly of St. John's College, Cambridge. 1790. 

* It is surprising Baxter should not have perceived that Dr. Pordage 
was fitter for occupying a place in Bedlam, than to rank as the bead or 
leader of a sect. If madmen are to be reckoned sect-makers, we might 
reckon sect^ without number, in all ages aod places. Granger says of 
him, very justly, '<He was far gone in one of the most incurable kinds of 
madness, the frenzy of enthusiasm ; *' yet was be a doctor in philosophy, 
medicine, and theology*. 

*■ Dr. Gell, of whom Baxter speaks, appears to have been a very singular 
roan. He published two folio volumes on the Scriptures : the one in 1659; 
the other appeared after his death, in 1676. He was rector of St. Mary, Alder- 
maubury. His works are a curious mass of learning, occasional original, 
interpretation of the Scriptures, and mystical speculation, often of a very pecu* 
JJar nature. But men of a similar cast of mind have appeared in every 4igeu 



OF-RICHABD BAXTBR. 93 

Mr. Pufcer, who got in with the Earl of Pembroke, and 
wrote a book against the ^Assembly's Confession/ in which 
he taketh up roost of the Popish doctrines, and riseth up against 
them with papal pride and contempt, but owneth not the pope 
himself. Yet he headeih his body of doctrine with tlie Spirit, as 
die Papists do with the pope.^ To these also must be added 
Dr. Gibbon, who goeth about with his scheme to proselyte men, 
whom I have more cause to know than some of the rest.^ 

^ All these, with subtile diligence, promote most of the papal 
cause, and get in with the religious sort, either upon pretence of 
austerity, mortification, angelical communion, or clearer light ; 
but none of them yet owneth the name of a Papist ; but what 
they are, indeed, and who sendeth them, and what is their work, 
though I strongly conjecture, I will not assert, because I am not 
fully irertain : let time discover them/' ^ 

^ Purkcr's book on the Assembly's Catechism, I once had in my possession. 
He appeart to have been a concealed Papist; and, partly on Popish, and partly 
on Anninian |»rinciples» attacks the doctrmes of the Westminster Confession. 
But it is quite a mail of confusion. 

* The person to whom Baxter here refers, was Dr. Nicholas Gibbon, who, 
after the Restoration, became rector of Corfe Castle. He was a busy, forward 
royalist. The foUowin|f curious account of his intercourse with Baxter, which 
is given in another part of his life, explains the alluiion here made to him. It 
is probable that Baxter knew enough of him ; but he was more a man of in- 
trigue than the maker of a sect. 

** While I lodged at Lord Broghill's, a certain person was importunate to 
speak wiib me. Dr. Nic. Gibbon,'^ who, shutting the doors on us, that there 
might be no witnesses, drew forth a scbeine of theology, and told me how \o\\^ 
a journey he had once taken towards me, and engaged me patiently to hear him 
open to me bis scheme, which he said was the very thing that I had been long 
groping after; and contained the only terms and method to resolve all doubts 
whatever in divinity, and unite all Christians through the world : and there 
was none of them printed but what he kept himself, and he communicated 
tbem only to such as were prepared, which he thought 1 was. 1. Searching; 
3. Impartial ; and, 3. A lover, of method. I thanked him, and heard him 
above au hour in silence ; and, after two or three days' talk with him, I found 
all his frame, the contrivance of a very strong head-piece, was secretly and 
cunningly fitted to usher in a Socinian Popery, or a mixture of Popery and 
balf-Sociuianism. Bishop Usher had before occasionally spoken of him in my 
bearing as a Socinian, which caused mc to hear him with suspicion ; but I 
beard none suspect him of Popery, though I found that it was that which was 
the end of his design. This juggler hath this twenty years, and more, 
gone up and down thus secretly, and also thrust himself into places of pub- 
lic debate (as when the bishops and divines disputed before the king at 
the Isle of Wight, &c.) ; and when we were lately offering our proposals fur 
concord to the king, he thrust in among us ; till I was fain, plainly, to detect 
him before some of the Lords, which enraged him ; and he denied the words 
which, in secret, he had spoken to me. Many men of parts and learning are 
perverted by him," — Z»«/(P, part ii. pp. 205, 206. 
^ laJe, part L p. 74-^70. 



94 TH£ LIFE AND TIMBS 

After this account oJP the several sects and their leaders^ it will 
be proper to quote a portion of the general refiections which 
Baxter makes upon them. " These are they/' he says, " who 
have been most addicted to church divisions, and separations, 
and sidings, and parties, and have refused all terms of concord 
and unity : who, though many of them weak and raw, were yet 
prone to be puffed up with high tlioughts of themselves, and to 
overvalue their little degrees of knowledge and parts, which set 
them not above the pity of understanding men. They have been 
set upon those courses which tend to advance them above 
the common people in the observation of the world, and to 
set them at a further distance from others than God alloweth, 
and all this under the pretence of the purity of the church. In 
prosecution of their ends, there are few of the Anabaptists that 
have not been the opposers and troublers of the faithful ministers 
of God in the land, and the troublers of their people, and 
hinderers of their success ; strengthening the hands of the pnn 
fane. The sectaries, especially the Anabaptists, Seekers, and 
Quakers, chose out the most able, zealous ministers, to be the 
marks of their reproach and obloquy, and all because they stood 
in the way of their designs, and hindered them in the propaga^ 
ting their opinions. They set against the same men as the 
drunkards and swearers set against, and much after the same 
manner, reviling them, and raising up false reports of them, 
and doing all that they could to make them odious, and at 
last attempting to pull them all down; only they did it 
more profanely than the profane, in that they said. Let the 
Lord be glorified, let the Gospel be propagated; and abused and 
profaned Scripture, and the name of God, by prefixing him to 
their faction and miscarriages. Yea, though they thought them- 
selves the most understanding and conscientious people of the 
land, yet did the gang of them seldom stick at any thing which 
seemed to promote their cause; but whatever their faction in the 
army did, they pleaded for and approved it. If they pulled 
down the parliament, imprisoned the godly, faithfql members, 
and killed the king ; if they cast out the Rump, if they chose a 
little parliament of their own ; if they set up Cromwell ; if they 
raised up his son, and pulled him down again ; if they sought 
to obtrude agreements on the people ; if they one week set 
up a council of state, and if another week the Rump were re* 
stored ; if they sought to take down tithes and parish ministers, 
to the utter confusion of religion lu tU^ laxvd; in all these 



OF RICHARD EAXTIR. 85 

the AnRbaptifttoy Rnd many of the Independents in the three 
kbgdomty followed them, and even their pastors were ready to 
lead them to consent. 

^ I know the same accusations are laid by some in ignorance 
and malice^ against many that are guilty of no such things, and^ 
therefore, some will be offended with me, and say I imitate such 
repioBches ; but shall none be reproved because some are slan* 
dered ? Shall hypocrites be free from conviction and condemn 
nation^ because wicked men call the godly hypocrites ? Wo to 
the man that hath not a faithful reprover ! but a thousand woes 
will be to him that hateth reproof 1 Wo to them that had 
rather sin were credited and kept in honour, than their party 
dishonoured ; and wo to the land where the reputation of men 
doth keep sin in reputation I The Scripture itself will not 
spare a Noah, a Lot, a David, an Hezekiah, a Josiah, a P^ter | 
hot will open and shame their sin to all generations. Yet| 
alas I the hearts of many, who it is to be hoped are truly religious, 
will rise against him that shall tell them of the misdoings of 
diose ct their opinion, and call them to repentance. The poor 
church of Christ, the sober, sound religious part, are like Christ, 
that was crucified between two thieves. The profane and for** 
mal persecutors, oh one hand, and the fanatic, dividing sec- 
taries on the other, have in all ages been grinding the spiritual 
seed, as the com is ground between the millstones. And though 
their sins have ruined themselves and us, and silenced so many 
hundred ministers, and scattered the flocks, and made us the 
hatred and scorn of the ungodly world, and a by- word, and 
desolation in the earth, yet there are few of them who lament 
their sin, but justify themselves and their misdoings; and the 
penitent malefactor is unknown to us. And seeing poste- 
rity must know what they have done, to the shame of our laud 
and of our sacred profession, let them know thus much more, 
also, to their own shame, that all the calamities which have be* 
fallen us by our divisions were long foreseen by many : and they 
were told and warned of them year after year. They were told 
that a house divided against itself could not stand; and that the 
course they took would bring them to shame, and turn a hope- 
ful reformation into a scorn, and make the land of their nativity 
a place of calamity and wo : but the warning signified nothing 
to them ; these ductile professors blindly followed a few self- 
conceited teachers to this misery, and no warning or means could 
ever stop tbews'** 

• Ufe, part L pp. 102, 103. 



( 



96 THB life' AND TIMBS 

Such is the curious account which Baxter gives of the extra- 
ordinary state of religion, and of religious parties^ during this sin- 
gular period of England's history. His opportunities to become 
acquainted with the state of things, were very considerable, and 
his veracity unquestionable. Yet 1 cannot help thinking that a 
worse opinion may be formed of the state of religion from what he 
has said, than the real circumstances will justify, ^he language 
of many would lead us to suppose that during what Milton calls 
ironically ^' the year of sects and schisms/* those sects and 
schisms were almost innumerable. The uncouth designations 
employed to describe them, by such persons as Edwards, Vicars, 
Pagitt, and Featley, have furnished many a joke, and led to 
many an exaggerated description. But when the matter comes 
to be examined, a great deal of this mist, in which the period is 
enveloped, is cleared away. Baxter's own account, which dis- 
covers no disposition to conceal or, extenuate, shows, that beside 
the leading religious parties, which were composed mostly of 
respectable persons, there were only five other sects tliat he could 
describe. Even these so ran into one another that he could not 
accurately discriminate them. With the exception of the 
Quakers, none of the rest is entitled to be spoken of as a distinct 
or separate sect. All the others appear to have consisted of a 
small number of floating individuals, who had no defined religi- 
ous system, and who enjoyed an existence and influence of the 
most ephemeral nature. Most of the leaders were harmless and 
inoffensive in their lives ; men whose hearts were better than 
their understandings ; and who were, in some cases, rendered 
mischievous, chiefly by the treatment which they experienced.' 

These sects and heresies are often represented as hatched 
and spawned during the Commonwealth, and constituting its 
disgrace ; they are also alleged to stamp the character of that 
much -misrepresented period of our history. It should be re- 
membered, however, that when liberty runs riot, it is generally 
when it has been preceded by oppression and tyranny* Persecu- 
tion and restraint have often been the real parents of those 
opinions, which are sometimes truly extravagant, and at other 

' ** Old Epiiraim Pa^itt/' as he calls himself, describes, in his ' Heresio^ra- 
phy/ between furty and fifty different sects ; but the whole of these may be 
reduced to a very few, as he makes mauy foolish distinctions. For instance, 
he has jinabaptisis, and Plunged Anabaptists s Separatists, and Semi'SeparaHsti, 
He has Jirownists, BarrowistSyAinsworihianSj llobinsonians, who were all men 
of one party. He has Famitists, Casta lian Falnilists, Familists of the Mnm- 

iains, and Fantititts of the Falliei I SucVv \« a s^c\mt\i oC the wisdom and the 

tnultiplyiog powev o£ Old Ephraim PagvU. 



Of RICHARD BAXTER. 97 

times only regarded as such by the dominant party ; which liberty 
has not created but only brought to light. That the sudden 
bursting of the bonds of civil and ecclesiastical slavery should 
be attended with some temporary evils, is only what might be 
expected. Who thinks of blaming the emancipated captive, for a 
few freaks and a little wildness, when first breathing the air of hea- 
ven ? These are but indications of powerful emotion, which, when 
familiar with his new circumstances, will subside into a delight- 
fid calm* The strong representations of gross immoralities 
allied to be practised by some of the members of the sects 
referred to, will go but a little way with those who know how 
the primitive believers were misrepresented, and what treatment 
the reformers experienced^ Charges of this kind have been 
commonly preferred against the followers of new sects, they 
therefore always require to be very fiilly authenticated before 
they are believed. 

Baxter's notion that most of these sects were either projected 
or instigated by Papists, seems not sustained by any satisfactory 
evidence. He was full of alarms on this subject ; and from what 
he knew of the deceitful nature of Popery, he was prepared to 
give it credit for any mystery of iniquity. That the priests and 
Jesuits were disponed to aggravate rather than mitigate the evils 
which then existed, cannot be doubted. But the leaders of the 
religious parties of the Commonwealth, were not the tools with 
which they could safely work. 

If we look around on the state of parties tit present, we shall 
perhaps be convinced that sects and schisms are more numerous 
than even in the time of the Commonwealth, and not a few of 
them quite as extravagant. What, then ! Is this a proof that 
we have no religion, or of the evil and danger of religious free- 
dom ? No, certainly. But, let an attempt be made to hinder 
exertion, and put down sects, and we should find all the alleged 
evils of fanaticism and schism, aggravated and multiplied a 
thousandfold. 

The divisions of the Christian church are undoubtedly much 
to be deplored. They present a most unseemly appearance to 
the world, of that religion which may be said to be '^ o:.e and 
indivisible.'' They imply much imperfection on the pan of its 
professors, occasion great stumbling to unbelievers, and impair 
the energy and resources which might be advantageously em- 
ployed in assailing the common enemy. The causes of these 
divisions are to be sought in the ignorance^ tV\« vi^u^*^«xAk 



"08 .TAB Lira AKP TIMBS 

ilie prejudices of Christians ; ia indolent submissimi to authority 
lon one part, and the love of influence on another ; in the power 
of early habits and associations ; and^ above all, in the in&ieqce 
of a worldly spirit, which warps and governs the mind in a 
thousand ways. 

While the evil of this state of things is freely admitted, it is 
fx)ssible to exaggerate both the extent of the divisions which 
exist, and the injuries which result from them* There is more 
oneness of mind among real Christians than a superficial obser- 
ver might suppose. Baxter was quite correct in maintainiiig 
that they differ more about words than dungs. In thmr views 
I lof leading doctrines, in the experience of their influence^ in the 
I practical effects of Christianity, and in thdr expectation* of its 
I future glory, there is a substantial agreement amoi^ them* 
V In the wise and gracious administration of God, even these 
imperfections are overruled, and rendered productive df important 
good. They afford opportunity for the exercise of the Christian 
virtues of forbearance, patience, and love ; they put the tempers 
and profession of men to the test; and they often excite a ^irit 
of emulation, which, though not unmixed with evil^ is the 
means of extensive benefit to others* It is worthy of observn^ 
tion that all attempts to produce uniformity, have either becm de- 
feated ; or have occasioned fresh divisions. Under the appearance 
of outward unity, the greatest diversity of opinion generally pre- 
vails. And genuine religion flourishes most amidst what is 
i commonly denounced as the contentions of rival sects* The 
^ soil whose rankness sends forth an abundant crop of veeds^ 
will produce, if cultivated, a still more luxuriant harvest of c<mi. 
If the times of Baxter were fruitfiil of sects, and some of them 
wild and monstrous, they were still more fruitftil in the number 
of genuine, holy, and devoted Christians. It was not an age of 
fanaticism only, but of pure and undefiied religioq* 



t>F BICHARD BAXTBR. 99 



CHAPTER V. 

1646—1660. 



Baxter regumes hit Labonn at Kidderminster-^Hig account of Public Aflllt#s 
mi the Death of Charles I. — His eonduct while in Riddefininster towards 
FarKaBieiit'^Towards the Royal Party — Hit Ministry at Kidderminster— >Hi8 
EmpfeyitieiiU^-Uit Sncceie^His Advaniages— Remarks on tbe style of his 
preachiBf — His fmhlic and private exertions— Their lasting effects. 

In the fourth chapter, a full account is given of the views and 
conduct of Baxter while he was connected with the victorious 
army of the Commonwealth. His exertions to promote its 
spiritual interests, were indefatigable and disinterested. With 
the most patriotic principles and aims, he devoted himself to 
counteract, what he considered the factious and sectarian dis- 
positions of the soldiers and their leaders ; while he experienced 
nothing but sorrow and disappointment as the fruit of his 
labours. His bodily health, always feeble and broken, at length 
sunk under the pressure of his circumstances, and he was com- 
pelled reluctantly to retire from the stormy atmosphere of a 
camp to the calmer region of a pastoral cure. 

The preceding chapter details the origin, character, and 
influence, of the principal and the minor religious parties 
which made a figure during the civil wars, or enjoyed an ephe- 
meral notoriety during the Commonwealth. To all that concern- 
ed both the civil and religious interests of his country, Baxter 
was powerfully alive. He had the soul of a patriot as well as of 
a Christian ; and often was he ready to weep tears of blood over 
the civil confusion and the religious distractions of his country. 
Yet were these halcyon days, in regard to the enjoyment of re- 
ligious privileges, compared with those which preceded and 
followed them. 

After various digressions he thus resumes his personal narative: 
" I have related how after my bleeding a gallon of blood by the 
nose, that I was left weak at Sir Thomas Rous's house, at Rous- 
Lench, where I was taken up with daily medicines to prevent a 
dropsy : and hew£^ conscious that my time had UOlb^^uVm^tov^ 

h2 



100 THB LIVB AND TIMItt 

to the service of God as I desired it had been, I put up many an 
earnest prayer, that God would restore me, and use me more suc- 
cessfully in his work. Blessed be that mercy which heard my 
groans in the day of my distress; which wrought my deliverance 
when men and means failed, and gave me opportunity to cele- 
brate his praise. 

^' Whilst 1 continued there, weak and unable to preach, the 
people of Kidderminster had again renewed their articles agunst 
their old vicar and his curate. Upon trial of the cause, the 
committee sequestered the place, but put no one into it; and 
' placed fhe profits in the hands of divers of the inhabitants, to pay 
a preacher till it were disposed of. These persons sent to me and 
desired me to take it, in case I were again enabled to preach ; 
which I flatly refused, and told them I would take only the lec- 
ture which, by the vicar's own consent and bond,4 held before. 
Hereupon they sought Mr. Brumskill and others to accept the 
place, but could not meet with any one to their minds : they, 
therefore, chose Mr. Richard Serjeant to officiate, reserving 
the vicarage for some ohe that was fitter. 

^^ When I was able, after about five months' confinement, to go 
abroad, I went to Kidderminster, where I found only Mr. Ser- 
jeant in possession ; and the people again vehemently urged me 
to take the vicarage. This 1 declined ; but got the magistrates 
and burgesses together into the townhall, and told them, that 
though I had been offered many hundred pounds per annum 
elsewhere, I was willing to continue with them in my old lec- 
turer's place, which I had before the wars, expecting they would 
make the maintenance a hundred pounds a year, and a house ; 
and if they would promise to submit to that doctrine of Christ, 
which as his minister I should deliver to them, I would not leave 
them. That this maintenance should neither come out of their 
own purses, nor any more of it out of the tithes, save the sixty 
pounds which the vicar had before bound himself to pay, 1 
midertook to procure an augmentation for Milton (a chapel in 
the parish) of forty pounds per annum. This I afterwards did; 
and so the sixty pounds and that forty pounds were to be my part, 
and the rest I should have nothing to do with. The covenant 
was drawn up between us in articles, and subscribed ; in which I 
disclaimed the vicarage and pastoral charge of the parish, and 
only undertook the lecture. 

** Thus the sequestration continued in the hands of the towns- 
fiaea, ae ii/bresaid| who gath^^ tVk^ V^tX\^^ «sA ^^^ \Sk^ (^^t «. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBK. 101 

hnndred as they promised) but eighty pounds per annum, or 
ninety at most, and house-rent for a few rooms at the top of 
another man's house, which was all I had at Kidderminster. 
The rest they gave to Mr. Serjeant, and about forty pounds per 
annum to the old vicar ; six pounds per annum to the king and 
lord for rents, and a few other charges. 

^^Beaide this ignorant vicar, there was a chapel in the parish, 
where was an old curate as ignorant as he, that had long lived 
upon ten pounds a year and the fees of celebrating unlawful 
marriages. He was also a drunkard and a railer, and the scorn of 
the country, i knew not how to keep him from reading, though 
t judged it a sin to tolerate him in any sacred office. I got 
an augmentation for the place, and an honest preacher to 
instruct them, and let this scandalous fellow keep his former 
sdpend of ten pounds for nothing ; yet could never keep him 
from forcing himself upon the people to read, nor from cele- 
brating unlawful marriages, till a little before death did call him 
to hia account. I have examined him about the familiar points 
of religion^ and he could not say half so much to me as I have 
heard a child say. 

^ These two in this parish were not all : in one of the 
next parishes called ^ The Rock/ there were two chapels, 
where the poor ignorant curate of one got his living by cut- 
ting £Eiggots, and the other by making ropes. Their abilities 
being answerable to their studies and employ ments.''^ 

Such were the circumstances in which Baxter resumed his 
labours in Kidderminster. He was the man of the people's 
choice^ and enjoyed his right to the vicarage of the parish, had 
he been disposed to avail himself of it by the sequestration of 
the parliamentary commissioners. It is true he had no legal 
episcopal title ; and of this his enemies took advantage an- 
other day ; but it is very certain he had no hand in ejecting the 
former incompetent incumbent, or in forcing himself upon the 
people as his successor. The appointment of the existing Go- 
vernment therefore, or of a body acting under its sanction, was 
sufficient authority to justify his taking possession of the cure, 
and to support his complaint of unjust treatment when subse- 
quently refused liberty to preach in the parish by Bishop Mor- 
ley. That money was not Baxter's object, is evident from the 
nature of his engagement ; and from his afterwards offering to 
continue his labours firaHs, if he might only be peivavXX^^ \a 

f Life, pan u pp. 79, 90. 



102 THB LIFE AND TiMBS 

preach and live among the people, no doubt can he entertained 
of his disinterested love to the work of Christ. 

Before proceeding to state the nature and results of his minis* 
try in the place where he was honoured by God to effect so 
much good, it will be proper, for the sake of connecting the pub- 
lic events of the times, to advert to some important occurrences 
which took place immediately after he left the army, and dur- 
ing the earlier period of his second residence in Kidderminster. 
Leaving, for a little, the narrative of his personal affiairs, he thus 
proceeds : 

*^ I must now look back to the course and affairs of the king; 
who, after the siege of Oxford, having no army left, and know- 
ing that the Scots had more loyalty and stability in their prinr 
ciples than the sectaries, resolved to cast himself upon them, and 
so escaped to their army in the North. The Scots were very 
much troubled at this honour that was cast upon them, for they 
knew not what to do with the king. To send him back to the 
English parliament, seemed unfaithfulness, when he had cast 
himself upon them ; to keep him, they knew would divide the 
kingdoms, and draw a war upon themselves from England, 
which they knew they were now unable to sustain. They kept 
him, therefore, awhile among them with honourable entertain- 
ment, till the parliament sent for him ; and they saw that the 
sectaries and the army were glad of it, as an occasion to make 
them odious, and to invade their land. Thus the terror of the 
conquering army made them deliver him to the parliament's 
commissioners upon two conditions : I . That they should pro- 
mise to preserve his person in safety and honour, according to 
the duty which they owed him by their allegiance. 2. That 
they should presently pay the Scots army one half what was 
due to them for their service, which had been long unpaid.^ 
*^ Hereupon the king being delivered to the parliament, they 

^ The treaty for the payment of the Scottish arrears, and that fur the deliver- 
ing up of the king^i were quite distinct in themselves, though they proceeded 
together. Baxter is also mistaken when he says, the king was g^ven up on 
the two conditions, which he specifies. He was delivered up without any odd* 
ditiont. The ohjecU of the English Parliament, and of the Scottish Pariian 
ment« were the same ; the covenant and the propositions. The king's life could 
not be supposed to be in danger, but from such a concussion of party, and sach 
an ascendancy of persons totally different from those with whom the negotftp 
tion was going on, as would have rendered all conditions nugatory. la fact, 
the life of the king, at this time, was safer among the English than among 
the Scots ; some of whom had conceived the Idea of bringing him to the tcaf- 
M for his obstinate refusal to agree to t\iete^m&ol\\AcoN«\i«QXw--Br«dAftv^'«« 

Godwin, U. 257. 



OP RICRAAD BAXTBIU 108 

appointed Colond Richard Greaves^ Major-Qeneral Richard 
Brown^ with others, to he bh attendants, and desired him to 
abide awhile at Hdmby House, in Nordiamptonshhre. While 
he was here, the army was hatching their conspiracy ; and, od 
the sudden, one Comet Joyce, with a party of soldiers, fetched 
away the king, notwithstanding the parliament's order for his 
security. This was done as if it had been against Cromwell^ 
will, and without any order or consent of tlieirs ; but ao far 
was Joyce from losing his head for such a treason, that it proved 
the means of his preferment ;^ and so far was Cromwell and his 
soldiers from returning the king in safety, that they detained 
him among them and kept him with them, till they came to 
Hampton Court, and there they lodged him under the guard of 
Colonel Whalley, the army quartering all about him. While' 
he was here, the mutable hypocrites^ pretended an extra-* 
ordinary care of the king's honour, liberty, safety, and con-' 
science. They blamed the austerity of the parliament, who 
had denied him the attendance of his own chaplains ; and of 
his friends in whom he took most pleasure. They gave liberty 
to his friends and chaplains to come to him ; and pretended 
that they would save him from tlie incivilities of the parliament 
and the Presbyterians. 

^ Whether this was while they tried what terms they could 
make with him for themselves, or while they acted any other 
part, it is certain that the king's old adherents began to extot 
the army, and to speak against the Presbyterians more distaste- 
fully than before. When the parliament offered the king pro- 
positions for concord, which Vane's faction made as high and 
unreasonable as they could, that they might come to nothing,* 
the army, forsooth, offered him proposals of their own, which the 
king liked better : but which of them to treat with he did not 

' Charles was weU pleased to accompany Joyce, and afterwards refused 
to return at tbe command of Fairfax. He was, in fact, g^lad to be out of tht 
hands of the Presbyterians. — Godwin, li. p. 320. Tbe g^reat object of seizing 
tbe kin^, was to prevent a coalition between him and tbe Presbyterian party. 

^ It was the mutable hypocrisy of Charles, rather than of Cromwell, that 
frustrated every amicable arrangement. Had he been but steady to any on^ 
scheme of moderate policy, he would have lost neither his throne nor his life. 
His scheme, on all occasions, was to make the best bargain he could, till he got 
Mi enesBdea into his hands, when it was his determination to destroy them. 
Unfortunately for him they discovered this, and acted accordingly. 

^ The defeat of an adjustment between Charles and his Parliament, at thi^ 
time. w«9 Qwipf to Holii^ and uot to Vane and his piUTty. ^^^ l^t^\je^% 
'History of tbe British Empire/ va)« iff ppt 96^ )P€|. 



104 THB LIFB AND T1MB8 

know. At last, on the sudden, the judgment of the anny 
changed, and they began to cry for justice against the king; 
and, with vile hypocrisy, to publish their repentance, and cry 
God's mercy for their kindness to the king, and confess that they 
were under a temptation : but in all this, Cromwell and Ireton, 
and the rest of the council of war, appeared not. The instru- 
ments of all this work, must be the common soldiers. Two of 
the most violent sectaries in each regiment are chosen by them, 
by the name of agitators,'^ to represent the rest in these great 
affairs. All these together made a council, of which Colonel 
James Berry was the president, tliat they might be used, ruled, 
and dissolved, at pleasure. No man that knew them, will doubt 
whether this was done by Cromwell's and Ireton's direction. 
This council of agitators take not only the parliament's work 
upon themselves, but much more ; they draw up a paper called 
^ The Agreement of the People,' as the model or form of a new 
commonwealth. They have their own printer, and publish 
abundance of wild pamphlets, as changeable as the moon. The 
thing contrived, was an heretical democracy. When Cromwell 
had awhile permitted them thus to play themselves, partly to 
please them, and confirm them to him, and chiefly to use them 
in his demo lishing work ; at last he seemed to be so much for 
order and g ovemment, as to blame them for their disorder, pre- 
sumption, and headiness, as if they had done it without his con* 
sent. This emboldened the parliament not to censure them as 
rebels, but to rebuke them, and prohibit them, and claim their 
own superiority ; and while the parliament and the agitators 
were contending, a letter was secretly sent to Colonel Whalley 
to intimate that the agitators had a design suddenly to surprise 
and murder the king. Some thought that this was sent from 
a real friend; but most thought it was contrived by Cromwell 
to frighten the king out of the land, or into some desperate 
course which might give them advantage against him. Colonel 
Whalley showed the letter to the king, which put him into 
much fear of such ill-governed hands ; so that he secretly got 
horses, and slipped away towards the sea with twox)f his confi- 
dents only. On coming to the sea, near Southampton, they 
were disappointed of the vessel which they expected to trans- 

* Tbeorin^al name of these persons was o^^'icf o/ort, a branch of the tame w«nl 

fvlth adjuiant tttnd altogether different from agitator, to which it was afterwards 

converted. Brodie ascribes the conduct of the soldiers, on this occasion,* to 

tbe iairigafu ofHoUis, and the Presbytevian paxtj^ rather than to tiie Tpotkj 

ofCtomweil, aceordmg to Baxter^-^Hitft. W. ^,^7. 



OV BICHAKP 8AXTISR, 105 

port them ; and so were fain to pass over into the Isle of Wight, 
and his majesty was commited to the trust of Colonel Robert 
Hanunond^ who was governor of a castle there. For a day 
or two all were amazed to think what had become of the king ; 
and then a letter from the king to the house, acquainted them 
that he was fmn to flee thither from the cruelty of the agitators, 
who, as he was informed, thought to murder him ; and urging 
them to treat about ending all these troubles. But here Crom- 
well had the king in a pinfold, and was more secure of him 
than before.'^ 

^^ When at the Isle of ^^ght, the parliament sent him some 
propositions, to be consented to in order to his restoration. The 
king granted many of them ; and some he granted not. The 
Scottish commissioners thought the conditions more dishonour- 
able to the king than was consistent with their covenant and 
duQr, and protested against them; for which the parliament 
blamed them as hinderers of the desired peace. The chief thing 
which the king stuck at, was the utter abolishing of episcopacy 
and the alienating of the bishops' and the dean and chapter 
lands. Hereupon, with the commissioners, certain divines 
were sent down, to satisfy the king, viz. : Mr. Stephen Mar- 
8haU, Mr. Richard Vines, Dr. Lazarus Seaman, &c., who were 
met by many of the King's divines. Archbishop Usher, Dr. Ham- 
mond, Dr. Sheldon, &c. The debates here being in writing, 
were published, and each party thought they had the better. 
The parliamentary divines came off with great honour. 

**They seem to me, however, not to have taken the course 
which should have settled these distracted churches. Instead 
of disputing against all episcopacy, they should have changed 
diocesan prelacy into such an episcopacy as the conscience of 
the king might have admitted, and as was agreeable to that 
which the church had in the two or three first ages. I confess 
Mr. Vines wrote to me, as their excuse in this and other matters 
of the Assembly, that the parliament tied them up from treating 
or disputing of any thing at all, but what they appointed or 

* There is no evidence whatever that the king's flight from HaoiptoD Court 
**^ owing to any secret plot of Cromwell's, or to any fear of being murdered^ 
^otcrtaiued by hU majesty. He was probably advised in it by Cromwell, who 
*u tben afraid of the proceedings of the army ; but it was a plan of the king's 
^Q» iutended to create increased confusion and distraction among his oppu- 
^ts, which be expected to be able to turn to his own advantage. Milton, 
^ kii « Second Defence of the People of England,' vindicates Cromwell from 
^ cbirge of advising the Eight of Charlei, or being a party to it. 1 have not 
^^^^tnred the stoiy of the secret letter adverted to by any other writer than 
Buter, 



106 TBB LIFB AND TIMB8 

proposed to ihem : but I think plain dealing with snch leaden 
had been best ; and to have told ititm, this is our judgment, and, 
in the matters of God and his churchy i¥e will serve yoa aoeord- 
ing to our judgment, or not at all. Though, indeed, as tliey 
were not of one mind among themselves, this could not be 
expected.^ 

'^ Archbishop Usher there took the right course, who offered 
the king his reduction of episcopacy to the form of presbytery. 
He told me himself, that, formerly, the king had refused it^ 
but, at the Isle of Wight, he accepted it ; and as he would not 
when others would, so others would not when he would. So also, 
when Charles 11. came in, we tendered Usher's scheme of tmion 
to him $ but then he would not. Thus the true, moderate^ 
healing terms are always rejected by those that stand on the 
higher ground, though accepted by them that are lower and 
cannot have what they will : from whence it is easy to perceive 
whether prosperity or adversity, the highest or the lowest, be 
ordinarily the greater hinderer of the church's unity and peace. 
I know, that if the divines and parliament had agreed for a mo- 
derate episcopacy with the king, some Presbyterians of Sc6tland 
would have been against it, and many Independents of Eng- 
land; and the army would have made it the matter of odious 
accusations and clamours : but all this ought not to have deterred 
foreseeing, judicious men, from those healing counsels wUch 
must close our wounds whenever they are closed.? 

^^ The king, sending his final answers, the parliament had a 
k>ng debate upon them, whether to acquiesce in them as a suffi- 
cient ground for peace. Many members spake for resting in 
them, and, among others, Mr. Prynne went over all the king's 
concessiops in a speech of divers hours long, with marvellous 

^ A full and impartial account of the nef^otiatioDs held at the Isle ttf Wight, 
it given by Neal, iii. pp. 422, 443, edit. 1S22. The treaty failed from theobsti* 
nacy of the king, acting by the advice of his episcopal counseUors, who were 
either incapable of giviog suitable advice in difficult circamstances, or not 
aware of the peril to which they were exposing their royal master* who Ibolithlf 
imagined he could save himself at any time by closing either with the Parlia- 
ment or the army. It would probably have been better had there been no 
divines on either side. 

p if any thing is calculated to expose the Tolly and danger of state inter- 
ference with religion, it is the fact, that the peace of three kingdoms and the 
fate of the king were made to depend, in a great measure, on the establish* 
ment of au exclusive form of church government. There were, donbtlesti 
other things at the root of the misunderstanding, but the nudn o^nsible re4- 
MOB of the failure of the treaty, was the demand on the one ^art, and the rt^t^i 
oa the other, to abolish episcopacy^ voA t&ta\>t\iVi vtt%V>^ti Vo^ Vv% ^%nt« 



OF HfCHARD BAXTEH, 107 

memory^ and showed the satisfactoriness of them all. So that 
the houae voted that the king's concessions were a sufficient 
ground for a personal treaty with him; and suddenly gave 
a concluding answer^ and sent for him up. But at such a crisis 
it was time for the army to bestir themselves. Without any more 
ado, Cromwell and his confidents sent Colonel Pride with a party 
of soldiers to the house, and set a guard upon the door : one part 
of the house, who were for them, they let In ; another part they 
tamed away, and told them that they must not come there; and 
the third part they imprisoned. To so much rebellion, perfidious- 
ness, perjury, and impudence, can error, selfishness, and pride of 
great successes, transport men of the highest pretences toreligion.4 
^For the true understanding of all this, it must be remem- 
bered^ that though in the beginning of the parliament there was 
scarce a noted, gross sectary known, but Lord Brook, in the 
House of Peers, and young Sir Harry Vaiie, in the House of 
Commons ; yet, by degrees, the number increased in the lower 
house* Major Salloway and some few others. Sir Henry Vane 
had made his own adherents : many more were carried part of 
the way to Independency and liberty of religions ; and many 
that minded not any side in religion, did think that it was not 
policy'ever to trust a conquered king, and therefore were wholly 
for a parliamentary government. Of these, some would have 
lords and commons, or a mixture of aristocracy and demo- 
cracy ; others would have commons and democracy alone ; and 
some thought that they ought to judge the king for all the 
blood that had been shed. Thus, when the two parts of the 
house were ejected and imprisoned, the third part, composed 
of the Vanists, the Independents, and other sects, with the de- 
mocratical party, was left by Cromwell to do his business under 
the name of the Parliament of England ; which, by the people 
in scorn, was commonly called the Rump of the Parliament. 
The secluded and imprisoned members published a writing, 
called their Vindication ; and some of them would afterwards 
have thrust into the House, but the guard of soldiers kept them 

1 The account which Mrs. Hutchinson gives of this affair, is Tcry different 
from Baxter's. She imputes the whole blame of acceding to the terms pro- 
posed by the king, the array's interference with Parliament, and the conse- 
quent ruin of the icing, to the conduct of the Presbyterian leaders, who, insti- 
gated by hatred of the Independents and other sects, consented to measures 
which would have reinstated Charles without any adequate security to his sub- 
jects ; hy wbicb tbejr would all eventually have been destroyedir— Memoir* of 
Q>i.I^chms(m. 297^300. WTiite/ock and Ludlow agree If lthMw,HviUi\au¥». 



lOS TUB UFB AND TIMB8 

out^ and the Rump were called the honest men. And these are 
' the men that henceforward we have to do with in the progrest 
of our history as called The Parliament/ 

'^ As the Lords were disaffected to these proceedings^ so were 
the Rump and soldiers to the Lords ; so that they paraed a Tote^ 
supposing that the army would stand hy them, to establish the 
government without a king and House of Lords ; and thus the 
Lords were dissolved, and these Commons sat and did all alone. 
Being deluded by Cromwell, and verily thinking that he would 
be for democracy, which they called a commonwealth, they 
gratified him in his designs, and themselves in their disloyal 
distrusts and fears. They accordingly called a high court of 
justice to be erected, and sent for the king from the Isle of 
Wight. Colonel Hammond delivered him, and to Westmin- 
ster Hall he came, and refusing to own the court and their 
power to try him. Cook, as attorney, having pleaded against 
him, Bradshaw, as president and judge, recited the charge, and 
condenmed him.' Before his own gate at Whitehall, they 
erected a scaffold ; and, in the presence of a full assembly of 
people, beheaded him. In all this appeared the severity of God, 
the mutability and uncertainty of worldly things, the fruits of a 
sinful nation's provocations, the infamous effects of error, pride, 
and selfishness, prepared by Satan, to be charged hereafter upon 
reformation and godliness, to the unspeakable injury of the 
Christian name and Protestant cause, the rejoicing and advan- 
tage of the Papists, the hardening of thousands against the 
means of their own salvation, and the confiision of the actors 
when their day should come. 

' Thnnig^ Uie whole of these statements, Baxter ascribes a {^eat deal too 
much to the craft of Cromwell, aod the intrif^es of the sectaries. AUowin^ 
that they often compensated their lack of power by superior address and m- 
pidity of moyement, it should not be forgotten that self-preservation la the 
first law of man ; and that, as the sectaries were in dangler of beiugp crashed 
between two powerful parties, the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians, they 
naturally exerted themselves to prevent the ascendancy of either. Had there 
been more integ^ty in the one class, and mure moderation in the other, Cron* 
WeU and his party would have had a less difficult part to play : as things 
were, they probably accomplished much less by previous intrig^ and plottinf, 
than by taking advanta^ of unforeseen occurrences. 

* The reader who thinks of Bradshaw only as a reg^icide and a ruffian, would 
do well to consult the character ^ven 6f him by Milton, in bis 'Defence of the 
People of England.' An admirable translation of the passag^e wiU be found in 
* Symmons' Life of MUton,' pp. 220—222. Bradshaw escapied to America, and 
th«re ended his days in peace. Cook expiated his political offence on the scaf- 
fold, and died with aU that lofty heroism which distin^ished men who feh that 
Ihey loffered not for personal gfuUt, but for the crime of the people of Snglaiid. 



Of RICHARD BAXTBR. 109 

^ The Lord General Fairfax all this while stood by^ and, 
with high resentment, saw his lieutenant do all this by tumal- 
tuous soldiers, tricked and overpowered by him ; neither being 
soflBciently upon his guard to defeat the intrigues of such an 
actor ; nor having resolution enough to lay down the glory of 
all his conquests, and forsake him. At the King's death, he was 
in wonderful perplexities, and when Mr. Calamy and some mi* 
nisters were sent for to resolve him, and would have further 
peiauaded him to rescue the King, his troubles so confounded 
him^ that his servants durst let no man speak to him : and 
Cromwell kept him^ as it was said, in praying and consulting 
till the stroke was given, and it was too late to make resistance. 
But not long after, when war was determined against Scotland, 
he laid down his commission, and never had to do with the 
army more ; and Cromwell become General in his stead.^ 

^ If y<m ask. What did the ministers all this while ? I answer, 
they preached and prayed against disloyalty ; they drew up a 
writing to the Lord General, declaring their abhorrence of all 
violence agmnst the person of the King, and urging him and 
his army to take heed of such an unlawful act. They presented 
it to the General when they saw the King in danger ; but pride 
prevailed against their counsels."^ 

Some difference of opinion may exist in regard to the cor* 
rectness of all the statements and reasonings of the preceding 
extracts. One thing, however, is very apparent, — the devoted 
royalty of Baxter. While he acted with the army of the 
Parliament, and advocated the cause which he considered it 
had undertaken, he was indignant at its conduct, when it as- 
sumed the sovereign power, and threatened the life of the king. 
In the treatment which Charles experienced, Baxter seems to 
forget every thing, but the sufferings which he endured and the 
unconstitutional conduct of his adversaries. The death of that 
ill-fated monarch, he regarded less as the result of his own 
obstinacy and duplicity, of which all parties were furnished with 
indubitable proofs, or as the just retribution of Heaven for these 
^d many other evils of himself and his family, than as illustra- 
tions of the bad principles and wicked conduct of sectaries and 

^ There seems something very absurd in th« idea that Fairfax was igpaorant 
^what all the country knew, that the death of the king^ was determin^; and 
^t he was hoaxed by CromweU and Harrison tiU it was accomplished, 
^fodie examines the story with his usual diligence and acuteness.— JEM. of 
^ Brii. Emp. iv. p. 213— 21 6. 

* life, part it pp« 60'-64« 



IIQ TBB UFB AND T1MB8 

agitaton. He denounces the hypocrisy and perfidy of Crom« 
well and his party, and represents them as systematically puna- 
ing the destruction of the king. They are justly liable to the 
charge of dissimulation. But it should not be forgotten that it 
attaches to the royal party and to its head, in a far greater 
degree. The struggle which was at first for freedom on die one 
side, and for absolute power on the other, became^ at last, a 
struggle for life, on both sides. The final catastrophe, therefore^ 
deeply as it is to be lamented, became inevitable. The Presby- 
terians would have restored the king, at different periods of the 
contest, if he would have abolished episcopacy, and established 
presbyterian uniformity in its stead. They were prevented from 
doing so, partly by the scheming of Charles, and partly by the 
opposition of the army. The Independents would have restored 
him, could they have obtained any security for themselves, and 
the freedom of their religion. They could not trust the king 
for the one, or the Presbyterians for the other. Charles played 
with and deceived all parties, till at length be fell a sacrifice to 
his own obstinacy and insincerity. 

The full discussion of the difficult and complicated sulyect te 
which the preceding paragraphs relate would be foreign, fitNa 
the nature and design of this work; which is intended rather as 
a record of the opinions and testimony of Baxter, than of my 
own sentiments. On many points, we are now capable of forming 
more correct views than any individual could, in the times of 
Baxter. We are less under the influence of prejudice ; we have 
more accurate information ; and are, therefore, capable of look- 
ing at all the transactions with more impartiality. I beg to 
refer the reader, who wishes for full and enlightened views on 
all the events of the civil wars and the Commonwealth, to the 
work of Brodie, which I have often referred to in the notes. It 
is distinguished by laborious research, great acuteness, and moat 
praiseworthy impartiality. If that work is not at hand, the 
^ History of the Commonwealth,' by Godwin, will amply supply 
its place. It also is entitled to the praise of discrimination and 
impartiality. Equity requires I should state, thai both these 
writers differ considerably from Baxter in their views of the 
principles and conduct of the several parties who figured in the 
distracted period of which they treat. 

Baxter himself, while these tremendous scenes were transact* 
mg, Kved remote from the parties principally engaged in them. 
He could only speak and reason according to the reports which 



fiS EICHARB BAXTBR. HI 

reached hirn^ the probability or improbability of which he usually 
determined by the personal knowledge which he had of those 
to whom they related. Though deeply concerned in all that 
affected his country's weal^ he was now better employed than in 
contending with the turmoils of a camp^ or in sounding and ex- 
poung the policy of courts. 

During the early part of his second residence at Kidderminster, 
several other circumstances are recorded by Baxter worthy of 
being mentioned, both as illustrating his own character and the 
slate of the period. He opposed the solemn league and covenant, 
though he bad formerly taken it at Coventry, and^ therefore, did 
not please the Presbyterians : he opposed the engagement, and 
thus incurred the displeasure of the Independents. Careful only 
to stand well with bis own conscience, it was matter of indif- 
ference to him who were his friends or who were his foes« 

^ Vqic my own part,'' he says, ^' though I kept the town and 
parish of Kidderminster from taking the covenant, seeing how 
it might become a snare to their consciences \ yea, and most 
of Worcestershire beside, by keeping the ministers from offering 
it in any of the congregations to the people, except in Wor- 
cester city, where I had no great interest, and knew not what 
they did ; yet I could not judge it seemly for him that believed 
there is a God, to play fast and loose with a dreadful oath, as 
if the bonds of national and personal vows were as easily shaken 
off as Sampson's cords. 

'^ I therefore spake and preached against the engagement, and 
dissuaded men from taking it. The first hour that I heard of 
it, being in company with some gentlemen of Worcestershire, I 
presently wrote down above twenty queries against it, intending 
as many more almost against the obligation, as those were about 
the sense and circumstances. One that was present got the 
copy of them, and, shortly after, I met with them verbatim, as 
his own, in a book of Mr. Henry Hall's, who was long impri- 
soned for writing against Cromwell." " 

That Baxter was the friend of the parliamentary cause not- 
withstanding, cannot be doubted ; and that he was grateful for 
the protection which he enjoyed under the existing government, 
is equally unquestionable ^ yet he was adverse to the measures 
pursued in opposition to Charles II., whose right to the throne 
he fully believed, and carried his conscientious opposition to the 
commonwealth-government so far, that it might have been at« 

<" Life, psri L p. 64. 



112 THS LtPB AND TIM18 

• • • 

tended with serious consequences to himself. He was^ in fact, a 
royalist in principles and constitution ; and a friend to the par- 
ties who opposed the king, from necessity, and not from choice. 

''When the soldiers were going against the king and the Scots, 
I wrote letters to some of them, to tell them of their sin ; and 
desired them at last to begin to know themselves. They were 
the same men who had boasted so much of love to all the godly, 
and pleaded for tender dealing with them, and condemned those 
that persecuted them or restrained their liberty, who were now 
ready to imbrue their swords in the blood of such as they ac- 
knowledged to be godly ; and all because they dared not be as 
perjured or disloyal as they were. Some of them were startled 
at these letters, and thought me an uncharitable censurer^ who 
would say that they could kill the godly, even when they were 
on the march to do it : for how bad soever they spake of the 
cavaliers (and not without too much desert as to their morals), 
they confessed, that abundance of the Scots were godly men. 
Afterwards, however, those that I wrote to better understood me. 

'' At the same time, the Rump, or Commonwealth, which so 
much abhorred persecution, and were for liberty of conscience, 
made an order that all ministers should keep certain days of 
humiliation, to fast and pray for their success in Scotland : and 
that we should keep days of thanksgiving for their victories ; and 
this upon pain of sequestration ! So that we all expected to be 
turned out ; but they did not execute it upon any, save one, 
in our parts. For myself, instead of praying and preaching 
for them, when any of the committee or soldiers were my 
hearers, I laboured to help them to understand, what a crime 
it was to force men to pray for the success of those who were 
violating their covenant and loyalty, and going, in such a cause, 
to kill their brethren : — what it was to force men to give 
God thanks fpr all their bloodshed, and to make God's minis- 
ters and ordinances vile, and serviceable to such crimes, by 
forcing men to run to God on such errands of blood and ruin : 
—and what it is to be such hypocrites as to persecute and cast 
out those that preach the Gospel, while they pretend the ad- 
vancement of the Gospel, and the liberty of tender consciences^ 
and leave neither tenderness nor honesty in the world, when 
the guides of the flocks and preachers of the Gospel shall be 
noted to swallow down such heinous sins.' 

' Only one opiDion can be entertained respecting^ the fearless honesty of 
BtxttTi but thft wisdom as well as tho prudenco of bis behaHoor nay b« 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. Il3 

^ My own hearers were all satisfied with my doctrine^ but 
the committee-inen, looked sour, yet let me alone. The sol- 
diers said, I was so like Love/ that I would not be right till 
I was shorter by the head. Yet none of them ever meddled 
with me, farther than by the tongue ; nor was I ever by any 
of them in those times forbidden or hindered to preach one 
sermon, except only one assize sermon, which the high sheriff 
had desired me to preach, and afterwards sent me word to for- 
bear, as from the committee ; which told Mr. Moor^ the Inde- 
pendent preacher at the college, that they desired me to forbear, 
and not to preach before the judges, because I preached against 
the state. But afterwurds they excused it, as done merely in 
kindness to me^ to keep me from running myself into danger 
and trouble." * 

Notwithstanding his conduct towards the leaders and soldiers 
of the Commonwealth, various circumstances show that Baxter 
was by no means disposed to promote the interests of the royal 
cause. After detailing the affairs of Cromwell and the army in 
Scotland, and the march of Charles with the royal army into 
England, he says :— 

*' The greater part of the army passed close by Kiddermin- 
ster, and the rest through it. Colonel Graves sent two or three 
messages to me, as from the king, to come to him ; and after, 
when he was at Worcester, some others were sent : but I was 
at that time under so gre&t an affliction of sore eyes, that I was 
scarcely able to see the light, and unfit to stir out of doors. 
Being not much doubtful of the issue which followed, I thought, 
if I had been able, it would have been no service at all to the 
king, it being so little, on such a sudden, that I could add to 
his assistance. 

" When the king had stayed a few days at Worcester, Crom- 
well came with his army to the east side of the city, and after 

Tery justly questioned. To take the side of the Parliameot as be bad done, and- 
now to oppose tbe existing: Government so publicly, wbile prosecuting tbe ob- 
ject of tbe ori^nal contest, was ratber extraordinary. It is a great proof of 
the moderation of tbat Government, that it let bim pass witbout molestation. 

f The Presbyterian minister wbo was executed by Cromwell, for correspond- 
ing with tbe King. It is probable be was put to death ratber as an example 
and a warning to others, than on account of any great criminality in bis own 
conduct. Much influence was used to obtain his life, but all in vain. He 
was certainly a martyr to Presbyteriau loyalty. ** He died," says Baxter, 
" neither timorously nor proudly in any desperate bravado ; but with as great 
aliu:rity and fearless quietness and freedom ^of speech, as if be bad but gone 
to bed, and badbsen as little concerned as the slanders by." Life, part i. p. 67. 

■ Life, part i. pp. 66, 67. 

VOL. I. I 



U4 THE LIFE AND TIMBS 

that, made a bridge of boats over the Severn, to biiider them 
from foraging on the other Bide ; but because so great an army 
pould not long endure to be pent up, the king resolved to charge 
Cromwell's men. At first, the Scottish foot charged very gal- 
lantly, some chief persons among the horse, the Marquis of 
Hamilton, late Earl of Limerick, being slain : but> at last^ the 
hope of security so near their backs, encouraged the king's army 
to retreat into the city, and Cromwell's soldiers followed them 
so close at the heels, that Major Swallow, of Whalley's regi- 
ment, first, and others after him, entered Sidbury gate with 
them ; and so the whole army fled through the city, quite away, 
many being trodden down and slain in the streets ; so that the 
king was fain to fly with them northward. The Lord Wilmo^ 
the Earl of Lauderdale, and many others of his lords and com- 
manders^ fled with him. Kidderminster being but eleven miles 
from Worcester^ the flying army passed some of them through 
the town, and some by it. I had nearly gone to bed when the 
noise pf the flying horses acquainted us with the overthrow ; and 
a piece of one of Cromwell's troops, that guarded Bewdley 
bridge, having tidings of it, came into our streets, and stood in 
the open market-place, before my door, to surprise those that 
passed by. So, when many hundreds of the flying army came 
together, and the thirty troopers cried aiandy and fired at them, 
they either hastened away, or cried quarter, not knowing in the 
dark what number it was that charged them. Thus as many 
were taken there, as so few men could lay hold on : and, till 
midnight, the bullets flying towards my door and windows, and 
the sorrowful fugitives hastening by for their lives, did tell me 
the calamitousness of war. 

"The king, parted at last from most of ^ his lords, went 
to Boscobel, by the White Ladies, where he was hid in an oak, 
in a manner sufficiently declared to the world \ and thence to 
Mosely, and so, with Mrs. Lane, away as a traveller, and es- 
caped all the searchers' hands, till he came safe beyond sea, as is 
published at large by divers."* 

This brief notice of public affairs, and of Baxter's conduct 
in relation to them, to the period when the Commonwealth and 
Cromwell reigned triumphant, sufficiently prepares us for the 
interesting account given by him of his labours and success jn 
Kidderminster. Perhaps no part of these memoirs is so im- 
portant as this. It presents an admirable view of the man of 

« Life, parti, pp. 110, Ul« 



OF gIpHARp BAXTER, 11^ 

God, abundant io labours, patient in tribulatiop» perseveriog in 
the exercise of faithfulness, benevolencei and long-suffering, and 
crowned with . extraordinary success. Without ascribing too 
much to the agent, or expressing unqualified approbation of all 
the ni^ans employed, it is impossible not to perceive the adap- 
tation of the instrument to the worky or to doubt that the divine 
blessing rested upon the measures pursued. The sovereignty of 
God operates not independently of human means and insfru- 
mentality, but in connexion with them ; and it will rarely \f 
ever be found, that suitably qualified agents pursue, in a right 
spirit and with Christian zeal, the good of men, without being 
rewarded by a corresponding measure of success. The circum- 
stances in which Baxter found Kidderminster when he first went 
to i^ as well as the difficulties and troubles which he bad to 
encounter during the two years he then resided in it^ have 
been already stated. Ignorance, immorality, and opposition 
to the Gospel, prevailed among all classes. His doctrine was 
unpalatable^ his maimer of life and hostility to vice and irreli- 
gion, in every form, still more so. His politics, favouring as they 
did the cause of the Parliament, and of church reform, increased 
the dislike, and prpduced personal violence. The conduct of 
the common people, influenced by all these things, was sp 
outrageous, that he was finally compelled to leave them. This 
state of things must be connected with his account of the won- 
derful change in the character of the place, which he was ho-^ 
noured to effect. 

After a long account of some remarkable deliverances, and 
of his bodily weakness, with which it is marvellous that he 
should have been able to struggle, he thus proceeds : — 

^^ I shall next record to the praise of my Redeemer, the 
comfortable employment and success which he vouchsafed me 
during my abode at Kidderminster, under all these weaknesses. 
And, 1st. I will mention my employment. 2. My successes. 
And, 3. Those advantages by which, under God, they were 
procured. 

^^ Before the wars, I preached twice each Lord's day ; but 
after the war, but once, and once every Thursday, beside occa- 
sional sermons. Every Thursday evening, my neighbours who 
were most desirous,.and had opportunity, met at my house, and 
there one of them repeated the sermon ; afterwards they pro- 
posed what doubts any of them had about the sermon, or any 
other case of conscience 5 and I resolved their doubts. Last of 

I 2 



116 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

all^ I caused sometimes one and sometimes another of them to 
pray, to exercise them ; and sometimes I prayed with them 
myself: which, beside singing a psalm, was all they did. Once 
a week, also, some of the younger sort, who were not fit to pray 
in so great an assembly, met among a few more privately, 
where they spent three hours in prayer togethe;-. Every Satur- 
day night, they met at some of their houses, to repeat the ser- 
mon of the former Lord's day, and to pray and prepare them- 
selves for the following day. Once in a few weeks, we had a 
day of humiliation on one occasion or other. Every religious 
woman that was safely delivered, instead of the old feastings 
and gossipings, if she was able, did keep a day of thanks- 
giving with some of her neighbours, with them praising God, 
and singing psalms, and soberly feasting together. Two days 
every week, my assistant and myself took fourteen families be- 
tween us, for private catechising and conference ; he going 
through the parish, and the town coming to me. I first heard 
them recite the words of the catechism, and then examined 
them about the sense ; and, lastly, urged them, with all possible 
engaging reason and vehemency, to answerable affection and 
practice. If any of them were stalled through ignorance or 
bashfulness, I forbore to press them any further to answers, but 
made them hearers, and either examined others, or turned all 
into instruction and exhortation. I sppnt about an hour with 
each family, and admitted no others to be present ; lest bashful- 
ness should make it burthensome, or any should talk of the 
weaknesses of others : so that all the afternoons on Mondays 
and Tuesdays I spent in this way, after I had begun it, (for it 
was many years before I did attempt it,) and my assistant spent 
the morning of the same day in the same employment. Before 
that, I only catechised them in the church, and conferred oc- 
casionally with an individual. 

** Beside all this, I was forced, five or six years, by the peo- 
ple's necessity, to practise physic. A common pleurisy happen- 
ing one year, and no physician being near, I was forced to ad- 
vise them to save their lives ; and I could not afterwards avoid 
the importunity of the town and country round about. Be- 
cause I never once took a penny of any one, I was crowded with 
patients ; so that almost twenty would be at my door at once : 
and though God, by more success than I expected, so long en- 
couraged me, yet, at last, I could endure it no Ipnger ; partly 
becaase it hindered my other studies, and partly because the 



; OF RICHARD BAXTER. 117 

very fear of miscoring and doing any one harm, did make it an 
intolerable burden to me. So that, after some years' practice, I 
procured a godly diligent physician to come and live in the 
town, and bound myself, by promise, to practise no more, unless 
in consultation with him, in case of any seeming necessity ; and 
80 with that answer I turned them all off, and never meddled 
with it again. 

*' But all these my labours (except my private conference with 
the families), even preaching and preparing for it, were but my 
recreation, and, as it were, the work of my spare hours ; for 
my writings were my chief daily labour ; which yet went the 
more slowly on, that I never one hour had an amanuensis to 
dictate to, and especially because my weakness took up so much 
of my time. All the pains that my infirmities ever brought 
upon me, were never half so grievous an affliction as the 
unavoidable loss of time which they occasioned. I could not 
bear, through the weakness of my stomach, to rise before seven 
o'clock in the morning, and afterwards not till much later ; and 
some infirmities I laboured under, made it above an hour before 
I could be dressed. An hour, I must of necessity have to walk 
before dinner, and another before supper; and after supper I 
could seldom study : all which, beside times of family duties, 
and prayer, and eating, &c., left me but little time to study.: 
which hath been the greatest external personal affliction of all 
my life. 

**Every first Wednesday in the month was our monthly-meet- 
ing for parish discipline ; and every first Thursday of the month, 
was the ministers' meeting for discipline and disputation. In 
those disputations it fell to my lot to be almost constant moderator; 
and for every such day, I usually prepared a written determina- 
tion ; all which I mention as my mercies and delights, and not 
as my burdens. Every Thursday, besides, I had the company of 
divers godly ministers at my house, after the lecture, with whom 
I spent that afternoon in the truest recreation, till my neigh- 
bours came to meet for their exercise of repetition and prayer. 

" For ever blessed be the God of my mercies, who brought me 
from the grave, and gave me, after wars and sickness, fourteen 
years' liberty in such sweet employment ! How strange that, in 
times of usurpation, I had all this mercy and happy freedom ; 
when under our rightful king and governor, I, and many hun- 
dreds more, are silenced and laid by as broken vessels, and sus- 
pected and vilified as scarce to be tolerated to live privately and 



118 THB L1f6 and tiMBS 

quietly in the land ! How mysteriotis, thiit God sliolild ittlifcfe 
days of licentioushess and disorder under iin usurper so great k 
mercy to me, and many a thousand more, who under the lawful 
gdvetnors which they desired, and in the days when order is 
said to be restored, do sit in obscurity and unprofitable silence, 
br lie in prisons ; while all of us are accounted Ab the scufn atid 
sweepings, or offscourings of the earth. ^ 

" I have mehtioned my secret and acceptable employment ; 
let me, to the praise of my gracious Lord, acquaint you with 
some of my sutcess ; and I will not suppress it, though I frirc- 
knoW that the malignant will impute the mention of it to pride 
and ostentation. For it is the sacrifice of thanksgiving which 
1 owe to my most gracious God, which I will not deny him, for 
fear of being censured as proud ; lest I prove myself proudfin- 
deed, while I cartnot undergo the imputation of .pride itt the 
performance of my thanks for such undeserved mercies; 

" My public preaching met with an attentive, diligent audi- 
tory. Having broke over the brunt of the opposition of the 
tabble before the wars, I found them afterwards tractable atid 
unprejudiced. Before I entered into the ministry, God blessed my 
private conference to the conversion of some, who remain firta 
and eminent in holiness to this day : but then, and in the begin- 
ning of my ministry, I was wont to number them as jewels ; but 
since then I could not keep ahy number of them. The con- 
gregation was usually full, so that we were fain to build fiv^ 
galleries afler my coming thither ; the church itself being very 
capacious, and the most commodious and convenient that etfer 
I was in. Dur private meetings, also, were full. On the Lord's 
days there was no disorder to be seen in the streets ; but yoU 
might hear a hundred families singing psalms and repeating 
sermons as you passed through them. In a word, when I camb 
thither first, there was about one family in a street that wor- 
shipped God and called on his name, and when I came aWay, 
there were some streets where there was not one poor family ib 

*> Baxter's < Reformed Pastor' may be considered as a full illustratioti of the 
practice wbicli be here describes as his owu, connected ivitb the principles fay 
Mfbich it is recommended and enforced. Of that vtork I shall have occasion 
to speali in another place ; it is only necessary to remark, at present, the con- 
sistency between the views which Baxter maintained with so much ardoufy 
and the conduct which he himself pursued. Those who regard his views of 
the ministry as impracticable, have only to remember that Baxter, diseased, 
emaciated, and in deaths oft, exemplified the conduct which he so admirably 
describes. 



Ol^ RICHARD BAXTBR. 119 

the aide that did not no ; and that did not^ by professing serious 
godliness, give us hopes of their sincerity. And in those families 
which were the worst, being inns and alehouses, usually some 
persons in each house did seem to be religious. 

" Though our administration of the Lord's Supper was so or- 
dered as displeased many, and the far greater part kept away, 
we had six hundred that were communicants; of whom there 
were not twelve that I had not good hopes of as to their since- 
rity ; those few who consented to our communion, and yet lived 
scandalously, were excommunicated aftenvards. I hope there 
we^e also many who had the fear of God, that came not to our 
communion in the sacrament, some of them being kept off by hus- 
bands, by parents, by masters, and some dissuaded by men that 
diffiered from us. Those many that kept away, yet took it pa- 
tiently, and did not revile us as doing them wrong : and those 
rniraly young men who were excommunicated, bore it patiently 
as to their outward behaviour, though their hearts were full of 
bitterness. 

" When I set upon personal conference with each family, and 
catechising them, there were very few families in all the town 
that refused to come; and those few were beggars at the town's 
ends, who virere so ignorant, that they were ashamed it should 
be manifest. Few families went from me without some tears, 
or seemingly serious promises for a godly life. Yet many ig- 
norant and ungodly persons there were still among us : but 
most of them were in the parish, and not in the town, and in 
those parts of the parish which were farthest from the town. 
And whereas one part of the parish was impropriate, and paid 
tithes to laymen, and the other part maintained the church, a 
brook dividing them, it fell out that almost all that side of the 
parish which paid tithes to the church, were godly, honest peo- 
ple, and did it willingly, without contestation, and most of the 
bad people of the parish lived on the other side. Some of the 
poor men did competently understand the body of divinity, and 
were able to judge in difficult controversies. Some of them were 
so able in prayer, that very few ministers did match them in 
order and fulness, and apt expressions, and holy oratory, with 
fervency. Abundance of them were able to pray very laudably 
with their families, or with others. The temper of their minds, 
and the innocency of their lives, were much more laudable than 
their parts. The professors of serious godliness were generally 
of very humble minds and carriage ; of meek and quiet behaviour 



120 THE LIFB AND TIMBS 

unto others ; and of blamelessness and innocency in their con- 
versation. 

'^ God was pleased also to give me abundant encouragement 
in the lectures I preached about in other places; as at Worces- 
ter, Cleobury, &c., but especially at Dudley and Sheflnal. At 
the former of which, being the first place that ever I preached in, 
the poor nailers^ and other labourers, would not only crowd the 
church as full as ever I saw any in London, but also hang upon 
the windows and the leads without. 

*^ In my poor endeavours with my brethren in the ministry, my 
labours were not lost ; our disputatious proved not unprofitable. 
Our meetings were never contentious, but always comfortable ; 
we took great delight in the company of each other ; so that I 
know that the remembrance of those days is pleasant both to 
them and me. When discouragements had long kept me from 
motioning a way of church order and discipline, which all might 
agree in, that we might neither have churches ungoverned, nor 
fall into divisions among ourselves, at the first mentioning of it, 
I found a readier consent than I could have expected, and all 
went on without any great obstructing difiiculties. When I 
attempted also to bring them all conjointly to the work of cate- 
chising and instructing every family by itself, I found a ready 
consent in most, and performance in many. 

*' I must here, then, to the praise of my dear Redeemer, set 
up this pillar of remembrance, even to his praise who hath em- 
ployed me so many years in so comfortable a work, with such 
encouraging success. O what am I, a worthless worm, not 
only wanting academical honours, but much of that furniture 
which is needful to so high a work, that God should thus abun- 
dantly encourage me, when the reverend instructors of my youth 
did labour fifty years together in one place, and could scarcely 
say they had converted one or two in their parishes ! And the 
greater was the mercy, because I was naturally of a discouraged 
spirit ; so that if I had preached one year, and seen no fruits of 
it, I should hardly have forborne running away, like Jonah ; but 
should have thought that God called me not to that place. 

" Having related my comfortable success in this place, I shall 
next tell you by what and how many advantages this was ef- 
fected, under that grace which worketh by means, though with 
a free diversity. I do it chiefly for their sakes who would know 
the means of other men's experiments in managing ignorant 
and sinful parishes. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 121 

^' One advantage was^ that I came to a people who never had 
any awakening ministry before^ but a few formal cold sermons 
from the curate ; for if they had been hardened under a powerful 
ministry, and been sermon proof, I should have expected less. 

^ I was then, also, in the vigour of my spirats, and had na- 
turally a familiar moving voice, (which is a great matter with the 
common hearers), and doing all in bodily weakness as a dying 
man, my soul was the more easily brought to seriousness, and 
to preach as a dying man to dying men. For drowsy formality 
and custom ariness doth but stupify the hearers, and rock them 
asleep. It must be serious preaching, which will make men 
serious in hearing and obeying it. 

. ^^ Another advantage was, that most of the bitter enemies of 
godliness in the town, who rose in tumults against me before, 
in their hatred of Puritans, had gone out into the wars, into the 
king's armies, and were quickly killed, and few of them ever 
returned again ; and so there were few to make any great op- 
position to godliness. 

'^ The change that was made in the public affairs also by the 
success of the wars, which, however it was done, and though 
much corrupted by the usurpers, was such as removed many and 
great impediments to men's salvation. Before, the rabble had 
boldness enough to make serious godliness a common scorn, and 
call them all Puritans and Precisians who cared not little for 
God, and heaven, and their souls, as they did ; especially if a 
man was not fully satisfied with their undisciplined, disordered 
churches, or lay-chancellor's excommunications, &c. Then, no 
name was bad enough for him ; and the bishops' articles in- 
quiring after such, and their courts, and the high-commission 
grievously afflicting those who did but fast and pray together, or 
go from an ignorant, drunken reader, to hear a godly, able preacher 
at the next parish, kept religion among the vulgar under 
either continual reproach or terror ; encouraging the rabble to 
despise and revile it, and discotiraging those that else would own 
it. Experience telleth us that it is a lamentable impediment 
to men's conversion when it is a * way everywhere spoken 
against,' and persecuted by superiors, which they must embrace; 
and when at their first approaches, they must go through such 
clangers and obloquy as is fitter for confirmed Christians to be 
exercised with, than unconverted sinners or young beginners. 
Though Cromwell gave liberty to all sects among us, and did 
not set up any party alone by force, yet this much gave abundant 



182 Tfih LIFB ANt> riMiS 

sldvatitage to the GD!t))eI, reifiotitig the prejtldic^ and the teitors 
^hich hihdered it ; * especially considering; that godliness htA 
caunteiititice, and reputatidn also, as well as liberty* Wh^reM 
before, if it did not appear in all the fetters and formalities tt thd 
times, it was the common Way to shame and ruin. Hearing 
sermons abroad, when there were none or worse at hdme ) fast* 
ing and praying together ; the strict observation of the Lord's 
day, and suchl-ike, went under the dangerous natne of Puri- 
tanism, as much as opposing bishops and ceremonies. 

" I know you may now meet with men who confidently 
affirm that all religion was then trodden down, and heresy 
and schism were the only piety; but I give watning to all 
ages by the experience of this incredible age, that they take 
heed how they believe any, whoever they be, while they ar# 
speaking for the interest of their factions and opinions^ against 
those that were their real or supposed adversaries.* 

'* For my part I bless God, who gave me even under an tisurpef 
whom I opposed, such liberty and advantage to preach his 
Gospel with success, as I cannot have under a king to whom 
I have sWorn and performed true subjection and obedience ^ 
yea, such as no age, since the Gospel came into this laiid, did 
before possess, as far as I can learn from history. I shall add 
this much more for the sake of posterity, that as much as I 
have said and written against licentiousness in religion, and (of 
the magistrates' power in it ; and though I think that land most 
happy whose rulers use their authority for Christ, as well as tbt 
the civil peace ; yet, in comparison of the rest of the world, I 
shall think that land happy which hath but bare liberty to be as 
good as the people are willing to be. And if countenance and 
maintenance be but added to liberty, and tolerated errors and 
sects be but forced to keep the peace, and not to oppose the 
substantial of Christianity, I shall not hereafter much fear such 
toleration, nor despair that truth will bear down its adversaries.* 
'^ Another advantage which I found, was the acceptation of 

* Could the reader wish for a atrooger testimony in favour of uni?ersal 
liberty than this ? Reli^on prospered more under the Usurper tbati under 
the legitimate soTereign. 

^ it is important to connect this statement fvith Baxter's account pven ia 
the preceding chapter of the sects and heresies of the period. They are net 
at variance with each other. But to answer certain purposes, it is not un- 
common to quote the worst representation of the case and to omit the other. 

* Here the good sense and Christian feelings of Baxter, evidently f et the 
better of aU his theoretical notions of civil government and the magistrates' 
power in rt ligion* 



oir MchArd baxtbr. 128 

AT ptt9M ainofig the people. Though, to win eatlmfltibn and 
love to ourselves only, be an end that none but proud men and 
hvtk>critea intend, yet it is most certain that the gratefulness of 
the person doth ingratiate the message^ and greatly prepareth 
\ht people to receive the truth. Had they taken me to be ig- 
norant, erroneous, scandalous, worldly, self-seeking, or such-like, 
I coold have expected small success among them. 

** Another advantage which I had, was the zeal and diligence 
of the godly people of the place. They thirsted after the sal- 
vation of their neighbours, and were in private my assistants, 
abd being dispersed through the town, were ready in almost all 
companies to repress seducing words, and to justify godliness, 
convince, reprove, and exhort men According to their needs ; 
as also to teach them how to pray i and to help them to sanc- 
tify the Lord's day. For those people who had none in their 
families who could pray, or repeat the sermons, went to their 
next neighbour's house who could do it, and joined with them ; 
80 that some of the houses of the ablest men in each street, were 
filled with them that could do nothing, or little, in their own. 

^ Their holy, humble, blameless lives were also a great advan- 
tage to me. The malicious people could not say. Your pro- 
fessors here are as proud and covetous as any ; but the blame- 
less lives of godly people did shame opposers, and put to silence 
the ignorance of foolish men, and many were won by their 
good conversation. 

' ^ Our unity and concord were a great advantage to us ; and 
our freedom from those sects and heresies, with which many 
other places were infected We had no private church, and 
though we had private meetings we had not pastor against pastor, 
or church against church, or sect against sect, or Christian 
against Christian. 

"Our private meetings were a marvellous help to the propa- 
gating of godliness, for thereby, truths that slipped away, were 
recalled, and the seriousness of the people's minds renewed, 
and good desires cherished. Their knowledge, also, was much 
increased by them, and the younger sort learned to pray by fre- 
quently hearing others. I had also the opportunity of knowing 
tlieir case ; for if any were touched and awakened in public, 
I should frequently see them drop into our private meetings. 
Idle meetings and loss of time were greatly prevented ; and so 
far were we from being by this in danger of schism, or divi- 
sions, that it was the principal means to prevent them; for 



124 THB LIFE AND TIMBS 

here I was usually present wi(h them, answering their doubts^ 
silencing objections, and moderating them in all. 

'^ Another thing which advantaged us, was some public dis* 
putations which we had with gainsayers, which very much con- 
firmed the people. The Quakers would fain have got enter- 
tainment, and set up a meeting in the town, and frequently 
railed at me in the congregation ; but when I had once given 
them leave to meet in the church for a dispute, and, before the 
people, had opened their deceits and shame, none would enter- 
tain them more, nor did they get one proselyte among us. 

^^ Another advantage, was the great honesty and diligence of 
my assistants. Another was the presence and countenance 
of honest justices of peace, who ordinarily were godly men, 
and always such as would be thought so, and were ready to use 
their authority to suppress sin and promote goodness. 

^'Another help to my success, was the small relief which my 
low estate enabled me to afford the poor; though the place was 
req^oned at near two hundred pounds per annum, there came but 
ninety pounds, and sometimes onlyeighty pounds to me. Beside 
which, some years I had sixty, or eighty pounds a year of the 
booksellers for my books : which little dispersed among them, 
much reconciled them to the doctrine that I taught. I took 
the aptest of their children from the school, and sent divers of 
them to the universities ; where for eight pounds a year, or 
ten, at most, by the help of my friends, I maintained them. 
Some of these are honest, able ministers, now cast out with 
their brethren ; but, two or three, having no other way to live, 
turned great Conformists, and are preachers now. In giving 
the little I had, I did not inquire whether they were good or 
bad, if they asked relief; for the bad had souls and bodies that 
needed charity most. And this truth I will speak to the en- 
couragement of the charitable, that what little money I have 
now by me, I got it almost all, I scarce know how, at that time 
when I gave most, and since I have had less opportunity of 
giving, I have had less increase. 

" Another furtherance of my work, was the books which I 
wrote, and gave away among them. Of some small books I gave 
each family one, which came to about eight hundred ; and of 
the bigger, I gave fewer: and every family that was poor, 
and had not a Bible, I gave a Bible to. I had found myself 
the benefit of reading to be so great, that I could not but 
think it would be profitable to others. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 125 

^ It was a great advantage to me, that my neighbours were 
of such a trade, as allowed them time enough to read or talk of 
holy things. For the town liveth upon the weaving of Kidder- 
minster stuffs ; and, as they stand in their looms, the men can set 
a book before them, or edify one another; whereas, ploughmen, 
and many others, are so wearied, or continually employed, 
either in the labours, or the cares of their callings, that it is a 
great impediment to their salvation. Freeholders and trades- 
men are the strength of religion and civility in the land ; and 
gentlemen, and beggars, and servile tenants, are the strength of 
iniquity. Though among these sorts, there are some also that 
are good and just, as among the other there are many bad. 
And their constant converse and traffic with London, doth 
much promote civility and piety among tradesmen. 

'^ I found also that my single life afforded me much advan- 
tage : for I could the easier take my people for my children, 
and think all that I had too little for them, in that I had no 
children of my own to tempt me to another way of using it. 
Being discharged from most of family cares, and keeping but 
one servant, I had the greater vacancy and liberty for the la- 
bours of my calling. 

'^ God made use of my practice of physic among them also 
as a very great advantage to my ministry ; for they that cared 
not for their souls, did love their lives, and care for their bodies; 
andyby this, they were made almost as obsen'ant, as a tenant 
is of his landlord. Sometimes I could see before me in the 
church, a very considerable part of the congregation, whose 
lives God had made me a means to save, or to recover their 
health ; and doing it for nothing so obliged them, that they 
would readily hear me. 

" It was a great advantage to me, that there were at last few 
that were bad, but some of their own relations were converted : 
many children did God work upon, at fourteen, fifteen, or six- 
teen years of age ; and this did marvellously reconcile the 
minds of the parents and elder sort to godliness. They that 
would not hear me, would hear their own children. Thev that 
before could have talked against godliness, would not hear it 
spoken against, when it was their children's case. Many who 
would not be brought to it themselves, were proud that they 
had understanding, religious children ; and we had some old 
persons of eighty years of age, who are, I hope, in heaven, and 



}36 TliB hlFR 4NP TlU^B 

the cpnveraion of their own children, was the chief meani to 
overcome their prejudice^ and old customs, and conceits, 

^' Another great help to my success at last, was the foraierlj 
described work of personal conference with every family ap^ 
with catechising and instructing them. That which waa spoken 
to them personally, and which put them sometimes upon answersi 
awakened their attention, and was easier applied than public 
preaching, and seemed to do much more upon them, 

*^ llie exercise of church discipline was no small ftirtherance 
of the people's good : for I found plainly, that without it, I 
could not have kept the religious sort from separation and divi- 
sions/ There is something generally in their dispositioni, 
which inclineth them to dissociate from open ungodly sinnen, 
as men of another nature and society; and if they had not seen 
me do something reasonable for a regular separation of the no- 
torious, obstinate sinners from the rest, they would irregu- 
larly have withdrawn themselves. It had not been in my 
power with bare words to satisfy them, when they saw we had 
liberty to do what we would. And so, for fear of disciplinei 
all the parish kept oiF except about six hundred, when there were 
in all above sixteen hundred at an age to be communicants. Yet 

' The entire want of discipline which has always characterised the Esta- 
hlbhed Church, is one of its greatest blots. There is no separatinii wbatevtr 
between the precious and the vile. The purity of Christian fellowship, or the 
distinction betwec!t] the church and the world, can neither, therefore, be un- 
derstood nor practised. On this subject, Baxter says, referring to the ri»e of 
the Puritans : — « There was scarcely any such a thing as church govcrmpcvt 
or discipline known in the land, but only the harassing of those who dissftoficd 
from them. In all my life, I never lived in the parish where one person wai 
publicly admonished, or brought to public penitence, or excommunicated^ 
though there were never so many obstinate drunkards, wfaoremongfen, or 
vilest offenders. Only ] have known now and then one for getting a bastayd* 
that went to the bishop's court and paid bis fees ; and f heard of two or three 
in all the country, in all my life, that stood in a white sheet an hour in the 
church ; but the ancient discipline of the church was unknown. And, indeed, 
it was made by them impossible, when one man that lived at a distance fioin 
them, and knew not one of many hundreds of the flock, did take upon him the 
sole jurisdiction, and executed it not by himself, but by a lay chancellor, ex- 
cluding the pastors of the several congregations, who were but to Join with 
the churchwardens and the apparitors in presenting men, and bringiof 
them into their courts ; and an impossible task roust needs be unperformed. 
And so the controversy, as to the letter and outside, was, fflio shall be the 
govemort of all the particular churches? But to the sense and inside of it, it 
was, f^hether there should be any effectual church government, or nttt 
IVhereupon, those that pleaded for discipline, were called by the new name of 
the disciplinarians ; as if it had been a kind of heresy to desire discipline to 
the c\msc\i.**'-'ReformedPast9ry ffbrks, vol. xiv. p. 145. 



OF RICHARO BAXTER. 12/ 

because it Wju their own doing, wd they knew they might come 
in when they would, they were quiet in their separation ; for we 
look them for the Separatists. Those that scrupled our ges- 
ture at the sacrament, I openly told that they should have 
it in their own. Yet did I baptise all their children, but made 
them first, as I would have done by strangers, give me privately, 
or publicly if they had rather, an account of their faith ; and if 
any father was a scandalous sinner, I made him confess his sin 
^ openly, mth seeming penitence, before I would baptise his 
child. If be refused it, I forbore till the mother came to pre- 
sent it ; for I rarely, if ever, found both father and mother so 
d^titute of knowledge and faith, as in a church sense to be in- 
capable hereof.' 

^Another advantage which I found to my success, was, by 
ordering my doctrine to them in a suitableness to the main end, 
and yet so as might suit their dispositions and diseases. The 
things which I daily opened to them, and with greatest impor- 
tunity laboured to imprint upon their minds, were the great 

r Baxter appean to liave maintained a most vigilant and effective discipline 
ii hU coDgregatioQ. Of bis fidelity to individuals, many proofs remain in the 
pointed letters which be wrote to them. The following is a specimen, from 
the Baxter MSS.in Redcross Street Library, which I select chiefly on account 
of its brevity. It shows how much of Congregationalism was in Baxter's system 
of church polity. 

" George Nichols^ 
" Because you shall have no pretence to say that we deal hardly with you, I 
ibaU not meddle with that which is commonly called excommunication against 
yoia. But because you have disclaimed your membership, and denied to ex- 
press repentance of it, even in private, which you should have done in public, 
1 shall this day acquaint the church of your sin and separation, (in which you. 
bave broken your covenant to God and us,) and that you are no more a mem- 
ber of this church or of my pastoral charge. 1 shall do no more, but 
ihall leave the rest to God, who will do more, only I shall desire the 
church to pray for your repentance and forgiveness ; and, therefore, desire 
you this day to be there and join with us in those prayers. And then, 
except you openly lament your sin, you shall be troubled with my admo- 
nitions no more. From this time forward 1 have doue with you, till either 
God correct you, or I and my warnings and labours be brought in aa a wit- 
ness against you to your confusion. 

'* Your compassionate Friend, 

« RICHARD BAXTER. 
" Jan. 28, 1658." 
The answer to this, is on the same sheet in another hand. 

«♦ Sir, 
" Except Pearshall, your Constable, will come to church, and there ac- 
knowledge that he has done me wrong in saying I was drunk^ 1 shall not ap- 
pear there. So I rest, 

** Your Servant, 

" GEORGE NICHOLS." 



128 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

fundamental principles of Christianity contained in their bap^ 
tismal covenant, even a right knowledge and belief of, and sub- 
jection and love to, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost ; love to all men, and concord with the church and one 
another. I did so daily inculcate the knowledge of God our 
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, love and obedience to 
God, unity with the church catholic, and love to men and the 
hope of life eternal, that these were the matter of their daily 
cogitations and discourses, and, indeed, their religion. 

" Yet, I did usually put in something in my sermon, which was . 
above their own discovery, and which they had not known before ; 
and this I did that they might be kept humble, and still perceive 
their ignorance, and be willing to keep in a learning state. For 
when preachers tell their people of no more than they know, 
and do not show that they excel them in knowledge, and scarcely 
overtop them in abilities, the people will be tempted to turn • 
preachers themselves, and think that they have learned all that 
the ministers can teach them, and are as wise as they. Hiey 
will be apt to contemn their teachers, and wrangle with all their , 
doctrines, and set their wits against them, and hear them as 
censurers, and not as disciples, to their own undoing, and to the 
disturbance of the church ; and thus they will easily draw dis- 
ciples after them. The bare authority of the clergy will not 
serve the turn, without overtopping ministerial abilities. I did 
this, also, to increase their knowledge, and to make religion plea- 
sant to them, by a daily addition to their former light, and to 
draw them on with desire and delight. But these things which 
they did not know before, were not unprofitable controversies 
which tended not to edification, or novelties in doctrine contrary 
to the universal church; but either such points as tended to illus- 
trate the great doctrines before mentioned, or usually about the 
right methodizing of them. The opening of the true and pro- 
fitable method of the creed, or doctrine of faith ; the Lord's 
Prayer, or matter of our desires ; and the ten commandments^ ^ 
or the law of practice. 

*^ Another thing that helped me, was, my not meddling with 
tithes or worldly business, whereby I had my whole time, except 
what sickness deprived me of, for my duty, and my mind more 
free from entanglements than else it would have been ; and^ 
also, I escaped the offending of the people, and contending by 
any law-suits with them. Three or four of my neighbours 
managed all those kind of businesses, of whom I never took ac- 



OF filCHARD BAXTBR. 



129 



eouiit $ and if any one refused to pay his tithes, if he was poor^ 
I ordered them to forgive it him. After that, I was constrained 
to' let the tithes be gathered, as by my title, to save the gatherers 
from lawsuits. But if the parties were able, I ordered them 
to seek it by the magistrate, with the damage, and give both 
my part and the damages to the poor ; for I resolved to have 
none of it myself that was recovered by law, and yet I could 
not tolerate the sacrilege and fraud of covetous men. Wheu 
they knew that thb was the rule I went by, none of them that 
Here able would do the poor so great a kindness as to deny the 
payment of their tithes. In my own family, I had the help of 
ny father and stepmother^ and the benefit of a godly, under- 
standings faithful servant, an ancient woman, near sixty years' 
oM, who eased me of all care, and laid out all my money for 
hooaekeeping ; so that I never had one hour's trouble about it^ 
Qor ever took one day's account of her for fourteen years to- 
gether, as being certain of her fidelity, providence, and skill. 

^ Finally, it much furthered my success, that I staid still in 
this one place, near two years before the wars, and above four- 
teen years after ; for he that removeth oft from place to place, 
nay sow good seed in many places, but is not likely to see 
mnch fruit in any, unless some other skilful hand shall follow 
him to water it. ' It was a great advantage to me to have almost 
all the religious people of the place, of my own instructing and 
informing; and that they were not formed into erroneous and 
factious principles before ; and that I staid to see them grow 
up to some confirmedness and maturity. 

*^ Our successes were enlarged beyond our own congregations, 
by the lectures kept up round about. To divers of them I went 
as oft as I was able; and the neighbouring ministers, oftener than 
I; especially Mr. Oasland, of Bewdley, who, having a strong 
body, a zealous spirit, and an earnest utterance, went up and 
down preaching from place to place, with great acceptance and 
success. But this business, also, we contrived to be universally 
and orderly managed. For, beside the fixed lectures set up 
on week days, in several places, we studied how to have them 
extend to every place in the county that had need. For when 
the parliament purged the ministry, they cast out the grosser 
sort of insufficient and scandalous ones, such as gross drunkards 
and the like ; and also some few civil men that had assisted in 
the wars against the parliament, or set up bowing to altstrs, or 
such innovations; but they had left in nearly one half the minis- 

vou I. K 



ISO THB UFB AND TIMSS 

tersy that were not good enough to do much service, or bad 
enough to be cast out as utterly intolerable. There were many 
poor, weak preachers who had no great skill in divinity, or zeal 
for godliness ; but preached weakly that which is true, and lived 
in no gross, notorious sin. These men were not cast out, but 
yet their people greatly needed help ; for their dark, sleepy 
preaching did but little good. We, therefore, resolved that some 
of the abler ministers should often voluntarily help them ; but. 
all the care was how to do it without offending them. 

'^ It fell out seasonably that the Londoners of that county, at 
their yearly feast, collected about thirty pounds, and sent it me 
by that worthy man, Mr. Thomas Stanley, of Bread-«treet, to 
set up a lecture for that year. We, therefore, covered all our 
designs under the name of the Londoners' Lecture, which took 
off the offence. We chose four worthy men, Mr. Andrew 
Tristram, Mr. Henry Oasland, Mr. Thomas Baldwin, and Mr. 
Joseph Treble, who undertook to go, each man his day, once a 
month, which was every Lord's day among the four, and to 
preach at those places which had most need twice on the Lord's 
day. To avoid all ill consequences and offence, they were 
sometimes to go to abler men's congregations ; and wherever 
they came, to say something always to draw the people to the 
honour and special regard of their own pastors, that, how weak 
soever they were, they might see that we came not to draw 
away the people's hearts from them, but to strengthen their 
hands, and help them in their work. 

^^This lecture did a great deal of good; and though the Lon- 
doners gave their money but that one year, when it was once 
set on foot, we continued it voluntarily, till the ministers were 
turned out and all these works went dou'n together. 

^* So much of the way and helps of those successes, which I 
mention, because many have inquired after them, as willing, with 
their own flocks, to take that course which other men have by 
experience found to be effectual." ^ 

I have thus given an abridged but faithful statement of Bax- 
ter's labours and success, during the most important period of 
his public ministry, and of the principal means which promoted 
that success. In few instances have the ministers of Christ 
been honoured to be so extensively useful to the souls of their 
hearers ; and where eminent success has occurred we have not 

^ Life^ part i., pp. 63—96. 



tlmgrs beeo •uffieietitl/ infonned of the meani by which it hu * 
kwD promoted. The secret of hit success, Baxter has disclosed 
Is us in the most faithful and interesting manner. While we 
sdmire the grace of God which so abmidantijr rested npon his 
idKmrs^ we cannot but notice at the same time, the extraordi-* 
nary suitableness and adaptation, both of the instrument him-^ 
ad^ and of the means which he employed in the work he 
was honoured to accomplish. To a few points in the preced- 
ing statement, I hope I shall be forgiven for turning the atten- 
tion of the Christian mmister. 

Abstracting all the temporary and local circumstances to 
which Baxter adverts as fiivourable to his success, the sim- 
^irity and intense ardour of his preaching demand oxxe notice. 
It waa Admirably adapted to instruct the ignorant, to rouse the 
eardesa, and to build up the faithful. He sought out acceptable 
words, but he had neither time nor taste for making what are 
called fine sermons; he studied point, not brilliancy. His object 
was not to dazzle, but to convince; not to excite admiration 
of faimaelf, but to procure the reception of his message. He never 
aimed at drawing attention to the preacher, but always at fixing 
it at home, or guiding it to Christ. He never '^ courted a grin,'^ 
when he might have '' wooed a soul ;'' or played with the hncff 
wlien he should have been dissecting the heart. His subjects 
were always the most important which can engage the attention 
of man, — the creed, the commandments, and the Lord's prayer} 
or, according to his own simple definition of them— -the things 
to be believed, the things to be done, and the things to be desired. 
These were the leading, indeed, the only topics of his ministry^ 
Into these he-entered with all the intense ardour of his acute and 
deeply impressible mind. He never spoke like a man who was 
indifferent whether his audience felt what he said, or considered 
him in earnest on the subject. His eye, his action, his every 
wwd, were expressive of deep and impassioned earnestness, 
that his hearers might be saved. His was eloquence of the 
highest order ; not the eloquence of nicely-selected words-* 
or the felicitous combination of terms and phrases-— or the 
music of exquisitely-balanced periods, (though these proper- 
ties are frequentiy to be found in Baxter's discourses) : but the 
eloquence of the most important truths, vividly apprehended, 
and energetically delivered. It was the eloquence of a soul 
burning with ardent devotion to God, and inspired with the deep- 
est cc^passion for men ; on whom the powers of the worlds 

k2 



132 TAB LIFS ANJ> TIMES 

of darkness, and of light, exercised their mighty influence^ 
and spoke through his utterances, all that was tremendous in 
warning, and all that was delightful in invitation and love. He 
was condescending to the ignorant, faithful to the self-righteous 
and careless, tender to the timid and afflicted ; in a word, as a 
preacher, he became all things to all men, if by any means he 
might save some. It was impossible that such a man shpuld 
labour in vain. 

Another thing which strikes us in the ministerial conduct of 
Baxter, was his careful avoidance of everything which might pre- 
judice his hearers against him, and his diligent cultivation of 
whatever was likely to gain their favour, or secure their impartial 
attention. No one could be less of a man-pleaser than he was; 
for, apart from promoting the object of his ministry, he was re- 
gardless of human frown or favour. But he considered nothing 
unimportant, which either stood in the way of his success, 
or was likely to promote it. His conduct, in regard to his 
tithes; his remaining unmarried; his practising physic; his 
, liberality to the poor ; his distribution of books, &c., were aU 
intended to be subservient to liis great work. The gaining of 
souls to Christ was the only object for which he lived. Hence, 
amidst the seeming variety of his pursuits and engagements, 
there was a perfect harmony of design. His ruling and 
controlling principle, was the love of his Master, producing 
the desire of a full and faithful discharge of his duty as his 
approved minister. This was the centre around which every 
thing moved, and by which every thing in his circumstances and 
character was attracted or repelled. This gave unity to all his 
plans, and constituted the moral force of all his actions. It 
gave enlightened energy to his zeal, exquisite tenderness to his 
persuasions, warmth and fervency to his admonitions. It poured 
over all his public and private ministrations that holy unction, 
which diffused its fragrance, spreading its bland and refreshing 
influences all around. 

A third point worthy of observation in his ministry, is, that 
it was not limited to the pulpit, or considered as discharged in 
the parlour. The blow which he aimed at the mass in public, 
was followed by successive strokes addressed to the individuals, 
in private. The congregation was not permitted to forget, during 
the week, what they had been taught on the sabbath. The man 
who would have been lost in the crowd, or who might have 
sheltered Jiimself under the exceptions which belong to a geoeinl 



* row ftlCHAAD BAXm« IS3 

jiddresfly was ringled oat, cdnvicted, and shut up to the fiuth, or 
left to bear the stings of an instructed and alarmed conscience. 
The young were interested, and led on ; the wavering were ad- 
monished, and established ; the strong were taught to minister 
to the weak ; and the prayers of many a holy band, at once, 
strengthened the hands of their minister, and '^girded each other 
for the race divine.'" lliis was truly making full proof of his 
ministry, and promoting in hi^ congregation the grand objects 
and aims of the fellowship of Christianity. 

When we thus connect the public talents, and private eh»- 
lacter of Baxter; the energy and point of his pulpit addresses 
with the assiduousness, the perseverance, and the variety, of his 
• other labours ; his devotion to God, his disinterested love to 
men; what he was as a/Mt^or, with all that he was as tBipreacher; 
we cease to wonder at the effects which he produced. No place 
eould loog resist such a train and style of aggression. All peo* 
pie must feel the force of such a moral warfiire as that which 
he waged. There are few individuals, who could escape with- 
out being wounded, or conquered, by such an assailant. In 
eomparisoii with him, how few are there even among the fiiith- 
M ministers of Christ, who can think of themselves, or their 
labours with satisfaction I Yet, was there nothing in Baxter, 
but what the grace and power of God can do for others, lliere 
was something in his exertions, almost super-human; yet he 
teemed to accomplish all with a considerable degree of ease and 
eomfort to himself. He never seems to have been bustled, 
bat he was always busy ; and thus he found time for all he had 
to do, while he employed that time in the most profitable man- 
ner. We have only to find an increase of such ministers in the 
church of Christ, and who will employ the same kind of means, 
in order to the accomplishment, in any place, of effects that will 
not shrink from a comparison with Kidderminster itself in all 
its glory. 

The effecto of Baxter's labours, in Kidderminster, were last- 
ing, as well as extensive. He frequently refers to his beloved 
flock, long after he had left them, in terms of the warmest af- 
fection. Many of them continued to adorn the doctrine of God, 
their Saviour, till they finished their mortal course ; and, doubt- 
less, now constitute their pastor*s crown of rejoicing in the 
presence of their Redeemer. Nor did the effects of his exer- 
tions expire with that generation. Mr. Fawcett, who abridged 
the ' Saints Rest,' in 1759, says^ ^ that the religious spirit thus 



134 THB LIFB AND TIUMB 

happily introduced by Baxter^ is yet to be traced, in the town, 
and neighbourhood in some degree."^ He represents the pro- 
fessors of that place, as ^^ possessing an unusual degree of can- 
dour, and friendship, for each other.'^ Thus evincing, ^^that 
Kidderminster had not totally lost the amiable spirit it had 
imbibed more than a century before/' j 

When the Gospel was removed from the Church, it was carried 
to the Meeting; though at what time a separate congregation 
was regularly established, cannot now be satisfactorily ascer- 
tained. Baxter was not friendly to an entire separation from 
the church, and carried his opposition to it so far, as seriously 
to offend some of his old congregation, who could not endare the 
teaching of his successors. A separation accordingly took place, 
which laid the foundation of a large dissenting congregation. 

On Baxter's removal from Kidderminster, he recommended 
to the people to be guided by Mr. Serjeant, then minister of 
Stone, who had formerly assisted him ; and Mr. Thomas Bald- 
win, who had acted as schoolmaster in Kidderminster, and was 
both a good scholar and possessed of respectable ministerial 
qualifications. Mr. Baldwin was minister of the parish of 
Chaddesly till the Bartholomew ejectment : he then removed 
to Kidderminster, and settled with the Nonconformists who left 
the church. His ministry was repeatedly interrupted ; but he 
died in Kidderminster, in 1693. After his death, Mr. White, 
the vicar of the parish, preached and published his funeral ser- 
mon ; in which he speaks in the highest terms of his piety, his 
talents, and his moderation. He was, in all respects, worthy to 
be the successor of Baxter. The sermon is honourable alike 
to the preacher and to the deceased.^ 

He was succeeded by Mr. Francis Spilsbury, son of the 
Rev. John Spilsbury, the ejected minister of Bromsgrove, and 
nephew to Dr. Hall, Bishop of Bristol. He was ordained in 
the year 1693, and after a useful ministry of thirty-four years, 
died in 1727. His uncle, the Bishop, who was also Master 
of Pembroke College, Oxford^ and Margaret Professor, used to 
visit him, and reside in his family, where he was attended by his 
clergy, while his nephew preached in the meeting. He was suc- 
ceeded by the Rev. Matthew Bradshaw, who married his daugh- 
ter. He was a man of similar sentiments and spirit, and la- 
boured in the congregation till the year 1745, when he was sue- 

^ Preface. J Dedication. 

^ life, part iii. p. 92 ; Nonoon. Mam, iii. pp. 389, 390 ; White's Sermon. 



ov micHAiB luornnu 139 

ceeded liy Beigamin Fawcett, a favourite pupil of Dr. Doddridge^ 
and who abridged several of Baxter's works. His death took 
place in 1780.^ ' After that event a division occurred^ which 
led to the erection of another meeting, of which the Rev. Robert 
Gentleman^ who edited Orton's Exposition of the Old TesU- 
ment, became the first minister. 

In the original congregation, Mr. Barrett became the sue- 
eessor of Fawcett ; he was a man of respectable talents. He 
was followed by Mr. Steill, now of Wigan, in Lancashire ; on 
whose removal, Mr. Thomas Helmore, educated at Gosport, 
was ordained to the pastoral office in 1810. He was foUowed 
by Mr. Joseph John Freeman, now a missionary in Madagascar ; 
iHiose place has been supplied by Dr. James Roesj formerly a 
missionary at Karass, in Russian Tartary."^ 

' Manjr psrticulan respectini^ these parties may be seen in Mr. Hanbuiy's 
** Enlarged Diary, Ac., of Mr. Joseph WiUiams, of Kidderminster/' See 
ahe, ** Orton's Letters to Dissenting Ministers $" in the second ▼oloma of 
vUcli there is a short memoir of Mr. Fawcett. 

* The polpit in which Baxter preached is stili ^reserred. Aboat forty years 

ago it was sold, together with the pewiug of the parish church> for a trifling 

Mm. A pentleman. anxious to jMreserve it from destruction, bought it from 

the first purchaser for Ayt pounds, and placed it in the vestry of the new 

meeting. It is ratlier a handsome production of its icind. It is 6f an octagon 

fcrm. The pannels have iong carved flowers on them^ which are painted 

different colours, and some of the gilding still remains. There is a large 

loanding-board surmounted by a crown upon a cushion. Around the top is 

inscril>edy " And call upon his oame, declare his works among the people." 

(Psalm cv.) It was not built for Baxter, but appears to have been the gift of 

Alice Dawkx, in the year 1621. 



136 THE LiPfi AND TIMES 



CHAPTER VI. 

1648-1660. 



The Cominonwealth— Crorowcirs treatment of his Parliaments— The Trien 
— Committee of Fundamentals — Principles on which Baxter acted towards 
Cromwell— Preaches before him — Interviews with him — Admission of the 
Benefits of Cromwell's Government— Character of Cromwell— Remarkf on 
that character — Richard's Succession and Retirement — ^The Restoratioii-^ 
Baxter goes to London — Preaches before Parliament — Preaches before the 
JLiord Mayor — ^The King's Arrival in London — Reception by the Londoa 
Ministers— Notices of various labours of Baxter during his second residcnoe 
in Kidderminster — Numerous Works written during this period-— Extensive 
Correspondence — Concluding Observations, 

Having, in the preceding chapter, given a full view of th^ 
manner in which Baxter acted in his ministerial capacity, dur- 
ing the period of his second residence in Kidderminster, com- 
prehending fourteen years of the most active and interesting 
period of his life, we shall now collect some of his views re- 
specting the political events and characters of the Common- 
wealth, and notice certain parts of his conduct in relation to 
the parties in power. 

To give a full detail of the rapidly- shifting scenes which then 
passed along the stage, or of the principles and conduct of all 
the actors, is impracticable ; but a view of the times of Baxter 
would be imperfect, without some notice of them ; 1 can only 
make a selection, and that selection shall be chiefly in Baxter's 
own words. 

His former connexion with the army of the Commonwealth, 
had furnished him with opportunities of knowing the characters 
of not a few of the leading men, in many respects favourable to 
his forming a correct judgment of their characters, and of the 
principles by which they were actuated; while his conscientious 
fidelity led him to speak, both to them and of them, so plainly 
as to leave no ambiguity whatever as to the estimate which he 
formed. 

Every thing relative to Oliver Cromwell still possesses consi- 



OF RICHARD BAXTER, 187 

derabl6 interest ; and as Baxter has said a good deal respecting 
him, it woidd be unjustifiable in these memoirs, to omit the 
substance of the information which he has furnished. The 
following account quite harmonises with other documents 
which record the transactions of the times* Having given a 
uarradve of the final defeat of the royal army, of the flight of 
Charles II. to France, and of the policy pursued toward Scot* 
land, he thus describes the measures of the crafty Protector, in 
the treatment of his parliaments. 

^ Cromwell having thus far seemed to be a servant to the par- 
liament, and to work for his masters, the Rump, or Commons- 
wealth, did next begin to show whom he served, and take that 
impediment also out of the way. To this end, he first did by them 
18 he did by the Presbyterians, make them odious by hard speeches 
against them throughout his army ; as if they intended to perpe- 
tuate themselves, and would not be accountable for the money of 
the Commonwealth, &c. He also treated privately with many of 
them, to appoint a time when they would dissolve themselves, so 
that another free parliament might be chosen. But they per- 
ceived the danger, and were rather for filling up their number 
by new elections, which he was utterly against. 

^^ His greatest advantage to strengthen himself against them 
by the sectaries, was their owning the public ministry and its 
maintenance ; for though Vane and his party set themselves 
to make the ministers odious, and to take them down by re- 
proachful titles, still the greater part of the House did carry it 
for a sober ministry and competent maintenance. When the 
Quakers and others openly reproached the ministry, and the 
soldiers favoured them, I drew up a petition for the ministry, 
got many thousand hands to it in Worcestershire, and Mr. 
Thomas Foley and Colonel John Bridges presented it. The 
House gave it a kind and promising answer, which increased 
the sectaries' displeasure against the House. When a certain 
Quaker wrote a reviling censure of this petition, I wrote a de- 
fence of it, and caused one of them to be given to each parlia- 
ment-man at the door ; but within one day after this, they were 
dissolved.^ For Cromwell, impatient of any more delay, suddenly 
took Harrison and some soldiers with him, as if God had im- 
pelled him, and, as in a rapture, went into the House and re- 
proved the members for their faults. Pointing to Vane, he 

* These were published under the title of * The Worcestershire Petition/ 
and the * Defence of it ;' an account of which will be found in another placet 



138 THJC LIR AND TIBCfiS 

called him a juggler ; and to Henry Martin, caHed him whore* 
master ;°^ and having two such to instance in, took it for 
granted that they were all unfit to continue in the government 
of the Commonwealth, and out he turned them. So ended. the 
government of the Rump. No sort of people expressed any 
great offence that they were cast out, though almost all, save 
the sectaries and the army, did take him to be a traitor who 
did it. 

"The young Commonwealth being already headless, you 
might think that nothing was left to stand between Cromwell 
and the crown. For a governor there nmst be, and who should 
be thought fitter ? But yet there was another pageant to be 
played, which had a double end : first, to make the necessity 
of his government undeniable : and, secondly, to put his own 
soldiers, at last, out of love with democracy ; or, at least, to 
make those hateful who adhered to itl A parliament must be 
called, but the ungodly people are not to be trusted with the 
choice ; therefore the soldiers, as more religious, must be the 
choosers ; and two out of a county are chosen by the officers, 
upon the advice of their sectarian friends in the country. This 
was called in contempt, the Little ParUamentJ^ 

^^ Harrison became the head of the sectaries, and Cromwell 
now began to design the heading of a soberer party, who were 
for learning and a ministry ; but yet to be the equal protector 
of all. Hereupon, in the little sectarian parliament, it was put 
to the vote, whether all the parish ministers in England should 



■°> A very curious account of this facetious, but, I fear, profli^te commoiiery 
is given in ^ Aubrey's MisceUanies,* vol. ii. pp. 434— -437. A sarcatm of 
Charles the First, upon Martin, is there alleged tu have cost the king the loMi 
of the county of Berks. He was one of the king's judges, and is said to 
have owed his life to the wit of Lord Faulkland, and his own profligacy* 
** Gentlemen," said his Lordship, '' you talk of making a sacrifice. By the 
old law, all sacrifices were required to be without spot or blemish ; and aow 
you are going to make this old rotten rascal a sacrifice l" The Joke took, and 
saved Henry's life. 

" One of the best and fullest views which we have of CromweU's pailia- 
ments has been recently furnished in * Burton's Diary,' edited by Mr. TowiU 
Rutt. It shows us more of the working of the Protector's system than any 
former publication had done. Certainly, some of the members were not the 
best qualified of all men to be legislators, if we may judge from many of 
their opinions and expressions, as they here appear. They meddled with 
various matters, which they had much better have let alone ; though it is 
clear that even Old Noll, with all his power and sternness, could not make 
them do what he pleased. Scobell's acU of these parliaments shows, however, 
that some of their enactments were both wise and salutary. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBS. 189 

itooee be put down; and it was but accidentally carried in the 
negative by two voices.® It was taken for granted, that the 
tithes and universities would, at the next opportunity, be voted 
down ; and so Cromwell must be their saviour, or they must 
perish ; when he had purposely cast them into the pit, that 
they might be beholden to him to pull them out. But his game 
was so grossly played, that it made him the more loathed by 
men of understanding and sincerity. 80 Sir Charles Wolsley, 
and some others, took their tim^, and put it to the vote, whether 
the House, as incapable of serving the Commonwealth, should 
go and deliver up their power to Cromwell, from whom they 
had received it ; which was carried in the affirmative. So away 
they went, and solemnly resigned their power to him ; and now, 
who but Cromwell and his armv ? ^ 

f ^ The intelligent sort, by this time, did fully see that Crom- 

* This itatement is iDcorrect : no such question a» the aholition of the mi- 
nistry baviDg^ been discussed iu that parliament. ** On the 15th of July, 1653, 
the qucttion was proposed whether the fnaitUenance of ministers by tithes 
should be continued after the third day of November next : and the question 
being pot, that that question be now put, it passed in the negative. The 
noes is, yeas 43.*' — Journals of the House of Commons. This, I have no 
doubt, is the affair to which Baxter refers. The reader will easily distinguish 
between the abolition of tithes, and the abolition of the ministry. The fol- 
lowing extract from a report of the committee on tithes, appointed by this 
parliament, will show what were the real sentiments entertained by them on 
that subject. 1 am much deceived if they will nut be thought enlightened 
even at Uie present time. ** Resolved, that it be presented to the Parliament 
that all such as are or shall be approved for public preachers of the Gospel in 
the public meeting places, shall have and enjoy the maintenance already set- 
Ued by law ; and such other encuura^-ement as the Parliament hath already 
appointed, or hereafter shall appoint : and that where any scruple payment 
of tithes, the three next justices of the peace, or two of them, shall upon com- 
plaint call the parties before them ; and, by the oaths of lawful witnesses, 
shall duly apportion the value of the said tithes, to be paid either in money 
or land by them, to be set out according to the said value, to be held and en- 
joyed by him that was to have had the said tithes : and in case such appor- 
tiooed value be not duly paid, or enjoyed according to the order of the said 
justices, the tithes shall be paid in kind, and shall be recovered in any court 
of record. Upon hearing and considering what hath been offered to this 
committee touching propriety in tithes of incumbents, rectors, possessors of 
donatives, or propriate tithes, it is the opinion of this committee, and resolved 
to be reported so to the Parliament, the said persons have a legal propriety 
in tithes." — Joumai, Dec. 2, 1653. There is no evidence that the parlia- 
ment ever intended to put down the universities, or to alienate the lauds which 
belonged to them, from the purpose to which they were originally destined* 

» Cromwell, in his opening speech at the meeting of the ensuing parlia- 
ment, solemnly declared that he knew nothing of this act of dissolution, tiU 
the speaker and the members came and put it into his hands. It is strange 
if he was ignorant of it, and equally strange, if he. had a hand in it, that he 

should in public declare his ignorance.—* J^arrtf*f lAfe of Cronwell, p. 334. 



140 THE LIFB AND TIMES 

well's d^ign was, by causing and permitting destruction id 
hang over us, to necessitate the nation, whether it would or 
not, to take him for its governor, that he might be its pro* 
tector. Being resolved that we should be saved by him or 
perish, he made more use of the wild-headed sectaries than 
barely to fight for him. They now served him as much by their 
heresies, their enmity to learning and the ministry, and their per- 
nicious demands which tended to confusion, as they had done 
before by their valour in the field. He could now conjure up at 
pleasure some terrible apparition of agitators, levellers, or sudw 
like, who, as they affrighted the king, from Hampton Court, af« 
frighted the people to fly to him for refuge ; that the hand that 
wounded them, might heal them. Now he exclaimed against 
the giddiness of these unruly men, and earnestly pleaded for 
order, and government, and must needs become the patron of 
the ministry ; yet, so as to secure all others their liberty."* So 
much for the address and policy of this extraordinary man. 

One great object of Cromwell's government was the purifica* 
lion of the ministry. For this purpose, after the Westminster 
Assembly was dissolved, he appointed a body of Triers, consist^ 
ing, partly of ministers, partly of laymen, who examined 
all who were able to come to London ; but other cases 
they referred to a committee of ministers in the counties 
in which they lived. As strange accounts have been given of 
this body, and as Baxter himself disapproved of their constitu- 
tion and proceedings, it may be well to hear his account of 
them. 

^* Because this assembly of Triers is most heartily accused,, 
and reproached by some men, I shall speak the truth of them, 
and, I suppose, my word will be rather taken, because most of 
them took me for one of their boldest adversaries, as to their 
opinions, and because I was known to disown their power; in-^ 
somuch, that I refused to try any under them upon their refer- 
ence, except very few, whose importunity and necessity moved 
me, they being such, as for their episcopal judgment, or some 
such cause, the Triers were likely to have rejected. The truth 
is, that though their authority was mild, and though some few 
who were over^busy, and over-rigid Independents among them^ 
were too severe against all that were Arminians, and too parti- 
cular in inquiring after evidences of sanctification in those whom 

< Life, fart i. pp. 69— -71. 



09 HtCHARD BAXTER. 14 1 

they examined^ and Bomewhat too lax in their admission of 
onieamed and erroneous men, who favoured Antinomianism 
or Anabaptism ; yet to give them their due, they did abundance 
of good to the church. They saved many a congregation from 
ignorant, ungodly, drunken teachers; that sort of men, who 
intended no more in the ministry, than to say a sermon, as 
readers say their common prayers, and to patch up a few good 
words together, to talk the people asleep on Sunday, and all 
the rest of the week go with them to the alehouse, and harden 
them in their sin : imd that sort of ministers, who either preached 
against a holy life, or preached as men that never were 
acquainted with it. All those who used the ministry but as a 
coBimon trade to live by, and were never likely to convert a 
sou), they usually rejected, and in their stead they admitted 
persons of any denomination who were able, serious, preach- 
ers, and lived a godly life. So that though many of them 
were somewhat partial to the Independents, Separatists, Fifth- 
Monarchy men, and Anabaptists, and against the Prelatists and 
Arminians, so great was the benefit above the hurt which they 
brought to the church, that many thousands of souls blessed 
God for the faithful ministers whom they let in, and grieved 
when the Prelatists afterward cast them out again."' 

Whatever objections of a technical nature might be brought 
against Cromwell's Triers, after this impartial testimony to the 
general character of their proceedings, no person acquainted 
with the principles of the Gospel, and with what ought to con- 
stitute the character of its ministers, will object to the ejection 
of openly ignorant and ungodly teachers, and the substitution 
in their place of those who feared God, and were likely to care 
for the souls of men. It is evident, the Triers were not mere 
partisans, as they neither ejected men on account of their sen- 
timents respecting church government, nor supplied their places 
by persons of one profession. They may Iii^ve caused occasional 
kirdship and suffering, but it seems very clear from Baxter, 
that they were guided by sound principles, and prosecuted 
through good report and through bad report, the best interests 
of religion. 

Reference to the Triers leads me to notice Baxter's connex- 
ion with the committee appointed to digest and report respect- 
ing the fundamentals of religion, as the basis of a system of 

' lafe, parti, p. 72. 



142 THB LIFB AND TIMB8 

toleration, or religious liberty, to be adopted by theP^tment 
of the Commonwealth. He has given a long and carious 
account of the proceedings of this committee, and of his own 
conduct in it, the substance of which I have given in another 
place.' Baxter was appointed one of them by Lord Broghill, at 
the suggestion of Archbishop Usher. He came late, and after 
certain points had been determined, which they refused to alter* 
His interference, however, probably checked their proceeds 
ings, and contributed to defeat the object which some of them 
had in jiew. Not that he understood religious liberty better 
than the others, but he excelled them all in finding out objee* 
tions to whatever was proposed; though his own scheme would 
not have greatly improved what was determined by the miyo* 
rity. The most important result of this meeting to Baxter^ 
was its being the means of introducing him to Archbishop 
Usher, with whom he appears to have had much friendly 
intercourse, and with whose views of church government he 
nearly agreed. Usher was one of the most amiable of meOy 
and the most moderate of bishops ; whose enlightened senti* 
ments and suggestions, had they been attended to, would hav« 
preserved the country from many of the evils which befell it« 

The peculiar circumstances of the country, and the political 
management of Cromwell, naturally induced a great diversity of 
opinion among religious people, as to the nature and extent of 
the submission which they were called to render to the existing 
government. Some, regarding it as a usurpation, and influenced 
considerably by the doctrine of divine right, opposed and reviled 
it. Others regarded what appeared to be the arrangements 
of Providence, as the will of God that they should submit to^ 
asking no questions for conscience' sake. A third and numeroui 
body, in theory disputed the claims of Cromwell and his party^ 
but in practice quietly submitted to the laws which they enacted. 
Baxter in this, as in many other matters, pursued a course of 
his own. 

^^ I did seasonably and moderately, by preaching and printings 
condemn the usurpation, and the deceit which was the means to 
bring it to pass. I did in open conference declare Cromwell 
and his adherents to be guilty of treason and rebellion, aggra- 
vated by perfidiousness and hypocrisy.^ But yet I did not think 

■ Life, part ii. pp. 197—206. Owen's Memoirs, pp. 113—116. 
* Baxter changed his mind respecting his conduct to Cromwell at a sub- 
sequent period. In his * Penitent Confsssious/ written in 1691^ he says : *< I 



OF EICIURD BAXTER^ 143 

it my duty to rave against him in the pulpit, or to do this so un- 
seasonably and imprudently as might irritate him to mischief. 
And the rather because, as he kept up his approbation of a godly 
life in general, and of all that was good, except that which the 
interest of his sinful cause engaged him to be against ; so I per** 
cetved that it was his design to do good in the main, and to 
promote the Gospel and the interests of godliness, more than 
any bad done before him ; except in those particulars which 
were against his own interest. The principal means that hence- 
forward he trusted to for his establishment, was doing good^ 
that the people might love him, or at least be willing to have 
his government for that good, who were against it as it was 
usurpation.^ I made no question but that when the rightfill 
governor should be restored, the people who had adhered to 
him, being so extremely irritated, would cast out multitudes of 
the ministers, and undo the good which the usurper had doncj 
because he did it, and would bring abundance of calamity upon 
the land. Some men thought it a very hard question, whether 
they should rather wish the continuance of a usurper who did 
g0€>d, or the restitution of a rightful governor whose followers 
would do hurt. For my part I thought my duty was clear, to 
disown the usurper's sin what good soever he would do j and to 
perform all my engagement^ to a rightful governor, leaving the 
issue of all to God ; but yet to commend the good which a 

am in great doubt how far I did well or ill in my oppositjou to Cromwell and hit 
army at last. I am satisfied that it was my duty to disown, and as I said, to op- 
pose their rebellion and other sins. But there were many honest, pious men 
among them. And when God chooseth the e&ecutioner of justice as he pleas* 
etby I am oft in doubt whether I should not have been more passive and silent 
than I was ; though not as Jeremiah to Nebuchadnezzar, to persuade men to 
submit, yet to have forborne some sharp public preaching and writing against 
them, — when they set themselves too late to promote piety to ingratiate their 
usurpation. To disturb possessors needeth a clear call, when for what end 
soever they do that good, which men of better title will destroy." pp. 24, 25. 
From a letter of his to one of the judges among his MSS, it appears he 
brought bimhelf into difficulty by preaching against Cromwell. How he got 
out of it, or what was the extent of his danger, does not clearly appear. Crom- 
well's usual moderation probably induced him to drop proceedings. 

I think it by no meaus evident that Cromwell's sole motives in repressing 
evil and doing good, were the establishment *and consolidation of his own 
power ; or that he stuck at uothiug, when it was necessary to accomplish his 
own interest. That he was ambitious in the latter part of bis life, is certain ; 
and that he had also learnt the royal art of dissimulation, is undoubted : but 
that there was a great preponderance of good in his character, and of just and 
liberal views of policy, can no longer be matter of doubt to those who bars 
studied bis history. 



144 TUB LIVE AND TIHBS 

usurper doth, and to do every lawful thing which might provoke 
him to do more ; and to approve of no evil which is done by 
any, whether a usurper or a lawful governor." * 

With Baxter, to hold certain sentiments, and to act upon 
them in the face of every danger to which they might expose 
him, were the same thing. The following anecdote of his 
personal intercourse with Cromwell, illustrates the preced- 
ing statement and the character of Cromwell, and shows how 
faithfully he acted according to his sentiments and convic- 
tions* 

'^ At this time Lord Broghill and the Earl of Warwick ' 
brought me to preach before Cromwell, the protector ; which 
was the only time that ever I preached to him, save once long 
before, when he was an inferior man, amongst other auditors. I 
knew not which way to provoke him better to his duty than by 
preaching on 1 Cor. i. 10, against the divisions and distractions 
of the church, and showing how mischievous a thing it was for 
politicians to maintain such divisions for their own ends, that 
they might fish in troubled waters, and keep the church by its 
divisions in a state of weakness lest it should be able to oSend 
them ; and showing the necessity and means of union. My 

* Life, parti, p. 71. 

r Robert Rich, the second Earl of Warwick, was at an early period of bit life 
the patron and friend of the persecuted Puritans. He took an active part in 
the prosecution of Strafford and Laud ; and was made by the Long^ Parlia* 
ment, in opposition to the will of Charles, admiral of the fleet, and afterwards 
lord hi^h admiral of England. He enjoyed a large portion of the confidence 
of Cromwell, and was one of the few old nobility who sat in his upper house. 
Clarendon praises his " pleasant and companionable wit and conversatioo ;** 
and speaks of " his fpreat authority'andcred it with the Puritans," which he 
represents as acquired "by makings his house the rendezvous of all the 
silenced ministers, and spending a <;ood part of his estate upon them, and by 
being present at their devotions, and making himself merry with them and at 
them, which they dispensed with." He intimates that *< thus he became the 
head of that party, and got the style of a godly man ;*' though '* he was of 
universal jollity, and used great license in his words and actions." — HiiU 
vol. ii. p. 210. This I believe tu be one of those cases in which Garendon't 
politics completely corrupted his historical integrity. Dr. Owen's opinion of 
Warwick's piety, may be seen in his dedication to him of his < Salus Elec- 
torum,' Owen's Works, v. p. 207. Godwin's view of his character Is highl/ 
advantageous to his talents anil respectability as a man, and conveys no im- 
pression of his immorality, which is strongly implied in Clarendon's account* 
Commonwealth, i. p. 192. It is not at all likely that a profligate man should 
have enjoyed the full confidence of the Puritans. His grandson married the 
Protector's favourite daughter. Lady Frances. He died before Cromwell, in 
1658, and his funeral sermon was preached by Calamy, who makes honour^ 
able mention of his religious dispositioos and habits. 



OF lUCHAlD BAXTBS« 14$ 

fSabtiett I beard was displeasing (o him and his conrd^ ; bu( 
they put it np. 

^ A little while after, Cromwell sent to speak with me, and 
when 1 came, in the presence of only three of his chief men/ he 
bc^^ a long and tedious speech to me of God's providence in 
the change of the government, and how God had owned it, and 
what great things had been done at home and abroad, in the 
peace with Spain and Holland, &c. When he had wearied us 
all with speaking thus slowly about an hour, 1 told him it was 
too great condescension to acquaint me so fully with all these 
matters, which were above me ; but I told him that we took our 
ancient monarchy to be a blessing, and not an evil to the land ; 
and humbly craved his patience that I might ask him how 
England had ever forfeited that blessing, and unto whom that 
forfeitore was made ? I was fain to speak of the form of govern- 
ment only, for it had lately been made treason, by law, to speak 
for the person of the king* 

^ Upon that question, he was awakened into some passion, 
and then told me it was no forfeiture, but God had changed it 
as pleased him 3 and then he let fly at the parliament, which 
thwarted him ; and especially by name at four or Ave of those 
members who were my chief acquaintances, whom I presumed 
to defend against his passion : and thus four or five hours were 
spent* 

^ A few days after he sent for me again, to hear my judgment 
about liberty of conscience, which he pretended to be most 
zealous for, before almost all his privy council 3 where, after 
anotlier slow tedious speech of his, I told him a little of my 
judgment. And when two of his company had spun out a great 
deal more of the time in such-like tedious, but more ignorant 
speeches, some four or five hours being spent, I told him, that 
if he would be at the labour to read it, 1 could tell him more of 
my mind in writing in two sheets, than in that way of speaking 
in many days ; and that I had a paper on the subject by me, 
written for a friend, which, if he would peruse, and allow for the 
change of the person, he would know my sense. He received the 
paper afterwards, but I scarcely believe that he ever read it ; for 
I saw that what he learned must be from himself 3 being more 

* Lord Broghill, Lamberty and Thurlow, were the individuals present on 
this occasion. Lambert fell asleep during; CroroweH's %peech,^Baxtrr*s 
Penitent Conftitums^ p. 25. 

SOU i. L 



148 OBB UFHiAND TIMBS 

disposed to tpeak many botm^ thah to hear one ; and Bttle heed^ 

ing what another said, when he had spoken himself."* 

This characteristic account of Cromwell's conversation and 
speeches, very much corresponds with the accounts given by 
other contemporaries, both friends and enemies. It was natural 
for such a man to attach quite as much importance to hia ^iwa 
opinions as to those of his friends ; and, comparing him with the 
generality of the persons by whom he was surrounded, there 
were certainly very few more capable of forming an enlightened 
opinion than himself. It is probable that he sent for Baxter ott 
the present occasion, to sound him about his ovm views and 
those of the party with which he acted* It is very certain he 
understood the doctrine of religious liberty much better than 
Baxter did ; and acted upon it both towards Episcopalians and 
Presbyterians in a different way from what those bodies did wheil 
in possession of power. 

Whatever personal displeasure Cromwell might have felt at 
the conduct and plain dealing of Baxter, on this and other oc- 
casions, it is much to his honour that he had greatness of mind 
enough not to resent it. Had Baxter used the same freedom 
with the royal successors of Cromwell which he used With him, 
he would most probably have lost his head. He narrowly 
enough escaped as it was, though most conscientious in respect*^ 
ing their authority, and rendering obedience to their laws. Bax* 
ter had the candour to acknowledge how much the country was 
obliged to Oliver. 

** When Cromwell was made lord protector, he had the policy 
not to detect and exasperate the ministers and others who con- 
sented not to his government. Having seen what a stir the 
engagement had before made^ he let men live quietly MrithoUt 
putting any oaths of fidelity upon them, except members of his 
parliaments ; these he would not allow to enter the House till 
they had sworn fidelity to him. The sectarian party, in his army 
and elsewhere, he chiefly trusted to and pleased, till, by the peo- 
)»Ie's submission and quietness, he thought himself well settled; 
and then he began to undermine them, and, by degrees, to 
Work them out. Though he had so often spoken for the Ana* 
baptists before, he now found them so heady, and so much 
against any settled government, and so set upon the promoting 
of their way and party, that )ie not only began to blame their 

* Life, part i. p. 205. . 



OF BlCUAVay BAXTSSU .14f 

vmlinefls, but also to design to settle himself lA the people's 
hvour by soppresaizig them* In Ireland they were grown so 
high, that the soldiers were many of them re-baptised as the 
imy to preferment ; and those who opposed them, they crushed 
NFith nrnch uncharitable fierceness. To suppress these, he sent 
thither his son Henry Cromwell, who so discountenanced the 
A nabap t ists, as yet to deal civilly with them ; repressing their 
bsoIeocMs, but not abusing them ; promoting the work of the 
Gkispel, and setting up good and sober ministers ; and dealing 
nvilly with the Royalists, and obliging all, so that he was gene- 
raUy bebved and well spoken of: and Major-Geueral Ludlow, 
who beaded the Anabaptists in Ireland,^ was fain to draw in his 
head/'« 

This statement reflects great honour on the sagacity and dex- 
tRNts management of Cromwell* He was surrounded by a very 
strange sort of people, most of whom thought themselves well 
qualified to govern the country, and, indeed, to rule the world. 
He knew that great mischief would result from pursuing violent 
neasurea against such persons ; and, therefore, like a skilful 
tactirian, he gradually deprived them of power, or placed them 
in such circumstances that they could do little harm to them- 
sdvea or to others. The greatest injury that could have been 
done to the country, would have been to place his own power in 
the hands of any of the dominant factions. Confusion worse 
confounded must have resulted from it. This appeared as soon 
as the Protector was removed. Yet, the discrimination and 
wise policy of Cromwell in presiding over the turbulent elements 
of the Commonwealth, are thought by many to deserve no better 
names than cant, dissimulation, and l^ypocrisy. 

To narrate the various transactions of a civil and religious 
nature which belong to the administration of Cromwell, is no 
part of the design of this work. Enough has been said to 
afford an idea of the state of things, and of the part which 

^ Lndlow was not a Baptist, so far as I can ascertain, though the form of ex- 
pradon employed by Baxter mif;bt lead us to suppose it. He was a hif^h-minded 
republicaD soldier. A man of Roman rather than Christian virtue ; stem, un- 
HHBpromisini^, and courageous ; who hated Cromwell as heartily as Charles ; 
and would as readily have sat in Judgment on the one as a traitor, as he passed 
lentence on the other as a tyrant. He died, after an exile of thirty years, in 
IwlfeEtrlaiid, to which he retirad at the Restoration* His Memoirs of himself 
possess very considerable interest ; but their accuracy cannot alwa}'s be de- 
pended CD, as they were written long after many of the eveaU which they 



< Life, part L pt 74. 

l2 



iik ftHZ LIFB AND TIBfBft 

Baxter acted under it. The following character of Cromwdi 
is well drawn^ though it may not be correct in every par- 
ticular. 

*^ I come now to the end of CromweU's reign, who died of a 
fever before he was aware. He escaped the attempts of many, 
ivho thought to have dispatched him sooner, but could not es^ 
cape the stroke of God when his appointed time was come. 
» '' Never man was highlier extolled, and never man was base- 
lier reported of, and reviled, than this man. No mere man was 
better and worse spoken of than he, according as men's inte* 
rests led their judgments. The soldiers and sectaries moat 
highly magnified him, till he began to seek the crown and the 
establishment of his family ; and then there were so many who 
MTQuld be half-kings themselves, that a king did seem intolera- 
ble to them. The Royalists abhorred him as a most perfidious 
hypocrite ; and the Presbyterians thought him little better, in 
•his management of public matters. 

^^ If, after so many others, I may speak my opinion of him, 
I think that having been a prodigal in his youth, and afterwards 
changed to a zealous religionist, he meant honestly in the main, 
and was pious and conscientious in the chief course of his life, 
till prosperity and success corrupted him. ^ At his first en* 
trance into the wars, being but a captain of horse, he took spe- 
t^ial care to get religious men into his troop. These were of 
greater understanding than common soldiers, and therefore 
were more apprehensive of the importance and consequence of 
the war ; and, making not money, but that which th«y took for 
the public felicity, to be their end, they were the more engaged 
to be valiant ; for he that maketh money his end, doth esteem 
his life above his pay, and therefore is likely enough to save it 
by flight when danger comes, if possibly he can. But he that 
maketh the felicity of church and state his end, esteemeth it 
«bove his life, and therefore will the sooner lay down his life 
for it. Men of parts and understanding know how to mani^ 
their business. They know that flying is the surest way to 
death, and that standing to it is the likeliest way to escape ; 
there being many that usually fall in flight, for one that falls in 
valiant fighting/ 

'* These things, it is probable, Cromwell understood; and that 

* There it no evidence that Cromwell was a profli^te man in early lifc| 
and to the last he maintained the greatest regvd for justice, morality, aad 
the public interests of religion. 



OF :BICBASI> BAXtSR* I49i 

none obuld lie ^gaged, such valiant men as the religious. Yet^ . 
I eonjeptnre, that, at his first choosing such men inta his troop, 
it was the v«y esteem and love of religious men that principally 
moved him ; and the avoiding of those disorders, mutinies, 
plunderings, and grievances of the country, which debauched 
men in armies are commonly guilty of. By this means he in- 
deed sped better than he expected. Aires, Desborough, Berry, 
Evaiison, and the rest of that troOp, did prove so valiant, that, 
as far as I coiild learn, they fiever once ran away before an 
enemy. Hereupon he got a commission to take some care of 
the associated counties, where he formed this troop into a' 
doable r^ment of fourteen troops ; and all these as full of 
religious men as he could get. These having more than ordi- 
nary wit and resolution, had more than ordinary success ; first 
in Lincolnshire, and afterward in the Eari of Manchester's army^ 
at York fight. With their successes, the hearts both of cap- 
tains and soldiers secretly rose both in pride and expectation : 
and tbe familiarity of many honest, erroneous men, as Anabap- 
tbts, Antinomiaus, &c. withal, began quickly to corrupt their 
judgments. Hereupon Cromwell's general religious zeal gave 
way to the power of that ambition which increased as his 
successes increased. Both piety and ambition concurred in 
countenancing all whom he thought godly, of what sect so- 
ever ; piety pleaded for them as godly, and charity as men ; and 
ambition secretly told him what use he might make of them. 
He meant well in ail this at the beginning, and thought he did 
all for the safety of the godly, and the public good ; but not 
without an eye to himself. 

^ When success had broken down all considerable opposition, 
he was then in the face of his strongest temptations, which 
conquered him when he had conquered others. He thought 
that he had hitherto done well, both as to the eiid and means ; 
that God, by the wonderful blessing of his providence, had 
owned his endeavours, a.id that it was none but God who had 
made him great. He thought, that if the war was lawful, the 
victory was lawful ; and that if it were lawful to fight against 
the king, and conquer him, it was lawful to use him as a con- 
quered enemy, and a foolish thing to trust him when they had 
so provoked him. He thought that the heart of the king was 
deep, that he had resolved ijpon revenge, and that if he were 
once king, he would easily, at one time or other, accomplish it ; 
that it was a dishonest thing of the parliament tQ set men to 



ISO TAB UIB AND TUn»> 

fight for than against the king, and then to lay Aorlieadi iqxm' 
the block, and be at his mercy ; and that if this must be their 
case, it was better to flatter or please him than to fight against 
him.* 

^^ He saw that the Scots and the Presbyterians in the parlia- 
ment, did, by the covenant and the oath of allegiance, find 
themselves bound to the person and family of the king ; and 
that there was no hope of changing their minds in this. Here- 
upon he joined with that party in the parliament who were for 
the cutting off the king and trusting him no more ; and eonse* 
quently he joined with them in raising the Independents to „ 
make a faction in the Synod at Westminster, and in the city ; 
in strengthening the sectaries in the army, city, and country; 
and in rendering the Scots and ministers as odious as he could, 
to disable them from hindering the change of government.' 

^^ In the doing of all this, which distrust and ambition per- 
suaded him was well done, he thought it lawful to use his wits, to 
choose each instrument and suit each means, unto its end ^ and 
accordingly he modelled the army, and disbanded all other 
garrisons, forces, and committees, which were likely to have 
hindered his design. As he went on, though he had not re- 
solved into what form the new Commonwealth should be 
moulded, he thought it but reasonable that he should be the 
chief person who had been chief in their deliverance ; for the 
Lord Fairfax, he knew, had but the name. At last, as he (bought 
it lawful to cut off the king, because he thought he was lawfully 
conquered, so he thought it lawful to fight against the Scots that 
would set him up, and to pull down the Presbyterian majority 
in the parliament, which would else, by restoring the king, undo 
all which had cost them so much blood and treasure. He ae* 
cordingiy conquered Scotland, and nulled down the parliament: 
being the easier persuaded that all this was lawful, because he 
had a secret bias and eye towards his own exaltation. For be 
and his officers thought, that when the king was gone, a govern** 
ment there must be, and that no man was so fit for it as he 
himself^ yea, they thought that God had called them by m^ 

* The conduct of Charles fully Justified this view of his character; and 
much more than the ambition of Cromwell contributed to his unhappy fate. 

' What is here, and afterwards, ascribed entirely to CromweH'i ambltioD, 
more properly belong^ to the desire of personal preservation, and regard for 
the safety of the country. The rulinj; passion of CromweU was leal for what 
he regarded as the cause of God and his country. The circumstances made 
the mao, much more tiiaa the maa the circamstaaccff 



eF RICHARD BAXXntX 151^ 

to fjomn and take care of the Commonwealthf and of 
the interest of all his people in the laud ; and that if they stood 
by and suffered the parliament to do that which they thought 
was dangerous, it would be required at their hands, whom they 
thought God bad made the guardians of the land. 

^ Having thus forced his conscience to justify all his cause, 
cutting off the king, setting up himself and his adherents, 
putting down the parliament, and the Scots; he thought 
that the end being good and necessary, the necessary means 
could not be bad. He accordingly gave his interest and 
cause leave to tell him, how far. sects should be tolerated and 
commended, and how far not; how far the ministry should 
be owned and supported, and how far not ; yea, and how far 
professions, promises, and vows, should be kept or broken ; and 
therefore the covenant he could not away with, nor the minis- 
ters, further than they yielded to his ends, or did not openly 
resist them. 

^ He seemed exceedingly open«»heartedf by a familiar, rustic,' 
sffscted carriage, especially to his soldiers, in sporting with 
them ; but he thought secrecy a virtue, and dissimulation no 
▼ice ; and simulation, that is, in plain English, a lie, or perfidi- 
ousness, to be a tolerable fault in a case of necessity : being of 
the same opinion with the Lord Bacon, who was not so precise 
ss learned'*-* that the best composition and temperature is to 
have openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimu- 
lation in seasonable use, and a power to feign if there be no 
remedy/ He therefore kept fair with all, saving his open or 
irreconcilable enemies. He carried it with such dissimulation, 
that Anabaptists, Independents, and Antinomians, did all think 
he was one of them ; but he never endeavoured to persuade 
the Presbyterians that he was one of them; but only that 
he would do them justice, and preserve them, and that he ho* 
noured their worth and piety : for he knew that they were not 
so easily deceived. ' In a word, he did as our prelates have 
done, begin low, and rise higher in his resolutions as his condi- 
tion rose. The promises which he made in his lower condition, 
he used as the interest of his higher following condition did 

f Cromwell could not profess to be a Presbyterian, without renouncing the 
leadings principle of his life and government — religious liberty. It was not 
the difficulty of deceiving them, therefore (for they had often been outwitted bj 
him) , which kept him aloof from them, but his opposition to their narrow and 
exclusive spirit. 



I5!| TBS UFB AND ^IICBS 

require, and kept up as much honesty'and godliness in the main 
as his cause and interest would allow. But there they left him, 
and his name standeth as a monitory pillar to posterity, to tdl 
tliem the instability of man in strong temptations if God leave 
him to himself; what great success and victories can do to lift 
up a mind that once seemed humble : what pride can do to 
make men selfish, corrupt the judgment, justify the greatest 
errors and sins, and set against the clearest truth and duty ; 
what bloodshed and enormities of life, an erring, deluded judg* 
ment may execute. An erroneous sectary, or a proud self-seeker, 
is oftener God's instrument than an humble, lamb-Uke, inno-^ 
cent saint." ^ 

In this lengthened description of Cromwell, and of the 
principles which chiefly directed his various movements, it is im- 
possible not to recognise the broad features of the Protector's 
character. They were too strongly marked to be mistaken by 
such a man as Baxter, however cautiously Cromwell endea-* 
voured to conceal them. The process, too, which Baxter de- 
scribes as that by which Oliver finally arrived, not only at the 
pinnacle of earthly power and glory, but by which he justified 
to his own mind the measures that conducted him to it, is very 
probably that which actually took place. Yet, I cannot help 
thinking that Baxter ascribes too much to Cromwell's selfitb- 
ness and love of personal aggrandisement ; and that he uses too 
strong language about the violence done to his conscience, to 
reconcile him to the means which he employed. Many things. 
Vhich he did, it is impossible to justify ; but even these, though 
they cannot be defended, admit of some apology, when his cir- 
cumstances are considered ; and when due allowance is made 
for human infirmity, and for the influence of those mistaken 
principles, by which it is evident both he and many of the 
men of his party were influenced. Baxter seems. not to do 
suflicient justice to the real influence of religion on the charac* 
ter of Cromwell ; without which, it is not possible to account 
for many parts of his conduct. His opposition to Presbyterian- 
ism, his friendship for the sectaries, and his antimonarcbical 
principles and actions, were unpardonable offences in the esti* 
mation of Baxter. Scarcely any degree of personal excellence 
or public virtue could compensate, in his opinion, for these enor- 
mous evils. It should be remembered, however, that if Crom- 

k Life, part i. pp. 98—100. 



C9 ftlCBARD HAXTBRS 153 

irdl had great UaAtj^ he had also splendid virtues ; which, in 
any other eharacter than a usurper's, would have been embla- 
loned by friends, and eulogised by enemies. ^ 

Whatever may be said or thought of the personal religion of 
Cromwell, the influence of his measures and government on the 
state of religion in the country, was highly favourable. I have 
quoted the strong language of Baxter, respecting the sects and 
die divisions of the period, and the pointed censures which he 
pronounces on many of the leading men. It is right I should 
quote what he says about the improved state of religion during 
the Commonwealth. What a contrast does the following pic- 
ture present, to the dismal representation of the condition of reli- 
gion during the early days of Baxter, which have been given in 
the first part of this work ! 

^ I do not believe that ever England had so able and faithful 
a ministry since it was a nation, as it hath at this day ; and I 
£ear that few nations on earth, if any, have the like. Sure I 
am the change is so great within these twelve years, that it is 
one of the greatest joys that ever I had in the world to behold 
it. O, how many congregations are now plainly and frequently 
taught, that lived then in great obscurity ! How many able, 
faithful men are there now in a county in comparison of what were 
then ! How graciously hath God prospered the studies of many 
young men that were little children in the beginning of the late 
troubles ; so that they now cloud the most of their 'seniors ! 
How many miles would I have gone twenty years ago, and less, 
to have heard one of those ancient reverend divines, whose con- 

> AmoD^ the Baxter MSS^is a letter from Juhn Howe to Richard Vines, in 
which his circumstances, as chaplain in the Protector's family, are described 
ts so oncomfortable, that he was determined to leave it. This letter conveys 
a stronger reflection on the character of Cromwell than any thing I have met 
with. " My call hither was to a wurk I thought very considerable ; the setting- 
up the worship and discipline of Christ in this family, wherein I was to he 
joined with another, called in upon the same account. But I now see the 
designed work here hopelessly laid aside. We affect here to live in so loose a 
way, that a man cannot fix upon any certain charge, to carry towards them as 
a minister of Christ should : so that it were as hopeful a course to preach in 
a market, or any other assembly met by chance, as here. The affected dis- 
orderliness of this family, as to the matters of God's worship, whence arises my 
despair of doing good in it, I desire as much as possible to conceal ; and there- 
fore resolve to others to insist upon the low condition of the place I left, as the 
reason of my removal, if I do remove. To you I state the case more fully, 
hut desire you to be very sparing in making it known, as it is here re- 
presented." — Baxter MSS. There are several letters from Howe to Bax- 
ter among these MSS. It is curious to find Howe speaking of himself as a 
** raw youth, bashful, pttsUanimous, and solicitous about the flesh.*' 



154 THK UWB Asn TIMm 

gregations $fe now grown thin^ and their parta asteaiDMl maaw 
by reason of the notable improvements of Uieir juniors 4 

^^ I hope I shall rejoice in Ood while I have a b«og, for thft 
Qommon change in other parts that I liave lived to see | that 
so many hundred fmthful men are so hard at work for the savii^ 
of souls, ^ frementibus licet et frendentibus inimicia ; ' and that 
more are springing up apace. I know there are some men' 
whose parts I reverence, who, being in point of government 
of another mind from them, will be offended at my very 
mention of this happy alteration ; but I must profess if I were 
absolutely prelatical, if I knew my heart, I could not choose for 
all that but rejoice. What, not rejoice at the prosperity <tf 
the church, because men differ in opinion about its order i. 
Should I shut my eyes against the mercies of the Lord ? The 
souls of men are not so contemptible to me, that I should envy 
them the bread of life, because it is broken to them by a hand- 
that had not the prelatical approbation* O that every congre- 
gation were thus supplied ! but all cannot be done at onea^ 
They had a long time to settle a corrupted ministry $ and when- 
the ignorant and scandalous are cast out, we cannot create 
abilities in others for their supply ; we must stay the time of 
their preparation and growth ; and then if England drive not 
away the Gospel by their abuse, even by their wilful unreform- 
edness and hatred of the light, they are likely to be the happiest 
nation under heaven. For, as for all the sects and heresies that 
are creeping in daily and troubling us, I doubt not but the free 
Gospel, managed by an able, self-denying ministry, will effsetu* 
ally disperse and shame them ail."^ 

Cromwell being dead, his son Richard, by his will and testa- 
ment, and by the army, was quietly settled in his place. ^^ He 
interred his father with great pomp and solemnity. He called 
a parliament, and that without any such restraints as his father 
had used. The members took the oath of fidelity or allegiance 
to him at the door of the house, before they entered. And all 
men wondered to see every thing so quiet in so dangerous a time. 
Many sober men that called his father no better than a traitorous 
hypocrite, did begin to think that they owed him subjection ; 
which I confess was the case with myself, 

^^ The army set up Richard Cromwell, it seemed, upon trial, 
resolving to use him as he behaved himself: for though they 

" ^ lUfonqcd FMlorj publjihsd in l6Mr^Workftf ToL auvf pp. I{k9»153« . 



Cr ftlCHASB BiXTBB« 15S. 

flvore fiddity to him, tliey meant to keep it no longer than he 
pleased them. When they saw that he began to favour the 
sober people of the land, to honour parliaments, and to respect 
the jnimsterBy whom they called Presbyterians, they presently 
resolved to make him know his masters, and that it was they^ 
and not he, who were called by God to be the chief protectors 
of the interest of the nation. He was not so formidable to them: 
as his father had been, and therefore every one boldly spurned 
at him. The fifth monarchy-men followed Sir Henry Vane, and' 
raised a great, violent, and clamorous party agains]t him, among 
the sectaries in the city : Rogers, Feake, and such-like fire- 
brands, preached them into fury, and blew the coals ; but Dr. 
Owen and his assistants did the mdn work.^ 

^ The Wallingford-house party, consisting of the active 
officers of the army, determined that Richard's parliament must 
be dissolved ; and then he quickly fell himself. Though he 
never abated their liberUes, or their greatness, he did not suffi« 
dendy befriend them. Though Colonel Ingolsby, and some 
others, would have stuck to the protector, and have ventured to 
surprise the leaders of the 'faction, and the parliament would 
have been true to him ; Berry's regiment of horse, and some 
others, were ready to begin the fray against him* As he sought, 
not the government, he was resolved it should cost no blood to 
keep him in it ; but if they would venture for their parts to 
new confusions, he would venture his part by retiring to privacy* 
And so to satisfy these proud, distracted tyrants, who thought 
they did but pull down tyranny, he resigned the government, by 
a writing under his hand, and left them to govern as they 
pleased. 

*^ His good brother-in-law, Fleetwood, and his uncle, Des- 
borough, were so intoxicated as to be the leaders of the conspi- 
racy ; and when they had pulled him down, they set up a few 
of themselves under the name of a Council of State. So mad 
were they with pride, as to think the nation would stand by a^d 
reverence them, and obediently wait upon them in their drunken 
giddiness ; and that their faction in the army was made by God 
an invincible terror to all that did but hear their names. The 
eore of the business also was, that Oliver had once made Fleet- 
wood believe, that he should be his successor, and had drawn 

^ For an account of Owen's conduct in this afl^O see * Memoirs of Owen,' 
l»p. 213—215, second edition. 



15$ THB UFB AND TIMBfr 

tn instrument to that purpose; but his h»t'#iU disappomted. 
him. And then the sectaries flattered him, saying, thai a tniljr 
godly man, who had commanded them in the wars, was to be 
preferred before such a one as they censured to have no true 
godliness.""* 

Richard Cromwell rose to the Protectorate without efftnt, 
and fell from it without much regret on his own part^ and with 
none on the part of the country. The formidable difficulties, 
which had tried the genius and courage of the father, and 
had greatly accumulated before his death, soon overwhelmed 
the son. His talents, though not despicable, were not of the 
first order ; and never having been bred a soldier, he was Ettle 
qualified for managing the daring spirits by which he was sur- 
rounded. He was a lover of peace and a friend of religion, 
and had he quietly succeeded to a well-edtablished throne,. 
would have filled it with honour to himself, and advantage to 
his country. But it was a difficult affair to occupy the aeat oC 
a protector, and to maintain claims which were still regarded as 
those of a usurper. Surrounded by cabals of enemies, misled 
by the advice of injudicious friends, and terrified by the prospect 
of new civil convulsions, he had the wisdom to descend from the 
seat of power, without a struggle, which would only have been 
attended with a useless efi^usion of blood, and followed with cer- 
tain defeat. ^^ I have no doubt,'' says Baxter, ** that God per* 
mitted all this for good ; and that, as it was the treason of a mili- 
tary faction to set up Oliver, and destroy the king, so it was their 
duty to have set up the present king instead of Richard. Tlius 
God made them the means, to their own destruction, contrary 
to their intentions, to restore the monarchy and family which 
they had ruined. But all this is no thanks to them ; but that 
which, with a good intention, had been a duty, as done by 
them, was as barbarous perfidiousness as most history ever did 
declare. That they should so suddenly, so scornfully, and 
proudly pull down him whom they had so lately set up them- 
selves, and sworn allegiance to ; that they should do this with- 
out being able to tell themselves why they did it ; that they 
should do it, while a parliament was sitting which had so many 
wise and religious members, and accomplish it, not only without 

"> Life, part i. pp. 100, 101. There are letters from Baxter to Sir Janet 
Netbersole, and Colonel Harley, about the affairs of the country durio; 
*^ Richard's usurpatloD, when nien were raised to some vaio hopes/'^ 
Baxter MSS. 



or mcHARD BAXTBK* 15? 

the parliament's advice, but in spite of it, and force him to dis- 
solve it first; that they should so proudly despise, not merely the 
fMurliament, but all the ministers of London and of the land ; 
yea, and act against the judgments of most of their own party 
(the Independents), is altogether very wonderful."'^ 

While the praise or blame of pulling down Richard is thus 
studiously aacribed, by Baxter, to a faction, consisting neither 
of the Presbyterians nor of the Independents, it is very evident, 
from his own statements afterwards, that the Presbyteriaos were 
more deeply concerned, both in the overthrow of the Common- 
wealth, and in the restoration of the monarchy, and in all the 
plotting, or, as he would have called it in others, the periidi- 
ousness which these things involved, than he was disposed to 
admit* That party threw every possible difficulty in the way 
of tlie Commonwealth administration, because they were not of 
sufficient importance under it ; and did all they could to bring 
back the king, whom they could not doubt would reward their 
fidelity, and comprehend them in the new establishment. They 
Were taken effectually in their own snare, and were more se- 
verely punished and disappointed than any other. 

Shortly after this, when Sir George Booth's rising failed, 
^ Major •General Monk, in Scotland, with his army, grew so 
sensible of the insolence of Vane and Lambert, and the fana- 
tics in England and Ireland, who set up and pulled down go- 
vernments as boldly as if they were making a lord of a May 
game, and were grasping all the power into their own hands ; 
tliat he presently secured the Anabaptists of his army, and 
agreed with the rest to resist those usurpers, who would have 
made England the scorn of all the world. At first, when he 
drew near to England, he declared for a free Commonwealth. 
When he came in, Lambert marched against him, but his sol- 
diers forsaking him, and Sir Arthur Haselrigge getting Ports- 
mouth, and Colonel Morley strengthening him, and Major- 
General Berry's regiment which went to block it up, revolting 
to them, the clouds rose everywhere at once, and Lambert 
could make no resistance ; so that instead of fighting, they 
were fain to treat. While Monk held them treating, his repu- 
tation increased, and theirs abated ; their hearts failed them, 
their soldiers fell off; and General Monk consulted with his 
friends what to do. Many counties sent letters of thanks and 

« Lifei part if p. lOK 



1S6 -THB Lm AND TIMBB 

lenecmiragement to him« Mr. Thomms Batnpfield was"Miit*Iqf 
the gentlemen of the West, and other counties did the like ; ao 
that Monk came on, but still declared for a Commonwealth^ 
against monarchy 5 till at last, when he saw all ripened there* 
to, he declared for thie king. The chief men, as far as I ca^ 
learn, who turned his resolution to bring in the king, were Mr. 
Clarges,® and Sir William Morris, his kinsman; the peti- 
tions and affections of the city of London, principally mored 
by Mr. Calamy and Mr. Ash, two ancient leading able minis* 
ters; with Dr. Bates, Dr. Manton, Dr. Jacomb, and other 
ministers of London who concurred. These were encon* 
raged by the Earl of Manchester, the Lord Hollis, the late Bad 
of Anglesey, and many of the then council of state. The 
members of the old parliament, who had formerly been ejected) 
being recalled, dissolved themselves, and appointed the convening 
of a parliament which might recall the king* When General 
Monk first came into England, most men rejoiced, in hope t6 
foe delivered from the usifrpation of the fanatics, Anabaptist8| 
Seekers, &c. I was myself so much affected with the strange 
providence of God, tiiat I procured the ministers to agree 
upon a public thanksgiving to God. I think all the victories 
which that army obtained, were not more wonderful dian 
their fall was, when pride and error had prepared them for iU 
It seemed wonderful to me, that an army which had got so many 
great and marvellous victories, vi^hich thought themselves un* 
conquerable, and talked of nothing but dominion at homei 
and marching up to the walls of Rome, should all be broken^ 
brought into subjection, and finally disbanded, without one 
blow stricken, or one drop of blood shed ! And that by ao 
email a power as Monk's army in the beginning was. So emi* 
nent was the hand of God in all this change.''^ 
* Among all the dissemblers and hypocrites of a period abound* 
ing in the display of these qualities, Monk occupies a distin« 
guished place. He is eulogised by Clarendon, and commended 
by Hume ; and for his successful management in duping the 
army and the parliament, and restoring the exiled monarch on 

* Claris wms ori^ally ao apothecary, but acting as physician to Moak'i 
anny* became M.D. He was afterwards created Sir Thomas Clarget, hj 
Charles, for his senrices at the restoration. He was the son of a blacksmith, and 
brother to Nan Clargts, better known by that appellation than by her fiitwt 
title, the Duchess of Albemarle, a situation which she neither deserved, nor 
was qualified to fill. 

f Life, parti, p. 214. 



)Off RICJIARD BiDCTXK. ^159 

hSh aim titnA^ht Iraa iTewarded With a dukedom.^ Baxtelr llad 
an interview with Monk after he came to London ) which Iiud 
the foundation of a charge preferred against him by L'Estrange, 
in the ninety-sixth numbeir of ^TheObservator,' that he had en- 
deavoured to influence Monk not to bring back the king* In 
reply to which^ Baxter says : 

^^ Dr. Mantou (and whether any other, I remember not) went 
once with me toGeneral Monk, to congratulate him ; but with the 
request, that he would take care that debauchery and contempt 
of religion might not be let loose, upon any men's pretence of 
hAug for the king, as it already began with some to be. But 
there was not one word by me spoken (or by any one, to my 
remembrance) against his calling back the king ; but as to me, 
it is a mere ficUon. And the king was so sensible of the same 
that I said, that he sent over a proclamation against such men, 
as while they called themselves the king's party, did live in de- 
bauchery and profaneness; which proclamation so rejoiced them 
that were after Nonconformists, that they read it publicly in 
the churches."' Baxter's denial is entitled to the greatest con- 
lidence, as his conduct at the time of the restoration shows how 
heartily be rejoiced in it. But it is impossible not to marvel at 
the simplicity which gave Charles credit for wishing to put down 
debauchery and profaneness. 

"As for myself," he says, *^ I came to London April the 13th, 
1660, where I was no sooner arrived, but I was accosted by the 
Earl of Lauderdale, who wa^ just then released from his tedious 
confinement in Windsor Castle, by the restored parliament, 
who having heard from some of the sectarian party, that my 
judgment was, that our obligations to Richard Cromwell were 
not dissolved, nor could be, till another parliament, or a fuller 
renunciation of the government, took a great deal of pains with 
me, to satisfy me in that point.* And for quieting people's 

4 '* MoDk DO more intended or designed the king's restoration when he came 
iDto Eag^Uod, or first came to London, than his horse did ; but shortly after 
findini^ himself at a loss, that he was purposely made odious to the city, and 
that be was a lost man, by the parliament, and that the generality of the city 
and country were for the restoring the king, he had no way to save himself 
but to close with the city." — Aubrty^ ii. p. 455. The grand object and aim of 
Monk in all he did was his own aggrandisement. 

' Calamy's Continuation, vol. iv. p. 911. 

■ It is evident from what Baxter himself says, that he was apprised at an 

early period of the attempt which was likely to be made to bring back the 

. king. The unnatural union of the Cavaliers and the Presbyterians to effect 

Ihb ol))ect, appears to have met with his spprobfOioiu A letter of his to Major 



16D THE LIFB AMB TllOf 

minds, which were in no small commotion througli cTaiidiBrt&ii 
rumours, he, by means of Sir Robert Murray, and the Cocntesi 
of Balcarras, then in France, procured several letters to bewii^* 
ten from thence, full of high eulogiums on the king, and M' 
surances of his firmness in the Protestant religion, wMch he got 
translated and published. Among others, one was sent to ne 
from Monsieur Caches, a famous, pious preacher at Charentoo; 
wherein, after a high strain of compliment to myself, he gave A 
pompous character of the king, and assured me, that dnrkf 
his exile, he never forebore the public profession of the Voh 
testant religion, no, not even in those places where it seemed 
prejudicial to his affairs. That he was present at divine wonhip 
in the French churches, at Rouen and Rochelle, though not it 
Charenton, during his stay at Paris; and earnestly pressed ae 
to use my utmost interest, that the king might be restored hf 
means of the Presbyterians. 

'^ When I was in London, the new parliament beidg called, 
they presently appointed a day of fasting and prayer for them- 
selves. The House of Commons chose Mr. Calamy, Dr. Chm- 
den, and myself, to preach and pray with them, at St. Maiga- 
ret's, Westminster. In that sermon, I uttered some paatagm 
which were afterwards matter of some discourse. Speaking d 
our differences, and the way to heal them, I told them that, whe- 
ther we should be loyal to our king was none of our differences* 
In that, we were all agreed ; it being as impossible that a man 
should be true to the Protestant principles and not be loyal; m 
it was impossible to be true to the Papist principles, and to bf 
loyal. And for the concord now wished in matters of chnrdi 
government, I told them it was easy for moderate men to tsomc 
to a fair agreement, and that the late reverend Primate of Ire- 
land and myself had agreed in half an hour. I remember nol 
the very words, but you may read them in the sermon, wfaid) 
was printed by order of the House of Commons.^ The neit 



Beake was intercepted, but beings written with caution, nothing could be 
of it. He assigns no reason for leaving Kidderminster, and comio^ to 
at this time ; but I have no doubt it was to be present to aid and assUl U 
Presbyterian brethren as circumstances might require. Sir Ralph Clara ia* 
formed him uf some things that were going on, and that if the restoratkNi tool 
place, a very moderate episcopacy would satisfy that party. This led BaxlB 
to propose terms of uniou to Dr. Hammond, in consequence of which a cor 
respondence took place, but which, like ail such schemes, came to notbio^^^ 
lAfif part ii. pp. 207 — 214. 

* This sermon was preached on the 30th of April, 1660, and is printed in val 
xyH* of his Works. . The subject is Kepeotaace, the text £zek» xxxvi. 3U Bt 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 161 

morning after this day of fasting* the i)arliament unanimously 
voted home the king ; doing that which former actions had but 
prepared for. 

**The city of London, about that time, was to keep a day of 
solemn thanksgiving for General Monk's success 5 and the lord- 
mayor and alderman desired me to preach before them at St. 
Paul's church ; wherein I so endeavoured to show the value of 
that mercy, as to show also, how sin and men's abuse might 
turn it into matter of calamity, and what should be right bounds 
and qualifications of that joy. The moderate were pleased with 
it; the fanatics were offended with me for keeping such a 
tlianksgiving ; and the diocesan party thought I did suppress 
their joy. The words may be seen in the sermon ordered to 
be printed.^ 

"When the king was sent for by the parliament, certain 
divines, with others, were also sent by the parliament and city 
to him into Holland: viz. Mr. Calamy, Dr. Manton, Mr. Bowles^ 
and divers others ; and some went voluntarily ; to whom his 
majesty gave such encouraging promises of peace, as raised 
some of them to high expectations.* And when he came in, 
as he passed through the city towards Westminster, the Lon- 
don ministers in their places attended him with acclamations,'' 

dedicates it to the House of Commous, and speaks of the honour which he con- 
sidered it^to conclude by preaching and prayer, the service which immediately 
preceded the vote of the House to recaU his majesty. It is distinguished by 
his usual plainness and fidelity, and contains some eloquent passages. Few 
such sermons, 1 fear, have been preached in that house since then. His ad- 
vice and requests to them as legislators were both sound and moderate. 

* This sermon was preached on the 10th of May, KiGO, and appears io vol. 
xvii. uf his Works, under the title of <* Right Kejoiciug," founded on Luke x. 20. 
There is much admirable personal address in this diacourse, and the allusions 
to political matters are brief and moderate. 

' Charles duped the Presbyterian ministers by cavising them to be placed 
witliin hearing of his secret devotions. The base hypocrisy of this man is a 
thousand times more revolting than any thing of the kind which belonged to 
Cromwell, and yet in Charles it is passed over with little reprobation. 

7 A very amusing account, if it were not for the melancholy issue, is given 
by Aubrey, of the intoxication of the people in the prospect of the king's re- 
turn. On its being intimated by Monk, that there should be a free parlia- 
ment, ** Immediately a loud holla and shout was given, all the bells in the 
city ringing, and the whole city looked as if it had been in a flame by the bon- 
ftrtfi, which were prodigiously great and frequent, and ran like a train over 
the city. They made little gibbets and roasted rum pes of mutton, naye I 
sawe some very good runipes of beef. Health to King Charles II. was 
dranke in the streets, by the bonfires, even ou their knees. This humour 
ran by the next night to Salisbury, where was the like joy ; so to Chuike, 
where they made a great bonfire on the top of the hill; from thence to 
Blandford and Shaftesbury, and so to the Laud*8 End. Well ! a free parlia- 

VOL, I. M 



162 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

and by the hands of old Mr. Arthur Jackson, presented him 
ivith a richly-adorned Bible, which he received^ and told them. 
It should be the rule of his actions."* 

Thus terminated the rule of the Commonwealth and the dy- 
nasty of the Cromwclis, and recommenced the reign of the le- 
gitimate Stuarts. Baxter's narrative notices some of the causes 
and instruments of the extraordinary revolution which now 
took place, with a rapidity and unexpectedness that appear like 
magical rather than real events. But the true causes were more 
deeply seated than his account would lead us to suppose. Nei- 
ther the conduct of the fanatical sectaries, nor the weakness of 
Richard, at all explains the downfall of the Commonwealth, and 
the restoration of the royal family. That family had always a 
powerful and influential party in the country, consisting of the 
old nobility and their retainers ; the church had never entirely 
lost its hold of a considerable body of the population ; Pres- 
byterianism was too rigid a system to suit the temper and genius 
of the multitude ; the ambition of Cromwell had lost him the 
affection of his republican associates, and destroyed the confi- 
dence and respect of the Independents and minor sects. Tired 
of the versatility and duplicity of a man, who was great, but 
never dignified ; feared, but not loved or respected ; and pos- 
sessed by a blind attachment to the exiled monarchy, it required 
only the favourable opportunity of the old Protector's death, 
and the concurrence of a few other circumstances, to produce 
the marvellous change which occurred. 

Charles began by playing the hypocrite with those who had been 
deceived with their eyes open ; but he soon threw off the vizor, to 
their terrible dismay. Nothing more strikingly illustrates the 
strength of attachment to monarchy, which seems to be inherent 

ment was chosen, and Sir Harbottle Grimston was chosen Speaker. The 
first tiling he put to the question was, Whether Charles Stuart should be sent 
fur, or no? Vea, yea, nem, con. Sir Thomas Greenhill was then in towoey 
and posted away to Brussells, found the kin^ at dinner, little dreamiuf of so 
good news, rises presently from dinner, had his coach immediately made 
ready, and that night got out of the King of Spain's dominions, into the 
Prince of Orange's country. Now, as the morn grows lighter and lighter»aiMl 
more glorious till it is perfect day, so it was with the joy of the people. Maj- 

poles, which in the hypocritical times 'twas to set up, now were let up 

in every cross way ; and at the Strand near Dniry Lane, was set up the mott 
prodigious one for height, that, perhaps, ever was seen ; they were fain, I re- 
member, to have the seaman's art to elevate it. Tlie juvenile and rustic folks 
at that time had so much of desire of this kind, that I think there have been 
very few set up since."— -/^/lArty'* MUceU vol. ii. pp. 454, 456. 
> Life, part L pp. 214—218. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 

b the English character, than the facts H'hich have been brie 
glanced at. All that the people, the religious and well-infomii 
People, had suffered from the cruel oppressions of the Stua 
amily was forgotten; not because Cromwell had used thei 
rorse (for they had enjoyed great quietness and security unde 
is administration), but because there was no royal blood in hii 
tins, and the absence of the port and high bearing of a mo- 
^rch by divine right. The impatience to recall the exiled 
imily, the readiness to be duped by the oaths and promises of a 
^ofligate prince, who had learned nothing from his banishment 
It the vices of the people among whom he sojourned, are evi- 
bices of infatuation of the most extraordinary kind; which show 
tat the people of England had not yet been sufficiently disci- 
ined and prepared for the enjoyment of freedom. 
The leading instruments in effecting the restoration, may be 
ktitled to respect for their royalty, but deserve little credit for 
ieir patriotism, their disinterestedness, or their wisdom. The 
jrpocrisy and dissimulation of Monk, the murmuring of the 
byalists, and the infatuation of the Presbyterian ministers, were 
k part of the machinery by which Providence accomplished 
I purposes. While we mark the hand of God, and adore the 
stice of his Providence in punishing a nation's sins, the parties 
10 were instrumental in this punishment, and the principles 
lich actuated them, have no claim to our gratitude or respect. 
Baxter's conduct during the several changes which have been 
iced, does credit to his conscientiousness rather than to his 
lorn. He acted with the Parliament, but maintained the 
ts of the King; he enjoyed the benefits of the Protectorate, 
spoke and reasoned against the Protector ; he hailed the 
•n of Charles, but doubted whether he was freed from alle- 
ge to Richard. The craft and duplicity of Cromwell, he 
ted and exposed ; but the gross dissimulation and heartless 
»rence of Charles to every thing except his own gratifica- 
t was long before he could be persuaded to believe. Ab- 
principles and refined distinctions, in these as in some 
natters, influenced his judgment more than plain matters 
. Speculations, de jure and de /actOy often occupied 
stracted his mind, and fettered his conduct, while 
man would have formed his opinions on a few obvious 
» and facts, and have done both as a subject and a 
\ all that circumstances and the Scriptures required, 
taking our leave of Kidderminster, to which place 

M 2 



164 THE IJFK AND TIMES 

Baxter never returned with a view to fixed residence or minis- 
terial labour after the restoration, a few facts remain to be 
stated, to complete the view of ius life and exertions during this 
important and active period. 

The statement of his labours contained in the preceding chap- 
ter, by no means includes all that he did during this busy 
interval of his life. In fact, he tells us that the labours of the 
pulpit and the congregation were but his recreation ; and that 
his chief labour was bestowed on his writings. A bare enume- 
ration of these, of which a full account will be given in a subse- 
quent part of this work, would justify this declaration, strong as it 
may appear to be. It is, indeed, marvellous, that a man who 
would seem to have been wholly engaged with preaching in 
public and in private ; and who was no less marked for the num- 
ber and variety of his bodily infirmities, than for the multiplicity 
of his ministerial avocations, and who seemed to have lived only 
in the atmosphere of a printing-office ; should, under all these 
disadvantages, have produced volumes with the ease that other 
men issue tracts. 

During the fourteen years of his second residence at Kid- 
derminster, he found time partly to write and publish hifl 
Aphorisms, and Saint's Rest. He wrote and published, beside 
other things, his works on Infant Baptism — On Peace of Con- 
science — On Perseverance — On Christian Concord — His Apology 
— His Confession of Faith — His Unreasonableness of Infidelity 
— His Reformed Pastor — His Disputations on right to the Sacra- 
ments — Those on Church Government — ^And on Justification— 
His Safe Religion — His Call to the Unconverted — On the Cru- 
cifying of the World — On Saving Faith — On Confirmation— 
On Sound Conversion — On Universal Concord— His Key for 
Catholics — His Christian Religion — His Holy Commonwealth 
—His Treatise on Death — And, On Self-denial, &c., &c. 

When it is reflected on that many of these books are conside- 
rable quarto volumes, and that they make a large proportion of 
his practical works now republished, beside including several of 
his controversial pieces, I must leave the reader to form his own 
opinion of the indefatigable application and untiring zeal of this 
extraordinary man. The reading displayed in them, the corre- 
spondence to which they frequently led, and the diversity of sub- 
jects which they embrace, illustrate at once the indefatigable 
diligence of Baxter, and the extraordinary versatility of his mind* 

He also found time, during this period, to propose and to 



OF RICHARD BAXTBRJ 165 

prosecute several schemes of union and concord among various 
classes of Christians^ which led to an extensive correspondence, 
and to long personal conferences, which must have consumed 
no small portion of his strength and leisure. Beside other 
plans that occupied much of his attention, and which produced 
discussion and correspondence, he gives an account of three 
several schemes of union with the Independents; all of which 
failed, owing to the difficulties encumbering tlic subject, but 
ivliich he laboured to remove. One of these schemes had 
brought on a long correspondence and several interviews with 
Dr. Owen. But the Diocesans, as lie calls them, the Presby- 
lerians, and the Baptists, also engaged his attention with a 
"view to union, as well as the Independents, and with the same 
success. 

One of his most useful employments, about the period of the 
Icing's return, was a negociation respecting the propcigation of 
^he Gospel among the American Indians. During the Com" 
monwealth, a collection by order of Government, had been 
made in every parish in England, to assist Mr. Elliot (celebrated 
«s the apostle of the Indians) and some others in this most 
lieiievolent undertaking. The contributions were laid out partly 
in stock, and partly in land, to the amount of seven or eight 
hundred pounds per aimum, and were vested in a corporate body, 
to be employed on behalf of the Indians. After the king's re- 
turn. Colonel Beddingfield, from whom the land had been pur- 
chased at its proper value, seized it again ; on the unjust pre- 
text, that all that was done in CromweH's time, was null and 
void in law, and that the corporation formed, had no longer any 
legal existence. The corporation, of wliich Mr. Ashurst was 
treasurer, consisted of excellent persons. They were exceed- 
ingly grieved that the object for which the money had been 
raised, should thus be entirely and iniqnitously defeated. Baxter 
being requested to meet them, and to assist by his counsel and 
influence, which he readily did, was employed to procure if pos- 
biblc a new charter of corporation from the king. This, chiefly 
through the influence of the Lord Chancellor, he happily ob- 
tained. His lordship also, in a suit in chancery, respecting the 
property, decided against the claims of Beddingfield. Mr. As- 
hurst and Baxter had the nomination of the new members; 
the Hon. Roliert Boyle, at their recommendation, was made 
president or governor; Mr.Ashurst was reappointed as treasurer; 



166 TUB LIFE AND TIMES 

and the whole matter put into a state of excellent and efficient 
operation. 

This aflfair brought Baxter into intimate correspondence 
with Elliot,' Norton, Governor Endicott of Massachusetts, and 
some other excellent men who were engaged in the good work, 
or otherwise interested in the religious affairs of New England. 
The correspondence with Elliot continued during a considerable 
portion of the remainder of both their lives. That distinguished 
man was honoured to lead many poor savages of the Ame- 
rican woods to the knowledge of God ; and, to accomplish a 
translation of the entire Scriptures into their language, one of 
the most dilHcult for a foreigner to acquire. It is highly grati- 
fying to observe how fully Baxter entered into these missionary 
labours ; and that at a ])eriod when the subject of missions was 
little understood, lie not only regarded it as a great work, in which 
Christians arc rc(|uircd to engage, but co-operated with those 
who were engaged in it to the utmost of his power. I cannot resist 
introducing an extract from one of his letters to Elliot, though 
written after the period to which this chapter properly belongs. 

^' Though our sins have separated us from the people of our 
love and care, and deprived us of all public liberty of preaching 
the Gospel of our Lord, I greatly rejoice in the liberty, help, 
and success, which Christ hath so long vouchsafed you in his 
work. There is no man on earth, whose work I think more 
honourable and comfortable than yours : to propagate the Gos- 
pel and kingdom of Christ into those dark paits of the world, 
is a better work than our devouring and hating one another. 
There arc many here, who would be ambitious of being your 
fellow labourers, but that they are informed you have access 
to no greater number of the Indians than you yourself, and your 
present assistants, are able to instruct. An honourable gentle- 
man, Mr. Robert Boyle, the governor of the corporation for 
your work, a man of great learning and worth, and of a very 
public, universal mind, did mention to me a public collection in 
all our churches^ for the maintaining of such ministers as are 
willing to go hence to you, partly while they are learning the 
Indian language, and partly while they labour in the work, 
as also to transport them. But I find those backward 
that I have spoken to about it, partly suspecting it a design 
of such as would be rid of them ; partly fearing that when 
the money is gathered, the work may be frustrated by the alia- 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 167 

nation of it ; partly because they think there will be nothing 
considerable gathered^ because the people that are unwillingly 
divorced from their teachers, will give nothing to send them 
fiirther from them^ and those that are willingly separated from 
them, will give nothing to those they no more respect ; but 
specially, because they think, on the aforesaid grounds, that 
there is no work for them to do if they were with you. There are 
many here, I conjecture, who would be glad to go anj'wherc, to 
the Persians, Tartarians, Indians, or any unbelieving nation, to 
propagate the Gospel, if they thought they would be serviceable ; 
bat the difficulty of their languages is their greatest discourage- 
ment. The universal character that you speak of, many have 
talked of, and one hath printed his essay ; and his way is only 
by numerical figures, making such and such figures tc^stand for 
the words of the same signification in all tongues, but nobody 
regards it. I shall communicate your motion here about the 
Hebrew, but we are not of such large and public minds as you 
imagine; every one looks to his own concernment, and some to 
the things of Christ that are near them at their own doors. 
But if there be one Timothy that naturally careth for the state 
of the churches, we have no man, of a multitude more, like- 
mmded ; but all seek their own things. We had one Dury herc^ 
that hath above thirty years laboured for the reconciling of the 
churches, but few have regarded him, and now he is glad to es- 
cape from us into other countries. Good men who are wholly 
devoted to God, and by long experience are accjuainted witii the 
interest of Christ, are ready to think all others should be like 
them, but there is no hope of bringing any more than here and 
there an experienced, holy, self-denying person, to get so far 
above their personal concernments, and narrowness of mind, 
*nd 80 wholly to devote themselves to God. The industry of 
tfle Jesuits and friars, and their successes in Congo, Japan, 
China, &c., shame us all save you ; but yet, for their personal 
'^bours in the work of the Gospel, here are many that would 
"^ grilling to lay out, where they have liberty and a call, though 
"^^fce any that will do more in furthering great and public 
*^^ks• I should be glad to learn from you how far your Indian 
^^^gue extendeth : how large or populous the country is that 
^^^th it, if it be known ; and whether it reach only to a few 
J^^ttered neighbours, who cannot themselves convey their 
, ^'^owledge far, because of other languages. We very much rc- 
J^ice in your happy work, the translation of the Bible, and bless 



168 THE LIFE AXD TIMES 

God that strengthened you to finish it. If any thing of mine 
may be honoured to contriljiite, in the least measure, to your 
biciised work, I shall have fj^rcat cause to be thankful to God, 
and wholly submit the alteration and use of it to your wisdom. 
Mcthinks the Assemblies' Catechism should be, next the holy 
Scriptures, most worthy of your labours." ^ 

This admirable letter shows how deeply liaxtcr entered into 
the philanthropic views which were then so rare, but which have 
since been so generally adopted by ('hristians. How would his 
noble spirit have exulted had he lived to witness, even with all 
their imperfections, the oxtendcd exertions of modern times. 
How ardently would he have supported every scheme of sending 
the Scriptures, or the knowledge of salvation, to the destitute 
j)arts of tl^e world ! If there is joy in heaven, over the plans of 
earth which tend to the furtherance of the Gospel, Baxter, 
though removed from the scene of labour and of trial, is no 
doubt exulting in much that is now going forward. 

His correspondence during his residence in Kidderminster, 
must have been exceedingly extensive and laborious ; the 
existing remains of it affording decisive j)roof of its multi- 
farious character, and of the aj)})lication which it must have 
required. He wjis employed on all occasions of a public nature 
where the interests of his brethren in the ministry, or the cause 
of religion among them, required the co-operation or coun- 
sel of others. As the agent of the ministers of Worcestershire, 
he addressed the Provincial Assembly of I^ondon in 1654, calling 
their attention to the state of the Psalmody, and recpiesting them 
to adopt measures for its improvement.'' On the other hand, he 
M'as requested by Calamy, Whitfield, Jcnkyns, Ash, Cooper, 
Wickens, and Poole, to assist them in an answer which they 
were preparing to the Independents.^ AVhat aid he afforded 
does not appear. We cannot doubt his disposition to assist his 
brethren, though it is not probable he and they would have 
agreed, either in their mode of defending Presbyterianism or of 
attacking Independency. 

He was consulted by Manton, in IHSS, about a scheme for 
calling^a general assembly of the ministers of I*]ngland, to de* 
tcrmine certain matters, and arrange their ecclesiastical affairs* 

* Life, part ii. p. 295. There are many letters wliicli passed between 
Baxter atid KUiut, siiU preserved amoog the Baxter MSS. in the Redrross 
Street Library. 

^ Baxter MSS. c ibid. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 169 

To this he returned an answer expressive of doubts of its 
practicability and expediency. He was friendly to such as- 
sociations ; but, from the state of the country at the time^ he 
probably felt that nothing of importance could be effected. 
Indeed there is no reason to think that Cromwell would have 
permitted any such general assembly of the Presbyterian clergy 
to take place in England, when he would not allow them to hold 
such meetings in Scotland. 

Both Lord Lauderdale and Major Robert Beake introduced 

to Baxter, in 1657, the Rev. James Sharpe, a minister of the 

church of Scotland, who came to London on the public business 

of that church, which he afterwards vilely betrayed. He was 

rewarded for his treachery at a future period, with the arch- 

Wahoprick of St. Andrews, where at last lie lost his life by the 

'^aiids of a few individuals, who thus chose to avenge their 

Country's wrongs. Of his piety, Lauderdale and Beake speak 

^tfoDgly ; and he probably was at this time a very different man 

***<Mn what he had become when he fell before the wiles of a 

^Ourt, and the lure of an archbishop's mitre.'* 

Beside all this, Baxter was consulted by great numbers of his 
brethren in the ministry in various parts of the country, re- 
^jjecting matters in which they were concerned ; and by a mul- 
titude of private individuals, on cases of conscience, which he 
^•as requested to solve. To all those he returned, often, long 
^nd minute letters, the manual labour of which must have been 
>^ery considerable, especially as he kept copies of many of them.* 

' Baxter MSS. Sharpe was sent to London a^aiu immediately before the 
Restoration, with a view to ncgociate the interests of the church of Scotland. 
%e returned after the King^ was re-established, with a plausible letter signed 
1>y Lauderdale, in the name of the King, lie was afterwards rewarded for his 
treachery and apostacy by the Primacy of Scotland. It is impossible to justify 
liU murder; but the poor people of Scotland had beeudriven to desperation by 
looff-coutinued oppression. 

* There are some hundreds of these letters amon«; the Redcross Street MSS. ; 
many of them curious, though relating; to individuals and subjects which would 
Dot DOW interest the public. Baxter had a Ions; correspondence with Cutaker, 
chiefly ou the subjects of infant baptism and original sin. Gataker exceedingly 
bewails the differences that then subsisted among Christians, and says ** ihty 
may well be lamented with an ocean of tears." He had a laborious corrtspon- 
deoce with Dr. Hill, about predestination, a subject on which Baxter wrote 
a great deal. Besides what he published on it, there is enough remaining 
among bis unpublished manuscripts to make a volume or two. Many letters 
also passed between him and Tombes, Pnole, Dury, VVadsworth, Bates, and 
Howe. There are, also, many letters to and from correspondents, both male and 
female, uf the names of Allan and Lamb?, who seem to have enjoyed no small 
purtion of bis attCDtion. Some of these are printed in hU Life by Sylvester. 



170 THB LIFE AND TIMBS 

In these active and multifarious labours^ Baxter spent four- 
teen of the happiest and most useful years of his life. Un« 
ceasingly engaged in some useful pursuit^ his mind found 
sufficient scope and employment for that energy by which it 
was eminently distinguished. There were many evils then, in- 
deed, as well as at other times, which he greatly deplored 3 but 
there was so great a preponderance of good when compared 
with the period which preceded, and with that which followed 
it, that often he lamented the prosperous days he had enjoyed 
during the usurpation, when they had passed away. Instead, 
therefore, of having to record his various plans of benevolence^ 
and rejoicing over the success attending them, we must hence- 
forth hear chiefly of his fruitless struggles for peace, and for 
liberty to preach the Gospel ; of the disappointment which 
followed negociations ; of the anguish experienced from the 
restriction of his ministry ; of confiscations, imprisonment, and 
being unceasingly harassed for conscience' sake. 



I 



OF BICHABD BAXTBfU 171 



CHAPTER VIL 



1660—1662. 



The BcBtoration — Views of the Nuuconformiflts — Conduct of the Court to- 
wtrds them — Baxter's desire of Agreement — Interview with the Kin^«- 
Buter^f Speech — ^The Ministers requested to draw up their Proposals — 
MeetatSion Collef^e for this purpose— Present their paper to the Kiu» — 
Uaoy Miniitcrs ejected already— The King's Declaration— Baxter's objec- 
tioM to it— Pfvseuted to the Chancellor in the form of a Petition — Meeting 
«ith his Majesty to bear the Declaration— Declaration altered — Baxter, 
Cilimy,auJ Re>'nolds9 offered Bishopricks — Baxter declines— Private inter- 
view with the King — The Savoy Conference— Debates about the mode of 
pnceeduig — ^Baxter draws up the Reformed Liturgy — Petition to the Bishops 
-*No disposition to agreement on their part— Answer to their former papers 
—PenoDal debate— Character of the leading parties on both sides — Issue 
of the Conference. 

Cbarlbs II. was received with general acclamation ; which 

cin only l)e accounted for from that love of change which is 

characteristic of nations as well as of individuals; from the 

^ening influence of Cromwell's ambition, and the imbecility of 

his son ; from the disgust felt by many at the fanaticism of tlie 

times; together with that love of monarchy — its pomp and 

(ircamstance— -which constitutes a distinguishing feature in the 

character of Englishmen, l^hat Charles deceived the people 

^y his professions, is clear ; but they might easily have obtained 

^ch a knowledge of his principles, habits, and sentiments, had 

^ they been disposed to make what inquiry the nature of the 

c^se seemed to demand, as might have prevented the deception 

from taking effect. They imagined tliat the sufferings endured 

l>y the royal family would cure, or at least moderate, that here- 

'Jitary love of arbitrary power, and attachment to Popery, which 

had caused most of those sufferings ; that Charles was perhaps 

^oo much a man of the world, to make the costlv sacrifices for a 

Religious party which his father had made ; and tliat they might 

^aaly form such an agreement with him as should efTcctually 

tiinit lus power, and secure their rights. In all this they dis- 



172 THB MPB AND TIMES 

covered their own weakness and simplicity. In fact, Chailes 
returned on his own terms, and was left as unfettered aa if 
he had come in hy conquest; saving a few oaths, which he 
swallowed without scruple, and broke without remorse/ The 
bitter effects of this misguided zeal and imprudence, none had 
greater reason to feel and to deplore than the Presbyterian por- 
tion of the Puritans, who were greatly instrumental in promoUng^ 
the Restoration. 

The views of the leading men of their party were, on some 
points, discordant ; but they all agreed in welcoming the exiled 
monarch, and in anticipating, from the re-establishment of 
monarchy and the constitution, the enjoyment not only of pro- 
tection and liberty, (for these they had fully enjoyed under the 
usurpation,) but of a system of church government modified to 
meet their views, and by which they should be comprehended in 
the ecclesiastical establishment of the countrv. 

m 

It was necessary, in the circumstances in which Charles found 
himself, not to offend these men ; the episcopal party also being 
still weak, found it expedient to treat them with apparent respect. 
Several of the ministers were accordingly chosen to be king's chap- 
lains.^ Calamy, Reynolds, Ash, and several others, among whom 
was Baxter, had this honour ; and Reynolds, Calamy, Spurstow, 
and Baxter, each preached once before his majesty. Manchester^ 

' Charles took the coveuant three several times ; once at the completion of 
the treaty abroad, asrain at his landing in Scotland, and a third time when he 
was crowned at Scone ; while it is impossible to believe that he ever bad ths 
least serious intention to observe it. Though it is considered that Cliarlet «M 
a Papist, or an infidel, nothing can excuse his want of principle io taking 
this oath ; and a^ the profligacy of his character could scarcely be unknuwa 
to the party which required the oath, it is difticuU to excuse their conduct in 
imposing it, or in being satisfied to be deceived by Oharles submitting bimiclf 
to it. 

ff Baxter says, « When I was invited by Lord BroghUl, afterwards Earl of 
Orrery, to meet him at the Lonl Chaml>erlain*i>, they l>otb persuaded me to 
accept the place. 1 desired to know whether it were his majesty's deiirei or 
only the effect of their favourable request to him. They told me that it WM 
bis majesty's own desire, and that he would take it as an acceptable /m'tkeratu* 
•/ his service. Thereupon I took the oath from the Lord Chamberlain." The 
date of his certificate is June 2fi, IfitiO. — /yi/rs part ii. p. 229. Dr. Pcircey the 
decided adversary of Baxter, thought proper to dispute whether be wai 
king's chaplain, when he published the sermon preached before bis majeftty» 
and annexed that title to his name. 'J'hecertiiicate, however, (tpeaks for itself. 

^ Edward, Harl of Manchester, was a nobleman of many great and amia- 
ble qualities. He was a zealous and able friend of liberty. During the civil 
commotions he was one of the avowed patriots in the House of Peers, and the 
only member of that house who was accused, by Charles, of high treason^ 
along with the five members of the House of Comniuus, He took an active 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 173 

ind Brogliill were the noblemen who chiefly managed these af- 
finnatthe time. In conversation with them, Baxter mentioned 
^ the importance, and what he regarded as the facility, of an 
;. agreement between the Episcopalians and the moderate Presby- 
^ terians ; and the happy consequences to the civil and religious 
: interests of the country which would result from such a union. 
The eifect of this conversation he has recorded. 
^ Lord Broghill ^ was pleased to come to me, and told me, 
\ that he had proposed to the king a conference for an agree- 
^ Bent, and that the king took it very well, and was resolved to 
I hrther it. About the same time, the Earl of Manchester sig- 
l mfied as much to Mr. Calamy ; so that Mr. Calamy, Dr. Rey- 
nolds, Mr. Ash, and myself, went to the Earl of Manchester, 
then lord chamberlain; and after consulting about the business 
with him, he determined on a day to bring us to the king. Mr. 
Calamy advised that all of us who were the kiug's chaplains 
aught be called to the consultation ; so that we four might 
not seem to take too much upon us without others. So, Dr. 
Wallis, Dr. Manton, and Dr. Spurstow, &c., went with us to 
the king ; who, with the Lord Chancellor, and the Earl of St. 
Aiban's, came to us in the Lord Chamberlain's lodgings. 

"We exercised more boldness, at first, than afterwards would 
have been borne. When some of the rest had congratulated his 
majesty's happy Restoration, and declared the large hope which 

firtiB the wars on the side of the Parliament, and was one of the leaders of 

the Prcibytcriao party. After the buttle of Newbury, he was suspected of 

bvouring the kins:*ft interest. He was a decided friend of the Restoration, 

Uhlwts immediately after it appointed chamberlain of the household. It is 

cvideat, from rarious circumstances, that he was a real friend of the Non* 

Mafiirmiktt, and bore to Baxter, in (larticular, a very cordial attachment. An 

occttrreuce once happened at his table, when Baxter was diniuj; with him, 

vfaicb ^ave the good man great concern, and in which his lordship, as soon as 

ipprised of it, acted with great propriety and kindness. — IJ/fy part ii. p. 289. 

* Roger Boyle, Baron of Broghill, was a native of Ireland, third son of the 

int Earl of Cork, and brother to the Honourable Robert Boyle. He tiM)k an 

•ctive part iu the civil wars, on the parliamentary side. He was regarded, by 

ill parties, a.< a man of very considerable ability and address. He enjoyed a 

lar:;e share of the Protector's favour and confidence ; was president of his 

council for Scotland, and one of the lords of his up|H;r house. He favoured 

the Restoration, ho%vever, and was created Earl of Orrery on the 5th of ScptCHi- 

ber, 1660. He was also nominated , the ^anic year, Lord President of Munster, 

to life. Uis lordship died in the year 167!/. There seems to have been a 

cooftlderable iotimary between him and Baxter. It was in his lordship's 

liotise Baiter became acquainted with Archbishon llsher. He dedicates one 

of liis works to him, and often refers to him iu his life, generally calling him 

by bii first title. Lord Broghill. 



174 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

they had of a cordial union among all dissenters by his mci 
I presumed to speak to him of the concernments of religi 
and how far we were from desiring the continuance of any f 
tions or parties in tlie church, and how much a happy un 
would conduce to the good of the land, and to his imyssl 
satisfaction. I assured him that though there were turbttll 
fanatic persons in his dominions, those whose peace we hum 
craved of him were no such persons ; but such as longed ai 
concord, and were truly loyal to him, and desired no more thad 
live under him a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness i 
honesty. But that as there were differences between them I 
their brethren, about some ceremonies or discipline of 1 
church, we humbly craved his majesty's favour for the ending 
those differences; it being easy for him to interpose, that so 1 
people might not be deprived of their faithful pastors, and igl 
rant, scandalous, unworthy ones obtruded on them. 

^^ I presumed to tell him, that the people we spoke for were si 
as were contented with an interest in heaven, and the liberty i 
advantages of the Gospel to promote it ; and that if these # 
taken from them, and they were deprived of their faithful paste 
and liberty of worshipping God, they would take themselves 
undone in this world, whatever else they should enjoy : that tl 
the hearts of his most faithful subjects, who hoped for his he 
would even be broken; and that we doubted not but 
majesty desired to govern a people made happy by him, and i 
a broken-hearted people. 1 presumed to tell him, that the I 
usurpers so well understood their own interest, that to promt 
it, they had found the way of doing good to be the most eff 
tual means ; and had placed and encouraged many thousi 
faithful ministers in the church, even such as detested their us 
pation ; and that so far had they attained their ends here 
that it was the principal means of their interest in the peop 
wherefore, I humbly craved his majesty, that as he was our la 
ful king, in whom all his people were prepared to centrCj so 
would be pleased to undertake this blessed work of promoti 
their holiness and concord; and that he would never suffer hi; 
self to be tempted to undo the good which Cromwell, or s 
other, had done, because they were usurpers that did it ; or d 
countenance a faithful ministry, because his enemies had i 
them up ; but that he would rather outgo them in doing gox 
and opposing and rejecting the ignorant and ungodly^ of wl 
opinion or party soever ; that the people whose cause we recoi 



OF IHCHARD BAXTER. 175 

flwoded to him, had their eyes on Iiim as the officer of God, to 
deCend them in the possession of the helps of their salvation ; 
which if he were pleased to vouchsafe them, their estates and 
fires would cheerfully be offered to his service. 

^ I Jiumbly besought him that he would never suffer his sub- 
jects to be tempted to have favourable thoughts of the late 
BNirpers, by seeing the vice indulged which they suppressed ; 
or the godly ministers or people discountenanced whom they en- 
eoaraged; and that all his enemies' conduct could not teach him a 
more effectual way to restore the reputation and honour of the 
unrpers than to do worse than they, and destroy the good which 
the? had done. And, again, I humbly craved that no miKrepre- 
lentfktions might cause him to believe, that because some fanatics 
have been factious and disloyal, therefore the religious people 
ID his dominions, who are most careful of their souls, are 
Mich, though some of them may be dissatisfied about some forms 
tod ceremonies in God's worship, which others use : and that 
oone of them might go under so ill a character with him, by 
I misreports behind their backs, till it were proved of them per- 
Mmally, or they had answered for themselves : for we, that bet- 
ter knew them than those that were likely to be their accusers, 
did confidently testify to his majesty, on their behalf, that they 
ire resolved enemies of sedition, rebellion, disobedience, and 
difisions, which the world should see, and their adversaries be 
convinced of, if his majesty's wisdom and clemency did but re- 
move those occasions of scruple in some points of discipline 
lod worship. 

'* I, further, humbly craved, that the freedom and plainness of 
these expressions to his majesty might be pardoned, as being 
eitorted by the present necessity, and encouraged by our re- 
vived hopes. I told him also, that it was not for Presbyterians, 
or any party, as such, that we were speaking, but for the religious 
part of his subjects in general, than whom no prince on earth 
W better. I also represented to him how considerable a part 
of that kingdom he would find them to be ; and of what great 
advantage their union would be to his majesty, to the people, 
and to the bishops themselves, and how easily it might be pro- 
cured—by making only things necessary to be the terms of 
union — by the true exercise of church discipline against sin, — and 
^y not casting out the faithful ministers that must exercise it, 
^d obtruding unworthy men upon the people : and how easy it 
Was to avoid the violating of men's solemn vows and covenants, 



176 THB LIFE AND 'TIMES 

without hurt to any others. And finaliy, I requested that we 
might be heard speak for ourselves, when any accusations were 
brought against us." ^ 

In this long address, we cannot but admire the good sense 
and honesty of Baxter, who could thus fully and delicately 
instruct his majesty in his duty, and in the true interests of 
his government and the country. Happy would it have been 
for Charles, had he listened to such counsels ; but from hii 
well-known character, we can have little doubt that he was at 
this time laughing at the simplicity of the venerable men who 
were pleading before him the rights of God and their fellow 
subjects. A better illustration of casting pearls before swine, 
could not easily be found than what this address presents. It 
was quite appropriate to plead with Charles, his solemn pro- 
mises, to remind him of his engagements, to place before bim 
the circumstances and expectations of his subjects, and to urge 
upon him the encouragement of some, and the protection of all 
religious people. Rut to talk to such a man of discounte- 
nancing sin, and promoting godliness, or to entertain any ex* 
pectation that he would pay the least attention to such things, 
shoe's that the parties thus addressing him were better Christians 
than politicians. Policy required, however, that he should treat 
them decently for a time ; and hence he deceived them by an 
appearance of candour and kindness, and by promises never in- 
tended to be fulfilled. 

" The king," says Baxter^ " gave us not only a free audience, 
but as gracious an answer as we could expect ; professing his 
gladness to hear our inclinations to agreement, and his resolu- 
tion to do his part to bring us together ; and that it must not 
be by bringing one party over to the other, but by abating some- 
what on both sides, and meeting in the midway; and that if it 
were not accomplished, it should be owing to ourselves and not 
to him. Nay, that he was resolved to sec it brought to pass, 
and that he would draw us together himself, with some more to 
that purpose. Insomuch that old Mr. Ash burst out into tears 
of joy, and could not forbear expressing what gladness this pro- 
mise of his majesty had put into his heart." ^ 

Whether Charles himself really wished, at this time, to etkci 
some kind of union between the parties, but was diverted from 
it by the high-church men who were about him, it is difficult to 

^ Life, part it. pp. 230, 231. > Ibid. p. 231. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 177 

Miy* The probability is, he would have cared nothing about it 
if he could have quieted both classes, at least for a time, and thus 
got himself firmly established on the throne. He, no doubt, bore 
the Puritans a deadly grudge, for having, as he conceived, de- 
stroyed his father, and driven himself into exile. But there were 
those around him who hated them quite as heartily, and who 
were determined, if possible, to make their yoke heavier than be- 
fore. To these men there is full evidence that all the obnoxious 
measures which led to the act of uniformity, and to the unmerited 
rafferings which arose from it, properly belong. 

Had there been a disposition to promote peace and union, 
one of two courses might have been pursued ; either of which 
would have accomplished the objects, or at least, have pre- 
vented an open rupture. The adoption of such a liturgy and 
form of church government as the moderate men of both parties 
might approve : this was most ardently desired by Baxter and 
many of those with whom he acted ; and was not by any means 
impracticable. Or failing that, to waive enforcing uniformity of 
worship and ecclesiastical order upon the then-incumbents of 
different sentiments on these points, while they lived, and which 
they were entitled to expect from tlie king's declaration at Breda. 
The court had this measure entirely in its own power. On 
this plan a prospective act of uniformity might have been pass- 
ed, which would have gradually .effected the favourite object, 
without inflicting tremendous suffering on conscientious men, 
and an incurable wound on the church itself. Every principle 
of integrity and good policy ought to have secured the interests 
of the Nonconformists; though I doubt whether the interests of 
religion in the nation would ultimately have been so effectually 
promoted, as by the course pursued. The iiardest, the most 
unjust, the most oppressive measure that could be adopted, was 
the rigorous enforcement of episcopacy and the liturgy, with all 
their concomitants, on pious and conscientious men. For this, 
whoever was the party chiefly concerned in it, no apology can 
be found. It was an unnecessary and a cruel act of despotism. 

^'Either at this time or shortly after, the king required us to 
draw up and offer him such proposals as we thought meet, in 
order to agreement about church government, for that was the 
main difference ; if that were agreed upon, there would be little 
danger of differing in the rest : and he desired us to set down 
the most that we could yield to. 

<< We told him, that we were but few men, and had no com« 

VOL, I, N 



178 tllS ttM AND nUMB 

mission firoM «iy of our brelhf en to express Amir tbitl^M ; tad 
therefore desired that his majesty woiild give lie Ieli?e to ac- 
quaint our brethren in the country with it, and take them with 
us. The king answered^ this would be too tedious, and make' 
too much noise : and therefore we should do what we eouM 
ourseWes only> with those of the city we could take with w. 
And when we then professed that we presumed not to give the 
sense of others, or oblige them ; and that what we did must 
signify but the minds of so many as were present ; he answered, 
that it should signify no more, and that he did not intend to elA 
an assembly of the other party, but would bring a few, such as he 
thought meet j ^nd that if he thought good to advise with a 
few of each side, for his own satisfaction, none had cause to be 
oflsnded at k. 

*' We also craved that, at the same time^ when wd offefed on^ 
coftceseliofis to the king, the brethren on the other side mig^ 
bring in theirs, contaimng also the itttermost that they coirid 
abate and yield to U9 for concord, that seeing both togeth^, wie 
might see what probabiKty of success we had. And the king 
promised that it should be so. 

*^ We hereupon depturted> and appointed to mett from day to 
day at Sion College, and to consult there openly with any of 
our brethren that would please to join us, that none might say 
they were excluded. Some city ministers came among us, aad 
some camre not ; and divers country ministers, who were in the 
city, camfe also to us ; as I>r. Worth, since a bishop in Iretand, 
Mt. Fnlwood, sinc^e archdeacon of Totness; but Mr. MattfaevT 
Newcomen was most constant in assisting us. 

** In these debates, we found the great inconvenience of too 
many actors, though there cannot be too mfany consenters to 
what is well done : for that which seemed the most convenient 
expression to one, seemed inconvenient to another; and tve trho 
aU agreed in matter, had much ado to agree in words. Bat 
after about two or three Peeks' time, we drew up a paper ot 
proposals, which, with Archbishop Usher's form of government, 
called his reduction, we should offer to the king. Mr. Caiaroy 
and Dr. Reynolds drew up the most of them ; Dr. Worth And 
Dr. Reynolds drew up what was against the ceremonies ; the 
abstract which was laid before the king I drew up.** "* 

It is evident that both caution and good sense mark all these 

-life, part ii.pp, 231, 833; 



(Mr AieSARB HAXntR. 179 

proMAigs. Nothing cooM be h\rer, if something was to be 
«Meedecl by both parties, than that each should state what it 
was tsadj to gire up or to modify ; it would then have been 
aeeii at once, whether the parties were lihely to agree on 
any common basis. The NQnconformists, it is clear, were not 
hekward to offer concessions ; and had they been met with a 
eoqeiliatory spirit by the church party, matters would not hate 
proceeded to the extremity which they did. As some of their 
pqpers, even those against ceremonies, were drawn up by 
RejneMs and Worth, who both afterwards conformed, and were 
Bade bishops, their proposals must have been very reasonable. 

The paper referred to by Baxter, drawn up in the most 
respectful manner, and containing very moderate propositions, 
wn laid before his majesty. It embraced the leading points 
of difference relating to choreh government, the liturgy, and 
c^OHonies, on which such extended cohtroversies had been 
iBtintiified. Usher's scheme of a reduced episcopacy (a kind 
^ presbyterian episcopate^ in which the bishop n regarded 
nther as the permanent moderator in the synods or coun- 
cils of his brethren, the primus inter pares, than as clothed 
^ independent authority, and exclusive rights and privi- 
kges) was the basis of their proposition on this head. They 
agreed on the lawfulness of a liturgy, but objected to its r^oroiis 
enforcement, and to several parts of the Book of Commoii 
Prayer which required amendment. They also pointed out the 
various ceremonies in divine service at which they were offend- 
ed; such as the use of the surplice, the sign of the cross at 
baptism, bowing at the name of Jesus, and kneeling at the altar. 
AU these particulars and requests they humbly laid at his ma- 
jnt/s feet. They also presented Usher's own model as drawn 
«p in 1641. 

^When we went," says Baxter, ^^with these foresaid papers 
^0 the king, and expected there to meet the divines of the eftber 
pwty, aceording to promise, with their proposals also, contain- 
^"8 the lowest terms which they would yield to for peace, we 
^^ not a man of them, nor any papers from them of that 
'^•tttre, no, not to this day ; but it was not fit for us to expos- 
^^ate or complain. His majesty very graciously renewed his 
Professions, I must not call them promises, that he would bring 
^ t<^tber, and see that the bishops should come down and 
yield on their part; and when he heard our papers read, he 
^med well pleaaad with them, and told us, he waa glad that 

n2 



180 THB LIFB AND TIMES 

we were for a liturgy and yielded to the essence of episcopacy^ 
and^ therefore, he doubted not of our agreement ; with mach 
more, which we thought meet to recite in our following ad- 
dresses, by way of gratitude, and for other reasons easy to be 
conjectured. 

'^ Yet was not Bishop Usher's model the same in all points 
that we could wish ; but it was the best that we could have the 
least hope, I say not to obtain, but acceptably to make them 
any offers of; for had we proposed ainy thing below arch- 
bishops and bishops, we should but have suddenly furnished 
them with plausible reasons for the rejecting of all further at- 
tempts of concord, or any other favour from them. 

^' Before this time, by the king's return, many hundred wor- 
thy ministers were displaced, and cast out of their charges; 
because they were in sequestrations where others had by the 
parliament been cast out. Our earnest desires had been, that all 
such should be cast out as were in any benefice belonging for- 
merly to a man that was not grossly insufficient or debauched; 
but that all who succeeded such as these scandalous ones^ 
should hold their places. 

^^ These wishes being vain, and all the old ones restored, the 
king promised that the places where any of the old ones were dead, 
should be confirmed to the possessors : but many others got the 
broad seal for them, and the matter was not^reat ; for we were 
all of us to be endured but a little longer. However, we 
agreed to offer five requests to the king, which he received/' * 

These requests related to a speedy answer from himself to 
their proposals about agreement, to a suspension of ptoeeed* 
ings upon the act of conformity till such agreement were come 
to or refused, and some other matters arising out of the un- 
settled state of affairs in the church. While they waited^for the 
promised condescension of the episcopal divines, they received 
nothing but a paper expressive of bitter opposition to th^ir pro- 
posals. They felt that they were treated unworthily, and there- 
fore the brethren requested Baxter to answer it. He did so; 
but it was never used, as there seemed no probability of its 
having any good effect. In his life, however, we are furnished 
with both documents at large. ^ 

A short time after this, the ministers were informed that 
the king would communicate his intentions in thfe form of a 

» Life, part ii. p. 241. • IbM. pp. l^fL-SdS. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 181 

declaration^ to which they would be at liberty to furnish their 
exceptions. This was accordingly done on the 4th of Septem-> 
ber, 1660. This paper, which is very long, is full of preten- 
sions to zeal for righteousness, peace, and union ; unfair in 
its assumptions, and unkind in its insinuations ; and expresses 
nothing explicitly but the determination of the court to uphold 
things as they were. Tt however intimated his majesty's ap- 
probation of the principles and conduct of the Presbyterian mi- 
nisters who waited upon him at Breda ; renews the declaration 
made there in favour of liberty of conscience ; promises that none 
should be molested for differing from the forms of episcopacy; 
waives enforcing the sign of the cross at baptism, kneeling at 
the sacrament, the use of the surplice, the subscription of cano- 
nical obedience and re-ordination, where these were conscien- 
tiously objected to. It renews the promise to appoint^a meeting 
to review the Liturgy ; engages to make some alterations re- 
specting the extent of some of the dioceses, if necessary, and. 
to modify the authority of the bishops, if requisite ; and that 
some other matters of reformation should be attended to. p As 
far aa the feelings and wishes of the Presbyterian party on the 
great leading points of church government and discipline were 
concerned, it was vox etpreterea nihil,^ 

** When we received this copy of the declaration,'' says Bax- 
ter, " we saw that it would not serve to heal our differences ; 
we therefore told the Lord Chancellor, with whom we were to 
do all our business, that our endeavours, as to concord, would 
all be frustrated, if much were not altered in the declaration. I 
pass over all our conferences with him, both now and at other 
times. In conclusion, we were requested to draw up our 
thoughts of it in writing, which the brethren imposed on me to 
do. My judgment was, that all the fruit of this our treaty, be- 
side a little reprival from intended ejection, would be but the 
satisfying our consciences and posterity that we had done our 
duty, and that it was not our fault that we came not to the de- 
sired concord or coalition; and therefore, seeing we had no 
considerable higher hopes, we should speak as plainly as honesty 
and conscience did require us. But when Mr. Calamy and Dr. 

f This declaration was drawn up by Lford Clarendon ; but the evasive claims 
which rende^ it, in a g^reat measure, nugatory, were inserted by the secret 
advisers of the Icing. Sheldon, Hinchman, and Morley, were deeply engaged 
in the whole affair.— 5fcref History of Charles 11., vol. i. p. 93. 

^ Life, parAL p. 259, 265. 



IS9 THi MR A.fm viias 

Reynoldt bad read my paper, they were troubled at tha friiua- 
nenB of it, and thought it never would be endured, and tbtre- 
fore desired some alteration ; especially that I might leave put 
the prediction of the evils which would follow our pon-pigveo- 
laent, wtucfa the court would interpret as a threatening : and 
the mentioning the aggravations of covenant-breaking and per- 
jury. I gave them my reasons for letting it stand as it was. 
To bring me more effectually to their mind, they told t)ie Earl 
of Manchester, with whom, as our sure friend, we still con- 
sulted, and through whom the court used to communicate to us 
what it desired. He called the Earl of Anglesey ' and the Lord 
Hollis' to the consultations as our friends. And thesa three 
lords, with Mr* (^alamy and Dr. Reynolds, perused all tha 
writing ; and ali^ with earnestness, persuaded me to the ^^ al- 
terations, I oonfess, I thought those two points material which 
they excepted against, and would not have had them left out^ 
and thereby made them think me too plain and unpleasingi a^ 
naver used to the language or converse of a court. Bot it W9f^ 
not my unslolfulness in a more pleasing language, but my r^aeoji^ 
and oonscience upon foresight of the issue which ivere tl)a c^^e* 
Whan they tM mfi, however, it lyould not sp muc^ as fat 



'The Esri of Anfletcy was one of the most respectable of t^ofe Bdblemeii 
^bo were amier^tooil to be attached to tbe ^onconlur mists. He was a naUve 
of Ireland, and son of Lord Mount Norris. He was at firyt supposed to faTour 
the royal cause, but afterwards joined tbat of tbe parUameot, and went to 
Ireland in its service. Thougb he had taken no part in the events which lid 
iinmediately to the death of the kin^, his lordship did no.t increase hif 
reputation by sitting as one of the commissioners on tbe trial of the regi- 
cides. He was made an earl for his important services in promoting Uie 
BBstoration, and roee to some of ihe {highest offi.ces in the state dur^ Ibe 
reign of Charles 1 J. He was a man of very considerable learning, aqwl ind||B- 
fatigable in business; but beseems to have been more attentive to his interests 
than to his consistency, or to what was due to the religious party by wbich he 
was held in estimation.— JK^. Brii. vol. i. pp. I9)t— 200; Jtken. Or. ToLif. 
pp. 181—186. 

* Denzil, Lord Hollis, second son of the first Earl of Clare, was one of the 
most distinguished of the popular leaders in the reign of Charles I. He was 
courageous, patriotic, honourable, and disinterested in aU his condi»ct. IKf 
iippears to have taken a decided part against Charles 1. (with whom l«e had 
lived upon terms of intimate friendship) purely from the love of his country. 
He was the principal leader of the Presbyterian party, which placed the great- 
est confidence in him ; he was consequently disliked by Cromwell and the In- 
dependents, both of whom he opposed. Even Clarendon acknowledges that 
he deserved the high reputation wbich he enjoyed, '' being of more mpcfo^' 
pUshed parts than any of the Presbyterian leaders." It does not appear, 
however, that he espoused the Presbyteri^tn interest to wsra^y af^ the re- 
storation as he had done before. ^ * 



eemdf mi that I^muat go mtb it myKslf, far nobody tlao 
woiild^ I yielded to the alteradons/' ^ 

^ A litde before this petition wafi agreed on, Uie bishope' party 

ippoiotedi mt our request, a meeting with tooie of ua, to try 

bow Dear we could come, in preparation for what was to be 

reselved on. Dr. Morley, Dr. Hiachman, and Dr. Cosies, met 

Dr. Reynolds, Mr. Calamy, and myself; and after a few roving 

diacourses we parted, without bringing them to any particular 

^eoQccaaions or abatement, only their general talk was, from the 

beginning, aa if they would do any thing for peace ui\ich was 

^ to be done. They being tbien newly elected, but not conse- 

prated to their several bisbopricks, we called them. My Lords, 

vrhich Dr. Bflorley once returned, sayiqg, ' We may call you 

alao, I suppose, by the same name/ By which I perceived Uiey 

had aome purpose to try that way with us/'^ 

The petition, as altered, was fioally agreed to. It expresses 
the disappointment which the ministers experienced, both from 
the contents and the omissions of the declaration; the pain 
which was caused by some of the insinuations contained in it 5 
the diatinetiQn which they had always contended for between thu 
e|Hscopal fona of church government, and the episcopacy 
established in England ; and presents a very plain view of that 
modified system of government and discipline which would 
satisfy themselves, and, they believed, the great body of serious 
persons of their persuasion throughout the country. ^^ But on 
being delivered to the Lord Chancellory it was so ungrateful, 
that we were never called to present it to the king; but, instead 
of that, it was offered us, that we should make such alterations 
in the declaration as were necessary to attain its ends ; with 
these cautions, that we put in nothing but what we judged of 
flat necessity; and that we alter not the preface or language 
of it : for it was to ba the king's declaration, and what he 
spake as expressing his own sense was nothing to us. If we 
thought ha imposed any thing intolerable upon us, we had leave 
to express our desires for the altering of it. Whereupon we 
agreed to offer another paper of alterations, letting all the rest 
of the declaration alone ; but withal, by word, to tell those we 
offered it to, which was the Lord Chancellor, that this was not 
the model of church government which we at first offered, nor 
which we thought most expedient for the healing of the church; 

«^Life, part iL p. 265. « Ibid. 274. 



184 THB LIFB AND TllfSS 

but seeing that cannot be obtained, we shall humbly subiuti 
and thankfully acknowledge his majesty's condescensioUi if we 
may obtain what now we offer, and shall faithfully endeavour to 
improve it to the church's peace, to the utmost of our power/'* 
Another paper of alterations was accordingly made out and 
sent in. ^^ After all this, a day was appointed for his majesty to 
peruse the declaration, as it was drawn up by the Lord Chancel* 
]or,y and to allow what he liked, and alter the rest, upon the 
hearing of what both sides should say. He accordingly came to 
the Lord Chancellor's house, and with him the Dukes of Albe- 
marle and Ormond,* as I remember ; the Earl of Manchester, 
the Earl of Anglesey, the Lord HoUis, &c. ; and Dr. Sheldon, 
then bishop of London, Dr. Morley, then bishop of Worcester, 
Dr. Hinchman, then bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Cosins, bishop of 
Durham, Dr. Gauden, afterwards bishop of Exeter and Worcester, 
Dr. Darwick, afterwards dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Hacket, bishop 
of Coventry and Litchfield, with divers others, among whom Dr. 
Gunning was most notable. On the other part stood Dr. Rey* 
nolds, Mr. Calamy, Mr. Ash, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Manton, Dr. 
Spurstow, myself, and who else I remember not. The business 
of the day was not to dispute, but as the Lord Chancellor read 
over the declaration, each party was to speak to what it dis- 
liked, and the king to determine how it should be, as he liked 
himself. While the Lord Chancellor read over the preface, th^re 
was no interruption, only he thought it best himself to blot out 
those words about the declaration in Scotland for the covenant,— 



> Life, part ii. pp. 274— 27f;. 

f Hyde, earl of Clureodon, now lord chancellor, wag in various respects a 
considerable man. He possessed a larg^e portion of that kind of loyalty which 
made him regard the ^lory of his country chiefly as it contributed to the fflorj 
of the king. He was narrow-minded, and the subject uf prejudices'of the most 
iriolent ktnd^ especially against the friends of liberty and the Nonconform* 
ists. It does not appear that his lordship particularly disliked Baxter ; on the 
contrary, be seems to have done him, occasionally, some little kindness; but 
to Clarendon, and one or two of the bishops, a large portion of the sufferings 
and disappointment of the Nonconformists, after the Restoration, ia mainly to 
be attributed. He could be merry with them, however, sometimes. He told 
Baxter, after the Savoy conference, that had he been but as fat as Dr. Man- 
ton, they had done very well. Baxter readily replied, that if his lordship 
would teach him the art of growing fat, he should fiud him quite ready to 
learn.— Z^7/r, part ii. p. 3. • 

* The Duke of Ormond was lord steward of the household, and was a 
man of great integrity and benevolence. He had always been a royalist, but 
was miich respected by all parties. I am not aware that he took much part in 
the affairs which related to the Nonconformisis. 



OP EICHARD BAXnR. 185 

thitiie did, from the moment it passed our hand, ask God forgive- 
oess for our fMut in it. The great matter which we stopped at, was 
the word eomemi, where the bishop is to confirm by tiie consent 
of the pastor of that church ; and jthe king would by no means 
pass the word consent, either there or in the point of ordination 
or oensnres, because it gave the ministers a negative voice. We 
uged him hard with a passage in his father's book of medita- 
tioiu, where he expressly granteth this consent of the presby- 
ters;* but it would not prevail. The most that I insisted on 
was from the end of our endeavours, that we came not hither 
for a personal agreement only with our brethren of the other 
wajr, but to procure such gracious concessions from his majesty 
as would unite all the soberest people of the land ; and we 
knew that on lower terms it could not be done. Though con- 
9aU be but a little word, it was necessary to a very desirable 
end ; if it were purposed that the parties and divisions should 
rather continue unhealed, then we had no more to say, there 
being no remedy ; but we were sure that union would not be 
attained, if no consent were allowed ministers in any part of 
the government of their flocks ; and so they would be only 
teachers, without any participation in the ruling of the peo- 
ple, whose rectors they were called. When I perceived some 
offence at what I said, I told them that we had not the judg- 
ments of men at our command. We could not, in reason, 
suppose that our concessions, or any thing we could do, would 
change the judgments of any great numbers; and therefore, 
we must consider what will unite us, in case their judgments be 
not changed, else our labour would be to no purpose. 

'The passage in the * EikoD Basiiike/ to which Baxter refers, as that in 

vMch Charles concedes that the bishops should rule with the consent of the 

preibjfterSy is, I apprehend, the following : « Not that I am ag^aiost the ma- 

Bsfin^ of this precedency and authority in one man, by the joint counsel and 

f9iuemi of many fresbyiet'S .* 1 have offered to restore that, as a fit means to 

avoid diose errors, corruptions, and partialities, which are incident to anyone 

Sian : also to avoid tyranny, which becomes no Christian, least of all church- 

inen. Besides, it will be a means to take away that burden and odium of 

affiirs which may lie too heavy on one roan's shoulders, as indeed 1 think it 

formerly did on the bishops' here." (Pp. 153, 154.} This was the opinion of 

Charles I. in solitude and sufferiog, and therefore no reason why it should bind 

Charles II., in fUll possession of royal power and authority. He, indeed, muse 

have been amused at the quotation of his father's opinions from this book ; 

and Dr. Gaoden, the real author of the < Eikon,' who was now present, must 

have been not a little mortified by the reference to such a passage. The kiu^, 

it is ftaid, when the reference was made, said quietly, ** All that is in that book 

is not Gospel ;" a remark which iLeant more than met the ear.— fio^f'f Fune- 

rtU Sermwn/or Baxter, 



iS9 fwi un Mfp nwm 

^Biikop UrnUf told than "hoiv peU mu 9mm m% Md 
firfaiijt^iniilM^diBif^n^WjBMwUluig. He told (the kjng gho tkil 
po map ImuI wrkCen better of these loattees liuui ( faad dMtf 
md t^ne ia|r five Dbputoticme lof Ciwrcb GENrenuMpI laft 
|[]ieady tp be firoduMd. All lht$ wee to intimele m if I mmt 
fiootredicted «bat I bed there written. J told hua that I iied 
tkp heat. reaeoB to l^Kwir wbut I bad written, end thpt ( nmefitt 
of tlie eaip^ nind. A greet many worde thept wew^ nkmaf piyn 
\acy aud re-ordipatipti ; Dr^Ouoiwg i^id BUhop MpHef epea fc i 
mg alnxMt all on one aicje, aad Dr. Hincbpiaa and Dr« ffnuwn 
eon^etipies ; and Mr. Calaipy and myself qapet op tM ptber 
aide ; but I think neitber party value the raa^Uipg diacfnfffaaa 
of that day ao much as to think them worth reeordingi Mr. 
Calamy apawered Dr. Guboi ng from Seriptum very well, agaiMt 
the divine right of prelacy aa a diatinet order* When Di; 
Chmning told them that Dr. Hammond had said enough agpuiat 
the Pr^abyteriap cause aad ordination, and was yet nouawMadf 
I thought it meet to tell him, that I had answered tbt subataMa 
of Ma argnmenU, and said enough, monepver, against the £0? 
ceaan Arapl^ of goyeramept ; and tp prove the validi^ of ihi 
Bliglish pneabytera' ordiQation, which^ indeed, wfeia imaMWCSMl, 
though I was very d^eairpus to have seen au answer to it. I said 
this, because they had got the book by them, and faecanse I 
thought the unreasonableness of their dealing might be tviooadf 
who force ao many hundreds to be re-ordained ; and will pot 
any of them answer one book, which is written to prpyp the 
validity of that ordination which they would have miUifiad, 
though I provoked them purposely in such a presence. 

'^ The most of the time being spent thu^ in speaking to par- 
ticulars of the declaration, as it was read, when we came la 
the end, the Lord Chancellor drew out another paper, and told 
us that the king had been petitioned also by the Independents 
and Anabaptists 9 and though he knew not what to think of it 
himself, and did not very well like it, yet something he bad 
drawn up which he would read to us, and desire us also tP give 
our advice about it« Thereupon he read, a$ an addition to the 
declaration, ' that others also be permitted to meet for religi- 
ous worship, 80 be it they do it not to the disturbance of the 
peace ; and that no justice of peaqs or officer disturb them.' 
When he had read it, he again desired them ail to think on it, 
and give their advice ; but all were silent. The Presbyterians 
all perceived, as soon as they heard it, that ^ wnilld ^s^PUr^ tba 



liberty of tkt l^isto $ and Dn Wallis wbitperied me io tfie ear, 

aii4 entn^tad mie to aay notbiog, for it waa ao odious lnuimes^ 

ki4 to jbt tfa(K bislpops apeal^ to it. ^ut the bishops would iiot 

9paak a «sord| nor my one of the Presbyteriaos^ and so we werie 

IiIms to hayse ended in silence. I knew, if we consented to it» i( 

wnolfd be charged on us, thai we spake (or a toleration of Papists 

|ub4 acctaries: ye|t it might have lengthened out our own« 

And if we spake against it, all sects and parties would be set 

apioat ss as the causers of their sufferings, and as a partiiS} 

people that would have liberty ourselves, but would have no 

odwra epjoy it with us. At last, seeing the silence continue, 

I tbooghc our very silence would be changed on us as consent, 

if it w^eot on, and therefore I only said this : * Hat this reve- 

rpo4 bi^ather. Dr. Gunning, even now q>eaking against th^s sects, 

had iiaoie4 the Papists and the Socinians : for our parts, we 

dtairfri not favour to ourselves alone, and rigorous severity we 

deaimd against none. As we humbly thanked his majesty for 

)us indirigepce to ourselves, 9o we distinguished the tolerable 

pavfi^ ffom the intolerable. For the former, we humbly craved 

jaat Icttp^ and favour, but for the latter, such as the two sorts 

apuncd before by that reverend brother, for our parts, we could 

mi fBfii» their toleration our request.' ^ To which his majesty 

said, there were laws enough against the Papbts ; to which I 

replied, that we understood the question to be, whether those 

lawa abould be executed on them or not. And so his majesty 

hnoke up the meeting of that day. 

^ Before the meeting was dissolved, his majesty had all along 
told what he would have stand in the declaration ; and he named 
(our divines, to determine of any words in the alteration, if there 
wer^ any difference ; that is, Bishop Morley, Bishop Hinciiman, 
Dr. jfteynolds, and Mr. Calamy ; and if they disagreed, that 
the Earl of Anglesey and the Lord HolHs should decide it. As 
they went out of the room, I told the Earl of Anglesey, that 
we had no other business there but th^ church's peace and 
welfare, and I would not have been the man that should have 
done so much against it as he had done that day, for far 

^ Baxter's honesty is always evident in every things be did ; but here bis pre- 
)iiAicet aod imperfect views of reii^ous liberty made bim appear in a very 
ditsdvanta^^eous lif ht. There is no doubt that the conduct of the court on thif 
occa»ioD was desired to entrap the Nonconfurinists. If they said yea to the 
proposition, they would be regarded as the friends of Popery ; if they said nay, 
they would be considered enemies to the liberties of others, while they were 
strof l^iof for their own. 



188 THB LIFB AND tlMSS 

more than he was like to get by it. Though called a Preabjr- 
terian, he had' spoken more for prelacy than we expected ; and 
I think by the consequent that this saying did some good ; for 
when I afterwards found the declaration amended^ and. aaked 
how it came to pass, he intimated to me that it was his doing. 

** When I went out from the meeting, I went dejected^ beii^ 
fully satisfied that the form of government in that dedaratMm 
would not be satisfactory, nor attain that concord which was 
our end, because the pastors had no government of the flocks; 
and I was resolved to meddle no more in the business, bat pa^ 
tiently suffer with other dissenters. But two or three days after^ 
meeting the king's declaration cried about the streets, I pre- 
sently stepped into a house to read it ; and seeing the word 
consent put in about confirmation and sacrament, though npt as 
to jurisdiction, and seeing the pastoral persuasive power of 
governing left to all the ministers with the rural dean, and 
more amendments, I wondered how it came to pass, but 
exceeding glad of it; perceiving that now the terms were^ 
though not such as we desired, such as any sober^ honest 
minister might submit to. 1 presently resolved to do mj best 
to persuade all, according to my interest and opportanity, to 
conform according to the terms of this declaration, and cheer- 
fully to promote the concord of the church, and brotherly love, 
which this concord doth bespeak. 

^^ Having frequent business with the Lord Chancellor about 
other matters, I was going to him when I met the king's decla- 
ration in the street ; and I was so much pleased with it^ that 
having told fiim why 1 was so earnest to have had it suited to the 
desired end, I gave him hearty thanks for the addition, and told 
him that if the liturgy were but altered as the declaration pro- 
mised, and this settled and continued to us by law, and not 
reversed, I should take it to be my duty to do my best to pro- 
cure the full consent of others, and promote our happy con- 
cord on these terms ; and should rejoice to see the day when 
factions and parties may all be swallowed up in unity, and 
contentions turned to brotherly love. At that time he began to 
offer me a bishoprick, of which more anon."^ 

The account which Clarendon gives us of the transactions 
relating to the declaration, are very different from Baxter's ; and 
as he refers to the conduct of the ministers on this occasion for 

« Life, part ii, pp. 276, 279. 



OF EICHARD fiAXTBH. 189 

proof of the necessity of a rigorous enforcement of the laws, 
I shall gire his version of it in his own words. This I should 
not have thought necessary, had not Bishop Heber, in his Life 
of Jeremy Taylor, introduced it as a proof of the ^^ disingenu- 
outness of some of the Presbyterian leaders, and the absurd 
bigotry of others/'^ 

*' Here/' says Clarendon, ** I cannot but instance two acts of 
the Pkesbyterians, by which, if their humour and spirit were not 
enough discovered and known, their want of ingenuity and in- 
t^rity would be manifest ; and bow impossible it is for men 
who would not be deceived, to depend on either. When' the 
declaration had been delivered to the ministers, there was a 
clause in it, in which the king declared ^ his own constant 
practice of the common prayer,' and that he would take it well 
from those who used it in their churches, that the common people 
might be again acquainted with the piety, gravity, and devotion 
of ity and which he thought would facilitate their living in 
good neighbourhood together, or words to that effect. When 
they had considered the whole some days, Mr. Calamy^ and 
some other ministers deputed by the rest, came to the Chancellor 
to le^deliver it into his hands. They acknowjiedged the king 
had been very gracious to them in his concessions ; though he 
had not granted all that some of their brethren wished,' yet they 
vere contented, only desiring him that he would prevail with 
the king, that the clause mentioned before might be left out, 
which, they protested, was moved by them for the king's own 
end, and that they might show their obedience to him, and 
resolution to do him service. For they were resolved them- 
selves to do what the king wished ; first to reconcile the 
people, who for near twenty years had not been acquainted 
ynth that form,- by informing them that it contained much 
piety and devotion, and might be lawfully used ; and then that 
they would begin to use it themselves, and by degrees accustom 
the people to it, which they said would have a better effect than 
if the clause were in the declaration. For they should be thought 
in their persuasions to comply only with the king's declaration, 
and to merit from his majesty, and not to be moved from the 
conscience of the duty, and so they should take that occasion to 
manifest their zeal to please the king. And they feared there 
would be other ill consequences from it by the waywardness of 

^ H«ber*i Life of Tsylor, pp. 101, 341. 



IM) tM UFB A1IJ> TflfUS 

the ccnntnon people, who were to be treated #ith Bkili, tt4 
would not be prevailed upon all at once. The khig was to be 
present the next morning, to helir the declaration redd the last 
time before both parties, and then the Chancellor told him, hi the 
presence of all the rest, what the ministers had desired, which 
they again enlarged upon, with the same protestations of their 
resolutions, in such a manner that his majesty believed they 
meant honestly, and the clause was left out. But the declara-, 
tion was no sooner published, than, observing that the people 
were generally satisfied with it, they sent their emiaeeties 
abroad, and many of their letters were intercepted, and parti- 
eularly a letter from Mr. Calamy, to a leading minister hi 
Somersetshire, whereby he advised and intreated him that he 
and his friends would continue and persist in the Me of thi 
Directory^ and by no means admit the Common Prayer in Oid# 
churches ; for thife he made no question biit that thej ahorid 
prevail further with the king than he had yet consented fa ia 
his declaration ! 

'' The other instance was, that as soon as the deelsiratioii 
was printed, the king received a petition in the name of file 
ministers of London, and many others of the same opmkm with 
them, who had subscribed that petition, amongst whom none , 
of those who had attended the king in those conferences had 
their names. They gave his majesty humble thanks for the 
grace he had vouchsafed to show in his declaration, which tlMj 
received fM an earnest of his future goodness and condescen- 
sion, in granting all those other concessions, which were 
absolutely necessary for the liberty of their conscience, and 
desired, with importunity and ill manners, that the wearing the 
surplice, and the using the cross in baptism, might be abaolutdy 
abolished out of the church, as being scandaloas to all men of 
tender consciences ! From these two instances, all men may 
conclude that nothing but a severe execution bf the Iftw can 
prevail upon that class of men to conform to government."* 

On this account of Clarendon's much might be said to show 
its inaccuracy and unfairness. It might be inferred from what 
he says, that the only matter of difference about the declahi- 
tion, respected the king's use of the Liturgy in his privatte 
chapel, and his wish that those who used it might recommend 
il to others. Whereas I cannot perceive that the minisfeft 

• Udt of Lord aarendoB, pp. 7.5, 7a 



«f BICIIABD MXTn« 191 

olgcctedl to <!»• at all, or preterfei may request that the claaae 
OD thia asfaject shoidd be omitted. Baxter^ it is ceiti^, coiiki 
have been so party to such a demand, llie petition drawn vp 
bj him for hia brethren, at first sight of the deelaration, bnt 
wUeh was not adopted^ eontains no reference to any such thing i 
it most have done had it been insisted on, as Clatefndon 
And in &ct the declaration, as published, eontains the 
king's request that the ministers would recommend the Prayer-* 
book. 

Instead of their being dissatisfied with the king's declaration, 
as altered in conformity witH some of their wishes; it is appa^ 
rent from Baxter's narrative^ how mtich he and most of his 
brethren rejoiced in it, and that they considered Kttle more neees^' 
sary tot their satisfaction than the fulfilment of the pToanlses 
eentained in it, and passing it into a law. 

The dnpiieity cfaiurged on Calamy is founded on the evi-^ 
dtoce of letters pretended to be intercepted j the most conve* 
Dimt sort of proof for a prime minister, bat the most villanoaa 
of all kinds of evidence. The conciuct charged is not consist- 
ent with the general character of Calamy, with the motives by 
which it is conceivable he should have- been actuated at the time; 
or with the fact, that subsequent to this discovery of his trea- 
chery, a bishoprick was urged upon him, by Clarendon himself. 
The reason why the thanks presented by the London minis- 
ters for his majesty's declaration, (which abounds with expres- 
sions of loyalty and gratitude for his gracious concessions^) were 
not subscribed by those who had waited upon the king, was not, 
ai Clarendon insinuates, disaffection to hint, and disappointment 
that the declaration was generally acceptable. The ministers 
of London, it appears, differed among themselves as to the pro- 
priety of thanking his majesty for the declaration, on the gromid 
that it implied their approbation of bishops and archbishops^ 
&c. ; and old Arthur Jackson, who had presented the Bible to 
Charles on his entry into London, decidedly opposed their 
doing so, contrary to the wishes of Baxter and others. 

As conclusive evidence how little the authority of Clarendon 
is worth in this affair, the importunity and ill manners of which 
he acenscs the ministers has no foundation in fact, for the Isttt- 
guage which he ascribes to them does not occur in the paper to 
wUeb be refers. He grossly misrepresents the petition which 
they presented.' 

* See Baxter's Life, part iL pp. 284, 285, where the petition ii firen at 
lam. 



192 THB LIPB AND TIIIBS 

This attempt of Clarendon to throw the blame of the treat- 
ment which the Nonconformists experienced upon their unrea^ 
sonableness and duplicity, is the pitiful shift of a man who must 
have been haunted by a consciousness of the undeserved inju- 
ries which he had been the chief means of inflicting upon 
others ; and who makes an impotent attempt to get rid . of the 
guilt and the odium which attach to his conduct. It is more 
surprising, however, that such a man as Heber could allege^ 
that the only differences between the parties respected ^ the 
form and colour of an ecclesiastical garment, the wording of a 
prayer, or the injunction of kneeling at the sacrament.*'' He 
does not, indeed, justify the conduct of the ruling powers ; but 
be entirely forgets, that the question at issue really was, vrhe- 
ther conscience^ be it well or ill informed, must submit to the 
authority of men, or be subject to the authority of God only. 
The Nonconformists believed certain things to be unlawful in 
the worship of God ; the leaders of the church said, ^ We admit 
that they are not of divine authority, but they are enacted by us, 
we believe them to be good, you must therefore submit to them, 
or be thrown out/' Holding the views which the Nonconform- 
ists did, they must have ceased to be Christians, had they not 
chosen to obey God rather than men. For this conduct, instead 
of being reproached as narrow-minded and bigoted sectari- 
ans who involved the nation in blood and mischief for trifles, 
they deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance, as suiFerers 
for pure and undefiled religion. 

The gratification of Baxter, from the apparent adoption in 
the declaration of some of the phrases contended for by tbt 
ministers, was not destined to be of long continuance. Nothing 
more was intended by the court than the amusement of the 
parties, till every thing was sufficiently ripe for the accomplish- 
ment of its real intentions. To carry on the same scheme of 
political deception, it was thought desirable to make some of 
the leadmg ministers bishops. Not that they wanted such 
bishops ; but because it was the most effectual method of silen- 
cing such men, and destroying their infhience with their own 
party. It succeeded with some, but not with Baxter. He gives 
the following account of the offers which were made to himself, 
and of the grounds on which he rejected them. 

''A little before the meeting about the king's declaration, 
Colonel Birch came to me, as from the Lord Chancellor, to per- 

K Heber's Life of Taylor, p. 100. 



OP RICHARD BAXTBR. 193 

suade me to take the bishoprick of Hereford, for he had bought 
the bishop's house at Whitburne, and thought to make a better 
baigain with me than with another^ and, therefore, finding that 
the lord chancellor intended me the offer of one, he desired it 
might be that. I thought it best to give them no positive denial 
till I saw the utmost of their intents : and I perceived that 
Colonel Birch came privately, that a bishoprick might not be 
publicly refused, and to try whether I would accept it, that else 
it might not be offered me; for he told me that they would 
not bear such a repulse. I told him tliat I was resolved never 
to be bishop of Hereford, and that I did not think I should ever 
see canse to take any bishoprick ; but I could give no positive 
answer till I saw the king's resolutions about the way of church 
government : for if the old diocesan frame continued, he knew 
we could never accept or own it. After this, not having a flat 
denial^ he came again and again to Dr. Reynolds, Mr. Calamy, 
and myself together, to importune us all to accept the offer, for 
the bishoprick of Norwich was offered to Dr. Reynolds, and 
Coventry and Litchfield to Mr. Calamy ; but he had no positive 
answer, but the same from me as before. At last, the day that the 
king's dtelaration came out, when I was with the lord chancellor, 
who did all, he asked me whether I would acceptof a bishoprick ; 
I told him that if he had asked me that question the day before, 
I could easily have answered him that in conscience I could 
not do it ; for though I could live peaceably under whatever 
government the king should set up, I could not have a hand in 
executing it. But having, as I was coming to him, seen the 
king's declaration, and seeing that by it the government is so 
far altered as it is, I took myself for the church's sake exceed- 
ingly beholden to his lordship for those moderations; and my 
desire to promote the happiness of the church, which that 
moderation tendeth to, did make me resolve to take that course 
which tendeth most thereto. Whether to take a bishoprick 
be the way, I was in doubt, and desired some further time for 
consideration. But if his lordship would procure us the settle- 
ment of the matter of that declaration, by passing it into a law, 
I promised him to take that way in which I might most serve 
the public peace. 

" Dr. Reynolds, Mr. Calamy, and myself, had some speeches 
together about it ; and we ail thought that a bishoprick might be 
accepted according to the description of the declaration, without 

VOL. I. o 



194 THB LIF8 AND TIMBS 

any violation of the covenant, or owning the ancient prelacy :^ 
but all the doubt was whether this declaration would be made a 
law as was then expected, or whether it were but a temporary 
means to draw us on till we came up to all the diocesans desired. 
Mr. Calamy desired that we might all go together, and all 
refuse or all accept it. 

^' By this time the rumour of it fled abroad, and the voice of 
the city made a difference. For though they wished that none 
4){ us should be bishops, the said Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Bax- 
ter, being known to be for moderate episcopacy, their acceptance 
would be less scandalous ; but if Mr. Calamy should accept it^ 
who had preached, and written, and done so much against it 
(which were then at large recited), never Presbyterian would be 
trusted for his sake. So that the clamour was very loud against 
his acceptance of it : and Mr. Matthew Newcomen, his brother^ 
in-law, and many more, wrote to me earnestly to, dissuade him. 

*' For my own part, 1 resolved against it at the first, but not ai 
a thing which I judged unlawful in itself as described in the 
king's declaration : but I knew that it would take me off my 
writing. I looked to have most of the godly ministers cast 
out ; and what good could be done by ignorant, vile, inca- 
pable men ? I feared that this declaration was but for present 
use, and that shortly it would be revoked or nullified ; and if so, 
I doubted not but the laws would prescribe such work for 
bishops, in silencing ministers, and troubling honest Christians 
for their conscience, and ruling the vicious with greater lenity^ 
as that I had rather have the meanest employment among men. 
My judgment was also fully resolved against the lawfulness of 
the old diocesan frame. 

** But when Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Calamy asked my thoughts, 
I told them that, distinguishing between what is simply, and 
what is by accident, evil, I thought that as episcppacy is described 
in the king's declaration, it is lawful when better cannot be 
had ; but yet scandal might make it unfit for some men more 
than others. To Mr. Calamy therefore I would give no counsel) 
but for Dr. Reynolds, I persuaded him to accept it, so be it be 
would publicly declare that he took it on the terms of the 
king's declaration, and would lay it down when he could no 

^ It requires a considerable portion of the distinguishing; powers of Baxter to 
understand how the acceptance of a^bishoprick, on any such footiofp as it was 
likf ly to bf placed, was consistent with the principles of the coreoant. 



OV EICHARD ttAXTBR. lOS 

bagnr exeieiaa it on those terms. Only I left it to his consideni^ 
JOD whether it would be better to suy till he saw what they 
rdold do with the declaration ; and for myself, I was confident 
•hoQld see cause to refuse it. 

^ When I came to the lord chancellor the next day sa^e one, 
m aaked me of my resolution, and put me to it so suddenly, that 
waa forced to delay no longer, but told him that I could not 
fiC!€pt it for scTeral reasons. And it was not the least that I 
hoiight I could better serve the church without it, if he would 
mt prosecute the establishment of the terms granted; and 
lecause I thought it would be ill taken if I refused it upon 
uiy but acceptable reasons. But as writing would serve best 
igainst misreports hereafter, I the next day put a letter into the 
lord chancellor's hand, which he took in good part; in which 
I eoncealed most of my reasons, but gave the best, and used 
note freedom in my forther requests than I expected should 
Inve any good success."^ 

As this letter contains some of Baxter's views of the state of 
things which then existed, and suggests to the lord chancellor 
mearares which, if adopted, he supposed would both advance 
the interests of the church, and gratify the Nonconformists, I 
ihall present it entire. Whether he had any reasons for believ^ 
ing that the persons whom he mentions would accept of bi<* 
ihoprics, cannot now be ascertained. It has rarely happened 
that such a situation has been so completely in the power of an 
individual to accept, whose principles did not stand in the way 
of bis acceding to it, but who honourably declined it for him- 
self, and so uigenuously recommended others. 
^ My Lord, 

'* Your great favour and condescension encourage me to 
give you more of my sense of the business which your lordship 
was pleased to propound. I was, till I saw the declaration, much 
dejectfKi, and resolved against a bishoprick as unlawful ; but, 
finding there more than on October 22d., that his majesty 
grants us the pastor's consent, that the rural dean with the 
whole ministry may exercise as much persuasive pastoral power 
as I could desire, and that subscription is abated in the univer- 
sities, &c. Finding such happy concessions in the great point 
of parochial power and discipline, and in the liturgy and cere- 
monies, my soul rejoiced in thankfulness to God and his 
mstruments, and my conscience presently told me it was my 

> Lifei part 11. pp. 281, SSa. 

o2 



196 THE LIFB ANB TIMES 

duty to do my best with myself and others, as far as I had in- 
terest and opportunity, to suppress all sinful discontents ; and 
haying competent materials now put into my hands, without 
which I could have done nothing, to persuade all my brethren 
to thankfulness and obedient submission to the government. 
Being raised to some joyful hopes of seeing the beginning 
of a happy union, I shall crave your lordship's pardon for pre* 
suming what further endeavours will be necessary to accomplish 
it 1 . If your lordship will endeavour to get the declaration 
passed into an act. 2. If you will speedily procure a commis- 
sion to the persons that are equally to be deputed to that work, 
to review the Common Prayer-book, according to the declara^ 
tion. 3. If you will further effectually the restoration of able^ 
faithful ministers, who are lately removed, who have, and will 
have, great interest in the sober part of the people, to a settled 
station of service in the church. 4. If you will open some way 
for the ejection of the insufficient, scandalous, and unable. 5. 
If you will put as many of our persuasion as you can into 
bishopricks, if it may be, more than three. 6. If you will desire 
the bishops to place some of them in inferior places of trust, 
especially rural deaneries, which is a station suitable to lis, in 
that it hath no salary or maintenance, nor coercive power, but 
that simple, pastoral, persuasive power which we desire. This 
much will set us all in joint. 

** And, for my own part, I hope, by letters this very week, to 
disperse the seeds of satisfaction into many counties of England.*^ 
My conscience commanding me to make this my very work and 
busings, unless the things granted should be reversed^ which 
God forbid. I must profess to your lordship that I am utterly 
against accepting of a bishoprick, because I am conscious that it 
will overmatch my sufficiency, and affright me with the thought 
of my account for so great an undertaking. Especially, because 
it will very much disable me from an effectual promoting of 
the church's peace. As men will question all my argumentations 
and persuasions, when they see me in the dignity which I plead 
for, but will take me to speak my conscience impartially, when I 
am but as one of themselves ; so I must profess to your lord- 
ship that it will stop my own mouth that I cannot for shame speak 
half so freely as now I can and will, if God enable me, for obe- 



^ How different is this from Clarendon's representation of the behaviour of 
Ae ministers ia Irondon towards their brethren in the country ! 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 197 

dience and peace; while I know that the hearers will be thinking 
I am pleading for myself. I therefore humbly crave 

^ That your lordship will put some able man of our persua- 
sion into the place which you intend for ihe, though I now think 
that Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Calamy may better accept of a 
bishoprick than I, which I hope your lordship will promote. I 
shall presume to offer some choice to your consideration : Dr. 
Francis Roberts^ of Wrington, in Somersetshire, known by his 
works ; Mr. Froyzall, of Clun^ in Shrops»hire and Hereford dio- 
cese, a man of great worth and good interest; Mr. Daniel 
Cawdrey,' of Billing, in Northamptonshire ; Mr. Anthony Bur- 
gessy of' Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire — all known by their 
printed works; Mr. John Trap, of Gloucestershire; Mr. Fordy 
of Bxeter ; Mr. Hughes, of Plymouth ; Mr. Bampiield, of Sher- 
borne; Mr. Woodbridge, of Newbury; Dr. Chambers, Dr. 
Bryan, and Dr. Grrew, all of Coventry ; Mr. Brinsley, of Yar- 
mouth ; Mr. Porter, of Whitchurch in Shropshire ; Mr. Gilpin, 
of Cumberhind ; Mr. Bowles, of York ; Dr. Temple, of Bramp- 
ton, in Warwickshire : I need name no more. 

'^ Secondly: That you will believe I as thankfully ac- 
knowledge your lordship's favour as if I were by it possessed 
of a bishoprick : and if your lordship continue in those inten- 
tions, I shall thankfully accept it in any other state or relation 
that may further my service to the church and to his ma- 
jesty. But I desire, for the fore-mentioned reasons, that it 
may be no cathedral relation. And whereas the vicar of the 
parish where I have lived will not resign, but accept me only as 
his curate, if your lordship would procure him some prebendary, 
or other place of competent profit, for I dare not mention him 
to any pastoral charge, or place that reqiiireth preaching, that 
so he might resign that vicarage to me, without his loss, accord- 
ing to the late act before December ; for the sake of that town 
of Kidderminster, I should take it as a very great favour. But 
if there be any great inconvenience or difficulties in the way, I 
can well be content to be his curate. I crave your lordship's 
pardon for this trouble, which your own condescension has 
drawn upon you, and remain," &c.™ 

This letter, which is dated the 1st of November 1660, states 
clearly Baxter's approbation of the king's declaration, and his 

1 It is singular that Baxter should have proposed Cawdrey for a bishoprick; 
He was one of the most decided, indeed violent, Presbyterians of the times. 
» Life, part ii. pp. 283, 284. 



198 TBB LIFE AND TIMIt 

anxious desire that it might be put on the fooling of hm, wmi 
feirly and fully acted upon. The requests which the letter makes, 
were not unreasonable in themselves, or in reference to the state 
of parties at the time, though not likely to be all complied with. 
The letter as a whole, is an admiralile specimen of die simpiH 
eity, integrity, and disinterestedness of Baxter. 

*^ Mr. Calamy/' he says, ^^ blamed me for giving in my dental 
alone, before we had resolved together what to do. But I told 
him the truth, that being upon other necessary business with the 
lord chancellor, he put me to it on the sudden, so that I codd 
not conveniently delay my answer. 

''Dr. Reynolds almost as suddenly aoeepted, saying, that 
some friend had taken out the cong£ d'elire for him withoat hii 
knowledge. He read to me a profession directed to the king, 
which he had written, where he professed that he took a bishop 
and a presbyter to differ not ardine but gradu ; that a bishop 
¥ms but the chief presbyter, and that he was not to ordain 
or govern but with his presbyters' assistance and eonsent; 
that he accepted of the place as described in the king's de- 
claration, and not as it stood before in England ; and that he 
would no longer hold or exercise it than he could do it on theM 
terms. To this sense it was, and he told me that he would 
offer it the king when he accepted of the place | but whether 
he did or not I cannot tell. He died in the bishoprick of Nor* 
wich, an. 1676.** 

'' Mr. Calamy long suspended his answer, so that that bishop* 
rick was long undisposed of; till he saw the issue of all of our 
treaty, which easily resolved him.^ Dr. Manton was c^fered the 
deanery of Rochester, and Dr. Bates, the deanery of Coventry 

* Dr. Reynolds was a person of good learning;, respectable talents, and 
decided piety. It appears that Baxter tbouglit he might, ooDsistentlj widi his 
principles, accept a bishoprick. Reynolds does not appear to have beliefcd 
la the jua di»muim of any form of church government, and theveliara ha 
could have no conscienti9Us objections to a bishoprick, and probably thoagfal 
he might be able to serve the Nonconformists more in that capac^, 
than had he remained one of themselves. He appears to have managed tlia 
see of Norwich with great moderation, though, even there, much suffisfiiig 
was endured ; many of the Nonconformists being prosecuted by the bishop's 
chancellor, though, it is said, greatly against the bishop's will. See Chalmers' 
* Life of Reynolds ,' prefixed to his works, and the < Conformist's Plea for the 
Nonconformist,' part iv. p. ^7* 

^ It would have been honourable to the character of Dr. Calamy had he 
refused the bishoprick in a more prompt and decided manner. It is evident 
that he cast a longing, lingering look towards it, and said nolo ofmopari with 
some reluctance. Nothing seems to have prevented his f^xepisOlOe b9t Ibt 



OV ftlCHARD BAXtmU 199 

and Litdifield, whieh diey both after some time refused. And, as 
Iheirdy Mr. Edward Bowles was offered the deanery of York, at 
leasly which he refused." 

Tlius ended the affair of the Presbyterian bishopricks, which 
(fid the rejecters more honour than the accepter. Calamy 
•ecma to have hesitated ; perplexed, it would appear, by opposite 
views of duty, but little wishing to decline, provided he could 
ba:ve complied without compromising his character and consist- 
ency. Baxter's promptitude and decision reflect the greatest 
eredit on his disinterested and upright character. The king's 
declaration was issued ; and the London ministers, glad to 
veeeive any thing which seemed to promise protection and en- 
eoaragement to their labours, met and thanked his majesty for 
his moderation and goodness, and entreated him still to attend 
to their requests. It was presented on the 16th of November, 
1660, by a number of the ministers, not including Baxter. 

^ Whether this came to the king's ears, he says (or what else 
it was that caused it I know not, but presently after the Earl 
of Lauderdale came to tell me), that I must come the next day 
to the king, who was pleased to tell me that he sent for me 
only to signify his favour to me. I told him I feared my plain 
speeches, October 22d, which I thought the case in hand com- 
manded me to employ, might have been displeasing to him; but 
he told me that he was not offended at the plainness, free- 
dom, or earnestness of them, but only when he thought I was 
not in the right ; and that for my free speech he took me to be 
the honester man. I suppose this favour came from the bishops, 
who having notice of what last passed, did think that now I 
might serve their interests." p 

In his majesty's declaration it was intimated that the liturgy 
should be reviewed and reformed, and certain alterations adopt- 
ed, to meet the feelings of the Nonconformists. Baxter frequently 
importuned the chancellor to carry this engagement into effect. 
At last Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Calamy were authorised to name 
the persons on their side to manage the conference ; and (hat 

•atciy which it would have raised ag^nst his coDsistency, and the rfmon- 
strances of his friends. This fact throws a greater shade orer his character for 
decision than any thing else that 1 know. He possessed highly respectable 
talents, was the leader of the ministers of Loudon for many years ; and must 
have been a very moderate Presbyterian when he could deliberate so long 
whether to accept or to reject the proferred bishoprick. Even Baxter seems to 
think, however, he might have acceded consistently with his sentiments. 
»UI«, part H. p. 8S4. 



200 THB LIFB AND T1MB8 

being done, a commission under the great seal was issued' em- 
powering the persons nominated on both sides to meet for this 
purpose. The individuals chosen, comprehended the archbishop 
of York with twelve bishops on the one side, and eleven Non« 
conformist ministers on the other ; with a provision of other 
individuals, to supply the places of any who might not be able 
to attend. 

*^ A meeting was accordingly appointed, and the Savoy, the 
bishop of London's lodgings, named by them for the plaee. 
There met us. Dr. Frewen, archbishop of York ; Dr.* Sheldon^ 
bishop of London; Dr. Morley, bishop of Worcester; Dr. 
Saunderson, bishop of Lincoln ; Dr. Cosins, bishop of Durham; 
Dr. Hinchman, bishop of Salisbury; Dr. Walton, bishop of 
Chester ; Dr. Lany, bishop of Peterborough ; Dr. King, bishop 
of Rochester; Dr. Stem, bishop of Carlisle; and the constantest 
man in attendance of them all. Dr. Gauden, bishop of Exeter. On 
the other side there met. Dr. Reynolds, bishop of Norwich ; Mr. 
Clark, Dr. Spurstow, Dr. Lightfoot, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Mantoo^ 
Dr. Bates, Dr. Jacomb, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Rawliuson, Mr. Case, 
and myself. The commission being read, the archbishop oi 
York, a peaceable man, spake first, and told us that he knew 
nothing of the business, but perhaps the bishop of London knew 
more of the king's mind in it, and therefore was fitter to speak 
on it than he. The bishop of London told us, that it was not 
they, but we that had been the seekers of this conference, and 
who desired alterations in the liturgy ; and therefore they had 
nothing to say or do, till we brought in all that we had to say 
against it in writing, and all the additional forms and alterations 
which we desired. Our brethren were very much against this 
motion, and urged the king's commission, which required us to 
meet together, advise, and consult. They told him that by con- 
ference we might perceive, as we went on, what each would yield 
to, and might more speedily dispatch, and probably obtain, our 
end ; whereas, writing would be a tedious, endless business, and 
we should not have that familiarity and acquaintance with each 
other's minds, which might facilitate our concord. But the 
bishop of London resolutely insisted on not doing any thing till 
we brought in all our exceptions, alterations, and additions, at 
once. In this I confess, above all thin^ else, I was wholly of 
his mind, and prevailed with my brethren to consent ; but, I con- 
jecture, for contrary reasons. For, I suppose, he thought that 
we should either be altogether by the ears, and be of several 






OF RICHAJU> BAXTBR. 201 

nmids among ounelvefl, at least in our new forniB ; or that when 
oor proposals and forms came to be scanned by them, they 
AoM find as much matter of exception against ours as we did 
igainst theirs ; or that the people of our persuasion would be dis- 
sadafied or divided about it. And indeed our brethren them- 
lebesi thought either all, or much of this would come to pass, 
and our disadvantage would be exceedingly great. But I told 
them the reasons of my opinion ; that we should quickly agree 
on our exceptions, and that we should offer none but what we 
were agreed on among ourselves. I reminded them, that we 
were engaged to otkr new forms, which was the expedient that 
bom die beginning I had aimed at and .brought in, as the only 
vay of accommodation, considering that they should be in 
Scripture words, and that ministers should choose which forms 
tbey would. I stated, that verbal disputes would be managed 
trith moch more contention; but, above all, that in no other way 
could our cause be well understood by our people, or foreigners, 
or posterity ; but our conference and cause would be misreported, 
and published, as the conference at Hampton Court was, to our 
prejudice, while none durst contradict it. On this plan what 
we said for our cause, would come fiilly and truly to the know- 
ledge of England, and of other nations ; and that if we refused 
this opportunity of leaving upon record our testimony against 
corruptions, for a just and moderate reformation, we might 
never have the like again. So for these reasons, I told the 
bishops that we accepted of the task which they imposed on 
us ; yet so as to bring all our exceptions at one time, and all 
our additions at another time, which they granted.''^ 

There is doubtless considerable force in these reasons of 
Baxter's for managing the conference in writing rather than by 
personal discussion. But it is also evident that the Presby« 
terians were completely taken in the trap prepared for them. 
The other party were thus left to assume that right was on their 
side ; the onus of objecting in every case was thrown on the 
Nonconformists, and the less difficult part of defending long- 
established usages left to the bishops. As they required to 
be furnished at once with every thing objected to and re- 
quired, the probability was, either that the Nonconformists 
would disagree among themselves, some perhaps going too 
fiur, and others stopping short, and thus a satisfactory reason 

« Ufe, part iL pp. 305, 306, 



THB un Atm Ttms 

for nikmkig cfNnpUance would be furnialied. Or, p i te w rtlug 
a eontiderable mass of objection and alteration at onee^ a saA- 
dent pretence would be afforded for holding tham up ae «► 
reasonable and captious^ and determined to be satislied wkh 
nothing less than an entire revolution of the church. Tha kit 
probable result was that which took place^ and Am use wn 
made of it accordingly. 

The Nonconformists, after withdrawing from this coofeMMS^ 
in which they had only a choice of difficulties to eneounter, agresd 
to divide among themselves the task devolved on them. The ss» 
lection of exceptions to the Common Prayer-book they distribdCsi 
among them, and the additions, or new forms, they devolved oa 
Baxter alone. He immediately set himself to the task, and cobh 
pleted, in a fortnight, an entire liturgy ; correcting the diaordsfly 
arrangement, removing the repetitions, and supplying the defieets 
of the Prayer-book; which he considered its principal CmAs. 
He found, at the end of the fortnight, that his brethren bad net 
completed, their part of the business; so, to assist tbeas, bs 
also drew up a paper containing the exceptions which oeeumd 
to him. This paper and his liturgy were both afkerwardi 
printed by himself.' The exceptions and alterations, as pte» 
sented, are also printed in his life.* Few persons who eonridei 
these exceptions, with the proposed amendments, if any toleia* 
ble degree of candour be exercised, will be ready to maintaia 
that the former were uncalled for, or that the latter would not 
be improvements. But where undistinguishing admiration k 
directed to works of merely human composition, it cannot be 
expected that any alterations will be regarded, except in the 
light of captious and unnecessary innovations. 

^* When the exceptions against the liturgy were finished, die 
brethren oft read over the reformed liturgy which I offered tbttm* 
At first they would have had no rubric or directory, but bare 
prayers, because they thought our commission allowed it not ; at 
last however they yielded to the reasons which I gave them, and 
resolved to take them in; but first to offer the bishops their 
exceptions. 

''At this time the convocation was chosen; for till now if 
was deferred. Had it been called when the king came in, the 
inferior clergy would have been against the diocesan and impos* 
ing way : but afterwards many hundreds were turned out, that all 

' Life, part U. p. 308. • Ibid. 316. 



<Mr IICHARD BAXTBIU SOS 

the oM • atpw e lcrgd minialers might come in. And the opfaiion of 
le^vdinfttioii beinf aet afoot, all those ministers that, for twenty 
jPsaiB together^ while bishops were laid aaide^ had been ordained 
vithoot dioeeaansy were, in many counties, denied any voicet in 
the deelion of derka for the convocation. By all which means, 
and by the acrnplei of abundance of ministers, who thought it 
vnlawfiii to have any thing to do in the choosing of such a kind 
cf aseemUy, the diocejsn party wholly carried it in the choice. 

^la London the election was appointed to be in Christ's 
Cbwcb, on the second day of May, 1661. The London minis- 
tsfa that were not ejected, proved the majority against the 
dioecaaii party; and when I went to have joined with them, 
they sent to me not to come, as they did also to Mr. Calamy ; 
90^ without my kn<»wledge, they chose Mr. Calamy and me 
for London. But they carried it against the other party but by 
three voicee : and the bishop of London having the po¥rer of 
diooaiBg two out of four, or four out of six, that are chosen by 
the mwistera in a certain circuit, did give us the great benefit 
ef hdng both left out. So we were excused, and the city of 
London had no derfc in the convocation.^ How should I have 
been thed baited, and what a vexatious place should I have had 
in avch a convocation I 

^' On the fourth day of May, we had a meeting with 
the bishops, where Mre gave in our paper of exceptions to 
them, which they received. The seventh was a meeting at 
^on College, of all the London ministers, for the choice of a 
president and assistants for the next year ; where some of the 
Presbyterians, upon a petty scruple, absenting themselves, the 
diocesan party carried it, and so got the possession and rule of 
the college. The eighth, the new parliament and convocation 
sat down, being constituted of those fitted and devoted to the 
diocesan interest. On the two-and-twentieth of the month, 
by order of parliament, the national vow and covenant was burnt 
in the s^et, by the hands of the common hangman. 

^ When the brethren came to examine the reformed liturgy, 
and bad fi'cquently read it over, they passed it at last in the 
same words that I had written it, save only that they put out a 
few linee in the administration of the Lord's Supper, where the 

* Tkds k only one of rouy proofs of the enmity of Sheldon to the whols 
NoDconformist party, and of hii determination to thwart them every way in 
his power. Rather than have Calamy and Baxter, he deprived Loudon of its 
proper representatives in Iht convocation. 



204 THB UFB AND TIMB8 

word '^ offering '* was used ; and they put out a page of reaaom 
for infant baptism, which I had annexed to that office, thtnkiiq[ 
it unnecessary. They also put the larger litany into an iq)peii^ 
dix, as thinicing it too long ; and Dr. Wallis was denied to 
draw up the prayer for the king, which is his work, being after- 
wards somewhat altered by us. We agreed to put before it a 
short address to the bishops, professing our readiness in debate 
to yield to the shortening of any thing which should be too kng, 
and to the altering of any thing that should be found amiss. 

^^ As I foresaw what was likely to be the end of our confar* 
ence, 1 desired the brethren that we might draw up a plain and 
earnest petition to the bishops, to yield to such terms of peace 
and concord as they themselves did confess to be lawful to be 
yielded to : for though we were equals in the king's commissioi^ 
yet we are commanded by the Holy Ghost, if it be possibly 
and as much as in us lieth, to live peaceably vrith all men. If 
we were denied, it would satisfy our consciences, and justify as 
before all the world, much more than if we only disputed for it 
However, we might this way have an opportunity to produce 
our reasons for peace, which else we were not likely to have. 

** This motion was accepted, and I was desired to draw vf 
the petition, which I did, and being examined, was, with a word 
or two of alteration, consented to. When we met with the bi- 
shops, to deliver in these papers, I was required to deliver them : 
and, if it were possible, to get audience for the petition before aD 
the company. I told them, that though we were equals in the 
present work, and our appointed business was to treat, yet we 
were conscious of our place and duty, and. had drawn up a peti- 
tion to them, which, though somewhat long, 1 humbly craved 
their consent that I might read. Some were against it, and so 
they would have been generally if they had known what was 
in it ; but at last they yielded to it ; but their patience was never 
so put to it by us as in hearing so long and ungrateful a petition. 
When I had read it. Dr. Gunning began a long and vehement 
speech against it : to which, when he came to the end, I replied; 
but I was interrupted in the midst of my reply, and was fain to 
bear it, because they had been patient with so much ado so long 
before. 1 delivered them the petition when 1 had read it, and 
with it, a fair copy of our reformed liturgy, called additional 
forms and alterations of theirs. They received both, and so we 
departed."'* 

• Life, part li. pp. 333, 334. 



Of HICHARD BAXTER. 203 

Tluit there was no disposition on the part of the bishops to 
yield any thing, is very evident from the whole of their conduct. 
The comniission onlv extended for three months, a considerable 
part of which had already expired, either in debating how the 
business should be managed, or in preparing papers, instead of 
conferring together in an amicable manner. What follows in 
Baxter's account of the affair, will show that agreement had 
neither been contemplated nor intended, from the beginning. . 

^ After all this, when the bishops were to have sent us two 
papers, one of their concessions, how much they would alter of 
the* liturgy as excepted against, and the other of their accept* 
aoce of our offered forms or reasons against them ; instead of 
both these, a good while after, they sent us such a paper as they 
£d before, .of their reasonings against all our exceptions, with- 
out any abatements or alterations at all that are worth the 
naming. Our brethren, seeing what they were resolved to bring 
it to, and how unpeaceably they managed the business, did 
think best to write them a plain answer to their paper, and not 
to suppress it, as we had done by the first. This task also 
diey imposed on me. 1 went out of town, to Dr. Spurstow's 
hoose^ in Hackney, for retirement ; where, in eight days' time, I 
drew up a reply to their answer to our exceptions. This the 
brethren read and consented to, only wishing that it had been 
larger in the latter end, where I had purposely been brief, be- 
cause I had been too large in the beginning; and because jvor/i- 
eutars may be answered satisfactorily in a few words when the 
general differences are fully cleared. 

'^ By this time, our commission was almost expired ; and 
therefore our brethren were earnestly desirous of personal de- 
bates with them upon the papers put in, to try how much altera- 
tion they would yield to. We therefore sent to the bishops to 
desire it of them ; and, at last, they yielded to it, when we had 
but ten days more to treat. 

. ** When we met them, 1 delivered the answer to their former 
papers, the largeness of which I saw displeased them ; but they 
received it. We earnestly pressed them to spend the little 
time remaining in such pacifying conference as tended to the 
ends which are mentioned in the king's declaration and com- 
mission; and told them, that such disputes which they had 
called us to by their manner of writing, were not the things 
which we desired, or thought most conducing to those ends. 

^^ I have reason to think that the generality of the bishops 



206 TBB UFB AND TI1IB8 

and doctors present, nerer knew what we offered them in the 
reformed litargy, nor in this reply, nor in any of our pmpeni 
save those few which we read openly to them ; for they were 
put up, and carried away; and, 1 conjecture, scarce any but the 
writers of their confutations would be at the labour of reading 
them over. I remember, in the midst of our last disputatiooi 
when I drew out the short preface to the last reply, which Mn 
Calamy wrote, to enumerate, in the beginning, before their eyes, 
many of the grossest corruptions, which they stiffly defended, and 
refused to reform, the company were more ashamed and silent 
than at any thing else that 1 had said. By which 1 perceived 
that they had never read or heard that very prefiu:e which was 
an epistle to themselves : yea, the chief of them confessed^ when 
they bade me read it, that they knew no such thing. So that|it 
seems, before they knew what was in them, they, resolved t9 
reject our papers, right or wrong, and to deliver them up to 
their contradictors. 

^' When we came to our debates, I first craved of them their 
animadversions on our additions and alterations of the Utmgf$ 
which we had put in long before ; and that they would tell « 
what they allowed or disallowed in them, that we might have 
the use of them, according to the words in the king's declara- 
tion and commission. But they would not, by any importunityj 
be intreated at all to debate that, or to give their opinions about 
those papers. There were no papers that ever we offered them 
that had the fate of these: though it was there some of 
them thought to have found recriminating matter of exceptions, 
we could never prevail with them to say any thing about 
them, in word or writing. Once, Bishop Morley told us of 
their length, to which I answered, that we had told them in oar 
preface, that we were ready to abbreviate any thing which on 
debate should appear too long ; but that the paucity of the 
prayers made the ordinary Lord's-day prayers far shorter than 
theirs. And since we had given our exceptions against theirs, 
if they would neither by word nor writing except against ours, , 
nor give their consent to them, they would not honour their 
cause or conference. But all would not extort either debates 
on that subject, or any reprehensions of what we had offered them. 

^* When they had cast out that part of our desired eon* 
ference, our next business was, to desire them, by friendly 
conference, to go over the particulars which we excepted 
against, and to tell us how much they would abate, and what 



09 miCHARD BAXTJB. 307 

altenidooi diey wieold yield to. ThU, Bisbop Reynolds oft 
prened them to, and so did all the rest of us that spake. 
Bat they resolutely insisted on it, that they had nothing to 
do till we had proved that there was a necessity for altera- 
tion, which we had not yet done ; and that they were there, 
ready to answer our proofs. We urged them again and agun 
with the very words of the king's declaration and commission : 
*That the ends expressed are for the removal of all exceptions, 
snd occasions of exceptions and differences, from among our 
good subjects, and for giving satisfaction to tender consciences, 
snd the restoring and continuance of peace and amity in the 
churches. And the means are, to make such reasonable and 
necessary alterations, corrections, and amendments therein, as 
shall be agreed upon to be needful and expedient, for the giving 
astisfaction to tender consciences, and restoring and continuing 
peaee^* &c. We plainly showed hence, that the king supposeth 
that 9om€ alieraiioHi must be made ; but the bishops insisted 
on two words neceuanf alterations, and 9uch a$ should be 
agreed om. We answered them, that the word neceuary hath 
reference to the ends expressed ; viz., the satisfying tender con« 
sdences, and is joined with expedient : and that it was strange if, 
when the king had so long and publicly determined of the end, 
sod called us to consult of the means, we should presume now, 
at last, to contradict him, and to determine that the end itself is 
unnecessary; and, consequently, no means necessary thereto. 
What, then, have we all this while been doing ? When they 
are called to agree on such necessary means, if they will take 
advantage of that word, to agree on nothing, that so all endea- 
vours may be frustrated for want of their agreement, God and 
the world would judge between us, who it is that frustrateth the 
king's commission, and the hopes of a divided, bleeding church. 
^ Thus we continued a long time contending about this point, 
whether some alterations be supposed by the king*s declaration 
and commission to be made by us ; or, whether we were anew 
to dispute that point ? But the bishops would have that to be 
bur task, or none, to prove by disputation, that any alteration 
was necessary to be made ; while they confuted our proofs. We 
told them, that the end being to satisfy tender consciences, and 
procure unity, those tender consciences did themselves profess, 
that without some alterations, and these considerable too, they 
could not be satisfied ; and experience told them, that peace 
and unity could not without them be attained. But still they said 



208 THX LIFB AND TIMBS 

that none was necessary, and they' would '^eld to all tbit we 
proved necessary. • Here we were left in a very great strait; 
if we should enter upon a dispute with them, we gave up the 
end and hope of our endeavours ; if we refused it, we knew that 
they would boast, that when it came to the setting-to, we would 
not so much as attempt to prove any thing unlawful in the 
liturgy, nor dare dispute it with them. Mr. Calamy^ with some 
others of our brethren, would have had us refuse the motion of 
disputing as not tending to fulfil the king's commands. We told 
the bishops, over and over, that they could not choose but knoir 
that before we could end one argument in a dispute, our time 
would be expired 3 that it could not possibly tend to any 
accommodation ; and that to keep off from personal conference, 
till within a few days of the expiration of the commission, and 
then to resolve to do nothing but wrangle out the time in a dis- 
pute, as if we were between jest and earnest in the schools, was 
too visibly in the sight of all the world, to defeat the king's 
commission, and the expectation of many thousands, who longed 
for our unity and peace. But we spoke to the deaf ; . they had 
other . ends, and were other men, and had the art to suit the 
means unto their ends. For my part, when 1 saw that they 
would do nothing else, I persuaded our brethren to yield. to a 
disputation with them, and let them understand that we were 
far from fearing it, seeing they would give us no hopes of con- 
cord. But, withal, first to profess to them, that the guilt of 
disappointing his majesty and the kingdom, lay not upon us, 
who desired to obey the king's commission, but on them. Thus 
we yielded to spend the little time remaining, in disputing 
with them, rather than go home and do nothing, and leave them 
to tell the court when they had so provoked us, that we durst 
not dispute with them, nor were able to prove our accusations 
of the liturgy."* 

It was finally agreed that three on each side should be 
chosen to debate the unlawfulness of the impositions in the 
Episcopal system. Drs. Pearson, Gunning, and Sparrow, being 
on the one side ; and Baxter, Bates, and Jacomb, on the other, 
llicy met accordingly, in the'presence of many of the Episcopal 
party, who attended in considerable numbers ; but the Non- 
conformists, except the three advocates, all absented themselves. 
The debate itself, which Baxter has recorded at lengthy was, as 

> Life, part ii. pp. 233*236. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 209 

'might havd been anticipated, exceedingly unsatisfactory; 
partaking more of the nature of personal altercation than of 
grave religious argument. The discussion was carried on by 
ex-tempore writing as well as by occasional speaking; which 
must have been as wearisome to aH parties, as the history 
of it would now be tedious and unprofitable. As Baxter 
chiefly mainUuned the discussion on the side of the Noncon- 
formists, his numerous writings contain a full ex^sition and 
defence of his own views and those of his brethren ; while the 
Uturgy remains unaltered, and the defences of its correctness 
and propriety to this day are very numerous. Baxter's account 
of the principal disputants, and of the part which they respec- 
tively took in the discussion, may appropriately close the review 
of the Savoy conference. 

^ Hie bishop of Liondon, Dr. Sheldon, since archbishop of 
Ginterbury, only speared the first day of each conference^ 
which, beside that before the king, was but twice in all, as I 
remember, and meddled not at all in any disputations : y but all 
men supposed that he and Bishop Morley, and next Bishop 
Hinchman, were the doers and disposers of all such affairs. 
The archbishop of York (Frewen) spake very little ; and came 
bat once or twice in all. Bishop Morley was often there, but 
not constantly, and with free and fluent words with much ear- 
nestness, was the chief speaker of all the bishops, and the great- 
est interrupter of us : vehemently going on with what he 
thought serviceable to his end, and bearing down our answers 
by the said fervour and interruptions. Bishop Cosins was there 
constantly, and had a great deal of talk with so little logic, na- 
tural or artificial, that I perceived no one much moved by any 
thing he said. But two virtues he showed, though none took 
him for a magician ; one was, that he was excellently well 
versed in canons, councils, and fathers, which he remembered, 
when by citing of any passages we tried him. The other was, 
that as he was of a rustic wit and carriage, so he would endure 

7 The Tiews of ShelJon in the affair of the Savoy coDference, are apparent from 
one circumstance. When Lord Manchester remarked to the kin^, that he was 
afraid the terms of the act of uniformity were too rigid for the ministers 
to comply with, Sheldon replied, ** 1 am afraid they will." — Bate's Funeral 
Sermon for Baxter, It is only necessary to look at some passages of Pepys's 
* Memoirs,' to be satisfied that Sheldon was a profane, as well as an un- 
principled man ; totally unfit for the office which he held. — See particularly 
vol. ii. p. 342. Burnet says, <' He seemed not to have a clear sense of religion, 
if any at all ; and spoke of it most commonly as of an eugiae of govetorocct^ 
and a matter of policy."— Oic» Times y i. p. 257. 

SOU !• F 



210 7H8 Un 4KD TIICB6 

more freedom of diseoitne with him, and was Inote lAdde 
and familiar than the rett. Bishop Htnchinan, since Insbop 
of London, was of the most gmve, comely, reverend aspect d* 
any of them ; and of a good insight in the fathers and 
Cosins and he, and Dr. Gunning, being all that showed any 
sjderable skill in them among us ; in which they were all three 
of very laudable understandings, and better than any other of 
either of the parties that I met with. Bishop Hinchman spake 
calmly and slowly, and not very often ; but was as high in lus 
principles and resolutions as any of them. 

^^ Bishop Sanderson, of Lincoln, was sometimes there, bat 
never spake, that I know of, except a very little; but his great 
learning and worth are known by his labours, aUKi his aged 
peevishness not unknown.* 

^^ Bishop Gauden was our most constant helper : he and 
Bishop Cosins seldom were absent. And how bitter soever his 
pen might be, he was the only moderator of all the bishops, 
except our Bishop Reynolds* He showed no logic, nor med- 
dled in any dispute or point of learning } but he had a cahn, 
fluent, rhetorical tongue ; and if all had been of his mind we 
had been reconciled. But when by many days' conference in 
the beginning, we had got some moderating concessions from 
him, and from Bishop Cosins by his means, the rest came in the 
endf and brake them all.* 

*^ Bishop Lucy, of St. David's, spake once or twice a few 
words, calmly ; and so did Bishop Nicholson, of Gloucester, and 
Bishop Griffiths, of St. Asaph's, though not commissioners. 
King, bishop of Chichester, 1 never saw there. Bishop Warner, 
of Rochester, was once or twice. Lany, of Peterborough, was 
twice or thrice there | and Walton, bishop of Chester, but nei- 
ther of them spake much, ^ 

^^ Among all the bishops, there was none who had so pro- 
mising a face as Dr. Sterne, bishop of Carlisle. He lookedi so 
honestly, gravely, and soberly, that I scarce thought such a 
face could have deceived me. When I was entreating them not 

■ It ii said that Bishop Sanderton requested, on his death-l>ed» that tbt 
ejected luiuisters should be employed aj^aiii i but of course that was not oum« 
plied vf\th,'-' Baxter's Ltfe, pnrt ii. p. 363. 

• It Is somewhat singular tltat the autlior of the < Eikon lUsilike/ tbosM 
have been so moderate a man in the debates with the Nonconformists. Baa* 
ter'i dp%criotion of his calm and fluent tongue, agrees very well with the style 
of that celebratea book ; the controversy about which is now set at res^ and 
tbs claims of Gsudan fuUy ssccrlaiiMd. 

k Life, part ii. p. 364. 



oy klCllARD BAXtSit. ittl 

td cast ottt 96 many of thi^ir brethren thrbugh the noHoH^ te 
turned to the rest of the reverend bishops, and said^ ' He will 
not say in the kinffdom, lest he own a king.* This was all I 
ever heard that Worthy prelate say. I told hint with grief, that 
half the charity which became so grave a bishop, might have 
helped him to a better exposition of the Word nation. <^ 

''Bishop Reynolds spake tnuch the first day, for bringing 
them to abatements and moderation ; and afterwards he sat 
irith thfem, and spake now and then a word foir inoderation. 
He was a solid, honest man, but through mildness and excess 
of timorous reverence for great ihen^ altogether unfit to contend 
with thetti. 

'' Mr. Thomdike spake once a few tihpei^Unent^ passioh&t^ 
wofdS) eonfiiting the opinion which Wte hktd received of him 
from his first Writings^ and eonfihning that which his seeond 
and last writings had given Us of him« Dh Barle^ Dr. HeyliM, 
and Dn Barwick^ never camfe. Dr. Hacket, since bishop of 
Cotentry and Litchfield^ said nothing to make us kttow ahy 
thing of him. Dn Sparrow said but little, but that little wtos 
with a spirit enough for the imposing dividing cause. 

''Dr. Peirce and Dr. Gunning did all their work, beside 
Bishop Morley's discourses, but with great diflferenee in the 
madnei'4 Dr. Peirce was their true logician and disputant, 
without whom^ as far as I could discern, we should have had no- 
thing frdm them, but Dr. Gutming's passionate invectives, mixed 
With some argumentations. He disputed acburately^ soberly, and 
calmiyi being but otide in any passion ; breeding in us great 
respect for him, and a persuasion that if he had been independ- 
ent, he would have been for peace, and that if all had been in his 
power, it Would have gone Well. He was the strength and 
honour of that cause, which we doubted whether he heartily 
maintained. He was their forwardest and greatest speaker; 
understanding well what belonged to a disputant ; a man of 
greater study and industry than any of them ; well read in fa- 
thers, and councils, and of a ready tongue ; I hear, and believe, 
of very temperate life also, as to all carnal excesses whatso- 
ever; but so vehement for his high, imposing principles, and so 
over zealous for Arminianisni, and formality, and church pomp ; 
and so very eager and fervent in his discourse, that I conceive 
his prejudice and passion much perverted his judgment. I 
am sure^ they made him lamentably overrun himself in his dis- 

« Lift, part ii. p. 281. 

f2 



21'2 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

courses. Of Dr. Peirce 1 will say no more, because he hath said 
so much of me.** 

" On our part, Dr. Bates spake very solidly, judiciously, and 
pertinently, when he spake. As for myself, the reason why I 
spake so much was, because it was the desire of my brethren, 
and I was loath to expose them to the hatred of the bishops ; but 
was willing to take it all upon myself, they themselves having 
60 much wit as to be therein more sparing and cautious than I. 
I thought also that the day and cause commanded me those two 
things, which then were objected to me as my crimes^ viz., 
speaking too boldly and too long. I thought it a cause that 
I could comfortaby suffer for, and should as willingly be a mar- 
tyr for charity as for faith.* '^ 

Thus ended the Savoy conference, the last of those attempts 
to reconcile churchmen and dissenters, in which the court and 
the authorities in the church took any active part. The issue 
might have been foreseen at the beginning, from the disposition 
of the leading Episcopal commissioners, and from the condikt 
of Sheldon at the very first meeting ; beside what was known 
of the prevailing feelings of the court and the whole royal party. 
Burnet says, with considerable justice, '^ The two men that had 
the chief management of the debate, were the roost unfit to 
heal matters, and the fittest to widen them that could have 
been found out. Baxter was the opponent, and Gunning vras 
the respondent, who was afterwards advanced, first to Chiches- 
ter, and then to Ely. He was a man of great reading, and 
noted for a special subtlety of arguing. All the arts of sophistry 
were made use oF by him on all occasions, in as confident a 
manner as if they had been sound reasoning. Baxter and he 
spent some days in much logical arguing, to the diversion of 
the town, who thought here w^te a couple of fencers engaged 
in disputes, that could never be brought to an end, or have any 
good eflfect.*' ' 

The affair having thus ended in a kind of farce, and the mi' 
nisters having totally failed, as they conceived, in the great object 
of the conference, they drew up a correct account of the whole 
affair, and presented it to the king in the form of a petition. 

^ Jeremy Taylor says io one of hi« letters, <Mt is no wonder that Baxter 
undervalues the gentry of England. Vou know what spirit be is of, but I 
suppose be has nrct with his match : for Mr. Peris (Peirce) Ifath attacked him; 
and they are joined iu the lists." — Heber** Lift of Taylor y p. 88. 
' * Life, part ii. pp. 3(j3, 364. 

' Burnet's 'Own Times/ vol, i. pp. 283, 284. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 213 

It was written by Baxter^ and with a few alterations and amend- 
ments, was at last laid before his majesty, with a fair copy of 
ail the papers, by Dr. Manton, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Bates, and 
Mr. Baxter. It gives a short history of the conference, and its 
unsuccessful issue, and concludes by praying that the benefits ' 
of the king's declaration might be continued to the people, and 
that the additions promised in it might be bestowed.^ It 
does not appear that Charles said any thing particular at 
the winding up of the affair. He parted with the ministers 
civilly, but with a full determination to pursue such measures^ 
as, to adopt the expression of his grandfather respecting the 
Puritans, would " drive them out of the kingdom, or do worse/' 
The failure offers one of many illustrations of the folly of at- 
tempting to reconcile the principles of this world, with the laws 
and government of the kingdom of Christ. It is true, in regard 
to such transactions as the Savoy conference, as well as of other 
things, '^ that no man can serve two masters." 

After the failure of the negociation, the great object of the 
ministers was, if possible, to get parliament to pass the king's 
declaration into a l^w, without which it would be of no perma- 
nent force or obligation ; and for a time, their expectations were 
encouraged by the lord chancellor. But when it came to the 
trial, their hopes all failed them ; and the conformity imposed, 
was made ten times more burdensome than it was before. For 
beside that the convocation had made the Common Prayer-book 
more grievous than ever, the parliament made a new act of con- 
formity, with a new form of subscription, and a new declaration 
to be made against the obligation of the covenant. So that 
the king's declaration not only died before it came into exe- 
cution, and all hopes, treaties, and petitions, were not only 
disappointed, but a weight more grievous than a thousand 
ceremonies was added to the old conformity, with a heavy 
penalty.^ 

» Life, part ii. pp. 3()6— ;5G8. 

* Although tiie Episcupal commissioners would coucede nothing; to the 
NuDCOD Tor mists fur the sake uf peace, they soou after held a meetiu^ by 
themselves, for the purpose of preparing certain alterations in the ^ Book of 
Common Prayer,* which they agreed to lay before the next convocation. It 
assembled on the 8th of May« 166 1 , and agreed to some alterations and addi- 
tions. They beg^an with the ofTice for the king's birth and return, which was 
brought in on the IGth of May, being their second session. On the 18th of 
May, their third session, they proceeded to the office of baptism for those of 
riper years. By December 20lh, the book was completed and subscribed by 
the members of both houses. 



214 THE UWM ANO Tiim 

)aiiiii||[« Sev^^ l^Honi in the caleo^ar were cbaD|ed for pthen inm 
iof the days. The prayers upoi^ particular occasioas, were disjoined fi 
liturgy. The prayecs for the parliament, that (or aU conditiom of m 
tk^g^lWfal tb%9H*iiv¥>y?t ^fcf »(ided> *!svf^al of tUt collects w^ i 
th^ ip^^los af^ f 99P!^H ^er^ tak^u out of the last traDslatiuio of tlM 
thjey having been read before, according to the old. The office of bapil 
those of riper years, the forms of prayer to be used at sea, the i^tifiD, 
nmKtjnkmk «f l^ivg Cbftrl^ ai^ that fyr the king'^ r^t^np, or«^ U 
caUed,^hf i^tof^tioj^, of the royal family, wf re a^d^tt The book di^ n 
press till some time after it was subscribal, the Act of Uniform!^ f«ir ei 
it into a law taking up a considerable time." — Nickofs Prg/acei to iJU. 
Cfmmim Brayet^ p. ip. Ii^ ^^U theae alteri^ns^ it ^ very ^lear t^ 
topK spec^l cac^ th^^ no ai^^otiyn should bf shown to the feeUnn 
judices of tl^e Noncoi^om^^ts. This writer has forgotten to tint 
among the other improvements made by this convocation on the * 
Book, • Ihf story of '*-. Qell tod (he Dragpn' was added to the les^oni 
frpfp the ApoP^ri^ha I 



OP mfCHAU MUTMtU 2tJl 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1661—1655. 



Biiter eodtMourt to pUa pouwsiuii of Kiddemiioftter— The King; and 
Qinndoa favourable to it^Dnfeated by Sir Ralph Clare aad Biibop 
Morley— Conduct of Sir Ralph Clare to the People of Kidderminster— Ba&- 
tec*s spirited RemoDftnuice— Insurrection of the Fifth Monarchy Men-^ 
Baiter's Preachings in London — Obtains a License from the Archhishop^ 
of Canterbury— Attempts to negociate with the Vicar of Kidderminster-^ 
Treatment of the P^le by the Bishop and Oer^ — Baxter entirely separated 
from ICdderminster— Takes leave oftheChurch — ^Act of Uniformity — Rs In- 
justice, Impolicy, and Cruelty — lis injurious Effects— Baater*8 Miarriage— -^ 
IdeclanUiim: of Indnlgence— Death and Charactsr o£ Ash— Nelson*— Hnrd-- 
shipsof the Nonconformists^— Death of Arohbithop Juxon— Succeeded by 
Sheldon — Acta^inst Private Meetiog^s — Sufferings* of the People — Banker 
retires to Acton — Works written or published by him during thiapedod-^ 
Correspondence — Occasional Communion— Consulted by Ashley— Conclud*- 
ing Memorials of the year 1565. 

In the preeeding" chapter, an account has been given of all 
the public tramactions in which Baxter was engaged from the 
period of the restoration to the termination of the Savoy con- 
ference. His more private or personal affiairs now require our 
attention. In his letter to Lord Clarendon, declining the bi- 
shoprick of Herefbrd, the reader will have observed that he 
prefers a request of a very humble nature respecting Kidder- 
minster ; that if hi» lordship would bestow some prebendal 
place on Mr. Dance, the vicar, it would enable him to return 
to his old and favourite sphere of employment. The following 
narrative brings before us the failure of this application, and, in 
consequence, his entire separation from Kidderminster. 

" When I had refused a bishoprick, I did it from such reasons 
OS offended not the lord chancellor; and, therefore, instead of 
it, I presumed to crave his favour to restore me to preach to my 
people at Kidderminster again, from whence I had been cast 
out, when many hundreds of others were ejected, upon the re- 



216 TBB. LIFB AND TIMBS ' . 

storatiou of all those who had been sequestered. It was bot a 
vicarage^ and the vicar was a poor, unlearned, ignorant, silly 
reader, who little understood what Christiai^ity, and the articles 
of his creed, did signify. Once a quarter he said something 
which he called a sermon, which made him the pity or the 
laughter of the people. This man, being unable to preach 
himself, kept always a curate under him for that purpose. 
Before the wars, I had preached there only as a lecturer, and he 
was bound to pay me sixty pounds per annum; my people were 
so dear to me, and I to them, that I would have been with them 
upon the lowest lawful terms. Some laughed at me for refusing 
a bishoprick, and petitioning to be a reading vicar's curate ; but. 
I had little hopes of so good a condition, at least for any consi- 
derable time. 

" The ruler of the vicar and all the business, was Sir Ralph 
Clare ; an old man, and an old courtier, who carried it towards 
me, all the time I was there, with great civility and respect, and 
sent me a purse of money when I went away, which I refused.^ 
But his zeal against all who scrupled ceremonies, or who would 
not preach for prelacy and conformity, was so much greater than 
his respect for me, that he was the principal cause of my re* 
moval. I suppose he thought that when I was far enough off, 
he could so far rule the town, as to reduce the people to his way. 
But he and others of that temper little knew, how firm conscien- 
tious men are to the matters of their everlasting interest, and how 
little men's authority can do against the authority of God, with 
those that are unfeignedly subject to him. Opejily, he seemed 
to be for my return at first, that he might not offend the people; 
and the lord chancellor seemed very forward in it, and all the 
difficulty was, how to provide some other place for the old vicar, 
Mr. Dance, that he might be no loser by the change. It was so 
contrived, that all must seem forward in it except the vicar. 
The king himself must be engaged in it; the lord chancellor 
earnestly presseth it ; Sir Ralph is willing and very desirous of 
it; and the vicar is willing, if he may but be recompensed with 

' Sir Ralph Clare, of Caldwell, of whom Baxter gives tins curious account, 
vas an emioeut royalist. He spent a ^reat part of his fortune in the cause of 
Charles II. Beiuf; taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, he remained a 
lon^ time in confinement; till released, probably, by Baxter*s influence, by 
Major-General Berry coming into command in the county, it appears, from 
various parts of Baxter's narrative, that the old knight was a great thorn in 
his side. In Nash's < History of Worcestershire,' portraits of Baxter iiod Sir 
}U)pb are i^vea in one page.— Vol. ii, p. 44* 



or MCHARD BAXm. 217; 

ida place, from which I had received but ninety ponnds 
mnn. ESther all desire it, or none derire it. But the 
nee was, that among all the livings and prebendaries of 
id, there was none fit for the poor vicar. A prebend he 
M»t havi^ because he was incompetent, and yet he is still 
It ennpetent to be the pastor of near 4,000 souls 1 The 
baneellor, to make the business certain, engages him* 
* m valuable stipend to the vicar, and his oMm steward 
le commanded to pay it for him. What could he desire 
But the poor vicar was to answer him that this was no 
J to him ; his lordship might withhold that stipend at his 
K, and then where was his maintenance ? Give him but 
i tide to any thing of eqdal value, and he would resign, 
■lion also was my sure and intimate friend. But no such 
ivas to be had, and so Mr. Dance must keep his place, 
hough I requested not any preferment but this, yet even 
1 1 resolved I would never be importunate. I only nomi- 
h as the favour which I desired, when their offers in 
1 invited me to ask more ; and then I told them, that if 
e any way inconvenient to them, I would not request it. 
It the very first I desired, that if they thought it best for 
car to keep his place, I was willing to take the lecture, 
» by his bond, was secured to me, and was still my right; 
lat were denied me, I would be his curate while the king's 
ation stood in force. But none of these could be accepted 
sen that were so exceedingly willing. In the end, it ap- 
1 that two knights of the county, Sir Ralph Clare and Sir 
Httkington,j who were very great with Dr. Morley, newly- 
bishop of Worcester, had made him believe that my 
It was so great, and I could do so much with ministers 
»ple in that county, that unless I would bind myself to 
Ce their cause and party, I was not fit to be there. And 
flhop, being greatest of any man with the lord chancellor, 
obstruct my return to my ancient flock. At last. Sir 
Qare did freely tell me, that if I would conform to the 
and ceremonies of the church, preach conformity to the 
!, and labour to set them right, there was no man in 

Fobn Packington, of Westwood, was another warm royalist baronet, 
oaotj of Worcester. He was husband to Lady Packin^oo, to whom 
n-kDOwn work, * The Whole Duty of Mao/ has been ascribed. Sir 
KMse was the resort of many of the Episcopal cleric durin|^ the wars 
t Commonwealth ; and Dr. Hammpnd died iQ i%*-^Jthen, (hen, iii. 
r, T. 377. 




218 xn un jlkd Tuns 

Bagkoid an fift to kQ therc^ for no mut cimM 

do it ; but if I wmild not, tfaore was no mMi to unfit 

pbec^ for oo nao could more hinder lU 

^ I demed it aa dM greoteal favour of thes^ tkol if diqr a^ 
teoded not aay baiog thoro thay wouM pkioly tdi aae ao^ 
I anight troiAlo thorn and nqraelf no moro aboot it| bal 
waa a fiafoor too great to bo expected. I bad cootiaaol a»» 
coon^famenit by proaisea till I waa abaoat tiitd iai waitiBf a» 
then« At 1bM> meeting Sir Ralph Claie in the biatMp'a^ chombai^ 
I deMjred hun^ before tbe bishop, to tell noe to my fiicoy if hehod 
any thing agwoat me which aught cadtaie ^ this adob Ho taU 
no thai I would gtre the socvaaaent to none kneelnigv and tint 
of eighteea hundred coauamiieanta^ thoro were not paat ais 
huntbed who were for me, and the rest were latfiof fee tho- vicar* 
I answered, I was very glad that these words Mk o«C to bo 
spoken in the bishop's hearing. To the first aecuaatMiy I tdd 
him, that be himself knew I invited him to the sacvamon^ and 
otfered it hkn kneeUng^ and that under my kand^ io wrilhiig^ 
that openly in his hearing in the pulptC, i had promhed aod 
told both himi and all' the rest, I never had nor ever wouM pol 
any man from the saerament on the aecount of kneeling, bai 
leave every one to the posture lie should choose. I fiuthap 
stated, that the reason why I never gave it to any kneeling^ 
because all who came would sit or staisd, and thoae who 
for kneeling only followed him, who would not come unlaaat 
would administer it to him and his party on a day by themaelvts^ 
when the rest were not present; and 1 had no<mind to< belte: 
author of such a schism, and make, as it were, two churcbaa 
of one. But especially the consciousness of notorious soandri^ 
which they knew they must be accountable for, did mdco m a n y 
kneelers stay away ; and all this he could not deny. 

^ As to the second chaise, I stated, there was a witness ready 
to say as he did. I knew but one man in- the town against mc^ 
which was a stranger newly come, one Ganderton, an attoroaj^ 
steward to the Lord of Abergavenny, a Papist, who was lord of 
the manor. This one man was tlie prosecutor, and witnessed how 
many were against my return. 1 craved of the bishop diat I 
might send by the next post to know their minds, and if that 
were so I would take it for a favour to be kept from thenee. 
When the people heard this at Kidderminster, in a day's tine 
they gi^thered the hands of sixteen hundred of the eighteen 
hundred coran^unicants, and the rest were suqh as were frooi 



bcM. Wiilun four or five ciajn «fter» I Imppf nf4 ta fiad Sir 
Ralph Glare with iha bishop aisaiq, and showed him the hands 
of ikteeii hundred eoipmuuic^t^ with an offer of nMye if th«y 
ought have time, all vevy earoeal for my r^^u^n. Sif Ralph was 
al^ieed as to that poiut ; but he and the bishop appeared m> 
mk the looro Insist VAy ret«ra. 

^The leltof^ which the lord chancellof upon hia owix offer 
wroli i(Mr sae to Sif Ralph Ciare,^ he gave at my request uur 
aeikd ; and ao i took aL copy of it bMore I sent it away, think* 
\^ the chief use would be to keep it aud compare i^ with their 
distmg% It waa as foUoweth : 
ft<8i», 

^ M a^m a little out of cowtenaace^ that after the dii^avery 

oi tuoh a desire in his majesty, that Mr. Baxter shc^ld be settUd 

in Kidderminster, as he was heretofore^ and my promise to you 

i^the king's direction, thait Mr. Dance should very pmictually 

reeiive a reooflapenae by way of a rent upon, his or your bills 

charged here upon my steward, Mr. Baxter hath yet no fruit of 

tUi hia m^iiasty'a gopd inteiKtion t9wards him ; so that he hath 

tooBUieh leasoa to believe that h# is, not so frankly dealt with 

is this particular aa he deserves to be. I da again tell you, that 

it wiU be very acceptable to the king if you can persuade Mr.. 

Dance to surrender that charge to Mr. Baxter; and iuth^ mean 

tim^ and till he is preferred to. as profitable an employm.ent, 

whatever agreement you shall majic with him for an annual rent, 

it ahaU be pmd quarterly upon a bill from you charged upon my 

steward, Mr. Clutterbucke ; and for the exact performance of 

this, you may securely pawn your full credit. I do most 

earnestly entreat you^ that you will with all speed inform 

me what we may depend upon in this particular, that we n^ay 

not keep Mr. Baxter in suspense, who hath deserved very well 

from his majesty, and of whom his majesty hath a very good 

opmion ; and I hope you will not be the less desirous to comply 

with him for the particular recommendation of, 

" ' Sir, 
" * Your very affectionate servant, 

"* Edward Hyde." 
^' Can any thing be more serious, cordial, and obliging, 
than all this? For a lord chancellor, that hath the business of 
the kingdom upon his hand, and lords attending him, to take 
up his time so much and often about so low a vicarage or a 
curat eship, when it is. npt in the power of the king and the 



220 THB LIF^ AND TIMBS 

lord chancellor to procure it for him^ though they §o vehe- 
mently desire it ? But, oh 1 thought I, how much better life 
do poor men live, who speak as they think, and do as they 
profess, and are never put upon such shifts as these for thdr 
present conveniences ! Wonderful! thought I, that men who 
do so much overvalue worldly honour and esteem, can possiUy 
so much forget futurity, and think only of the present day, as if 
they regarded not how their actions be judged of by postmty. 
Notwithstanding all his extraordinary favour, since the day the 
king came in, I never received, as his chaplain, or as a preacher, 
or on any account, the value of one farthing of public mainte- 
nance. So that I, and many a hundred more, had not had a 
piece of bread but for the voluntary contribution, whilst we 
preached, of another sort of people : yea, while I had all this 
excess of favour, I would have taken it indeed for an exceu, 
as being far beyond my expectations, if they would but hate 
given me liberty to preach the Gospel, without any maintenance, 
and leave me to beg my bread/'^ 

There is something very singular in this part of Baxter^s 
history. Giving Clarendon, and Charles, who also appears to 
have been a party, credit for sincerity in their professed friend- 
ship for Baxter, it is extraordinary that they should have been 
defeated by the management of the '^old civil courtier,'' Sir 
Ralph, or the wilely bishop of Worcester, Or. Morley. Yet, 
if the whole was only designed to amuse and disappoint Baxter, 
what a view does it give of the craft and duplicity of the new 
government, and the high honour of the cavaliers ! It is evi- 
dent, from the humour with which Baxter tells the story, that 
he was convinced the whole was a piece of artifice. It seems 
probable that Charles and Clarendon would have been willing 
that he should get back to Kidderminster, but the bishop was 
determined he should not, and therefore the aifair was so 
managed that the old vicar was made the scape goat. So little 
dependence can be placed on the promises of courts, where their 
own interests are not likely to be served by the parties ! 

" A little after this, Sir Ralph Clare and otJiers caused the 
houses of the people of the town of Kidderminster to be 
searched for arms, and if any had a sword it was taken firom 
them. Meeting him with the bishop, I desired hini to tell us 
why his neighbours were so used, as if he would have made the 
world believe they were seditious, or rebels, or dangerous per- 

^ Life, part ii. pp. 298-300, 



' OF RICHARD fiAXtBR. ^21 

oSy that should be treated as enemies to the king. He answered 
e, that it was because they would not bring out their arms 
hen they were commknded^ but said they had none ; whereas 
ley had arms on every occasion to appear on the behalf of 
romwell. This great disingenuity of so ancient a gentleman 
awards his neighbours, whom he pretended kindness to, made 
e break forth into some more than ordinary freedom of re- 
!iMif ; so that I answered him, we had thought our condition 
ird, that by strangers, who knew us not, we should be ordi- 
nily traduced and misrepresented : but this was. most sad and 
anrellous, that a gentleman so civil, should, before the bishop, 
leak such words against a corporation, which he knew I was 
>le to confute, and were so contrary to truth. I asked him 
hether he did not know that I publicly and privately spake 
^nat the usurpers, and declared them to be rebels ; and 
hether he took not the people to be of my mind ; and whether 
and they had not hazarded our liberty by refusing the engage- 
tent against the king, and House of Lords, when he and others 
' his mind had taken it. He confessed that 1 had been against 
romwell ; but the people had always, on every occasion, ap- 
sared in arms for him. I told him that he struck me with ad- 
iration, that it should be possible for him to live in the town, 
id yet believe what he said to be true, or yet to speak it in our 
saring if he knew it to be untrue. I professed also that having 
red there sixteen years since the wars, I never knew that they 
ace appeared in arms for Cromwell, or any usurper ; and chal* 
nged him, upon his word, to name one. I could not get him 
» name any time, till I had urged him to the utmost ; and 
len he instanced in the time when the Scots army fled from 
Worcester. I challenged him to name one man of them that 
as at Worcester fight, or bare arms there, or at any time for 
le usurpers : and when he could name none, I told him that 
1 that was done to my knowledge in sixteen years of that time 
as but this, that when the Scots fled from Worcester, as all the 
)untry sought in covetousness to catch some of them for the 
ike of their horses, so two idle rogues of Kidderminster, that 
ever communicated with me any more than he did, had drawn 
?o or three neighbours with them in the night, as the Scots 
sd, to catch their horses. But I never heard of three that they 
inght; and 1 appealed to the bishop and his conscience, whe- 
ler he — that being urged, couFd name no more but this — did 
genuously accuse the corporation, magistrates, and people, to 



222 TMB LIFB AND TlMTItS 

have appeared on all occasions in arms for Cromwell ? WlMb 
they had no more to say, I told them by this we saw what mea- 
sures to expect from strangers of his mind, when he titat is ottr 
neighbour, and noted for eminent civility, never sticketh to speak 
such things even of a people among whom he hath still lifed, 

' '^ At the same time, about twenty, or two- and- twenty furi- 
ous fanatics, called fifth-monarchy men, consisting of one Yenner, 
a wine-cooper, and his church that he preached unto, being trans- 
ported with enthusiastic pride, did rise up in arms, and fought in 
the streets like madmen, against all that stood in their wmy, till 
there were some killed, and the rest taken, judged, and exeeatcd.' 
Iwrotea letter at this time to my mother-in-law, containing no- 
thing but our usual matter, even encouragements to her In hnr 
age and weakness, fetched from the nearness of her rest, togtthar 
with the report of this news, and some sharp and vehement words 
against the rebels. By means of Sir John Packington, or his 
soldiers, the post was searched, and my letter intercepted, opened 
and revised, and by Sir John sent up to London to the bishops, 
and the lord chancellor. It was a wonder, that liaving r^ 
it they were not ashamed to send it up ; but joyful would they 
have been, could thev have found but a word in it which cotild 
possibly have been distorted to an evil sense, that malice might 
have had its prey. I went to the lord chancellor and com- 
plained of this usage, and that I had not the common liberty d 
a subject to converse by letters with my own family* He dis* 
owned it, and blamed men's rashness, but excused it from the 
distempers of the times ; yet he and the bishops confessed they 
had seen the letter, and that there was nothing in it but what 
was good and pious. Two days after, came the Lord Windsor, 
lord lieutenant of the county, and governor of Jamaica, with 
Sir Charles Littleton, the king's cup-bearer, to bring roe my 
letter again to my lodgings. Lord Windsor told me the lord 
chancellor appointed him to do it; so after some expressioa 

^ Vennrr'fl mad iosMrrectiun may be considered as the lait of they^ftb* 
monarchy system for many years. It illustrates the leii|ctb to whieh mm 
may be carried by adoptiui; mikttikcn views of Scriptare, and uf tb€ principles 
urthe kingdom of Christ. It is quite of a piece, though on a smaller scale, 
with the conduct of the Mun^ter fanatics ; and ««as a most unfortunate occnr- 
rence, not merely for the poor deluded individuals themselves, but for the 
country. The court greedily laid hold of it to justify the adoptiou of measures 
to crush the dissenters, and establish a standing army, by which the arbitrary 
desif^ns of Charles and bis new g^overnmeot might be effectually accumplislied. 
- Iftal, It. 278-»280. . 



of Ibe alMBe, I thanked him for his great civility and favottr. 
B«i I taw how far that sort of men were to be trusted.''* 

Being remored from his beloyed flock in Worcestershire, and 
ncertain whether he might ever return to them or not, he.re^ 
hted tp take any other charge, but preached gratuitously in 
London, where he happened to be invited. When he had done 
thb above a year, he thought a fixed place was better^ which 
led him to join Dr. Bates, at St Dunstan's in the West, where 
he preached once a week, for which the people allowed him some 
maintenance. Before this time he scarcely ever preached a 
tcrmon in the city, but he had accounts from Westminster that 
he had preached seditiously or against the government ; when 
he bad neither a thouj^ht nor a word of any such tendency* 
SomeUmes he preached purposely against faction, schism, sedi* 
tioOf and rebellion, and those sermons also were reported to be 
fietioua and seditious. Some sermons at Covent Garden were 
•D much accused, that he thought it necessary to print them in 
Us own defence. Tliey are entitled the * Formal Hypocrite Dt* 
tceted/ &c. When they appeared, he heard not a word more 
againat them. The accusations against him, were, in general, of 
ledition and faction, and speaking against the church j but not 
one syllable charged of a particular nature. 

^The congregation being crowded," he says, ^was that 
wUch provoked envy to accuse me : and one day the crowd did 
drive me from my place. It fell out that at St. Dunstan's churchy 
in the midst of sermon, a little lime and dust, and perhaps a 
piece of a brick or two, fell down in the steeple or belfrey near 
the boys ; so that they thought the steeple and church were fall- 
ing ; which put them all into so confused a haste to get away, 
that the noise of their feet in the galleries sounded like the 
falling of the stones. The people crowded out of doors ; the 
women left some of them a scarf, and some a shoe l>ehind them, 
tad some in the galleries cast themselves down upon those below, 
because they could not get down the stairs. I sat down in the 
polpit, seeing and pitying their vain distemper, and as soon as 
1 coMd be heard, I entreated their silence, and went on. The 
people were no sooner quieted and got in again, and the audi- 
tory composed, but some who stood upon a wainscot-bench, 
near the communion-table, brake the bench with' their weight, 
so that the noise renewed the fear again, and they were worse 
disordared than before. One old woman was heard at the 

■ Life, part ii. pp. 300, 301. 



2i4 THB LIFB AND TllifiS 

church-door asking forgiveness of God for not taking the first warn- 
ing, and promising, if God would deliver her this once, she would 
take heed of coming hither again. When they were again 
quieted I went on;** but the church having before an ill name as 
very old, rotten, and dangerous, it put the parish upon a rescH 
lutTon to 'pull down all the roof, and build it better, which 
they have done with so great reparation of the walls and stee- * 
pie, that it is now like a new church and much more commo- 
dious for the hearers.^* 

^ While the church was repairing, I preached out my quarter 
at St. Bride's, at the other end of Fleet Street ; where the com- 
mon prayer being used by the curate before sermon, I occa- 
sioned abundance to be at common prayer, who before avoided 
it : and yet my accusations still continued. On the week days, 
Mr. Ashurst, with about twenty citizens, desired me to preach a 
lecture in Milk Street ; for which they allowed me forty pounds 
per annum, which I continued near a year, till we were all n- 
lenced. At the same time I preached once every Lord's day at 
Biackfriars, where Mr. Gibbons, a judicious man, was minister. 
In Milk Street, I took money, because it came not from the parish- 
ioners, but from strangers, and so was no wrong to the minister, 
Mr. Vincent, a very holy, blameless man. But at Biackfriars I 
never took a penny, because it was the parishioners who called 
me, who would else be less able and ready to help their worthy 
pastor, who went to God by a consumption, a little after he was 
silenced and put out. At these two churches I ended the course 
of my public ministry, unless God cause an undeserved re8in<- 
rection.<> 

^' Before this, I resolved to go to the archbishop of Canter* 
bury, then bishop of London, to ask him for his license to preach 
in his diocese. Some brethren blamed me for it, as being an 
owning, of prelatical usurpation. I told them, that the king 
had given him a power to suffer or hinder me in my duty, be- 

* This is a remarkable instance of the composure of Baxter in very alani- 
ing circumstances ; and not the only occasion on which he displayed sremt for- 
titude and self-postession. Dr. Bates tells us, when the confusion was oTcr» 
Baxter rose and said, ** We are in the service of God, to prepare ourselves 
that we may be fearless at the ^reat noise of the dissolving world ; when the 
heavens shall pass away, and the elements melt with fervent heat." — M\mertil 
Sermon for Baiter, Another instance of alarm occurred when he wsi 
preachiog at the place over the market-house, in St. James's ; where his wife 
displayed a courage and presence of mind equal to his own, — lAft ofhiiff^ft, 
pp.60, 61. edit.i826. 

"* IMt, part ii pp. 301, 302. 



DF IlfCHAR1> BAXTER. 225 

Iiaving power as the church magistrate or officer of the 
king; and though I was under no necessity, I would not refuse 
a lawful thing, when authority required it. The archbishop 
received me with very great expression of respect, offered me 
his license, and would let his secretary take no money of me. 
Bat when he offered me the book to subscribe in, I told him that 
he knew the king's declaration exempted us from subscription. 
He bade me write wh^t I would : I told him what I resolved^ 
and what I thought meet of him to expect, I would do of 
choice, though I might forbear. And so, in Latin, I subscribed 
my promise not to preach against the doctrine of the church, or 
the ceremonies established by law in his diocese, while I used 
his license. I told him also how grievous it was to me to be 
daily taunted with such general accusations behind my back, 
and asked him why I was never accused of any particulars. 
He confessed to me, that if they had got any particulars that 
would have deserved notice, I should have heard particularly 
from him. I scarce think that ever I preached a sermon without 
tspy to give them his report of it.P 

*^ Shortly after our disputation at the Savoy, I went to Rick- 
nansworth, in-Hertfordshire, and preached there but once, from 
Matt xxii. 1 2, ^ And he was speechless.' I spake not a word that 
was any nearer kin to sedition, or that had any greater tendency 
to provoke them, than by showing that wicked men, and the 
refusers of grace, however they may now have many things to 
uy to excuse their sin, will, at last, be speechless, and not dare 
stand to their wickedness before God. Yet did the bishop of 
Worcester tell me, when he silenced me, that the bishop of 
London had showed him letters from one of the hearers, assur- 
ing him that I preached seditiously. So little security was any 
man's innocency, who displeased the bishops, to his reputation 
with that party, if he had but one auditor that desired to get 
favoar by accusing him. A multitude of such experiences 
made me perceive, when I was silenced, that there was some 
mercy in it, in the midst of judgment; for I should scarcely 
bave preached a sermon, or put up a prayer to God, which one 
or other, through malice or hope of favour, would not have 
l)een tempted to accuse as guilty of some heinous crime.*i 

** Soon after my return to London, I went into Worcester- 
Aire, to try whether it were possible to have any honest terms 

' Life, part i. p. 302. « Ibid. p. 374. 

VOL. I. Q 



226 THB LIFE AKD TIaIB^ 

from the redding vicair there, that I might preach td tiiy fonUte 
flock ; but when I had preached twice or thrice^ he detiid me 
liberty to preach any more. I offered then to take my lecturCi 
which he was bound to allow 'me, under a bond of £500; but he 
refused it. I next offered to be his curate^ and he tofused 
it. I then offered to preach for nothing, and he refused itt 
and, lastly, I desired leave but once to administer the sacrament 
to the people, and preach my farewell sermon to them ; biit he 
would not consent. At last, I understood that he was directed 
by his superiors to do what he did : but Mr. Biddwin^ an able 
preacher, whom I left there, was yet permitted. 

'^ At that time, my aged father lying in great pain of the 
stone and strangury, I went to visit him, twenty miles further : 
and while I was there, Mr. Baldwin came to me, and told IM 
that he also was forbidden to preach. We returned both to Kid- 
derminster, and having a lecture at Shiffnal in the ^kyf I 
preached there, and staid not to bear the evening sermon, be- 
cause I would make haste to the bishop. It fell out that my 
turn at another lecture was on the same day with thftt at Shiff- 
tial, viz., at Cleobury, in Shropshire; and many were met 
in expectation to hear me. But a company of soldier^ went 
there, as the country thought, to have apprehended me ; who 
shut the doors against the ministers that would have preached 
in my stead, bringing a command to the churchwarden to hin- 
der any one who had not got a license from the bishop ; so that 
the poor people who had come from far, were fain to go hoBM 
with grieved hearts. 

" The next day it was confidently reported, that a certain 
knight offered the bishop his troop to apprehend me, if I offered 
to preach : and the people dissuaded me from going to the 
bishop, supposing my liberty in danger. I went that morn- 
ing, with Mr. Baldwin, and in the hearing of him ^ and Dr. 
Warmestry, then dean of Worcester, I reminded the bishop of 
his promise to grant me his license, &c., but he refused me 
liberty to preach in his diocese ; though I offered to preach only 
oil the Creed, the Lord's-prayer, and the Ten Commandments^ 
catechistical principles, and only to such as had no preaching. 

" Bishop Morley told me when he silenced me, that he woold 
take care that the people should be no losers, but should be 
taught as well as they were by me. When I was gone, he gM 
awhile a few scandalous men, with some that were more civil to 
keep up the lecture, till the paucity of their auditors gave them 



W ttfciaAAD ^Axtfi^ ^2f 

i pAtetiee to put it down. He came hitiidelf one d&y and 
preached a long invective against them and me as Presbyte- 
rians, and I know not what; so that the people wondered 
that a man would venture to come up into a pulpit and speak 
8o confidently to those he knew not, the things which they 
commonly knew to be untrue. But this sermon was no far froni 
winning any of them to the estimation of their new bishop, ot 
caring what he called the admiration of my person, which wad 
his great endeavour, that they were mUch confirmed in thei^ 
former judgments. But still the bishop looked at Kiddermin* 
ster as a factious, schismatical, Presbyterian people, that must be 
cured of their overvaluing of me, and then they would be cured 
of all the rest. Whereas if he had lived vrith them the twenti- 
eth part so long as I had done, he would have known that they 
were neither Presbyterians, nor factious, nor schismatical, nof 
seditions; but a people that quietly followed their hard labour; 
learned the holy Scriptures, lived a holy, blameless life, in 
humility and peace with all men, and never had any sect or 
separated party among them, but abhorred all faction and sidings 
in religion, and lived in love and Christian unity. 

^ When the bishop was gone, the dean came and preached 
about three hours to cure them of the admiration of my person; 
and a month after came again and preached over the same, per- 
suading the people that they were Presbyterians, and schismati-^ 
cal, and were led to it by their overvaluing of me. The people 
admired the temerity of these men, and really thought that they 
were scarce well in their wits, who would go on to speak things 
so far from truth, of men whom they never knew, and that td 
their own faces. Many have gone about by backbiting to makd 
people believe a false report of others, but few will think to 
persuade men to believe it of themselves, who know the matter 
much better than the reprover doth. Yet beside all this, their 
lectnrers went on in the same strain ; and one Mr. Pitt, who 
lived in Sir John Packington's house with Dr. Hammond, was 
often at this work, being of the judgmerit and spirit of Dr. 
Gunnings and Dr. Peirce, calling them Presbyterians, rebellious^ 
serpents, and generation of vipers, unlikely to escape the damna- 
tion of hell, yet not knowing his accusation to be true of one 
man of them. For there was but one, if one Presbyterian in the 
town; the plain honest people minding nothing but piety, 
unity, charity, and their callings. This dealing, instead of win- 
ning them to the preacher, drove them from the JectUre, and 

^ o 



228 TAB LIFE AND TIMB8 

then^ as I siud^ they accused the people'of deserting it, and put 
it down. 

^^ In place of this ordinary preacher, they set tip one, of the 
best parts they could get, who was far from what his patrons 
spake him to be ; he was quickly weary and went away. They 
next set up a poor dry man, who had been a schoolmaster near 
ns, and ajfter a little time he died. They then took another 
course, and set up a young man, the best they could get, who 
took the contrary way to the first, over applauded me in the 
pulpit, spoke well of themselves, and used them kindly. They 
were naturally glad of one that had some charity. Thus the 
bishop used that flock, who say that till then they never knew 
so well what a bishop was, or were before so guilty of. that 
dislike of Episcopacy of which they were so frequently and 
vehemently accused. I heard not of one person among them, 
who was won to the love of prelacy or formality after my 
removal.' 

'^ Having parted with my dear flock, I need not say with 
mutual sense and tears, I left Mr. Baldwin to live privately among 
them and oversee them in my stead, and visit them from house 
to house ; advising them, notwithstanding all the injuries they 
had received, and all the failings of the ministers that preached 
to them, and the defects of the present way of worship, that thejr 
should keep to the public assemblies and make use of such helps 
as might be had in public, together with their private helps. 
Only in three cases they ought to absent themselves. When 
the minister was one that was utterly insufficient, as not being 
able to teach them the articles of the faith and esseiftials of true 
religion ; such as, alas ! they had known to their sorrow. When 
the minister preached any heresy, or doctrine which was directly 
contrary to some article of the faith, or necessary part of godli** 
ness. When in the application he set himself against the ends 
of his office, to make a holy life seem odious, to keep men 
from it, and to promote the interests of Satan ; yet not to take 
every bitter reflection upon themselves or others, occasioned hj 
difference of opinion or interest, to be a sufficient cause to say 
that the minister preacheth against godliness, or to withdraw 
themselves." ■ 

** When the Act of Uniformity was passed, it gave the ministers 
who could not conform, no longer time than till Bartholomew's 

» Life, part i« pp, 374^376. • Ibid. p. 376. 



OF RICHARD BAXTERf Q2S 

flay^ August 24, 1662, and then they must be all cast out. This^ 
fatal day called to remembrance the French massacre, when on 
the same day thirty or forty thousand Protestants perished by 
Roman religious zeal and charity. I had no place of my own ; 
but I preached twice a week, by request, in other men's congre- 
gations, at Milk Street and Blackfriars. The last sermon that 
I preached in public was on May 25, The reasons why I gave 
over sooner than most others were, because lawyers did interpret 
a doubtful clause in the act, as ending the liberty of lecturers at 
tliat time ;• because I would let authority soon know that I in- 
tended to obey in all that was lawful ; because I would let all 
ministers in England understand in time^ whether I intended to 
conform or not : for, had I staid to the last day, some would 
have conformed the sooner, from a supposition that 1 intended 
it. These, with other reasons, moved me to cease three months 
before Bartholomew day, which many ensured for awhile^ but^ 
afterwards, better saw the reasons of it/* * 

Thus ended Baxter's ministry in the church of England. 
Most persons will probably think that he carried his conscien- 
tious scruples too far ; and that he might, at least, have con- 
tinued his labours till he was obliged to desist. The reasons 
assigned for his conduct, however, possess considerable force ; 
but, whether they are approved or npt, all must respect the man 
who was capable of acting in so noble and disinterested a man- 
ner. He carried his deference for authority in this case farther 
than he might have done ; but his example probably led others 
to act in the same decided manner when the fatal day arrived, 
who might have hesitated had there been a doubt how such a 
man as Baxter whs likely to act. 

The Act of Uniformity, for which the country was indebted 
chiefly to Hyde and Sheldon, by which two thousand of the most 
excellent ministers of the church of England were ejected from 
their livings, took effect, as stated by Baxter, on Bartholomew's 
day, August 24, 1662. Every thing practicable, and consistent 
with what they regarded as the will of God and the rights of con- 
science, had been done by the leaders of the Nonconformists, to 
prevent the passing of this act, or to procure some modification 
of its provisions; but all was in vain. Hatred of the noncon- 
forming clergy^ a desire to be revenged for the wrongs which it 

^ Itife^ part ii. p. 384. 



999 TB^ tIFB Al^p TIMB4 

|va8 "conceived they had done to the church, and the tupppetd 
necessity of the times, urged forward the royal and episcopal 
party, flushed with recent success, and eager to secure the ad- 
vantage which they had acquired. 

To many, it may seem as if the Nonconformists brought their 
ejection on themselves by their needless scruples. This was 
the charge made against them at the time, and in which many 
churchmen, and all who value ease, honour, or emolument, more 
than conscience, continue to join. Tliose, however,^ who con- 
sider themselves bound to follow the revealed law of Heaven in 
all matters of religion, and to submit to their fellow-creatures 
only in things accordant with that law, or which are left unde- 
termined by it, will judge very diiferently the conduct of these 
sincere . confessors. 

It is not to be supposed that all the ejected ministers were 
of the same mind on every point in which their separation from 
the church was involved ; on the contrary, they differed consi- 
derably from each other, though they agreed generally in the 
unlawfulness of submitting on the terms which were proposed 
to them. Some laid the chief stress on one point, others on | 
different one ; some would have gone a considerable length iQ 
submitting to authority ; others objected more decidedly to its 
exercise. Some were, perhaps, influenced by public opinion, 
and regard to consistency ; while the great majority appear to 
have acted from a conscientious regard to duty on the one hand, 
and fear of evil on the other. 

The things imposed on them, if they would keep their liv- 
ings or lectureships, or any post of service in the esti^blished 
church, were the following : — ^They must submit to be re-or- 
dained^ if not episcopally ordained before. They must dedars 
their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing con- 
tained and prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer, 
and administration of the sacraments, and othef rites aqd cere- 
monies of the church of England ; together with the Psalt^ 
and the form or manner of making, ordaining, and consecratii^ 
bishops, priests, and deacons, &c.; to which was attached an 
equivalent subscription. They must take the oath of canonical 
obedience, and promise subjection to their ordinary, according to 
the canons of the church. They must abjure the solemn league 
and covenant ; and they must also abjure the taking of arms, 
upon any pretence whatsoever, against the king, or any one 
commissioned by him, . These things were all strictly enjoined 



iriduNit my thing to qualify or soften thcnii or room left for a 
d|9peiiaatioo. So that if a man scrupled but at one pointj 
though he could have complied with all the rest, he was as cer- 
taiply ejected as if he had disputed the whole." 

Those who wish to examine the full weight of these five 
points, must consult the Tenth Chapter of Dr. Calamy's ' Abridg- 
m^nty' in which that learned divine illustrates, at great length, 
their bearing on many important matters, and supports, by rea- 
sonings which have never been fairly met, the justifiable secession 
of the Nonconformists from the church of England, on those 
grounds. The conditions were so framed, that, independently 
of religious considerations, it was impossible men of principle, 
vhp had taken an active part in the former changes, or who 
hud approved of those changes, could submit to them. They 
•xtei^ded to son^e things by an almost wanton stretch of au- 
thority, and involved a total departure from all just views of 
civil liberty, the cause of wjiich must be regarded as virtually 
flbaodoned by those who submitted to them. AH the temporal 
ipterests of the ejected party were on the side of compliance 
with the requirements of authority ; whatever, therefore, may 
he thought of their judgment, every candid individual will give 
them full credit for sincerity. 

But it is not necessary to rest the defence of the Noncon- 
formist Confessors on this ground. They were not a body of 
weak, well-meaning men, for whose conscientiousness we may 
entertiun a very high respect, while we have little reverence for 
their understanding. The leading individuals who influenced their 
brethren, were not only a match, but an over- match for their 
i^ponents. Among the churchmen of the day, there were none 
superior, i^s scholars and divines, to Calamy, Bates, Owen, Howe, 
Paxter, and many others who could be mentioned. They were as 
capable of forming enlarged and comprehensive views of truth 
l^ld duty, as Pearson, Gunning, Morley, or any other of their 
episcopal adversaries; while, as it regards the evidences of 
Christian character and devotedness, there are few of the class 
6om which they seceded, who will admit of being compared 
with them. 

It is alleged, that the points on which they differed were, in 
themselves, of very inferior importance, and therefore to create 
so much altercation, and cause so extensive a division about 

■ Calamy, vol. i. p. 196. 



232 THB LIFE ANDl TIMBf 

them, are proofs of narrow-mindedness and illiberality* It is 
demanded often in a tone of triumph, whether the things te* 
quired were in themselves sinful ; if not sinful, it is inferred they 
must be innocent; and hence the folly and impropriety of dis* 
puting about them is ascertained. 

To all this it has been replied, that if the things referred to 
are so unimportant in themselves, why were they not viewed 
so by the imposers, as well as by the refusers ? It must have 
been worse, on this principle, to impose such things, than to re- 
sist their imposition. In fact, this was the grand matter of dis* 
pute between the parties. Importance and magnitude were 
given to /the points in debate, by the very circumstance of their 
being enforced by human authority, and that implicit obedience 
to them was required from all. It was not so much a question, 
whether a prescribed form of prayer might be used in public, at 
whether no prayer should ever be employed but that form ; and 
that without deviation in all circumstances. It was not whether 
the cross in baptism might be used by those who approved of 
it ; but whether any child should he baptised, unless the minis* 
ter and the parents both agreed to employ it. It was not, 
whether men might observe the Lord's-supper kneeling; but 
whether the Lord's-supper should be refused to all who would 
not kneel. The same kind of remark will apply to all the other 
matters under discussion between the church and the Noncon- 
formists, at this time. 

Now, will any man who has the least regard for conscience, 
or for common sense, aver, that these were questions of a trifling 
or unimportant nature ? It is obvious, on the contrary, that thef 
embrace the very first principles of religious obligation, and lie 
at the root of all enlightened views of our duty to God, and of 
what constitutes acceptable obedience in his sight. In answer 
to the inquiry, how far the things required were themselves 
sinful ; it may be said, many of the Nonconformists believed 
them to be so: and if this was their belief, though they had been 
mistaken, they were not only justified in refiising compliance, 
but bound to do so, at all hazards. They regarded them as 
human additions to the laws and ordinances of Christ; as 
imposed without authority from him ; as calculated to inter- 
fere with the obedience which they owed to him alone in 
all matters of religion ; as popish in their origin and tendency; 
and as destructive of that liberty with which Christ has made 
his people free. The controversy, therefore, was not about a 



OF AICHABB SAXTBRf. 233^ 

km trifling dreamstances or adjuncts ; it was a grand, struggle 
tor principle, liberty, and the honour of Christ. 

I am aware it may be said, that all the Nonconformists did 
not clearly understand these principles themselves, and would not 
have been averse to impose in their turn. What then ? does it 
bUow that they had not truth or right on their side, when they 
were obliged to contend for principles in reference to them- 
idves, the full extent of whose operation they did not clearly 
nnderstand ? Certainly not. The principles which they endea-* 
roored to maintain, and for which many of them suffered the 
loss' of all things, are those of eternal and immutable truth ; and 
the men who contributed to clear off even a part of the rubbish 
in which they had long been buried, however imperfect they 
may have been in some respects, are entitled to our deepest 
reverence. . 

To do justice to those men, we ought to place ourselves in^ 
their circumstances. Suppose that the rulers of the church of 
England were now to determine, ^ That, on or before the 24th 
of August, 1830, the present occupants of livings, curacies, &c., 
diall subscribe a declaration, engaging themselves to baptise 
M> child without the employment of salt, oil, and spittle, as a 
part of the ordinance of baptism ; to administer the Lord's- 
wpper to those only who should previously bow to the sacred 
chalice, and submit to a bread wafer being put upon their 
tongues/ What would the serious clergy of the church think of 
sach a demand ? Would they submit to it, as a just exercise of 
ecclesiastical authority ? Would they^not, to a man, abandon 
their livings, rather than allow their consciences thus to be 
kirded over and defiled ? Or, if they submitted to such exactions, 
would they not be justly regarded by their flocks and countrymen, 
as traitors and time-servers ? Would not any one who should 
speak of such a controversy as unimportant, or as relating merely 
to a few innocent circumstances, in no respect affecting the na- 
ture of the ordinances of Christ, be considered as an imperti- 
nent trifler ? Yet this supposed case is not stronger than that 
of the Nonconformists. They were placed in this very situation, 
and viewed the condition to which they were obliged to sub- 
mit, as a similar interference would now be regarded. 

The injustice and cruelty of the Bartholomew act, are 
strikingly apparent in two circumstances. It was designed to 
operate as SLpost-facio law. Had it been merely prospective in 
its operation, something more might have been alleged in its 



%^ TBI USB ANB TIHXfti 

favour than can nov be c^one* A gr«at multitude of the miiusf 
ters of the church, had obtained possession of their livings while 
no such conformity was either required or considered necetsary. 
Many of them, indeed, would not have entered the church at 
all, if such conditions had been prescribed at their entrance, or 
their enactment afterwards anticipated. To pass a law, theo, 
which should compel all those persons, either to violate their 
consciences, or to abandon stations of usefulness, and the 
honourable means of living, was roost flagrant injustice. 

But even this is not all the hardship of the case. ^80 
great," says Locke, *^ was the zeal in carrying on this church 
affair, and so blind was the obedience required, that if you conn 
pute the time of passing this act, with the time allowed for tbfi 
clergy to subscribe the Book of Common Prayer, thereby esta- 
blished ; you shall plainly find, it could not be printed and dis- 
tributed, so as one man in forty could have seen and read the 
book they did so perfectly assent and consent to/*^ 
. When these facta are considered, instead of being smrprised 
that two thousand ministers preferred leaving the church 
rather than submit to such conditions, it is more surprising thai 
the many thousands who remained, should have found means of 
reconciling their consciences to the terms. It is not so much 
to the honour of the Nonconformists, that they left the church) 
as i( is to the disgrace of the Conformists, that they continued 
in it. Had they, as a body, resisted the iniquitous measure, it 
must have been abandoned. But their tame submission in this 
instance, prepared the court to make further encroachments, and 
to expect implicit obedience from the clergy, to whatever should 
be enacted. Such tergiversation and inconsistency on the part 
of ministers of religion, must have had a most injurious in* 
fluence on the minds of worldly men ; who could not have any 
respect for those who so decidedly discovered that they looked 
^^ more to the things which were seen and temporal, than to the 
things which are unseen and eternal." Not a few of theip weie 
JH9 divinum Prelatists in the time of Charles I ; took the Pres- 
byterian covenant under the Long Parliament; submitted tpthe 

> Locke's Works, x. 203, 204. The Act of Untfonnity was passed on the 13lh 
of May, 1662. AU the ministers of the church were required to subscribe and 
conform before the 24th of August following. It is certain the Commoo 
Prayer-book, with the alterations and amendments made by the Convocatioo, 
did not leave the prest till a few days before the 24 th of Au^st; it was tbero- 
fpre UDposf ible the great bodjf of the ministers could possess the bqok. 



py tfCBA8J> SAKTlBj 888 

I tt dcpt u jhot €iigag«Dient ; and once more M^ent^ vid cont 
aoitMi to an altered prayer-book, which they had never seisn.Y 

The effects resulting both to the Nonconformists and tq the 
aatim from their ejection, were of a melancholy descriptipnf 
lllfiiltitudes of ministers and their families were involved in great 
distress and poverty. Few qf them had any independent prp« 
per^; and those to whom they afterwards ministered, when 
they had, an opportunity, were generally poor, and therefore 
little able to assist them. They were not only driven ont of the 
cbnrch, but persecuted after they were out. Their usefulness 
was curtailed; and, in many instances, entirely destroyed • 
The churches they vacated were generally supplied by men of 
very different principles and spirit from themselves. The estab- 
lished church was converted into a mass of frigid, outward uni- 
formity, destitute of the vitality of genuine religion ; and more 
than a century elapsed before it recovered from the effects of 
this almost fatal blow. 

Out of evil, however, the Most High joften educes good, 
without removing the blame from its authqra. This was the 
case in regard to the Bartholomew Section. If they who, 
imitating the vicar of Bray, change with every change of the 
times, harden men in wickedness and infidelity, the contrary 
practice must, by the divine blessing, produce an opposite 
effect. The testimony to the value of truth and the rights of 
conscience, borne by two thousand men voluntarily suffering the 
loss of their livings, their worldly respectability, and all hope of 
preferment, could not have been altogether in vain. Their 
patience and fortitude under suffering, with their blameless lives, 
^ded powerfully to the weight of their preaching; so that many 
of them were probably as useful without, as ever they had been 
within, the pale of the church. Besides, what they endured 
contributed greatly to the ultimate triumph of civil and religious 
freedom. ^Fhey were the instruments of forming an extensive 
body of dissenters in all parts of the kingdom, by whose means 
chiefly the power of religion was preserved from destruction for 
many years, and to whom the country has been indebted for 

7 This conduct of the clerg^y led Locke to say of them, " The clergy rea- 
dily complied with the Bartbulomew act; for you know that sort of men are 
taught ntber to obey than understand ; and to use that learning they have, to 
]astify» not to examine what their superiors command." — Letter to a Person 
of QuaUtjff WorU^ z. 2U2. Could a greater reproach be uttered against the 
abuiiterf of rdigion ? 



^S JOB UfE AVD TIMBf 

more blessings than will ever be known or acknowledged inihit 
world.* 

Shortly after the Bartholomew ejection, an event of great 
importance occurred in the history of Baxter, and which appears 
to have made considerable noise ; I refer to his marriage. Some 
time before it took place, he tells us it was reported, and ^^ rung 
about every where, partly as a wonder, and partly as a crime; 
and that the king's marriage was scarcely more talked of than 
his/' For this, he had no doubt furnished some occasion by the 
manner in which he had expressed himself respecting ministers 
marrying ; which he considered barely lawful, and had for many 
years, while engaged in the most laborious part of his ministry, 
dispensed with it himself. He was now considerably advanced 
in life, being in his forty-seventh year. His habits were formed, 

* It is deplorable to find such a man as Mr. Southey, attempting to defend 
or paUiate the ioiquity and impolicy of this wicked act. " The measare,** he 
says, " was complained of as ao act of enormous cruelty and persecution ; and 
the circumstance of its being fixed for St. Bartholomew's day, ghrt the 
complainants occasion to compare it with the atrocious deed committed upon 
that day ag^ainst the Huguenots in France. They were careful not to remem* 
ber, that the same day, and for the same reason (because the tithes wert 
commonly due at Michaelmas), had been appointed for the former ejectiiieBl» 
when four times as many of the loyal clergy were deprived for fidelity to their 
sovereign. No small proportion of the present sufferers had obtained their 
preferments by means of that tyrannical deprivation ; they did but now drink 
of the cup which they had administered to others." — Bo^k of the Ok«rdl» 
ii. 467. 

Seldom has a larger portion of misstatement been compi^essed into so Imail 
a space as in the above passage. It would have been obliging, if the learned 
author had produced his authorities for his assertions. But these are care- 
fully suppressed throughout the work. Hallam remarks on the passage 
respecting Bartholomew's day : <' That the day was chosen in order to deprive 
the incumbent of a whole year's tithes, Mr. Southey has learned from Burnet; 
and it aggravates the cruelty of the proceeding. But where has he found his 
precedent ? The Anglican clergy were ejected for refusing the covenant at no 
one definite period, as, on reflection, Mr. Southey would be aware ; nor can I 
find any one parliamentary ordinance in Husband's collection, that mentiooi 
St. Bartholomew's day. ' There was a precedent, indeed, in that case, which 
the government of Charles did not choose to follow. One-fifth of the incone. 
had been reserved for the dispossessed incumbents."— Constitutional UitUrf 
of England, ii. 460, note. 

But this is not the only misrepresentation in the above passage. Sontbcjr 
asserts that /our times the number of the ministers had been ejected of " the 
loyal clergy," as he is pleased to denominate them. Eight thousand minis- 
ters of the church formerly dispossessed of their livings! And for whatf 
For their loyalty to their sovereign ! And by whom ? By the Nonooo- 
formist ministers, who were only now drinking the cup which they bad given 
to others ! The historian of the church is really unbounded in his demandc 
on the confidence of his readers, when he expects them to receive such mon- 
strous things on bis bare authority. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBB« 237 

his inlirmities of body manyi and the peculiarities of his views and 
dispositions such, as not to afford great encouragement to hope 
that an individual would easily be found with whom an alliance 
could be formed likely to be productive of lasting comfort to both 
parties. Such a person, however, was found, who appears to 
have been eminently fitted to promote the happiness and aid the 
usefulness of this excellent man. From what he calls ^^ a Bre- 
mte of her life/' which will be noticed in another place, I 
extract at present a few particulars. 

'' We were bom in the same county, within three miles and 
B half of each other, but she of one of the chief families in the 
county, and I but of a mean freeholder, called a gentleman, for 
his ancestors* sake. Her father, Francis Charlton, esq., was one 
of the best justices of the peace in that county, a grave and 
worthy man, who did not marry till he was aged and gray, and 
died while his children were very young. There were three of 
them, of which the eldest daughter and the only son are yet 
alive. He had one surviving brother, who, after the father's 
death, maintain^ a long and costly suit about the guardianship 
of the heir. This uncle, Robert, was a comely, sober, gentle- 
man ; but the wise and good mother, Mary, durst not trust her 
only son in the hands of one that was his next heir ; and she 
thouglit that nature gave her a greater interest in him than an 
uncle had. This was in the heat of the late civil war, and Robert, 
being for the parliament, had the advantage of strength, which 
put her to seek relief at Oxford from the king, and afterwards 
to marry one Mr. Hanmer, who was for the king, to make her 
interest that way. Her house, being a sort of small castle, was 
then garrisoned for the king. At last Robert procured it to 
be besieged by the parliament's soldiers, stormed and taken \ 
where the mother and the children saw part of the buildings 
burnt, and some lie dead before their eyes j and so Robert got 
possession of the children. 

*' Afterwards^ however, she, by great wisdom and diligence, 
surprised them, secretly conveyed them to Mr. Bernard's, in 
Essex, and secured them against all his endeavours. The wars 
being ended, and she, as guardian, possessing her son*s estate, 
took him to herself, and used his estate as carefully as for herself; 
but out of it conscientiously paid the debts of her husband, re- 
paired some of the ruined houses, and managed things faith- 
fully, according to her best discretion^ until her son marrying^ 
took his estate into his own hands. 



S6S 4i»^ tiift And fiiillte 

^ She, being before unknown to vA^, came to KiddMhimter^ 
desiring me to take a house for her alone. I told her that I 
Would not be guilty of doing any thing which should separate 
a mother from an ohly son, who in hi^ youth had so much tteM 
of her counsel, conduct, and comfort ; and that if passion in her, 
or any fault in him, had caused a diflference, the love which 
brought her through so iiiuch trouble for him, should teaeh h^ 
patience. She went home, but shortly came again, and Ukk i 
house without my knowledge. 

^' When she had been there alone awhile, her unmarned 
daughter, Margaret^ then about seventeen or eighteen years at 
age, came after her from her brother's, resolving liot to forsake 
the mother who deserved her dearest love ; though soroetimel 
she went to Oxford to her eldest sister, wife to Mr. Ambrose Up- 
ton, then canon of Christ-church. At this time, the good old 
motlier lived as a blessing among the honest poor weavers d 
Kidderminster, strangers to her, whose company for their piety 
she chose before all the vanities of the world. In which time, my 
acquaintance with her made me know, that notwithstanding she 
had been formerly somewhat passionate, she was a woman of 
tnanly patience in her great trials ; of prudence, piety, justice^ 
impartiality, and other virtues," • 

The preaching of Baxter appears to have been useful to 
Miss Charlton. It produced very powerful impressions, and the 
deepest distress of mind, which he was called to assist in re- 
lieving. She became, in due time, an eminent Christian, and 
in all respects worthy to be the wife of Richard Baxter. But 
We must give his own account of the marriage, and a few par- 
ticulars respecting his wife. 

^^The unsuitableness of our age, and my former known pur- 
poses against marriage and against the conveniency of minis- 
ters marrying, who have no sort of necessity, made ours the 
matter of much public talk and wonder. But the true opening 
of her case and mine, and the many strange occurrences which 
brought it to pass, would take away the wonder of her friends and 
mine that knew us ; and the notice of it would much conduce to 
the understanding of some other passages of our lives ; yet frise 

• Life of Mrs. Baxter, p. 1 — 3. 

^ As nearly as I can calcolate from incidental circumstanctfi, the afe of 
Mrs. Baxter, at the time of her marriage, must have been about twenty-two or 
twenty-three. Her husband, as has already been stated, was in bis forty- 
Itventh yea'r. There was some room^ therefore^ for remark on the dispari^ 
of their ages. 



Irieiias^ by wliom I am advised, think it bettet to bin it flueh peN 
sdiial particularities^ at least at this time. Both in her case 
and mine there was much extraordinary, which it doth not 
concern the iilrorld to be acquainted with. From the iir^t 
thoughts of it, many changes and stoppages intervened, and 
long delays, till I was silenced and ejected ; and so being sepa*^ 
rated from my old pastoral charge, which was enough to take 
ap all my time and labour, some of my dissuading reasons wer^ 
then over. At last, on September 10, 1662, we were mar- 
ried in Bennet-Fink church, by Mr. Samuel Clark, having been 
before contracted by Mr. Simeon Ash, both in the presence of 
Mr. Henry Asharst and Mrs. Ash. 

^ She consented to these conditions of oUr marriage : first, 
that I should have nothing that before our marriage was hers } 
that I who wanted no earthly supplies, might not seem to marry 
her for covetousness. Secondly, that she would so alter her 
affaita, that I might be entangled in no lawsuits, l^irdly, that 
she would expect none of my time which my ministerial work 
should require. 

^When we were married, her sadness and melancholy va- 
nished; counsel did something to it, and contentment some* 
thirig ; and^ being taken up with our household affairs did 
somewhat. We lived in inviolated love, and mutual compla-^ 
cency, sensible of the benefit of mutual help, nearly nine- 
teen years. I know not that ever we had any breach in point 
of love, or point of interest, save only that she somewhat 
grudged that I had persuaded her for my quietness to surrender 
so much of her estate, to the disabling her from helping others 
so much as she earnestly desired. 

'^ But that even this was not from a covetous mind, is evident 
by these instances. Though her portion, which was two thou- 
sand pounds beside what she gave up, was by ill debtors two 
hundred pounds lost in her mother's time, and two hundred 
pounds after, before her marriage ; and all she had, reduced to 
about one thousand six hundred and fifty pounds, yet she never 
grudged at any thing that the poverty of debtors deprived her 
of." ^ 

The married life of Baxter, owing to the state of the times, 
was a very unsettled one. During a great part of it, he might 
literally be said ^^ to have had no certain dwelling-place." They 

< Life of Mrs. Baxter^ pp. 49—53. 



240 THB LIFE AKD TIMB8 

fint took a house in Moorfields, then they removed to Acton} 
after that to another there; and after that, he says, ^^ we were 
put to remove to one of the former again ; and after that to 
divers others in another place and county/* ^^The women/' 
he quietly remarks, ^' have most of that sort of trouble^ but my 
wife easily bore it all." 

We shall have occasion to speak of Mrs. Baxter again ; in 
the mean time, we must return to the more public events of hi^ 
husband's life and times. Referring to the statement already 
given of the causes and immediate consequences of the act of 
uniformity, he thus proceeds in his personal narrative. 

^^ Having got past Bartholomew's day, I proceed in the his- 
tory of the consequent calamities. When I was absent, resolv- 
ing to meddle in such businesses no more, Mr. Calamy and the 
other ministers of London who had acquaintances at court, 
were put in hope the king would grant that by way of indul- 
gence, which was formerly denied them ; and that before the 
act was passed, it might be provided that the king should have 
power to dispense with such as deserved well of him in his re- 
storation, or whom he pleased : but all was frustrated. After 
this, they were told that the king had power himself to dispenie 
in such cases, as he did with the Dutch and French churches, 
and some kind of petition they drew up to offer the king : but 
when they had done it, they were so far from procuring their 
desires, that there fled abroad grievous threatenings against 
them, that they should incur a premunire for such a bold 
attempt. When they were drawn to it at first, they did it wiA ' 
much hesitancy, and they worded it so cautiously, that it ex- 
tended not to the Papists. Some of the Independents presumed 
to say, that the reason why all our addresses for liberty had not 
succeeded, was because we did not extend it to the Papists; 
that for their parts, they saw no reason why the Papists should 
not have liberty of worship as well as others 3 and that it was 
better for them to have it, than for all of us to go without it^ 
But the Presbyterians still answered, that the king might him- 
self do what he pleased ; and if his wisdom thought meet to 
give liberty to the Papists, let the Papists petition for it as we 
did for ours 3 but if it were expected that we should be forced to 

' It 18 gratifying^ to find that such were the opinions of some of the Inde- 
pendenU of this time. It shows, that correct views of religious liberty were 
stUl to be found in that body, though much can be said in vindication of the 
conduct of the Presbyterianf* 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 241 

become petitioners for liberty to Popery, we should never do it, 
whatever be the issue ; nor should it be said to be our work. 

"On the 26th December, 1662, the king sent forth a de- 
daration, expressing his purpose to grant some indulgence or 
liberty in religion, with other matters, not excluding the Papists, 
many of whom had deserved so well of him. When this came 
out, the ejected ministers began to think more confidently of 
some indulgence to themselves. Mr. Nye, also, and some 
other of the Independents, were encouraged to go to the king, 
and, when they came back, told us, that he was now resolved to 
^ve them liberty. On the second of January, Mr. Nye came to 
me, to treat about our owning the king's declaration, by re- 
toming him thanks for it ; when I perceived that it was design- 
ed that we must be the desirers or procurers of it ; but I told 
him my resolution to meddle no more in such matters, having 
incurred already so much hatred and displeasure by endeavouring 
imity. The rest of the ministers also had enough of it, and re- 
solved that they would not meddle ; so that Mr. Nye and his 
brethren thought it partly owing to us that they missed their 
intended liberty. But all were averse to have any thing to do 
with the indulgence or toleration of the Papists, thinking it at 
least unfit for them.'' ^ 

However we may be disposed to blame the conduct of the 
Nonconformists towards the Roman Catholics on this occasion, 
great allowance must be made for them, considering the circum- 
stances in which they were placed. No favour shown by the 
court to the Catholics was intended to operate beneficially on 
the Nonconformists. It was not love for liberty, but the de- 
sire to promote arbitrary power, that dictated all the measures 
which then seemed to confer common privileges on Catholics and 
Protestant dissenters. All the leanings of the court were in 
favour of a system which was not less inimical to constitutional 
freedom than it was opposed to the interests of true religion. 
On- these accounts, the Nonconformists were willing to endure 
temporary privations and persecutions rather than, through 
impatience to get rid of them, perpetuate the civil and reli- 
gious degradation of the country ; which would certainly follow 
on the establishment of Popery. 

The personal narrative of Baxter abounds with notices, 
more or less in extent and interest, of numerous Confessors 
among the ejected ministers. To introduce them all, would 

• Life, part ii.pp. 429, 430. 
VOL. I. R 



i49 TBk' ttPB AND TIMSS 

be impiiicticable within the limits of this work. But Wi*fe they 
entireljr omitted, injustice would he done to th^ memoty of those 
holy men^ who suffered for conscience' sake ; and an imperfect 
impression would be left of the state of the period. I have already 
introduced statesmen and politicians ; soldiers and churchmen. 
I must now make room for Baxter's sketch of two Noncon^ 
formists^ who died shortly after the enforcement of the aet. 

*^ Good old Simeon Ash was buried on the eve of Barthob^ 
mew day, and went seasonably to heaven at the very time Wheii 
he was to be cast out of the church. He was one of our old- 
est Nonconformists ; a Christian of primitive simplicity ; not 
made for controversy, nor inclined to disputes, but of a holy life) 
a cheerful mind, and of a fluent elegancy in prayer; foil of 
matter and excellent words. His ordinary speech was holf 
and edifying. Being much confined by the gout, aiid hkmj^ 
a good estate and a very good wife^ inclined to entertah- 
ments and liberality, his house was very much freqtiented by 
ministers. He was always cheerful, without profose laughter or 
levity : never troubled with doubtings of his interest in Christ, 
but tasting the continual love of God, was much disposed to 
the communicating of it to others, and the comforting of de^ 
jected souls. His eminent sincerity made him exceedingly loved 
and honoured; insomuch that Mr. Gataker, Mf. Whittaker, 
and others, the most excellent divines of London, when they 
went to God> desired him to preach their funeral sermons. He 
was Eealous for bringing in the king. Having been chaplain to 
the Earl of Manchester in the wars, he fell under the obloquy 
of the Cromwellians, for crossing their designs. He wrote to 
Colonel Sanders, Colonel Barton, and others in the army. When 
Monk came in to engage them for the king. 

^^ Having preached his* lecture in Comhill, being heated, he 
caught cold in the vestry, and thinking it would prove but one 
of his old fits of the gout, he went toHighgate, where it tamed to 
a fever. He died as he lived, in great consolation, and cheer- 
ful exercise of faith, molested with no fears or doubts dtsoemi- 
ble; exceedingly glad of the company of his friends, and 
greatly encouraging all about him with his joyfiil expressions in 
respect of death and his approaching change ; so that no man 
could seem to be more fearless of it. When he had, towards 
the last, lain speechless for some time, as soon as I came to Mm, 
gladness so excited his spirits, that he spake joyfully and freely 
of his going to God, to those about him. I staid with him h^ 



OV AICHARD ttAXTBIL 348 

iit evenifig^ till we had long expected his change^ being speech-^ 
less all that day) and in the night he departed/ 

'^ On the first of January following was buried good Mr. 
James Nalton, another minister of primitive sincerity : a good 
linguist, a zealous, excellent preacher, commonly called the 
fSHfimg prcphetj because his seriousness oft expressed itself by 
tears; of a most holy, blameless life; and Uiough learned, 
greatly averse to controversy and dispute. In almost all things 
he was like Mr. Asli, except his natural temper, and the influ- 
ence it had upon his soul ; both of them so composed of humi^ 
lity, piety, and innocence, that no enemy of godliness that 
knew them had a word to say agfunst them. They were scorned 
as Puritans, like their brethren, but escaped all the particular 
exceptions and obloquy which many others uuderwenU Dut as 
one was cheerful, so the other was from his youth surprised 
with violent fits of melancholy once in every few years \ which, 
though it distracted him not, yet kept him, till it was over, in 
a most despondent state. In his health he was over humble, 
and had too mean thoughts of himself and all that was his own, 
and never put out himself among his brethren into any employ- 
ment which had the least show of ostentation. Less than a 
year before his deaths he fell into a grievous fit of melancholy, 
in which he was so confident of his gracelessness, that he Usually 
cried out ^ O, not one spark of grace, not one good desire or 
thought 1 I can no more pray than a post. If an angel from 
heaven would tell me that I have true grace, I would not believe 
him.' And yet at that time did he pray very well; and I could 
demonstrate his sincerity so much to him in his desires and life, 
that he had not a word to say against it, but yet was harping 
still on the same string, and would hardly be persuaded that 
he was melancholy. It pleased God to recover him from this 
fir, and shortly after he confessed that what I said was true, 
that his despair Mras all the effect of melancholy ; and rejoiced 
much in God's deliverance. Shortly after this came out 
the Bartholomew Act, which cast him out of his place and 
ministry, and his heart being troubled with the sad case 
of the church, and the multitude of ministers cast out and 
sileneed, and at his own unserviceableness, it roused his melan-* 
choly, which began also to work with some fears of want and 
his family's distress ; all which cast him so low, that the violence 

' Mr, Alb was one of the nuDisters engaged at the Savoy conference, but 
penonally took little part in tht dlfcnttiod. 

r2 



244^ THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of it wore him away like a true marasmus. So that without any 
other disease, but mere melancholy, he consumed to death, 
continuing still his sad despondency and self-condemning views. 
By which it appeareth how little judgment is to be made of a 
man's condition by his melancholy apprehensions, or the sad- 
ness of his mind at death ; and in what a different manner men 
of the same eminency in holiness and sincerity may go to God, 
Which I have the rather showed by the instance of those two 
saints,. than whom this age hath scarce produced and setup a 
pair more pious, humble, just, sincere, laborious in their well- 
performed work, unblamable in their lives, not meddling with 
state matters, nor secular affairs, and therefore well spoken of 
by all." « 

Such is a specimen of the men, whom the leaders of the church 
of England thought it needful to eject from the office of the mi- 
nistry, because they could not submit to the exercise of an un- 
righteous authority. Such were some of the fathers of Non- 
conformity. ITie church and the world were not worthy of 
them, but they were counted worthy not only to believe, but 
also to suffer for the sake of Christ } and their names will be 
held in everlasting remembrance. 

The intolerable hardships which many excellent men were 
called to endure, it is not possible fully to exhibit. They were 
harassed and tormented by all sorts of interferences, even when 
they could escape fines and imprisonment. The following may 
be regarded as a specimen. 

" As we were forbidden to preach, so we were vigilantly 
watched in private, that we might not exhort one another, of 
pray together ; and, as I foretold them oft, how they would use us 
when they had silenced us, every meeting for prayer was called 
a dangerous meeting for sedition, or a conventicle at least. I 
will now give but one instance of their kindness to myself. One 
Mr. Beale, in Hatton Garden, having.a son, his only child, who 
being long sick of a dangerous fever was brought so low that 
the physicians thought he would die, desired a few friends, 
of whom I was one, to meet at his house to pray for him. Be- 
cause it pleased God to hear our prayers, and that very night to 
restore him ; his mother shortly after falling sick of a fever, we 
were desired to meet to pray for her recovery, the last day when 
she was near to death. Among those who were to be there, it 

i Life, part ii. p. 430, 431. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 245 

fell oat that Dr. Bates and I did fail them, and could not come; 
bat it was known at Westminster^ that we were appointed to be 
tbere^ whereupon two justices of the peace were procured from 
the distant parts of the towu^ one from Westminster and one 
from Clerkenwell, to come with the parliament's serjeant at 
arms to apprehend us. They came in the evenings when part 
of the company were gone. There were then only a few of 
their kindred, beside two or three ministers to pray. They 
came upon them into the room where the gentlewoman lay 
ready to die, drew the curtains, and took some of their 
names ; but, missing their prey, returned disappointed. What 
a joy would it have been to them that reproached us as Presby- 
terian, seditious schismatics, to have found but such an occa- 
sion as praying with a dying woman, to have laid us up in 
prison ! Yet, that same week, there was published, a witty, ma- 
licious invective against the silenced ministers ; in which it was 
affirmed, that Dr. Bates and 1 were at Mr. Beale's house, such a 
day, keeping a conventicle. The liar had so much extraor- 
dinary modesty as, within a day or two, to print a second edi- 
tion, in which those words, so easy to be disproved, were left 
out. Such eyes were every where then lifted upon us." ^ 

In the beginning of June, 1663, the old, peaceable archbishop 
of Canterbury, Dr. Juxon, died; and was succeeded by Dr. 
Gilbert Sheldon, bishop of London. Juxon was a very respect- 
able prelate, and worthy of the character which is given him 
by Baxter. His conduct during the trying period of the civil 
wars, exhibited great moderation. Jie attended Charles I. on 
the scaffold, and received his last commands in the emphatical 
word, ^^ Rembmbbr/' At the Restoration, he was made arch- 
bishop of Canterbury; and crowned Charles II.; by whom he 
appears to have been not greatly respected. He seems to have 
been an amiable man, but had no great energy of mind. Sheldon 
was his superior for learning and talents ; dexterous in business, 
and a thorough courtier ; but more of a politician than is con- 
sistent with integrity of character and religious principle. He 
was an implacable enemy of the Nonconformists. 

^^ About these times, the talk of liberty to the silenced 
ministers, for what end, I know not, was revived again, and 
we were. blamed by many that we had never once petitioned the 
parliament ; for which we had sufficient reasons. It was said, 
that they were resolved to grant us either an indulgence by way 

^ Uie, )>art u. p. 431, 432. 



348 TBI LI{B ANB TIII18 

of dispeniation, or a comprehension by itome additional apt} 
taking in all that could conform in some particular pointSt 
Hereupon there was great talk about the question* whether the 
way of indulgence or the way of comprehension was the more 
desirable. It was debated as seriously, as if, indeed, such 
a thing as one of them had been expected. And parUameot 
men themselves persuaded us that it would be done. 

^' For my own part, I meddled but little with any such busier 
ness, since the failing of that which incurred so much displea^ 
sure : and the rather, because though the brethren commis- 
feionad with me stuck to me as to the cause, yet they wertt 
not forward enough to bear their part of the ungrateful ma- 
nagement, nor of the consequent displeasure. But yet, when 
an honourable person was earnest with me, to give him my 
judgment, whether the way of indulgence or comprehension 
was the more desirable, that he might discern which way to go 
in parliament himself, 1 gave him my mind, though I thought it 
was to little purpose.^ 

*^ Instead of indulgence and comprehension, on the last day 
of June, 1668, the bill against private meetings for rdigiooi 
exercises passed the House of Commons, and shortly after was 
made a law. The sum of it was, ^ that every person above 
sixteen years old, who should be present at any meeting under 
colour or pretence of any exercise of religion, in other manner 
than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the church of 
England, where there are five persons more than the household, 
shall, for the first offence, by a justice of peace be recorded^and 
sent to jail three months, till he pay five pounds ; and, for the 
second offence, six months, till he pay ten pounds ; and the 
third time, being convicted by a jury, shall be banished to some 
of the American plantations, excepting New England or Vif* 
ginia.' The calamity of the act, beside the main matter, waS| 
that it was made so ambiguous, that no man that ever I net 
with could tell what was a violation of it, and what not ; not 
knowing what was allowed by the liturgy or practice of the 
church of England in families, because the liturgy meddleth not 
with families ; and among the diversity of family practice, no 
man knoweth what to call the practice of the church. Too 
much power was given to the justices of the peace to re* 
cord a man an offender without a jury, and if he did it care- 
lessly, we were without any remedy, seeing he was noade a 

^ Life, pari iL p. 435. 



Of RICHAED B4XTIE. 847 

jvdge* Aceording to the plain words of the act, if a man did 
but preach and pray, or read some licensed book, and sing 
psalms, he might have more than four present, because these 
are allowed by the practice of the church in the church ; and 
the act seemeth to grant an indulgence for place and numberi 
so be it the quality of the exercise be allowed by the church ; 
wbioh must be meant publicly, because it meddleth with no 
private exercise. But when it came to the trial, these pleas 
with the justices were vain : for if men did but pray, it was 
taken fior granted, that it was an exercise not allowed by the 
church of England, and to jail they went. 

'^ And now came the 'people's trial, as well as the ministers'* 
Wbile the dangers and sufferings lay on the ministers alone, the 
people were very courageous, and exhorted them to stand it out 
and preach till they went to prison. But when it came to be their 
own case, they were venturous till they were once surprised 
and imprisoned ; but then their judgments were much altered, 
and they that censured ministers before as cowardly, because 
they preached not publicly, whatever followed, did now think 
tfwt it was better to preach often in secret to a few, than but 
once or twice in public to many; and that secrecy was no sio, 
when it tended to the furtherance of the work of the Gospel, 
and to the church's good. The rich especially were as cautious 
as the ministers. But yet their meetings were so ordinary, 
and so well known, that it greatly tended to the jailers' com- 
modity. 

** The people were in a great strait, those especially who 
dwelt near any busy officer, or malicious enemy. Many durst 
not pray in their families, if above four persons came in to dine 
with them. In a gentleman's house, where it was ordinary (&9 
more than four visitors, neighbours, messengers, or one sort 
or other, to be most ro many days at dinner with them, many 
dnrst not then go to prayer, and some scarcely durst crave a 
blessing on their meat, or give God thanks for it. Some thought 
they might venture if they withdrew into another room, and 
left the strangers by themselves : but others said, it is all one if 
they be in the same house, though out of hearing, when it 
cometh to the judgment of the jui^tices. In London, where the 
houses are contiguous, some thought if they were in several 
houses and heard one another through the wall or a window, it 
would avoid the law : but others said, it is all in vain whilst the 
justice is judge whether it was a meeting or no. Great lawyers 



248 TRB LIPB AND TIMB8 

said/ if you come on a visit or business, though you be preaent 
at prayer or sermon, it is no breach of the law, because you met 
not on pretence of a religious exercise : but those that tried 
them said, such words are but wind, when the justices come to 
judge you. 

*^ And here the Quakers did greatly relieve the sober people 
for a time 3 for they were so resolute, and so gloried in their . 
constancy and sufferings, that they assembled openly at the 
Bull and Mouth, near Aldersgate, and were dragged away 
daily to the common jail ; and yet desisted not, but the rest 
came the next day, nevertheless : so that the jail at Newgate 
was filled with them. Abundance of them died in prison, and 
yet they continued their assemblies still. They would sometimes 
meet only to sit still in silence, when, as they sud, the Spirit 
did not move them : and it was a great question, whether this 
silence was a religious exercise not allowed by the liturgy, &c. 
Once, upon some such reasons as these, when they were 
tried at the sessions, in order to a banishment, the jury acquit- 
ted them ; but were grievously threatened for it. After that, 
another jury did acquit them, and some of them were fined and 
imprisoned for it. But thus the Quakers so employed Sir 
K. B., and the other searchers and prosecutors, that they had 
the less leisure to look after the meetings of soberer men;^ 
which was much to their present ease.^ 

'^ The divisions, or rather the censures of the nonconform- 
ing people, against their ministers and one another, began now 
to increase ; which was long foreseen, but could not be avoided. 
I that had incurred so much the displeasure of the prelates, 
and all their party, by pleading for the peace of the Non- 
conformists, did fall under more of their displeasure than any 
one man l)eside, as far as I could learn. With me they joined 
Dr. Bates, because we went to the public assemblies, and also 
to the common-prayer, even at the beginning of it. Not that 
they thought worse of us than of others, but that they thought 
our example would do more harm ; for 1 must bear them wit- 
ness, that in the midst of all their censures of my judgment and 
actions, they never censured my affections and intentions, nor 

^ Had there been more of the same determined spirit among olhers, whidi 
the Friends displayed, the suffering^ of all parties would sooner have come to 
an end. The government must have given way, as the spirit of the country 
would have been effectually roused. Tbe conduct of the Quakers was infi- 
nitely to their honour. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBK. 249 

absted their charitable estimation of me in the main. Of the 
leading prelates, I had so much favour in their hottest indigna- 
tion^ that they thought what I did was only in obedience to my 
conscience. So that I see by experience, that he who is impar- 
tially and sincerely for truth, and peace, and piety, against all ' 
&u;ti<Hi8, shall have his honesty acknowledged by the several 
fiicdons, whilst his actions, as cross to their interest, are detest- 
ed : whereas, he that joineth with one of the factions, shall 
have both his person and actions condemned by the other, 
though his party may applaud both." ^ 

That Baxter acted conscientiously, no doubt can be enter- 
tained ; and it must have been a comfort to him, to enjoy the 
testimony of a good conscience amidst the conflict through 
iwfaich he was called to pass. But we cannot be surprised that 
liis conduct troubled and offended both churchmen and dis- 
senters, even while they gave him credit for integrity. Few 
could enter into his numerous, and often wire-drawn dis- 
tiDcdons ; sometimes, even with all his acuteness, they were 
founded on a mistaken view of the case. The attempt to 
meet all parties, and to reconcile them, was the vainest in 
which this most worthy and devoted individual ever engaged. 
Hi8 catholic spirit grasped and hoped for that which is reserved 
far happier times than his own, or than has yet blessed the 
church of God. 

^ Having lived three years and more in London, and finding 
itneither agree with my health nor studies, the one being brought 
very low and the other interrupted, and all public service being 
9i an end, I betook myself to live in the country, at Acton, that 
I might set myself to writing, and do what service I could for 
posterity, and live as much as possibly I could out of the world. 
Thither I went on the 14th of July, 1G63, where I followed my 
•todies privately, in quietness, and went every Lord's-day to the 
public assembly, when there was any preaching or catechising, 
^i spent the rest of the day with my family, and a few poor 
neighbours that came in ; spending now and then a day in London. 
The next year, 1664, I had the company of divers godly, faith- 
ful friends that tabled with me in summer, with whom I solaced 
Myself with much content. Having almost finished a large 
treatise, called * A Christian Directory, or Sum of Practical 
J^Wnity,' that I might know whether it would be licensed for the 
I P^ I tried the licensers with a small treatise, the ' Character 

f 1 Life, part ii. pp. 435, 436. 



S5Q TAP MVB AhfH TIMM 

of a Sound Christiao, aa differenced from the weiik Cbriadmi and 
the Hypocrite/ I offered it Mr. Grigi the Bishop of liondfm'l 
chaplain, who had been a Noncoi|fpF]|iist, and profeased an f%n 
traordinary respect for me ; but he durst not Ucen^iB it» Yd 
after« when the plague began, I sent three «ipgle sheets to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury's chaplain, without any name, that 
they might have passed unknown ; but^ accidentally, they knew 
them to be mine, and they were licensed. The oqe waa Diree* 
tions for the sick ; the second was Directions for the conyenioa 
of the ungodly ; and the third was Instructions for a holy lib i 
for the use of poor families that cannot buy greater bodUy or 
will not read them." * 

Beside these works, he wrote or published, between tha tiiBS 
of- his leaving Kidderminster and the year 1665, several eonr 
siderable works, both practical and controversial. Among these 
were, bis ^Life of Faith/ ^The Successive Visibility of the 
Church,' * The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite/ * The 
Last Work of a Believer,' ^ The Mischiefs of Self-ignoraoc^' 
his Controversy with the Bishop of Worcester about the Causes 
of his leaving Kidderminster, his ^ Saint, or Brute,' ^ Now or 
Never,' and ^The Divine Life.' These works, considering the 
public business in which he was engaged, and his various trials 
and changes, must have found him very full employment ; aad 
only a mind of unceasing activity, and a pen of more than ordi? 
nary dispatch, could have accomplished so much. 

^^ March 26, 1665, being the Lord's-day, as I was preafih- 
ing in a private house, where we received the Lord*s suppevy a 
bullet came in at the window among us, passed by me, aud 
narrowly missed the head of a sister-in-law of mine that was 
there, but hurt none of us. We could never discover whfioca it 
came. 

^^ In June following, an ancient gentlewoman, with her son 
and daughter, came four miles in her coach to hear me pre^ell 
in my family, as out of special respect to me. It fell out, contrary 
to our custom, that we let her knock long at the door, and did 
not open it : and so a second time, when she had gone away and 
come again ; and the third time she came when we had ended* 
She was so earnest to know when she might come again to bear 
me, that I appointed her a time ; but before she came I bad 
secret intelligence from one that was nigh her, that she came 
with a heart exceeding full of malice, resolving, if possible, to da 

"^ IMe, part ii. pp. 440, 441. 



or BiClfABD 9AXT«|U 9tl 

me wli9t mwbifff olm cpald by ai^usation, and ao tjiat danger 

WM ttfmded."" 

During this period^ some foreign ministers of eminencei who 

bad heard of Baj(ter's character and talents, and were desirous 

of cultivating hit acquaintance and friendship, wished u> engage 
him in correspondence. Among these were Amyrald, or 
Amyraut, a French Protestant minister, and professor of the^^ 
obgy ftt Saumur, whose sentiments on some doctrinal points 
were nearly allied, to those of Baxter, and ZoUicoffer of Switz- 
criaad, who seems, from his letter, to have visited England, and 
to have been well acquainted with his writings. He was afraid, 
however, to answer their letters. 

^ The vigilant eye of malice that some had upon me, made 
OS understand that, though no law of the land was against 
h'tenu'y persons' correspondencies beyond the seas, nor had 
lay divines been hindered from it, yet, it was likely to have 
prored my ruin, if I had but been known to answer one of their 
btters, though the matter had been ever so mUch beyond ex- 
ciption. So that I neither answered this nor any other, save 

. aaly by word of mouth to the messenger, and that but in small 
part Our silencing and ejection, they would quickly know 
kjrpther means, and how much the judgment of the English 
biihopQ did diffipr from theirs about the labours and persons of 
loeh as we. 

^ About this time, I thought meet to debate the case with 
lome learned and moderate ejected ministers of London, about 
communicating sometimes at the parish churches in the sacra- 
ment; for they that came to common prayer, came not yet to 
the saerament. They desired me to bring in my judgment and 
reasons in writing, which being debated, they were all of my 
Rund in the main, that it is lawful and a duty where greater 
accidents preponderate not. But they all concurred unani- 
mously in this, that if we did communicate at all in the parish 
churches, the sufferings of the Independents, and those Presby- 
terians that could not communicate there, would certainly be 
^ much increased ; which now were somewhat moderated by 
aur concurrence with them. I thought the case very hard on both 
'ides; that we, who were so* much censured by them for going 
^mewhat further than they, must yet omit that which else 
aiust be our duty, merely to abate their sufferings who censure 
^: but I resolved to forbear with them awhile, rather than any 

* Idfe, ptrt ii. p. 444. 



252 THE UFB AND TlBfBS 

Christian should suffer by occasion of an action of minei aeeing 
God will have mercy^ and not sacrifice ; and no duty is a duty at 
all times." 

He thus concludes his memorials of the year 1665. The 
reader will be struck, as the writer of the present work is, that 
the year, in which he writes this page, 1828, the prayer of 
Baxter has been answered respecting the Corporation Act; and 
that for the first time during one hundred and sixty-three yean, 
it can be said that the Protestant Dissenters of England are in 
possession of common rights and privileges with their feUow 
subjects of the established church. After such a delay in the 
discharge of justice, let no man be sanguine in his expectadons 
of speedy change. After the repeal of the Corporation and Test 
Acts, under all the circumstances in which it has been accom- 
plished, let no man despair. 

^^ And now, after the breaches on the churches, the ejec- 
tion of the ministers, and impenitency under all, wars and 
plague and danger of famine began ^t once on us. War 
with the Hollanders, which yet continueth; and the dryest 
winter, spring, and summer, that ever man alive knew, or our 
forefathers mention of late ages : so that the grounds were 
burnt like the highways, where the cattle should have fed. The 
meadow grounds where I lived, bare but four loads of hay, 
which before bare forty ; the plague hath seized on the famousest 
and most excellent city of Christendom, and at this time nearly 
8,300 die of all diseases in a week. It hath scattered and con- 
sumed the inhabitants ; multitudes being dead and fled. The 
calamities and cries of the diseased and impoverished, are not to 
be conceived by those that are absent from them. Every man is 
a terror to his neighbour and himself : and God, for our sins, is 
a terror to us all. O ! how is London, the place which God 
hath honoured with his Gospel above all places of the earth, 
laid low in horrors, and wasted almost to desolation by the 
wrath of that God, whom England hath contemned ! A God- 
hating generation are consumed in their sins, and the righteous 
are also taken away as from greater evils yet to come. Yet, 
under all these desolations, the wicked are hardened, and cast 
all on the fanatics ; the true dividing fanatics and sectaries 
are not yet humbled for former miscarriages, but cast all on the 
prelates and imposers ; and the ignorant vulgar are stupid, and 
know not what use to make of any thing they feel. But thou- 
sands of the sober, prudent, faithful servants of the Lord are 



OV EICHikRI) BAXTER. 253 

mourning in secret, and waiting for his salvation ; in humility 
and hope they are staying themselves on God, and expecting what 
he will do with them. From London the plague is spread through 
many counties, especially next London^ where few places, espe- 
cially corporations, are free : which makes me oft groan^ and 
wi$h that London^ and aU the corporations of England^ would 
review the Corporation Acty and their otvn acts, and speedily 
repent* 

^ Leaving most of my family at Acton, compassed about with 

the pfaigue, at the writing of this, through the mercy of my dear 

God, and Father in Christ, 1 am hitherto in safety and comfort 

in the house of my dearly beloved and honoured friend, Mr. 

Richard Hampden, of Hampden, in Buckinghamshire, the true 

hdr of his fSunous father's sincerity, piety, and devotedness to 

God; whose person' and family the Lord preserve; honour 

them that honour him, and be their everlasting rest and por* 

I tioa/'* 

• Life, part ii. p. 448. 



2S4 TfiB LtFB AVD tlkM 



CHAPTER IX. 



1665—1670. 



IliePlafrue of Londoih— Preftchiop of some of tbe Nonconfomilstl-^'riie tfm 
Mito Act— The Fire of LoDdon^Beneroleooe of Athurrt aid Goteft— TIm 
Fire advantaf out to the Preaching of the Silenced MiDittcr*— CotttaiiM 
Clergy— More Talk about Liberty of Conseience— The LatitadlDariaoi^ 
Fall of Clareodou— The Duke of Buckingham— Sir Orlando Bridgnlia-* 
Preaching of tbe Nonconformists connived at — Fresh Diftcuisionf aboot t 
Comprehension — Dr. Creighton — Ministers imprisoned — Address lo tk 
King— Nonconformists attacked from the Press— Baxter's Character of 
Judge Hale— Dr. Rives — Baxter sent to Prison— Advised to apply for s 
Habeas Corpus — Demands it from the Court of Common Pleas— Bebavkwr 
of the Judges — Discharged — Removes to Totteridge — His Works doring 
this period — Correspondence with Owen. 

In the end of the preceding chapter, we left Baxter at Hamp- 
den, moralising on the desolation of London, during the raging 
of the plague. Of that fearful calamity, and also of the fire, 
which followed soon after, he has left some additional notices, 
as well as of the influence of these events on the trials or en- 
largement of the Nonconformists. 

'^ The number that died in London, he informs us^ beside all 
the rest of the land, was about a hundred thousand, reckoning 
the Quakers, and others, that were never put in the bilk of 
mortality. 

^^ The richer sort removing out of the city, the greatest blow 
fell on the poor. At first so few of the more religious sort were 
taken away that, according to the mode of too many such, they 
began to be puffed up, and boast of the great difference which 
Ood did make ; but quickly after they all fell alike. Yet not 
many pious ministers were taken away. I remember only three, 
who were all of my acquaintance. 

^^ It is scarcely possible for people who live in a time of health 
and security, to apprehend the dreadful nature of that pestilenoe. 
How fearful people were thirty or forty, if not a hundred miles 



OT BICHARD BAXTBft. SS5 

from London, of atir thing they bought from mercers* or drapei^* 
shops, or of goods that were brought to them ; or of any person 
who came to their houses ! How they would shut their doors 
against their fi-iends ; and if a man passed orer the fields, how 
one would avoid another as we did in the time of the wars; 
how every man was a terror to another ! ? Oh, how sinfully un- 
thankful are we for our quiet societies, habitations, and h^th ! 

^^ Not far from the place where I sojourned, at Mrs. Fleet- 
wood's, three ministers of extraordinary worth were together in 
one house, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. Samuel Cradock, and Mr. Terry, 
nen of singular judgment, piety, and moderation. The plague 
ttune into the house where they were, and one person dying of 
it, caused many, that they knew not of, earnestly to pray for 
their deliverance ; and it pleased Ood that no other person died. 

**One great benefit the plague brought to the city, it oc- 
casioned the silenced ministers more openly and laboriously 
to preach the Gospel, to the exceeding comfort and profit of the 
people ; insomuch, that to this day the freedom of preaching, 
which this occasioned, can not by the daily guards of soldiers 
nor l)y the imprisonment of multitudes be restrained. The 
ministers that were silenced for Nonconformity, had ever since 
1662 done their Work very privately and to a few; not so much 
through their titnorousness, as their loathness to offend the khig, 
and in hope that their forbearance might procure them some 
liberty, and through some timorousness of the people that 
would hear them. When the plague grew hot, most of the 
conformable ministers fled, and left their flocks in the time of 
their extremity ; whereupon divers Nonconformists, pitying the 
d}ring and distressed people, who had none to call the impeni- 
tent to repentance, or to help men to prepare for another world, 

' Amonff the places which the plague visited at a distaoce, was the Tillage 
of Loagbborough, in the county of Leicester ; it there entered the honse of 
tbc Rev. Samuel Shaw, the ejected minister of Long Whatton. He burled 
two of his children, two friends, and a servant, who bad died of the distemper. 
Both his wife and himself were aUacked, but mercifully escaped. His house 
was shut up for three months, none being permitted to enter it ; so that he 
luid to attend the sick himself, and afterwards to bury them in his own garden. 
It was in those circumstances he produced that beautiful and impressive little 
▼alume, < The Welcome to the Plague.' It was originally a sermon, preached 
fa his own family, and affords an admirable illustration of the power and 
Ucttednest of true religion. If the reader has not seen this little work,, or 
another of Shaw's, < Imroauuel ; or, a Discovery of True Religion/ I beg to 
rtcomaneiid them to his attention, as among the finest specimens of the Non- 
eoDformist school of theology. The author died in 1696.— See the Aftaiatr ^rv- 
JU§i U ImaumueL 



256 THE f.IFB ANJ> TIMB8 

or to comfort them in their terrors, when about ten thousand 
died in a week, resolved that no obedience to the laws of mor- 
tal men whatsoever, could justify them in neglecting men*a souls 
and bodies in such extremities. They, therefore, resolved to 
stay with the people, and to go into the forsaken pulpits, though 
prohibited, and to preach to the poor people before they died; 
also to visit the sick and get what relief they could for the poor, 
especially those that were shut up. 

" Those who set upon this work were, Mr. Thomas Vincent, 
late minister in Milk-street,^ with some strangers that came 
thither after they were silenced j as Mr. Chester, Mr. Janeway, 
Mr. Turner, Mr. Grimes, Mr. Franklin, and some others. Often 
those heard them one day, who were sick the next, and quickly 
dead. The face of death did so awaken both the preachers and 
the hearers, that preachers exceeded themselves in lively, fervent 
preaching, and the people crowded constantly to hear them. 
AI) was done with great seriousness, so that through the 
blessing of God, abundance were converted from their careless- 
ness, impenitency, and youthful lusts and vanities; and religion 
took such a hold on many hearts, as could never afterwards be 
loosed.' 

" Whilst God was consuming the people by these judgments, 
and the Nonconformists were labouring to save men's souls, the 
parliament, which sat at Oxford, whither the king removed 
from the danger of the plague, was busy with an act of con- 

<i Vincent published, in 1G67, a work, entitled * God's Terrible Voice in tlit 
City by Pla^e and Fire/ founded on these two awful calamities, both of 
which he had witnessed. He remained in the city, preachings with great fervour 
and effect during^ the whole time of the plaji^e. It came into the house in 
which he resided, and took off three persons, but he escaped alive. The name 
of such a man, and of those who acted with him, deserve to be preserved in 
an imperishable record. He died at Hoxton, in 1671. — CSotomy, ii. 32. 

' < De Foe's Journal of the Plague Year,' though written as a Bctiou, but yet 
no fiction, gives the best account of this tremendous calamity which we have. 
It is only to be regretted that what is fact and what is fiction, are so ^mingled 
together that it is impossible to separate them. While the description is not 
more terrible than the reality, and many of the narratives are probably de- 
scriptive of real occurrences, the book cannot be used as authority. Tbcfe 
are some affecting notices of it in the * Diary of Pepys ;' and several letters 
are given by Ellis, in the fourth volume of his second series of * Original 
Letters, illustrative of English History,* relative to it. They are by the Rev. 
Stephen Bing and Dr. Tillotson, aud addressed to Dr. Sancroft, then dean of 
St. Paul's. It appears from them that the Bishop of London threatened those 
of his clergy who had deserted their flocks, in consequence of the plague, 
that if they did not return to their charges speedily, he would put others in 
their places. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 257 

to make the silenced ministers'case incomparably harder 
dum it was before^ by patting upon them a certain oath, which 
if Cbey refiised, they must not come, except on the road, within 
five miles of any city^ or of any corporation, or any place that 
seodeth burgesses to the parliament; or of any place where* 
ever they had been ministers, or had preached since the Act of 
Oblivion. So little did the 5ense of God's terrible judgments, or 
of the necessities of many hundred thousand ignorant souls, or 
the groans of the poor people for the teaching which they had 
loet, or the fear of the great and final reckoning, affect the 
hearta of the prelatists, or stop them in their way. The 
cUef promoters of this among the clergy were said to be the 
Ardibbhop of Canterbury, and Dr. Seth Ward, the bishop 
of Salisbiuy. One of the great^t adversaries of it in the 
Lords' House, was the Earl of Southampton, lord treasurer of 
BDgland, a man who had ever adhered to the king, but under- 
stood the interest of his country, and of humanity. It is, with* 
oat contradiction, reported that he said no honest man would 
take that oath." The Lord Chancellor Hyde, also, and the rest 
of the leaders of that mind and way, promoted it, and easily 
procured it to pass the houses, notwithstanding all that was 
said against it. 

'* By this act,' the case of the ministers was made so hard, 
that many thought themselves obliged to break it, not only by 
the necessity of their office, but by a natural impossibility of 
keeping it, unless they should murder themselves and their 
famUies.'' ' 

The oath imposed on them by the act was as follows : 

^ I, A. B., do swear that it is not lawful, upon any pretence 
whatsoever, to take arms against the king; and that I do abhor 
that traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against 
his person, or against those that are commissioned by him, in 
pursuance of such commission : and that I will not, at any 
time, endeavour any alteration of the government, either in 
church or state/' ^ 

We are at a loss which most to be astonished at— -the impiety, 

• Bamet tells us, Soutbamptou spoke vehemently against the bill, and said 
** be could take no such oath hiniselt' ; for how firm soever he had always 
been to the church, as thio^^s were managed, he did not kuow but he himself 
mlf^t see cause to endeavour au alteration." — Own Times, vol. i. p. 329. 
Soathampton was a very able man, exemplary in private life^ and uf invinci* 
ble intepity in bis public conduct. He died in 1667. 

* Ufe» part Hi. pp. 1—8. "" Ibid, p; 4. 

VOL. !• S 



SM m Li»fi Aim ttictt 

dit follyi or tfift cruelty, of the men who oould ItnpoM lUi Mlh* 
They could not suppose that rellgioue men would geuerilly tilM 
It I they must therefore have contemplated the inflielioll of the 
meet gritvoui wrongs on some of the best fHends of tte 
country. It was carried through the House of Lords ehlafly by 
the influence of the archbishop and the lord chancellor, h 
die House of Commons, an unsuoeessAil atMnpt was made Si 
insert the word ^ legally" before '' commissioned |" bat the bitt 
passed without a division, the lawyers declaring that the ward 
^ legally" must be understood. Some Nonconformist toiato* 
ters took the oath on this construction s but the far giaaM 
number refused. Bven if they could hate borne the sohttiis m* 
seriion of the principles of passive^obedienoe in ail p oss lM s 
eases, their Consciences revolted from a pledge to endaavMf no 
kind of alteration in church or state i an engagement^ la hi 
extended sense, irreconcilable with their religious principlos^ and 
with the civil duties of Bnglishmem Yet, to quit Uia tOWM 
Where they had long been connected, and where akmo thoy had 
friends and disciples, for a residence in country Villages, was Stt 
exclusion from the ordinary means of subsistence^ TbnOfaurdl 
of England had, doubtless, her provocations ; but she asads 
retaliation much more than commensurate to the iigury* No 
severity comparable to this cold-blooded persecution had been 
inflicted by the late powers, even in the ferment and fury of i 
civil war.* 

Baxter submitted the consideration of the oath to his kind 
friend, Serjeant Fountain, with a series of queries, to which thst 
learned person replied at considerable leiigth* The anawtis, 
however, could by no means satisfy Baxter that it WaS lawfiil 
to take the oath the reasons for which he assigns with his osud 
minuteness. 

" Hie act which imposed this oath," he says, ^^ openly aacusil 
the nonconformable ministers, or some of them, of seditMMM 
doctrine, and such heinouf crimes, wherefore when it first ceHS 
out, I thought that at such an accusation no innocent .persem 
should be silent ; especially when Papists, strangers, and poste- 
rity, may think that a recorded statute is a sufficient history to 
prove us guilty ; and the concernments of the Qospel, and Otar 
callings, and men's souls, are herein touched. I therefore drew 
up a profession of our judgment about the case of loyalty, and 
obedience to kings and governors 3 and the reasons why we rs- 

« HalUm'i ConiUCutiooal History, vol. ii. py 474f 



OF ftlCHAltD lAXTBIU 250 

fttol tin oilb. But reading it to Dr. Seaman, and some others 
wiser than myself, they advised me to cast it by, and to bear all 
io aUeiit patience; because it was not possible to do it so fully 
and tittoerdy but that the malice of our adversaries would 
make an iU use of it, and turn it all against ourselves : and the 
wise statesmen laughed at me for thinking that reason would be 
tiqiardcd by such men as we liad to do with, and would not 
esasparate them the more/'^ 

Sheldon determined to execute the act as strictly as possi- 
bly and therefore, on the 7th of July, 1665, orders were issued 
to the several bishops in the province of Canterbury, requiring 
among other things, a return of the names of all the ejected mi- 
nbtera, with their place of abode, and manner of life. The 
retatM of the several bishops are said to be still preserved in 
Ae Lambeth library.' 

^ Afker this, the ministers finding the pressure of this act so 
hea:vy, and the loss likely to be so great to cities and corpora^ 
tions, some of them studied how to take the oath lawfully. Dr« 
Batea being much in favour with the Lord Keeper Bridgman,' 
eonanked with him, who promised to be at the next sessions, 
and there, on the bench, to declare openly that, by endeavauTf to 
change the church government, was meant unlawful endeavour 
which satisfying him, he thereby satisfied others, who, to avoid 
the imputation of seditious doctrine, were willing to go as far 
as they durst ; and so twenty ministers came in at the sessions, 
and took the oath.'' ^ 

Dr. Bates' reasons for taking the oath may be seen in the 
letter which he addressed to Baxter on the occaaion ; ^ but the 
reaaoning of Baxter seems fully to justify his declining to do so^ 
The oath was a wicked device, to ensnare and injure the minis- 
ten ; and those of them who took it, even with the Lord Keeper 
Bridgman's explanation, that only seditious endeavours were 

y life, part iii. p. 13. * Calamy, vol. i. p. 313. 

* Sir Orlando Bridg^man was a son of the Bishop of Chester. Soon after tlii 
Ktstofrntion, he was made lord chief baroo of the Exchequer, and, a few 
moothf .after, was removed to the Common Pleas, in which he presided with 
l^reat dig^Qr.* He possessed sufRcient integrity for the hi|^h office of lord 
keeper, but not sufficient firmness for the difficulties which belonged to it. He 
IS said, however, to have lost the office for refusing to affi» the seal to tlie 
kisf's uDCooatitutional declaratiou for liberty of conscience. He wished, as will 
afterwards be seen, the comprchensioo of the Dissenters io the church, but 
was opposed to the toleration of Popery. 

k life, pan iii. P* 13. « Ibid. p. U. 

S 2 



260 THE LIFB AND TIMES 

meant, seem not to have added to their reputation among tbe 
people. 

'^ The plague which began at Acton, July 29, 1665, having 
ceased on the first of the following March, I returned homCi 
and found the church-yard lilce a ploughed field, with, grare^ 
and many of my neighbours dead ; but my house, near the church- 
yard, uninfected, and that part of my family which I left diere 
all safe, through the great mercy of God, my merciful protector. 
*' On the second of September, 1666, after midnight, London 
was set on fire ; next day the Exchange was burnt, and, in three 
days, almost all the city within the walls, and much withoutdiefli. 
The season had been exceeding dry before, and the wind ia 
the east when the fire began. The people having, none to 
conduct them aright, could do nothing to resist it, but stand 
and see their houses bum without remedy, the engines being 
presently out of order, and useless. The streets were crowded 
with people and carts, to carry away what goods they could get 
out; they that were most active, and befiriended by thor 
wealth, got carts and saved much, and the rest lost abnoet aH 
The loss in houses and goods is scarcely to be valued^ and amoqg 
the rest, the loss of books was an exceeding great deuimentio 
the interests of piety and learning. Mostly all the bookseilen 
in St. Paul's Church-yard brought their books into vaults under 
St. Paul's church, where it was thought almost impossible that 
fire should come. But the church itself taking fire, the ex- 
ceeding weight of the stones falling down, did break into the 
vault, and let in the fire, and they could not come near to save 
the books. The library of Sion college was burned, and most 
of the libraries of ministers, conformable and nonconfonnable, 
in the city ; with the libraries of many Nonconformists of the 
country, which had lately been brought up to the city. 1 saw 
the half- burnt leaves of books near my dwelling at Acton, six 
miles from London; but others found them near Windsor, 
twenty miles distant. 

'^ At last the seamen taught them to blow up some of the 
houses with gunpowder, which stopped the fire, though in some 
places it stopped as wonderfully as it had proceeded, without 
any known cause. It stopped at Holbom-bridge, and near St. 
Dunstan's church, in Fleet-street ; at St. Sepulchre's church, 
when the church was burnt; at Christ*s church, when it 
was burnt; and near Aldersgate and Cripplegate, and other 



OF ftlCHAU) BAXnR. 261 

places at the city wall. In Austin-Friars, the Dutch church 
•topped It, and escaped ; in Bishopsgate-street, and Leadenhall- 
ttreet, and Fenchurch-street, in the midst of the streets it stop- 
ped short of the Tower : and all beyond the river, escaped. 

^ Thus was the best, aitd one of the fairest cities in the world 
tnraed into ashes and ruins in three days' space, with many 
scores of churches, and the wealth and necessaries of the inhabi- 
tants. It was a sight which might have given any man a lively 
sense of the vanity of this world, and of all its wealth and glory, 
and of the ftiture conflagration, to see the flames mount towards 
heaven, and proceed so furiously without restraint ; to see the 
streets filled with people so astonished that many had scarcely 
'sense left them to lament their own calamity ; to see the fields 
^filled with heaps of goods, costly furniture, and household stuiF, 
wliile sumptuous buildings, warehouses, and furnished shops and 
libraries, &c., were all on flames, and none durist come near to 
seeure any thing ; to see the king and nobles ride about the 
streets, beholding all thes6 desolations, and none could afiford 
the least relief; to see the air, as far as could be beheld, so filled 
>Bith the smoke, that the sun shined through it with a colour 
like blood; yea, even when it was setting in the west, it so 
appeared to them that dwelt on the west side of the city. 
But the dolefullest sight of all was afterwards, to see what a 
ruinous, confused place the city was, by chimneys and steeples 
cmly standing in the midst of cellars and heaps of rubbish ; so 
that it was hard to know where the streets had been; and dan- 
gerous, for a long time, to pass through the ruins, because of 
vaults, and fire in them. No man that seeth not such a thing 
can have a right apprehension of the dreadfulness of it."^ 

Baxter seems to have been fully convinced that the fire was 
caused by the emissaries of Popery. In this belief he was not 
alone ; and many circumstances afforded some ground at the 
time for entertaining it.* It is highly probable, however, not- 
withstanding the testimony of '^ London's tall pillar," that it 
was a groundless prejudice, excited by hatred of the Catho- 
lics, and the apprehensions of danger from them with which 

* Life, parti, pp. 98 — 100. Pepys has preserved some interesting roenio- 
rials of this second dire calamity which befell the city of London within two 
years. Calamy, then drooping, was driven through the ruins, after the fire 
bad been extinguished, and it is said was so affected by the sight, that he 
went home and never left his house again till he died, which was shortly after. 
mmmCalamy, vol. ii. p. 7. 

• See * State TriaU/ vol. vi.; Burnet, i pp. 336--341 ; Hallam, vol. ii. 512. 



"262 THB LIFB AND TIMB8 

multitudes were then haunted. Among the indifidiials who 
difttuiguished themselves by their exertions to relieve the dis- 
tresses occasioned by this frightful calamity^ were Mr. Henry 
Ashurst and Mr. Gouge. Baxter bears the following honoiniUa 
testimony to their benevolent exertions. 

'^ The most famous person in the city, who purposely addict- 
ed himself to works of mercy, was my very dear friend lib* 
Henry Ashurst, a draper, a man of the primitive sort of Chris- 
tians for humility, love, blamelessness, meekness, doing good to 
all as he was able, especially needy, silenced ministers^ to whonii 
in Lancashire alone, he allowed one hundred pounds per annum; 
and in London was most famous for their succour and for doing 
hurt to none. His care was now to solicit the rich abroad^ tof 
the relief of the poor, honest Londoners. Mr. Thomas Gm^ 
the silenced minister of Sepulchre's parish, son to Dr. M^Uiaa 
Gouge, was such another man, who made works of charity a great 
part of the business of his life : he was made the treasurer of a 
fund collected for this purpose. Once a fortnight they called a 
great number of the needy together to receive their alms. I 
went once with Mr. Ashurst to his meeting to give them an ex» 
hortation and counsel, as he gave them alms, and saw more 
^ause than I was sensible of before, to be thankful to God^ that 
I never much needed relief from others. 

^ It was not the least observable thing in the time of the fire, 
and after it, considering the late wars, the multitude of dis- 
banded soldiers, and the great grief and discontent of the Lon- 
doners for the silencing and banishing of their pastorsii that 
there were heard no passionate words of di&content, or dis- 
honour against their governors ; even when their enemies luu) 
so often accused them of seditious inclinations, and when ex- 
tremity might possibly have made them desperate. 

'^ Some good, however, rose out of all these evils : the churches 
being burnt, and the parish ministers gone, for want of placet 
and maintenance, the Nonconformists were now more resohed 
than ever to preach till they were imprisoned. Dr. Manton 
had his rooms full in Covent Garden ; 'Mr. Thomas Vincen^ 
Mr. Thomas Doolittle, Dr. Samuel Annesly, Mr. Wadsworth, 
Mr. Janeway at Rotherhithe, Mr. Chester, Mr. Franklin, Mr. 
Turner, Mr. Grimes, Mr. Nathaniel Vincent, Dr. Jacomb in the 
Countess of Exeter's house, and Mr. Thomas Watson, &c., all 
kept their meetings very openly, and prepared large roomi, 
and some of them plain chapels, wilh pulpits^ seats^ and 



Of BicHAftD baxtir; .1MB 

fiUmeit fiilp tht reception of bb many as eoald oome* .'The 
peoide'a ncceauty was now unquestionable. They had none 
other to hear, save in a few churches that would hold no con^ 
siderable part of them ; so that to forbid them to hear the Nonp 
conformists, was all one as to forbid them all public worship; 
to forbid them to seek heaven when they had lost almost all thut 
they had on earth ; to lake from them their spiritual comforts, 
after all their outward comforts were gone. They thought xhk 
a species of cruelty so barbarous, as to be unbeseeming any man 
who vrould not own himself to be a devil. But all this little 
moved the ruling prelates, saving that shame restrained them 
horn imprisoning the preachers so hotly and forwardly as befomi 
The Independents also set up their meetings more openly than 
.fornserly* Mn GriiRths, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Caryl, Mr* Barkei^ 
Dr. Owen, Mr. Philip Nye, and Dr. Thomas Goodwin, who were 
their leaders, came to the city. So that many of the eitiiens 
went to those meetings callMl private, more than went to th« 
pubUe parish churches. 

^ At the same time it also happily fell out that the parisii 
churches which were left standing had the best and ablest of 
the Conformists in them ; especially Dr. StiUingfleet, Dr. Tdlotp 
son, Mr* White, Dr. Outram, Dr. Patrick, Mr. Oi0brd, Drw 
Whitcbcot, Dr. Horton, Mr. Nest, &c. So that the moderate 
«lasa of the citizens heard either sort in public and private in^ 
differently ; whilst those on the one extreme reproached all men's 
preaching save their own, as being seditious conventicles; and 
those on the other extreme would hear none that did conform ; 
or if any heard them, they would not join in the common prayr 
era or the sacraments.'^' 

Baxter's account of these Conformists is creditable to hit 
candour, and shows his willingness to do justice to men of all 
descriptions. The individuals whom he mentions were doubti* 
less men highly respectable both for character and talents; hut 
they were the principal means of introducing into the pulpits 
of the established church, that cold, inaccurate, and imperfoet 
mode of preadhing the Gospel which characterised even the 
respectable part of the clergy for more than a century. In tlie 
writings of Tillotson, StiUingfleet, and men like them, the leading 
doctrines, such as the Trinity, the atonement of Christ, the woriL 
of the Holy Spirit, &c., are clearly stated ; with much important ' 
argument on the truth of Christianity, and the duty of all to 

' Ufe, part W. pp. 17—19. * 



-^964 .TAB LIFB AND TIlfBS 

» 

teoeive and obey it* But in vain do wel ook to thdr discomes, 
mth those of their successors, ^for correct and striking mm of 
the grace of the Gospel, or of justification by futh alone ; and 
much less do we find warm and pungent appeals to the con- 
science and the heart. They were afraid of being thoiif;fat 
puritanical, and enthusiastic. They studied to reconcile the 
world to the Gospel, by modifying its statements, and endeavour* 
ing to meet, by cautious approaches, the enmity of the human 
heart to Christ and godliness. The effect of this style of 
preaching has been exceedingly injurious. 

^' About this time, the talk of liberty of conscience was re- 
newed : whereupon many wrote for it, especially Mr. John 
Humfries, and Sir Charles Wolsley ; and many wrote against it, 
as^r. Perinchef, and others, mostly without names. The Con- 
formists were now grown so hardened, as not only to do all 
themselves that was required of them, but also to think them- 
selves sufficient for the whole ministerial work through the land; 
and not only to consent to the silencing of their brethren, but 
also to oppose their restitution, and write most vehemently 
against it, and against any toleration of them. So little ds 
men know, when they once enter into an evil way, where they 
shall stop. Not that it was so with all, but with too many, 
especially with most of the young men, that were of pregnant 
wits, and ambitious minds, and set themselves to seek prefer^ 
ment. 

^' On this account, a great number of those who were called 
Latitudinarians began to change their temper, and to contract 
some malignity against those that were much more rdigiooB 
than themselves. At first they were only Cambridge Armimani^ 
and some of them not so much ; and were much fornew and 
free philosophy, lUid especially for De Cartes, and not at all for 
any thing ceremonious. Being not so strict in their theology 
or way of piety as some others, they thought that confor* 
mity was too small a matter to keep them out of the. minis- 
try. But afterwards, many of them grew into such a distaste 
of the weakness of many serious Christians, who would have 
some harsh phrases in prayer, preaching, and discourse, that 
thence they seemed to be out of love with their very doctrine, 
and their manner of worshipping God."^ 

V Life, part lit pp. 19, 20. The Latitudinariaos spoken of by Baiter, wen 
such men as More.WortbingtoD^Whitcbcot^ Cudwortb.Wilkins, mMtly of Cam- 



OF BICBARD BAXTER. S68 

After noticing the burning of London^ the loss and disgrace 
aattahied by the country from the Dutch^ who sailed dp the 
TlHuneB in triumph, Baxter says :— 

^ The parliament at last laid all upon the Lord Chancellor 
Hyde ; and the king was content it should be so. Whereupon 
nany speeches were made against ^him, and an impeachment or 
diaige brought in against him, and vehemently urged. Among 
other things, it was alleged that he counselled the king to rule 
by an army, which many thought, bad as he was, he was the 
chief means of hindering. To be short, when they had first 
iCNigfat his life, at last it waft concluded that his banishment 
dMMild satisfy for all ; and so he was, by an act of parliament, 
baniahed during his life. The sale of Dunkirk to the French, 
and a great comely house which he had newly built, increased 
idle dupleasure that was against him : but there were greater 
canMB which I must not name. 

^ It was a notable providence that this man, who had been 
tlie great instrument of state, and had dealt so cruelly with the 
Nonconformists, should thus, by his own friends, be cast out and 
banished, while those that he had persecuted were the roost 
moderate in his cause, and many of them for him. It was a great 
case that befell good people throughout the land by his dejec- 
tion. For his way had been to decoy men into conspiracies, or 
to pretend plots, upon the rumour of which the innocent people 
of many counties were laid in prison ; so that no man knew 
when he was safe. Since then the laws have been made more 
and more severe, yet a man knoweth a little better what to ex- 
pect, when it is by a law that he is to be tried. It is also 
notable that he, who did so much to make the Oxford law for 
banishing ministers from corporations who took not that oath. 



brid^ey who joined with the others of whom we have already spoken, in intro* 
docing a very inefficient mode of preaching^ into the established church. They 
cndcavoored to examine all the principles of morality and religion on philoso* 
pbical principles, and to maintain them by the reason of things. They declared 
against superstition on the one hand, and enthusiasm on the other. They 
were attached to the constitution and forms of the church ; but moderate in 
their opposition to those who dissented from it. They were mostly Arminiant 
of the Dutch school, but admitted of a considerable latitude of sentiment, 
both in philosophy and theology. On this account, they obtained the name 
which Baxter assigns to them. They were, in fact, low churchmen of Armi* 
Blan principles; moderate in piety, in sentiment, and in zeal. Some of them, it 
appears, gradually became (to use a phrase well understood in the northern part 
of the island) ** fierce for moderation." See * Burnet's Own limes/ voL i. 
^274. 



tW THB Lira AND TIMBt 

dotb^ in hia letter from France^ since his baniahment, aay, ttiat 
he never waa in favour aince the parliament sat at Oxford> 

^^ Before this, the Duke of Buckingham being at the head of 
Clarendon's adversaries, had been overtopped by him, and waa 
fain to hide himself, till the Dutch put ua in fear. He then 
aurrendered himself, and went prisoner to- the Tower ; but irith 
auch acclamations of the people, as waa a great diaoonragement 
to the chancellor ; the duke accordingly was quickly set it 
liberty* Whereupon, as the chancellor had made hiinaelf the 
bead of the prelatical party, who were for aetting up them* 
aelvea by force, and suffering none that were against them ) 
ao Buckingham would now be the head of all those parties that 
were for liberty of conscience. The man waa of no religion^ bat 
notoriously and professedly lustful ; and yet of greater wit and 
parts, and sounder principles, as to the interests of humanity and 
the common good, than most lords in the court. WherefiBre ha 
countenanced fanatics and sectaries, among others, mthont any 
great suspicion, because he was known to be so far from theal 
himself. He married the daughter and only child of Lord 
Fairfax, late general of the parliament's army, and became Us 
heir hereby, yet was he far enough from his mind ; though still 
defender of the privileges of humanity.^ 

^ ** Tbe ettrangement of the king^'s favour is snfflcieDt to account Ibr 
Clarendon's loss of power ; but bis entire ruin was rather accomptlabea hf a 
strange coalition of enemies, which his virtues, or his errors and infirmitisii 
had brought into union. The Cavaliers hated him on account of the act of 
indemnity, and the Presbyterians for that of uniformity. Yet the latter were 
not in general so eager in bis prosecution as the others. A distingaishad 
characteristic of Clarendon, had been his firmness, called, indeed^ 1^ ■Kist» 
pride and obstiuacy, which no circumbtances, no perils, seemed likely to bend. 
But bis spirit sunk all at once with his fortune. Clinging too long to ofllce^ 
and cheatiiag himself, against all probability, with a hope of his mastar't kind* 
iiess, when he had lost his confidence, he abandoned that dignified philoaopby 
which enncbles a voluntary retirement, that stern courage which innocence ought 
to inspire ; and hearkening to th^ king's treacherous counsels, fled beJbfi 
bis anemias into a foreign country." — Hailam, vol. ii. pp. 494 — 503. EUls hn 
given a letter from Charles to the Duke of Ormond,in which he assigns as the 
reasou fur depriving Clarendon of the seals, '* that his behaviour and hnnoor 
had grown so unsupportable to himself, and to all the world else, that be 
could not longer endure it^— Ort^'no/ Letters, second series, vol. iv.pp. 
3S— 40. Clarendon deserved all that befell him ; but the conduct of his fnyal 
inaster to him was base and ungrateful. 

' All who are conversaut with the times of Charles II., are familiar wiUi the 
character of Villiers, duke of Buckingham. Gay, witty, and profligate, ha 
was a fit servant of such a master. He was the alchemist and the philosopher, 
the fiddler and the poet, the mimic and the statesman. In the last capad^^ 
9axtrr seeim to have had a better opinion of his principles than he waa en- 
titled to. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR; Wf 

^ When the chancellor was banished. Sir Orlando firidgman 
was made lord keeper : a man who, by his becoming modenir 
tioQ to the Nonconformists, though a zealous patron of prelacy, 
got himself a good name for a time. At first, whilst the Duke of 
Buckingham kept up the cry for liberty of conscience, he seemed 
to comply with that design, to the great displeasure of the ruling 
jiielatea. But when he saw that the game would not go on, he 
turned as zealous the other way, and wholly served the prelati* 
eal interest; yet was he not much valued by either side, but 
taken for an uncertain, timorous man* High places, great busi- 
neaa and difficulties, do so try men's abilities and their morals^ 
duit many, who in a low or middle station acquired and kept 
.«p R grefU name, do quickly lose it, and grow despised and le* 
piORohed persons, when exaltation and trial have made then 
known ; besides that, as in prosperous times the chief state 
ministers are pnused, so in evil and suffering times they bear 
the Mame of what is amiss* 

^ When the Duke of Buckingham came first into this high 
Ivroar, he was looked on as the chief minister of state, instead 
nf the chancellor, and showed himself openly for toleration, or 
liberty for all parties, in matters of God's worship* Others also 
then seemed to look that vray, thinking that the kiqg was 
for it* Whereupon those who were most against it grew into 
seeming discontent* The bishop of Winchester, Morley, was 
put out of his place, as dean of the chapel royal, and Bishop 
Crofts, of Hereford, who seemed then to be for moderatioUi 
was put into it. But it was not long till Crofts was either 
discouraged, or, as some said, upon the death of a daughter, 
for grief left both it and the court ; ^ the Bishop of Oxford 
was brought into his place, and Dr. Crew, the son of that 
wise and pious man the Lord Crew, was made clerk of the 
closet*^ 

''At the same time, the ministers of London, who had ven* 

^ Boroet says, " Crofts was a warm, devout man, but of no discretion in bis 
eonduct ; so be lost i^uod quickly. He used much freedom with the kin^; 
but it was in the wroug place, not in private, but in the pulpit."— Omth Ttmu, 
vol. i. pp. 379. 

^ Crew, who was afterwards raised to the Mshoprick of Durham, was vain, 
MBbitSout, unsteady, and insincere; more compliant with all the measures 
of court, than any of his brethren. He was re^^rded, Granger says, as tbt 
grand inquisitor in the reign of James II. ; in whose fate he very nearly 
ftbared, as, at the revolution, he was excepted from the act of indemnity ; but 
be afterwards obtained a pardon through the influence chiefly of Dr. Balet.-^ 
jBirdkV Z4^« •/ TV/lotfan, pp. 137, 138. 



268 THB LIFE AND TIMBS 

tured to keep open meetings in their houses^ and preached to 
great numbers contrary to the law, were, by the king's (avouTi 
connived at : so that the people went openly to hear them 
without fear. Some imputed this to the king's own inclination 
to liberty of conscience ; some to the Duke of Buckingham's 
prevalency ; and some to the Papists' influence, who were for 
liberty of conscience for their own interest. But others thougiit 
that the Papists were really against liberty of conscience^ and 
did rather desire that the utmost severiUes might riiin the 
Puritans, and cause discontents and divisions among ourselves, 
till we had broken one another all into pieces, and turned all 
into such confusion as might advantage them to play a nuMre 
successful game than ever toleration was likely to be. What- 
ever was the secret cause, it is evident that the great visible 
cause, was the burning of London, and the want of churdiM 
for the people to meet : it being, at the first, a thing too 
gross, to forbid an undone people all public worship, with too 
great rigour ; and if they had been so forbidden, poverty had 
left so little to lose as would have made them desperately go 
on. Therefore some thought all this was to make necessity 
seem ^favour. 

'' Whatever was the cause of the connivance, it is certain that 
the country ministers were so much encouraged by the boldness 
and liberty of those in London, that they did the like in most 
parts of England, and crowds of the most religiously^inclined 
people were their hearers. iSome few got, in the way of travel- 
ling, into pulpits where they were not known, and the next day 
went away to another place. This, especially with the great 
discontents of the people, for their manifold payments, and of 
cities and corporations for the great decay of trade, and break- 
ing and impoverishing of many thousands, by the burning of the 
city ; together with the lamentable weakness and badness of 
great numbers of the ministers, that were put into the Noncon- 
formists' places, did turn the hearts of most of the common 
people in all parts against the bishops and their ways, and in- 
clined them to the Nonconformists, though fear restrained men 
from speaking what they thought, especially the richer sort, 

"In January, 1668, I received a letter from Dr. Manton, 
that Sir John Dabor told him it was the lord keeper's desire to 
speak with him and me, about a comprehension and toleration. 
On coming to London, Sir John Babor told me, that the lord 
keeper spake to him to bring us to him for the aforesaid end^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 269 

as lie had enrtain proposals to offer us ; that many great eour* 
tiers were our friends in the business, but that, to speak plainly^ 
if we would carry it, we must make use of such as were for a 
toleration of the Papists also. He demanded how we would 
answer the common question, What will satisfy you ? I an^ 
swered him that other men's judgments and actions, about the 
toleration of the Papists, we had nothing to do with at this 
time ; for it was no work for us to meddle in. But to this 
question, we were not so ignorant whom we had to do with, as 
to expect full satisfaction of our desires as to church affairs. 
The answer must.be suited to the sense of his question : and 
if we knew their ends, what degree of satisfaction they were 
minded to grant, we would tell them what means are necessary 
to attain them. There are d^rees of satisfaction, as to the 
number of persons to be satisfied ; and there are divers degrees 
of satisfying the same persons. If they will take in all orthodox, 
peaceable, worthy ministers, the terms must be larger. If they 
win take in but the greater part, somewhat less and harder 
terms may do it. If but a few, yet less may serve : for we 
are not so vain as to pretend that all Nonconformists are, in 
every particular, of one mind. 

^ When we came to the lord keeper^ we resolved to tell him 
that Sir John Babor told us his lordship desired to speak 
with us, lest it should be after said, that we intended, or were 
the movers of it ; or lest it had been Sir John Babor's forward- 
ness that had been the cause. He told us why he sent for us : 
that it was to think of a way of our restoration ; to which end 
he had some proposals to offer us, which were for a comprehen- 
sion for the Presbyterians, and an indulgence for the Indepen- 
dents and the rest. We asked him whether it was his lordship's 
pleasure that we should offer him our opinion of the means, or 
only receive what he offered to us. He told us, that he had 
somewhat to offer us, but we might also offer our own to him. 
I told him, that I did think we could offer such terms, which,, 
wliile no way injurious to the welfare of any, might take 
in both Presbyterians and Independents, and alt sound Chris- 
tians, into the established ministry. He answered, that was a 
thing he would not have ; but only a toleration for the rest \ 
which being none of our business to debate, we desired him to 
consult such persons about it as were concerned in it ; and so it 
was agreed that we should meddle with the comprehension only. 
A few days after he accordingly sent us his proposals* 



1170 TfiS tin ANl> TtlfBS 

I 

*^ When we saw the proposals, we perceived that the bnsiness of 
the lord keeper, and his way, would make it* unfit for us to de- 
bate such cases with himself; and therefore we wrote to him, 
requesting that he would nominate two learned, peaceable dhrioei 
to treat with us, till we had agreed on the fittest terms; and 
that Dr* Bates might be added to us. He nominated Dr. 
Wilkins, who, we then found, was the author of the propotab, 
and of the whole business,*" and his chaplain, Mr. Burton.* 
When we met, we tendered them some proposals of our owOi 
and some alterations which we desired in their propoeala } for 
they presently rejected ours, and would hear no more of them } 
so that we were fain to treat upon theirs alone.''® 

According to the heads of agreement which had been entered 
into between the parties in private, a bill was prepared for par- 
liament by Lord Chief Justice Hale ; but Bishop Wilkins, an 
honest and open-hearted man, having disclosed the affair to 
Bishop Ward, in hope of his assistance, he alarmed the bishops; 
who, instead of promoting the design, concerted measures to 
defeat it. As soon as parliament met, it was mentioned that 
there were rumours out of doors that a bill was to be prop o se d ' 
for comprehension and indulgence; on which a rescdutjon was 
passed, that no man should bring such a bill into the House.' 
To crush the Nonconformists more effectually, Archbishc^ Shel- 

"> Bishop Wilkins was one oflhe best members of the episcopacy during hif 
time. His character as a philosopher is well known ; his moderation as a 
churchman appears from his conduct in theafBairof the comprehensioiiywliicli 
failed from no want of firmness and principle in bim, but from the ▼ioklica of 
the hi{ph-church party. 

» Dr. Hezekiah Burton was chaplain to the lord keeper, and a person af 
^reat respectability. Beside the persons eo^ged in this affair mendoncd bj 
Baatcfi it appears that Tillotson and Stillingflect were also conoeraed In itr- 
JBirch*s Uft of TiUotson, p. 42. 

* Life, part iii. pp. 20 - 24. Ilallam says, *' The design was to act on the 
principle of the declaration of 1660, so that Presbyterian ordination tbonld 
pass mi nmb, Tillotson and Stillingfieet were concerned in it. The kia; vat 
at this time exasperated a^inst the bishops for their support of Clarendoiu" 
^ ConttUutionai Hist. vol. ii. p. 506. 

V ** Sir Thomas Littleton spoke in favour of the comprehension, as did 
Seymour and Waller; all of them enemies of Clarendon, and probably con- 
nected with the Buckingham faction : but the church party was much loo 
strong^ for them. Pepys says the Commons were furious a^inst the project: 
it was said, that whoever pniposed new laws about relipon, must do it witl| a 
rope about bis neck.— January 1 0, 1668. This is the first instance of a triumph 
obuined by the church over the crown, in the House of Commons. Ralph 
observes upon it, ' it is not for nought that the words Church and Sute are 
so often coupled toother, and that the first has so insolently usurped the pre- 
cedency of Xhfi last.' ^''-^JJallem, vol. ii. p, 506* 



OF fticBAiiy baxtir: S7t 

iM WMM ft rfretilar letter to the bishops of his provitiee to send 
him a,pinieul«r accDunt of the conventicles in their several 
dioceseti and of the numbers that frequented them ; and whether 
they thought they might be easily suppressed by the magistrate.^ 
When he obtained this information, he went to the king and got 
a proefaunation to put the laws in execution against the Noncon-^ 
fcrmisti, and particularly against the preachers^ according to the 
statttte whkh fiM'bade their living in corporate towns/ 

Thk treaty not only shared the fate of all former treaties of 
the same kind, but eventually increased the sufferings of the Non-> 
eoofbrmisti* It amused and occupied attention for a time, and 
then oame to nothing. The papers given in showed how much 
the Nonconformists were disposed to yield for the sake of peace | 
but they were perpetually doomed to be first tantalized and then 
disappointed. The bishops, who ought to have been minister^ 
of peace and reconciliation, were generally the means of retard- 
ix^ or preventing them. ' 

• ^ How joyfully,'' says Baxter, ^' would 1400, at least, of the 
nonconfbrmable ministers of England have yielded to these 
termi if they could have got them 1 JBut, alas ! all this labour 
was in vain; for the active prelates and prelatists so far prevailed, 
that as soon as ever the parliament met, they prevented all talk 
or motion of such a thing ; and the lord keeper, that had called 
OS, and set us on work, himself turned that way, and talked after 
as if he understood us not. 

^ Jn April, 1668, Dr. Creighton, dean of Wells, the most fa** 
motts loquacious^ ready-tongued preacher of the court, who was 
used to preach Calrin to hell, and the Calvinists to the gallows, 
and by his scornful revilings and jests to set the court on a laugh* 
ter, was suddenly, in the pulpit, without any sickness, surprised 
with astonishment, worse than Dr. South, the Oxford orator, had 
been before him. When he had repeated a sentence over and 
over, he was so confounded that he could go no further at all, 
and was fain, to all men's wonder, to come down. His case was 
more wonderful than almost any other man's, being not only a 

« It is said tbere were private iDstructions given to some of the clergy, *' to 
make the conventicles as few and inconsiderable as might be ; " with which 
they were requested to answer the question, ** Whether they thought they 
might be easily suppressed by the assistance of the civil magistrate ? "-"The 
C&mfmrmuVs Plea for NoncortformisU, part i. p. 40. 

' Neal, vol. iv. pp. 385, 386. Keal gives a full detail of the nature of the 
terms proposed in this treaty, to which the reader may easily refer, if be wishes 
to enter more minutely into the subjecti 



272 TUK UFB AND TIMX8 

fluent extempore speaker, but one that was never known to want 
words, especially to express his satirical or bloody thoughts* 

^ lo July, Mr. Tavemer, late minister of Uxbridge, was 
sentenced to Newgate, for teaching a few children at Brentfindi 
but paying his fine prevented it. Mr. Button, of Brentford, 
a most humble, worthy, godly man, who never had been in 
orders, or a preacher, but had been canon of Christ's chorehi 
in Oxford, and orator to the University, was sent to gaol finr 
teaching two knight's sons in his house, not having taken the 
Oxford oath. Many of his neighbours, of Brentford, were sent 
to the same prison for worshipping Ood in private together, 
where they all lay many months. I name these because thcj 
were my neighbours, but many counties had the like nsage : 
yea. Bishop Crofts, that had pretended great moderation^ sent 
Mr. Woodward, a worthy, silenced minister, of Herefordshire^ 
to gaol for six months. Some were imprisoned upon the OxSati 
Act, and some on the Act against Conventicles. 

** In September, Colonel Phillips, a courtier of the bed* 
chamber, and my next neighbour, who spake to me fiur, eom- 
plained to the king of me, for preaching to great numbers ; bot 
the king put it by, and nothing was done at that time. 

" About this time. Dr. Manton, being nearest the court, and 
of great name among the Presbyterians, and being heard hf 
many of great quality,* was told by Sir John Babor that the 
king was much inclined to favour the Nonconformists, that an 
address now would be acceptable, and that the address most be 
a thankful acknowledgment of the clemency of his majestjr's 
government, and the liberty which we thereby enjoy, &c. Ac- 
cordingly, they drew up an address of thanksgiring, and I wss 
invited to join in the presenting of it, but not in the peniung^ 
for I had marred their matter oft enough : but I was both wk 

■ Dr. Mftnton was a person of very excellent character and talents at a od* 
sister ; and seems to have enjoyed a considerable portion of popularity. Hi 
had a good deal of intercourse with the icings, anti could numbier amon^ Ui 
hearers many of the nobility. If we nbay attach any importance to Clam* 
don's joke, and a good plump portrait, we should reji^ard Manton as a remark* 
ably pleasant, good-tempered, easy man. Such probably he was ; but be was 
far from being a timid, or a time-serving, courtier. On the contraiy, he was 
a man of invincible integrity and principle, combined with great prudence^ 
which were put to the test ou various occasions in his life. He was a veiy vo« 
luminous preacher, as some of his published works prove. Lord Bolingbroke 
appears to have been, in early life, one of his hearers, who says, " He taught 
my youth to yawn, and prepared roe to be a high churchman, that 1 might 
never bear him read or read him more.'* See his life, prefixed to his lermoiii 
on the 119th Psalm ; Granger's Biog, Hist, i and Palmer's Noncoo. Men. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 273 

and unwiUhig, hawig been often enough employed in vain. I 
tokT'tbem, howiever, only of ray sickness ; so Dr. Manton^ Dr. 
Bates, Dr. Jacomb, and Mr. Ennis, presented it."^ 

The address of the ministers was most graciously received; 
and Charles on this, as on many other occasions, played the 
hypocrite very successfully.^ 

' ^ But after all this,'' says Baxter, ^ we were as before. The 
trik of liber^ did but occasion the writing many bitter pamphlets 
against toleration. Among others, they gathered out of mine 
and other men's books all that we had there said against liberty 
Imt Popery,- and for Quakers railing against the ministers in 
open congregations, which they applied as against a toleration 
of ooraehes ; for the bare name of toleration did seem in the 
people's ears to serve their turn by signifying the same thing. 
Became' we had said that men should not be tolerated to preach 
against Jesus Christ and the Scriptures, they would thence justify 
themselves for not tolerating us to preach for Jesus Christ, 
uless we would be deliberate liars, and use all their inventions. 
Thoaesame men, who, when commissioned with us to make such 
alterations in- the liturgy as were necessary to satisfy tender 
consciences, did maintain that no alteration was necessary to 
ntbfy them, and did moreover, contrary to all our importunity, 
make so many new burdens of their own to be anew imposed 
on us^ had now little to say but that they must be obeyed^ 
because they were imposed."' 

We cannot but sympathise with the Nonconformists in the 
treatment they experienced; and yet those of them who had con- 
tended for a limited toleration, were scarcely entitled to complain 
when they found their own weapons turned against themselves. 
The parties who did so, however, had no great ground for 
boasting, for the doctrine of toleration they neither understood 
nor acted on, except while they were themselves tolerated. 
Among those who distinguished themselves in writing against 
the ministers, were. Dr. Patrick in his ^ Friendly Debate between 
a Conformist and a Nonconformist,' which was answered by 
several writers ; and Samuel Parker, whose ' Ecclesiastical 

* Life, part iiL p. 36. 

* Dr. MaDton^ in a letter to Baxter, pves bim an account of the reception 
which they experienced from his majesty, and of the reference which Cbarles 
■uule to his preaching at Acton ; the popularity of which seems not to have 
bsen acceptable to the higher powers.— >Zr(/V| part iiL p. 37. 

s Uh, part iii. pp. 38^ 39. 

YOL. U T 



874 tM LifB AVI) Tlllll 

Polity* tAlled fbrth A% Might of Owen's dbpIeanM^ and tlift 
pttngttidy of Manreri wtt« But the controvenial affiun of ibft 
period, we must defer to a ^ubtequent part of thii w6fk| iiid 
fituiii to Baxter's narrative. 

^' Wbil# I li^^ at Acton, as long as the act against ^oaMOm 
cles was in force, though I preached to my fiunily, Aw of Ilia 
town eame to hear me) partly because ibey thought h wmdd 
imdanger me, and partly for fear of sufiering themitfMi^ IM 
twpecially because they were an ignorant poor peopb^ and had 
no appetite for such things. When the act exptredi thaea ciBM 
so many, that I wanted room ) and when once they had ^MSi 
and heaird^ they afterwards came constantly ) insomnh^ that ia 
a little time, there was a great number of them, wh6. aaemW 
.Tery seriously affected with the things they heardy and almest 
all the town and parish, besides abundance from Brentford atti 
the neighbouring parishes, eame ; and I know not of three in thi 
parish that were adversaries to us or our endeavours^ or wish^ 
us ill.*' r 

It was while residing at Aoton^ that Baxter first baeame ao« 
quainted With Sir Matthew Hale, then lord chief baron of ills 
fixchequeri and one of the most eminent men for integrity and 
worth in his profession, as well as for pure and enlightoned viowi 
as a Christian, whom this country has been honoured to prodiier. 
As Baxter has drawn his character at large With considerable 
power, the reader, I am sure, uill be glad to have it placed befait 
him. 

^* He was a man of no quick utterance, but spake with great 
reason^ He was most precisely just | insomuch that, I bdiofCj^ 
•he would have lost all he had in the world rather than do IM 
unjust act. Patient in hearing the most tedious speech whifih 
any man )iad to make for himself. The pillar of justiGe» ti^ 
refuge of the subject who feared oppression, and otie of the 
greatest honours of his majesty's government } for, with eoaie 
other upright judges, he upheld the honour of the English Ba» 
tion, that it fell not into the reproach of arbitrarinessi crudtyi 
and utter confosion. £rery man that had a just oause^ was 
almost past fear, if he could but bring it to the court or assiie 
where he was judge; for the other judges seldom contradicted 
him. He was the great instrument for rebuilding London s for 
when an act was made for deciding all controversies that 

1 Lift, part iii. p. 4& 



W AtCHAU) flAtniu 275 

Hndcrad ic, he wm the erniatant judge, who, for nothings fol* 
iMred the worit, and, by his prudence and justice, removed a 
Uhdtitmii of great impediments. 

• ^ Hit great advantage for innocency was, that he was no 
lever of riches or of grandeur. His garb was too plain } he 
studiously avoided all unnecessary familiarity with great persons, 
nd an that manner of living which signiiieth wealth and great* 
Dtab He kept no greater a family than myself. I lived in a 
OMll houie^ which, for a pleasant back opening, he had a mind 
fiOf^bM eaused a stranger, that he might not be suspected to 
hestMe mm^ to know of me whether I were willing to part with 
il^'betee he would meddle urith it. In that house he lived 
cUn t ea t e dly , without any pomp, aod without oostly or trouble • 
some retinue or visitors ; but not without charity to the poor* 
BotHUlindcd the study of physics ahd madiematics still, as his 
||Mat ddight, - He hath himself written four volumes in folio, 
tfaito of which I have read, against atheism, Sadduceism, and 
infidelity, to prove first the Deity, and then the immortality 
of aaan'a soul, and then the truth of Christianity, and the Holy 
Scripture, answering the infidel's objections against Scripture* 
It ia strong and masculine, only too tedious for . impatient 
mdort* He sdd, he wrote it only at vacant hours in his cir^ 
cuits, to regulate his meditations, finding that while he wrote 
down what he thought on, his thoughts were the easier kept 
dote to Work, and kept In a method. But I could not persuade 
him to publish them. 

^Tbe conference which I had frequently with him, mostly 
sbout the immortality of the soul, and other philosophical and 
foondation points, was so edifying, that his very questions and 
objections did help me to more light than other men's solutions. 
Ilioee who take none for religious, who frequent not private 
nMtings, 8iQ^ took him for an excellently righteous, moral 
man : but I, who heard and read his serious expressions of the 
concernments* of eternity, and saw his love to all good men, 
and the blamelessness of his life, thought better of his piety than 
my own. When the people crowded in and out of my house to 
hear, he openly showed me so great respect before them at the 
door, and never spake a word against it, as was no small en- 
eooragement to the comm6n people to go on; though the other 
•ort muttered, that a judge should seem so far to countenance 
that which they took to be against the law. He was a great 
lamenter of the extremities of the times, and of the violence 

t2 



276 TUS UFB AND TIMBS 

and foolishness of the predominant clergy; and a great denrer of 
such abatements as might restore us all to.serviceableness and 
unity. He had got but a very small estate, though he had long 
the greatest practice, because he would take but little money, 
and undertake no more business than he could well dispatch. 
'. He often offered to the lord chancellor to resign his plae^ 
when he was blamed for doing that which he supposed was 
justice. He had been the learned Selden's intimate friend^ and 
one of his executors; and because the Hobbians,and other 
infidels would have persuaded the world that Selden was of tbdr 
mind,' I desired him to tell me the truth therein. He assured me 
that Selden was an earnest professor of the Christian fiuth, and 
so angry an adversary to Hobbes, that he hath rated him out of 
the room." • 

Such is Baxter's account of this distinguished man, whose moral 
worth threw a glory over his high professional attiunmenti, and 
rendered him an eminent blessing to his country.. Unfortn* 
nately, few of the clergy were like this ornament of the law, 
either in religious character, or in peaceable disposition. Veiy 
different, for example, was the clergyman of the parish ia 
which Judge Hale and Baxter resided. The conduct of thb 
individual brought Baxter into such trouble, that I must leavs 
him to describe both his character and his behaviour. 

■ I am at a loss to understand on what grounds the class of persons to wbon 
Baxter refers^ could claim Selden as one of them. I suspect the iosiooatioa 
roust have originated with the high-church party, to whose claims Selden WM 
. certainly no friend. His attack on the divine right of tithes^ the jniMMoltes 
not the <foc<rtne of which he retracted, gave great offence to the church. His 
Erastianism, in regard to church government, made him unacceptable to the 
Presbyterians; while his jokes, at the expense of the Westminster Aaiemfalyi 
of which he was a lay roember,'probably rendered his serious piety a Utile 
doubtful. Nothing in his writings, however, can induce any one to tnppase 
that Selden was either infidel or sceptical in his notions of religion ; but moie 
firmness uf character than he appears to have possessed, would have gfcatly 
increased the lustre of his eminent talents and profound learning. 

• Life, part iii. pp. 47} 48. Bishop Burnet published an interestiag little 
Tolume, *The Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hjile,' which confirms all tlMl 
Baxter has said of his illustrious friend. Burnet was not himself acqnaioied 
with Hale, but does great justice to his character. He mentions, that "-ht 
held great conversation with Mr. Baxter, who was his neighbour at Acton ; on 
whom he looked as a person of great devotion and piety, and of a very subtile 
and quick apprehension. Their conversation lay most in mataphysical and 
Abstracted ideas and schemes."— p. 45. Burnet concludes his memuira of the 
judge by saying, '* He was One of the greatest patterns this age haa aliMid» 
whether in his private deportment as a Christian, or in his public employQCttH 
either at the bar, or on the bench."— p. 128. A lecond edition of this life WM 
nocompamed with notes by Baxter. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 277 

^ Th6 parson of this parish was Dr. Ryves, dean of Windsor 
ad of Wolverhampton, parson of Hasely and of Acton, chap- 
hm in ordinary to the king, &c. His curate was a weak young 
vmn, who spent most of his time in the ale-houses, and read a 
few dry sentences to the people once a day. Yet, because he 
preached true doctrine, and I had no better to hear, I constantly 
beard htm when he preached, and went to the beginning of the 
eominon prayer. As my house faced the church door, and 
was within hearing of it, those that heard me before, went with 
me to the church ; scarcely three, that I know of, in the parish 
fefiising. When I preached, after the public exercise, they went 
out of the church into my house. It pleased the doctor and 
parato, that I came to church and brought others with me, but 
he was not able to bear the sight of people crowding into my 
house, though they heard him also; so that though he spake me 
fidr, and we K?ed in seeming love and peace while he was there, 
jet he could not long endure it. When I had brought the people 
to church to hear him, he would fall upon them with ground* 
ksa reproaches; as if he had done it purposely to drive them 
amy, and yet he thought that my preaching to them, because it 
was in a house, did all the mischief; though he never accused 
W of any thing that I spake, for I preached nothing but Chris- 
tianity and submission to our superiors, faith, repentance, hope. 
We, humility, self-denial, meekness, patience, and obedience. 

^He was the more offended, because I came not to the sacra- 
Bent with him ; though I communicated in the other parish 
dnrches in London and elsewhere. I was loth to offend him, 
\fj giving him the reason ; which was, that he was commonly 
iqmted a swearer, a curser, a railer, &c. In those tender times, 
k would have been so great an offence to the Congregational 
Ivethren, if I had communicated with him, and perhaps have 
kutened their sufferings who durst not do the same, that I 
thought it would do more harm than good."*' 

It is a pity Baxter did not put his refusal to communicate 
tiih 8uch a man, on a better footing than merely that of giving 
ofrnce to his brethren.^ An individual acting in a manner 

^ Life, pArt iii. pp. 46, 47. 

' tlie account which Ba3(ter gives of the conduct of Dean Ryves corresponds 
accamely with the opinion which we should have formed of him from some 
of kic writiof^. He was a violent royalist ; and as he had suflfered for his 
pteiplca during the civil wars, he prohahly thought himself justified in re- 
f riHrt«g on the Nonconformists. His < Mercorius Rusticus, or the Coun- 
try% Complaint of the barbarous outrages committed by the Sectaries of 



97B TRB Lin AND TIMBS 

BO openly profane, ought not to have been countenanced as a re- 



ligious teacher by any Christian. It is, indeed, diffieolt to 
ceive how Baxter could reconcile himself even to hear soch a 
man, and, by his example, to influence others to do the aame | 
when we reflect on his strong views of the mischief and ainfid* 
ness of countenancing ungodly ministers. His love of pcaoCi 
and desire to prevent schism in the established churchy wen the 
impelling motives, which, in this instance, certainly carried Ui 
too far. 

^^At Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire, Vhere Rjnrea 
dean, were abundance of Papists and violent formaliilii 
Amongst whom was one Brasgirdle, an apothecary^ who^ia 
conference with Mr. Reynolds (an able preacher therQ aBeneai 
and turned out), by his bitter words tempted him into ao nmek 
indiscretion as to say, that the Nonconformists were not ao eoDr 
temptible for number and quality as he made themi that moit 
of the people were of their mind ; that Cromwell, though an 
usurper, had kept up England against the Dutch ; and 'that 
he marvelled he would be so hot against private meetings^ whoi 
at Acton the dean suffered them at the next door. Having 
this advantage, Brasgirdle writeth all this, greatly aggravated, 
to the dean. The dean hastens away with it to the king, as if 
it were the discovery of treason. Mr. Reynolds is questioned, 
but the justices of the county to whom it was referredf upon 
hearing of the business, found mere imprudence heightened to a 
crime, and so released him. But before this could be done, the 
king, exasperated by the name of Cromwell, and other unad* 
vised words, as the dean told me, bid him go to the Bishop of 
London from him, and bid him see to the suppression of my 
meeting, which was represented to him as much greater than il 
was. Whereupon, two justices were chosen for their turn to do 
it. One Ross, of Brentford, a Scotsman, and one Phillips, a 
steward to the Archbishop of Canterbury." <^ 

In consequence of this complaint, a warrant was grapted to 

this late flourishing^ KiDf^dom,' contains some curious accounts of the bittlii| 
sieges, and combats, between the king's and the parliament's forces, to ffcs 
year 164G. He represents the treatment of the royal party to bare bcea, in 
many instances, intolerably severe, which was probably the case. His so- 
coiint of the treatment of the sectaries, is, I apprehend, a good deal aggraTat- 
ed. The 'Querela Cantabrigieusis/ which is commonly ascribed tohiiB,U 
also ascribed to Dr. John Barwick. — See * Life of Barwick^ ' pp, 32, 33. Dr. 
Ryves died in 1677, in the Slstyear of his age. 
« life, part iU. p. 48. 



99 IICHAEB BAXTH. Uf9 

Mag BuHer before the juttioes at Bmitferd. After maiittain^ 
l^g a eoDBideraUe conflict with them, in which they treated him 
very mdecoroiiBly, he was, by their mittimus, sent to Clerkenwal| 
priiony for holding a conventicle, not having taken the Oxford 
oath, and refosiog it when tendered to him. 

^ Tliey woidd have given me leave to stay till Monday^ be* 
fare I went to gaol, if I would have promised them not to 
preach the next Lord's day, which I refiised. This was made a 
hdnous crime against me at the court, and it was also said that 
h eoold not be out of conscience that I preached, else why did 
Bol my conscience put me on it so long before ? Whereas I had 
wmm preaehed to my own family, and never once invited any 
one to bear me, or forbade any; so that the di&rence was 
made by the people, and not by me« If they came more at 
last than at first, before they had heard me, thai signifie4 
BO change in me. But thus must we be judged of, where wa 
en absent, and our adversaries present j and there ^re many to 
speak against us what they please, and we are banished frpm 
eitiee and corporations, and cannot speak for ourselves* 

^ Hie whole town of Acton were greatly exasperated agalnel 
te dean, when I was going to prison } so much so, that ever 
after they abhorred him as a selfish persecutor. Nor could be 
have devised to do more to hinder the success of his seldom 
preaching there ; but it was his own choicey*-' Let them bate 
BI0, ao they fear me.' 

• . ^^ Thus I finally left that place, being grieved most that Batan 
had prevailed to stop the poor people in such hopefiil begin* 
ninge of a common reformation, and that I was to be deprived 
of the exceeding gratefiil neighbourhood of the Lord Chief 
Baron Hale, who could scarce refrain tears when he heard of 
the first warrant for my appearance. 

^ As I went to prison, I called on Serjeant Fountain, my 
special friend, to take his advice ; for I would not be so itguf 
rioiis to Judge Hale. He perused my mittimus, and, in short, 
advised me to seek for a habeas corpus, but not in the usual 
eomt (the King's Bench), for reasons kndwn to all that knew 
the judges | nor yet in the Exchequer, lest his kindness to me 
should he an injury to Judge Hale, and so to the kingdom | but 
at the Common Pleas, which he said might grant it, though it 
is not usual. 

^^ My greatest doubt was, whether the king would not take it 
111, that I mther sought to the law than unto him ] or if I sought 



280 TUB UFK AND tlMBS 

any release rather than continue in prison. My impriMnment 
was at present no great suffering to me, for I had an honest, 
jailor, who showed me all the kindness he could. I had a 
large room, and the liberty of walking in a fair garden. Mj 
wife was never so cheerful a companion to me as in prison, and 
was very much against my seeking to be released. She had 
brought so many necessaries, that we kept house as contentedly 
and comfortably as at home, though in a narrower room^.and 
had the sight of more of my friends in a day, than I bad at 
home in half a year. I knew also that if I got out against 
their will, my sufferings would be never the nearer to. an end 
But yet, on the other side, it was in the extreme heat of simi- 
mer, when London was wont to have epidemical diseases. The 
hope of my dying in prison, I have reason to think was one 
great inducement to some of the instruments to move to what 
they did. My chamber being over the gate, which was knocked 
and opened with noise of prisoners, just under me almost eveiy 
night, I had little hope of sleeping but by day, which, would 
have been likely to have quickly broken my strength, which was 
lo" little that I did but live. The number of visitors daily, pirt 
me out of hope of studying, or of doing any thing bnt enter* 
tain them. I had neither leave at any time to go out of dooiiy 
much less to church on the Lord's days, nor on that day to have 
any come to me, or to preach to any but my family. . 

^' Upon all these considerations the advice of some was, that I 
should petition the king. To this I was averse ; .and my coun- 
sellor, Serjeant Fountain, advised me not to seek to it^ nor yet 
to refuse their favour if they offered it, but to be wholly .passive 
as to the court, and to seek my freedom by law, because of my 
great weakness and the probzibility of future peril to my life: 
and this counsel I followed. ■ 

^^ The Earl of Orrery, I heard, did earnestly and specially speak 
to the king, how much my imprisonment was to his disservice. 
The Earl of Manchester could do little but by Lord Arlingtoni 
who, with the Duke of Buckingham, seemed much concerned ni 
it ; but the Earl of Lauderdale, who would have been most fot* 
ward, had he known the king's mind to be otherwise, said no- 
thing. So all my great friends did me not the least service, but 
made a talk of it, with no fruit at all. The moderate, honest 
part of the episcopal clergy were much offended, and said I was 
chosen out designedly to make them all odious to the people. 
But Sir John Babor, often visiting me, assured me that he had 



OF UCBAKD BAX1BR* 281 

ipoken to the king about it, but that, after all had done their 
Iwi^ he was not willing to be seen to relax the law and dis« 
sourage justices in executing it, &c. ; but that his majesty woidd 
not be offended if I sought my remedy at law, which most 
thoi^ht would come to nothing, 

^ While I was' thus unresolved which way to take> Sir John 
Babor desiring a narrative of my case, I gave him one, which 
he showed to Lord Arlington. The lord chief baron, about the 
nme time, at the table at Serjeant's Inn, before the rest of the 
judges, gave such a character of me, without fear of any man's 
displeasure, as is not fit for me to own or recite. He was so 
omidi reverenced by the rest, who were every one strangers to 
me, aave by hearsay, that I believe it much settled these resolo- 
tiona. The Lord Chief Jusdce Vaughan was no friend to Non- 
Donformity, or Puritans ; but he had been one of Selden's 
nwcntors, and so Judge Hale's old acquaintance. Judge Tyrell 
ITM a well-afiiected, sober man, and Serjeant Fountain's brother- 
iih-law by marriage, and sometime his fellow-commissioner for 
keeping the great seal and chancery. Judge Archer was one 
that jprivately favoured religious people : and Judge Wild, though 
greatly for the prelates' way, was noted for a righteous man. 
Ilieee vrere the four judges of the court. 

^ My habeas corpus being demanded at the Common Pleas^ 
aras granted, and a day appointed for my appearance. When I 
came, the judges, I believe, having not before studied the Oxford 
set, when Judge Wild had first said I hope you will not trouble 
this court with such causes, asiked whether the king's counsel 
had been acquainted with the case, and seen the order of the 
court ; which being denied, I was remanded back to prison, and 
a new day set. They suffiered me not to stand at the bar, but 
called me up to the table, which was an unusual respect ; and 
they sent me not to the Fleet, as is usual, but to the same prison, 
which was a greater favour. 

^' When I appeared next, the lord chief justice, coming towards 
Westminster Hall, went into Whitehall by the way, which 
caused much talk among the people. When he came. Judge 
Vinid began, and having showed that he was no friend to con* 
vcnticles, opened the act, and then opened many defaults in the 
mittimus, for which he pronounced it invalid ; but, in civility to 
the justices, said, that the act was so penned, that it was a 
very hard thing to draw up a mittimus by it ; which was no com- 
pliment to the parliament. Judge Archer next spake largely 



t82 THB UVB AND TtMIS 

«gmintt tbe mittimus, without any word of dispta^^eineiit to'Am 
main cause, and so did Judge Tyrell after him. Judg« Vaiighatt 
concluded in the same manner, but with these two siniivbuicics 
above the resf . He made it an error in the mittimus, that the 
witnesses were not named, seeing that the Oxford act fpnof llii 
justices so great a power if the witnesses be unknownf any Inno- 
cent person may be laid in prison, and shall never knoiw w biWj i 
or against whom, to seek remedy, which was a matter of gnat 
moment. 

^ When he had done with the cause, he made a speech to the 
people, aiid told them that by their appearance, he pe feei f ad 
ihat this was an affair of as great expectation as had been birfbie 
4hem. It being usual with the people to carry away things bf 
halves, and as their misreports might mislead othere, he them 
fore acquainted them, that though he understood that Mr* 
Baxter was a man of great learning and of a good lifi% yet be 
having this singularity, that he was a conventicler, and aa tha 
law was against conventicles, it was only upon the error of dtf 
warrant that he was released* That the judgee wire eeoea* 
tomed, in their charges at assises, to inquire after .eonveBtiela% 
which are against the law ; so that, if they that made the nto* 
timus, had but known how to make it, they CQuld not hasr 
delivered him, nor can do it for him, or any that shall so trans- 
gress the law. 

^ This was supposed to be that which was resolved en at 
Whitehall, by the way. But he had never heard what I had to 
aay in the main cause, to prove myself no transgressor of tbe 
law; nor did he at all tell them how to know what a omwh 
tide is, which the common law is so much against* 

^' Being discharged from my imprisonment, my sufferings be^ 
gan ; for I had there better health than I had for a long tnna 
before or after. I had now more exasperated tbe authors of asy 
imprisonment. I was not at all acquitted as to the main censer 
They might amend their mittimus, and lay me up again. I 
knew no way how to bring my main cause, whether they had 
power to put the Oxford oath on me to a legal trial, and my 
counsellors advised me not to do it, much less to question the 
judges for false imprisonment, lest I were borne down by power. 
I had now a house of great rent on my hands, which I must not 
come to, and had no other house to dwell in. I knew not 
what to do with all my goods and family. I must go out of 
Middlesex { I must not come within five miles of a city, eorpo* 



.pf 1ICBAR0 BAXniU M 

mtfoPy Ami. Where to find 9iich a place, ^d therein A honae, apd 
how to remove my goods thither, and what to do with my house 
till my time expired, were more trouble than my quiet prison by 
hr, and the consequents yet worse. 

^ Gratitude commandeth me to tell the world who were my 
beoefiMstors in my imprisonment, and calumny as much obligelh 
ae^ because it is said among some that I was enriched Iqr ib 
Serjeant Fountain's general counsel ruled me. Mr. Wallop and 
Mr. Offley lent me their counsel, and would take nothing. Of 
four seijeanta that pleaded my cause, two of them, Serjeant 
WuuUuun, afterwaids baron of the Exchequer, and Se^eant 
Sisa» would take nothing. Sir John Bernard, a person I never 
saw but once, sent me no less than twenty pieces | the Comi» 
tesa of Bxeter, ten pounds ; and Alderman ^fiard, five« I re* 
ceived no more, but I confess more was offered me, vrtiiel| 
I reftisedi and more would have been given, but that tlwyknew 
I needod it not ; and this much defrayed my law and prisoa 
sbaijgeef 
, ^ When the same justices saw that I was thus discharged, 
they were not satisfied to have driven me from Acton, but they 
made r new mittimus by counsel, as for the same supposed faulty 
naming the fourth of June as the day on which I preached;, and 
yet not naming any witness, though the act against comrentielee 
was expired long before. This mittimus they put into an officer's 
handsy in London, to bring me, not to Clerkenwell, but among 
the thieves and murderers, to the common jail at Newgate, which 
wai> since the fire which burnt down all the better rooms, the 
most noisome place that I have heard of, of any prison in the 
land, except the Tower dungeon. 

^ The next habitation which God's providence chose for me, 
was atTotteridge, near Barnet* where, for a year, I was fain with 
part of my family separated from the rest, to take a few mean 
rooms, which were so extremely smoky, and tlie place withal so 
cold, that I spent the winter in great pain ; one quarter of a 
year by a sore sciatica, and seldom free from much anguish."* 

Between the years 1665 and 1670, Baxter laboured diligently 
on some of his most important works. It was during this 
period he produced his ^ Reasons of the Christian Religion,' and 
his ' Directions to weak Christians how to grow in Grace.' He 
finished, though he did not then print, his ^ Christian Directory.' 
He enlarged his sermon before the king into a quarto volume^ 

• Ldfe^ part Uh pp. 50*^. 



SM TBB Lin ANB TllfBS 

on the ^ life of Faith ;' beside some minor pieces^ stieh as his 
^ Cufe of Church Divisions/ He wrote also ' his Apology for 
the Nonconformists/ and a great part of his ^MethoduSy' 
though it was not published till some time afterwards. 

During this period also, he had a long discussion in person^ 
and in writing, with Dr. Owen, about the terms of agreem«it 
among Christians of all parties. It was not productive of any 
practical effect at the time ; and the blame of its failure Bax- 
ter lays upon Owen. The correspondence he has pablished^ 
from which it is not difficult to account for the failure, without 
Attaching blame to either party. The views of these two diatin- 
guished individuals differed, not, indeed, in any essential pointy 
bot on various subordinate matters affecting systematic union and 
co-operation. They differed also in their dispositions and antici- 
pations. Owen was calm, dignified, and firm, but respectlbl and 
courteous. Baxter was sharp and cutting in his reprooft, san- 
guine in his expectations of success ; and, confident of his own 
guileless simplicity, disposed to push matters further than the 
circumstances of the times admitted. Though not superior in 
the substantial attainments of the Christian character^ the de- 
portment of Owen was bland and conciliating, compared with 
that of Baxter. Hence, Owen frequently made friends of ene- 
mies, while Baxter often made enemies of friends. The one ex- 
pected to unite all hearts, by attacking all understandings ; the 
other trusted more to the gradual operation of Christian feeling^ 
by which alone he believed that extended unity would finally br 
effected. The issue has proved that, in this case, Owen had 
made the wiser calculation. 



OF RICHABD BAXTSR. S8S 



CHAPTER X. 
1670-1676. 



CoBvcotiick Act renewed— Lord Lauderdale— Fears of tbe Bishopt about the 
foereaia of Popery— Bishop Ward— Grove— Serjeant FouuUdn— Jud|^ 
VmglMUi— Tbe King connives at the Toleration of the Nonoonfbrmists— > 
Sbttti up tlie Exchequer— The Dispensing Declaration— License applied 
for OB Bttxtar^s behalf- Pinner's Hall Lecture— Baxter Preaches at dlf- 
. IvBBlplaeei— Tbe King's Declaration voted illef^ai by Pteiiamenfr— The 
Test Act— Baxter desired by the Earl of Orrery to draw up new Terms of 
Agreement— Healing Measure proposed in the House of Commons, which 
&i]a— Conduct of some of the Conformists— Baxter's Afflictions — Preaches 
at St. James's Market*House— Licenses recalled — Baxter employs an As« 
sistant— Apprehended by a Warrant— Escapes being Imprisoned— Another 
Scheme of Comprehension— Informers— City Magistrates— Parliament faUt 
en Lauderdale and others— The Bishops' Test Act— Baxter's Goods dis- 
trained—Various Ministerial Labours and Suiferings— Controversy with 
Penn— Baxter's Danger— His Writings during this period. 

In the year 1670^ the act against conventicles was renewed, 
and made more severe than ever, several new clauses being 
inserted, which Baxter believed to have a particular reference 
to his own case* It was declared, for instance, contrary to all 
justice, that the faults of the mittimus should not vitiate it, and 
that all doubtful clauses should be interpreted in the sense most 
unfavourable to conventicles. It seemed as if the intention of 
the court had been to extirpate the Nonconformists root and 
branch ; for the act was enforced with the utmost rigour against 
the most respectable persons among them.' The meetings in 
London were continually disturbed by bands of soldiers. Dr. 

' Sheldon again addressed tbe bishops of the pronnoe of Canterbury^ 
urging them to promote, by every means in their power, '* so blessed a work 
as tbe preventing and suppressing of conventicles," which tbe king and par- 
liament, ** out of their pious care for the welfisre of tbe church and king* 
dom/' had endeavoured to accomplish in the late act.— Qi/amy*i Abtidg* 
memt, i. 328—331. Harris also, in his < Life of Charles II.,' has given 
tbe letter entire, vol, ii. pp. 106, 107. Bishop Wilkins opposed the above act 
in the House of Loids, notwithstanding tbe king's request that be would at 
kut be f iteflU 



mr rm ufB Aim tnoi 

Manton^ though his friends were numerous and powerful, was 
sent six months to the Gate-house prison for preaching in his 
own house, in the parish of which he had formerly been minister. 

While Baxter remained quiet at Totteridge^ he was sent for 
to Barnet^ by the Earl of Lauderdale^who was then proceeding 
to Scotland with a project of making some alterations in the 
state of ecclesiastical affairs in that country. By the lung's 
permission, he consulted Baxter, and offered him, if he would 
go to Scotland, a church, or a bishoprick, or the management 
of some of the colleges. Baxter was not to be taken in auch K 
trap, for such in all probability it was ; as Lauderdale no aoonfr 
went into Scotland, than he became one of the greatest pens- 
Gutors of the Presbyterian church. In answer to his feqnesU 
and offers, Baxter, on the 24th of June, 1670, wrote hin Uie 
following admirable letter, which illustrates his eharaotet as a 
minister, his courtesy as a gentleman, and supplies some parti- 
eulars respecting his family. 

^ My Lord, 

'' Being deeply sensible of your lordship's favours, and ei- 
pecially for your liberal offers for my eutertainment in Scotland, 
I humbly return you my very hearty thanks ; but the foUomag 
considerations forbid me to entertain any hopes, or furthtf 
thoughts of such a removal ; 

^^ ^rhe experience of my great weakness and decay of streAgtIly 
and particularly of this last winter's pain, and how much wwse 
I am in winter than in summer, fully persuade me that I 
should live but a little while in Scotland, and that in a dissbled^ 
useless condition, rather keeping my bed than the pulpit* 

*' I am engaged in writing a book, which, if I could hope tO 
live to finish, is almost all the service I expect to do Ooa and 
his church more in the world — a Latin Methodus Theologis. 
Indeed I can hardly hope to live so long, as it requires yet 
nearly a year's labour more. Now, if I should spend that half 
year, or year, which should finish this work, in travel, and the 
trouble of such a removal, and then leave it undone, it would 
disappoint me of the ends of my life. I live only for work, and 
therefore should remove only for work, and not for wealth and 
honours, if ever I remove. 

^^ If I were there, all that I could hope for, were liberty to 
preach the Gospel of salvation, and especially in some univerdty 
among young scholars. But I hear that you have enough 
already for this work, who are likely to do it better thaa I .can* 



Of BICttAftD BAXTM. S8f 

' ^ I havo a familyi-and in it a mother-in-law of eighty yeani 
df age, of honourable extract and great worth, whom I miut 
Dot n^i^ti and who cannot travel. To such an one at I5 it 
ie 10 great a busineas to remove a family, with all our goods 
luid booka §0 far, that it deterreth me from thinking of it, 
Mpadially having paid to dear for removals these eight years as 
I hava done 1 and being but yesterday settled in a house which 
I have newly taken, and that with great trouble and loss of 
lime* Ami if I should find Scotland disagree with me, which I 
fiiUy conclude it would, I must remove all back again. 

^ All these things concur to deprive me of the benefit of your 
lofdship's favour. But, my lord, there are other parts of it, 
wbioh I am not altogether hopeless of receiving. When I am 
eoQunanded ^ to pray for kings and all in authority,' I am al- 
lowad the ambition of this preferment, which is all that ever I 
RSpirad after, * to live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness 
aild honesty/ Dm ntmif fMbitavii anima mea uUer osores padi^ 

^ I am weary of the noise of contentious revilers, and have 
oft had thoughts to go into a foreign land, if I could find where 
I mighl huve healthful air and quietness, but to live and die in 
peace* When I sit in a corner, and meddle with nobody, and 
hope the world will forget that I am alive, court, city, and 
coBQtry, are still filled with clamours against me. When a 
preacher wanteth preferment, his way is to preach or write a 
book agunst the Nonconformists, and me by name ; so that 
the meHitrua of the press, and the pulpits of some, are 
bloody invectives against myself, as if my peace were inconsis- 
tent with the kingdom's happiness. Never did my eyes read 
Sttflb impudent untruths, ia matter of fact, as such writings 
eontainf They cry out for answers and reasons of my non-* 
cooibnnity, while they know the law forbiddeth me to answer 
them unlicensed. I expect not that any favour or justice of 
my superiors should cure this, but if I might but be heard speak 
for myself before I be judged by them, and such things believed 
(for, to contemn the judgment of my rulers, is to dishonour them), 
I would request that 1 might be allowed to live quietly to follow 
my private studies, and might once again have the use of my 
books, which 1 have not seen these ten years. I pay for a 
room for their standing in at Kidderminster, where they are 
eaten by worms and rats ; having no sufficient security for 
my quiet abode in any place to encourage me to send for them. 
I would also ask that I might have the liberty every beggar 



288 THB LIFB AND TIMBS 

hath, to travel from town to town. I mean but to Londoiiy to 
oversee the press, when any thing of mine is licensed for it. If 
I be sent to Newgate for preaching Christ's Gospel (for I dare 
not sacrilegiously renounce my calling, to which I mm cons^ 
crated j»er sacramentum oriSnis), I would request the faioiir of 
a better prison, where I may but walk and write. Tlieae IshooU 
take as very great favours, and acknowledge your lordship my 
benefactor if you procure them : for I will not so much injure 
you as to desire, or my reason as to expect, any greater matten; 
no, not the benefit of the law. 

^' I think I broke no law, in any of the preachings of wfaidi 
I am accused. I most confidently think, that no law imposeth 
on me the Oxford oath, any more than on any conformabk 
minister ; and I am past doubting the present mittimus for my 
imprisonment is quite i^thout law. But if the justices thnik 
otherwise now, or at any time, I know no remedy. I hate a 
license to preach publicly in London diocese, under the arch- 
bishop's own hand and seal, which is yet valid for oocanODil 
sermons, though not for lectures or cures ; but I dare sot nie 
it, because it is in the bishop's power to recall it. Would but 
the bishop, who, one should think, would not be against tfce 
preaching of the Gospel, not recall my license, I could preadi 
occasional sermons, which would absolve my conscience firom 
all obligation to private preaching. For it is not maintenance that 
I expect. I never received a farthing for my preaching, to my 
knowledge, since May Ist, 1662. I thank God that I have food 
and raiment, without being chargeable to any man, which is all 
that I desire, had I but leave to preach for nothing ; and that 
only where there is a notorious necessity. I humbly crave your 
lordship's pardon for the tediousness of this letter ; and again 
return you my very great thanks for your great favours, add re- 
main," &c.» 

This touching letter was followed by another to the same 
nobleman, in which Baxter offers some observations on the di- 
vided state of the country, and makes a proposal, that mode- 
rate divines should be appointed to meet and debate matters, 
in order to some plan of concord, which might afterwards 
receive his majesty's approbation. It is surprising, after all that 
had occurred, he should have had any faith in the utility or 
success of such a scheme. - It does not appear, however, that 
any attention vtras paid to it ; but after Lauderdale had gone to 

( Lifei put iU. pp. 7b, 76. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. ^89 

Seodandj Sir Robert Murray, a confidential friend of his lord- 
ships sent Baxter a frame or body of discipline for the church 
of Scotland, on which he desired his animadversions. It ap- 
pears to have been a modified system of episcopacy, which it 
was the great object of the court then to force upon the people 
of Scotland. Resistance to it brought on that country the 
most horrible persecution a Protestant people was ever exposed 
to from its own Protestant government ; and has made the 
ABine and form of episcopacy an execration in Scotland to the 
present time. Baxter's remarks extended not to the principles 
of the system^ but to details, into which it is quite unnecessary 
to enter. 

The Earl of Lauderdale, with whom this correspondence was 
held, was a very extraordinary character. He had originally 
been a decided Covenanter ; and, indeed, remuned a professed 
F^byterian to the last. He was actuated by mean and arbi- 
trary principles, fawning to those above him, but imperious 
and laolent to all below. A man of learning, being well ac- 
qmdnted with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ; and possessed of a 
strong but blundering mind. Devoted to the interests of Charles 
II., though he continued to hate even the memory of his royal 
fadier. In Scotland he acted like a demon ; and by the fury of 
hb behaviour, increased the severity of his administration, which 
had more of the cruelty of the inquisition, than the legality of 
justice.' Yet this man would talk about religion, and was 
spoken to and of as a religious character, by Bishop Burnet, 
Baxter, and other religious men of the day. 1 shall have occa- 
uon to refer to the intimacy between Lauderdale and Baxter, in 
another part of this work. 

^ In the latter end of this year, the bishops and their agents 
gave out their fears of Popery, and greatly lamented that the 
Duchess of York was turned Papist.' They thereupon professed 
a strong desire that some of the Presbyterians, as they called 
even the episcopal Nonconformists, might, by some abatement 

' Burnet's < Own Times/ vol. i. pp. 142—144. 

f The Duchess of York, daughter of Clarendon, embraced the same creed 
IS her husband, and, as be tells us, without knowledge of bis sentiments, but 
cme year before her death, in 1670. She left a paper at her decease, containing; 
tbs reasons for her change. See it in Keooet, p. 320. It is plain that she, as 
well as the duke, had been influenced by the Romanizing tendency of some 
Anglican divines.— 'f/a/tom, vol. ii. p. 515. So much for the effects of the 
writings of Hooker and Ueylin, and of the conduct of Morley and Sheldon. 

VOL, U U 



290 THB LIFE AND TIMJiS 

of the new oaths and subscriptions, have better invitatkm to 
conform in other things. Bishop Morley, Bishop Ward, and 
Bishop Dolben,^ spake ordinarily their desires of it ; but after 
long talk, nothing was done, which made men variously inter- 
pret their pretensions. Some thought that they were real in 
their desires, and that the hinderance was from the court; while 
others said they would never have been the grand causes of our 
present situation, if it had been against their wills ; that if 
they had been truly willing for any healing, they would hsTe 
shown it by more than their discourses ; and that all this wai 
but that the odium might be diverted from themselves. I hope 
they are not so bad as this censure doth suppose. But it ii 
strange that those same men, who so easily led the parliament 
to what was done, when they had given the king thanks for lus 
declaration about ecclesiastical affairs, could do nothing to bring 
it to moderate abatements, and the healing of our breadikes, \t 
they had been truly willing. 

^^ In the year 1671 5 the diocese of Salisbury was more fiercely 
driven on to conformity, by Dr. Seth Ward, than any place els^ 
or than all the bishops in England did in theini.^ Many hundreds 

^ Afterwards archbishop of York. 

> Dr. Seth Ward, who acted in this Tiolent manner, was one of those eccle- 
siastical turn-coati who, during a succession of changes, always appear to 
consult their worldly interests. Jn the time of the Commonwealth he took 
the eof^f^ement to He true to the gOTemment as then established. He 
wrote against the oovenant, and took the place of -GreaTes, as professoir of as- 
tronomy in the University of Oxford, who was ejected for refusing it. At the 
Restoration he paid court to the royal party, by supporting all its measures. 
Fven Anthony Wood calls him a *' politician," and speaks of him at ** wfaid* 
ing himself into favour by his- smooth language and behaviour."— jtfC&as. 0tr. 
Bliss, vol. iv. p. 248. Yet Ward was, in other respects, a respectable man. He 
was a profound mathematician, and an able speaker ; but he was a peneen- 
tor. Dr. Pope, the author of his life, endeavours to apologise for his conduct, 
hot Tery unsatisfactorily : he admits that he endeavoured to snpppess eoa* 
voiticles ; that his measures produced a petition against him from the prin* 
cipal manufacturers in the towns of his diocese, alleging that their trade bad 
been ruined by him. In answer to all which he says, " he was no Tiolent 
roan as these petitioners represented him ; but if at any time he was more 
active than ordinary against the dissenters, it was by express command from 
the court — sometimes by letters, and sometimes given in charges faj the 
judges of the assizes ; which councils altered frequently — now in favour of the 
dissenters, and then again in opposition. It is true he was for the act 
against conventicles, and laboured much to get it to pass, not without the 
order and direction of the greatest authority, both civil and ecdeaiaitical; 
not out of enmity to the dissenters' persons, as they unjustly suggested, bnl 
of love to the repose and the welfare of the government. For he believed, if 
tlie growth of them were not timely suppressed, it would ckhcr cause a ae- 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 291 

were prosecuted by him with great industry ; and among others, 
that learned, humble, holy gentleman, Mr. lliomas Grove, an 
ancient parliament man, of as great sincerity and integrity as 
almost any man 1 ever knew. He stood it out awhile in a law- 
suit, but was overthrown, and fain to forsafie his country, as 
many hundreds more are likely to do. His name remindeth 
me to record my benefactor. A brother's son of his, Mr. Ro- 
bert Grove, was one of the Bishop of London's chaplains, and 
the only man that licensed my writings for the press, supposing 
them not to be against law ; in which case I could not expect 
it Beside him, 1 could get no licenser to do it.^ And as 
being silenced, writing was the far greatest part of my service to 
God for his church, and without the press my writings would 
have been in vain, I acknowledge that I owe much to this 
man, and one Mr. Cook^ the archbishop's chaplain, that I lived 
not ttiore in vain. 

*' While I am acknowledging my benefactors, I add that this 
year died Serjeant John Fountain, the only person from whom 
I received an annual sum of money; which though through God's 
mercy I needed not^ yet I could not in civility refuse : he gave me 
ten pounds per annum, from the time of my being silenced till 
his death. 1 was a stranger to him before, the king's return ; save 
that when he was judge, before he was one of the keepers of the 
great seal, he did our country great service against vice. He 
was a man of quick and sound understanding, and upright, im- 
partial life; of too much testiness in his weakness, but of a most 
believing, serious fervency towards God, and open, zealous own- 
ing of true piety and holiness, without regarding the little parti- 
alities of sects, as most men that ever I came near in sickness. 
When he lay sick, which was almost a year, he delivered to the 
judges and lawyers that sent to visit him such answers as these, 
' I thank your lord or master for his kindness ; present nay ser- 
vice to him, and tell him, it is a great work to die well ; hb 
time is near, all worldly glory must come down ; intreat him to 
keep his integrity, overcome temptations, and please God, and 

ceuity for a staDdiun^ army to preserve the peace, or a general toleratioD, 
wfiich would end in Popery." — p. 68. Pope further informs us, that so effec- 
toally did the bishop play his part, that there was scarcely a conventicle left in 
tlie diocese of Salisbury, except on the skirts of Wilts, where thece was not a 
settled militia. Yet Ward was uo persecutor I 

^ Mr. Grove, who acted this friendly part to Baxter, was afterwards raised 
to the episcopal bench as bishop of Chichester. Thb took place in 169], and 
his death iu l6%,'-'Mhen» Ox, vol. iv. p. 33/* 

u2 



292 THB LIFE AND TllfSS 

prepare to die/ He deeply bewailed the great sins 6f the times^ 
and the prognostics of dreadful things wtiich he thought we 
were iu danger of; and though in the wars he suffered im- 
prisonment for the king's cause, towards the end he abandoned 
that party, and greatly feared an inundation of poverty^ enemies, 
Popery, and infidelity.^ 

"During the mayoralty of Sir Samuel Stirling, many jury- 
men in London were fine4 and imprisoned by the recorder, for 
not finding certain Quakers guilty of violating the act against 
conventicles. They appealed, and sought remedy.'^ The judges 
remained about a year in suspense ; and then, by the Lord Chief 
Justice Vaughan, delivered their resolution against the recorder, 
for the subject's freedom from such sort of fines. When he 
had, in a speech of two or three hours long, spoke vehemendy 
to that purpose, never thing, since the king's return, was re- 
ceived with greater joy and applause by the people ; so that 
the judges were still taken for the pillars of law and liberty.' 

^^ The parliament having made the laws against NoDconfonn- 
ists' preaching, and private religious meetings, so grinding and 
terrible, the king, who consented to those laws, became the sole 
patron of the Nonconformists' liberties ; not by any abatements 
of law, but by his own connivance as to the execution; the 
magistrates, for the most part, doing what they perceived to be 
his will. So that Sir Richard Ford, all the time of his mayoralty, 
though supposed one of their greatest and most knowing adver- 
saries, never disturbed them. The ministers, in several parties, 
were oft encouraged to make their addresses to the king, only 
to acknowledge his clemency, by which they held their liberties, 

1 Fountain, of whom Baxter makes snch honourable mention, was son of 
William Fountain, of Seabroke, in Bucks ; and educated at Christ-chnrcb, 
Oxford. He adopted the cause of the parliament, in whose army he had the 
command of a regiment. He was made a serjeant-at-law by Cromwell, and 
in 1659 one of the commissioners of the ^reat seal. At the Restoration be 
was made a serjeant by the king^—i^ood's Fasti, vol. i. p. 497. Edit. Bliss. 

" Baxter refers here to the celebrated trial of Penn and Mead, before the 
recorder of London, who has thus, with the lord mayor, Stirling, obtained 
an infamous notoriety. The trial rendered immense service to the cause of 
liberty. 

" Sir John Vaughan, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, ivho acquitted 
himself so nobly on this occasion, was a man of excellent parts and good 
learning. He was the intimate friend of Selden, and a man of the same prin* 
ciples and independence. His son published his Reports, among which is the 
case above referred to. Baxter has noticed his treatment of his own case in 
the preceding chapter, iu which he appears to have acted with a good deal 
of tact. 



Of RICBARD BAXTER. 298 

and to profSess their loyalty. Sir John Bahor introdacd Dn 
Manton, Mr. Ennis, a Scots Nonconformist, Mr« Whittaker, 
Dr. Annesly, Mr. Watson, and Mr. Vincent, &c. The king 
told them, that though such acts were made, he was agdust 
persecution, and hoped ere long to stand on his own legs, and 
then they should see how much he was against it. By this 
means, many scores of nonconformable ministers in London 
kept up preaching in private houses. Some fifty, some a 
hundred, many three hundred, and many one thousand or two 
thousand at a meeting; by which, for the present, the city's 
necesmties were much supplied, for very few of the burnt 
churches were yet built up again. Yet this never moved the 
bishops to relent, or give any favour to the preaching of Non- 
conformists ; and though the best of the Conformists, for the 
most, were got up to London, alas ! they were but few : and 
the most of the religious people were more and more alienated 
from the prelates and their churches.® 

^ Those who from the beginning saw plainly what was doing, 
lamented all this. They thought it was not without great cun- 
ning, that seeing only a parliament was formerly trusted 
with the people's liberties, and could raise a war against him 
(interest ruling the world), it was contrived that this parliament 
should make the severest laws agdnst the Nonconformists, to 
grind them to dust, and that the king should allay the execu- 
tion at his pleasure, and become their protector against parlia- 
ments; and that they who would not consent to this should suffer. 
Indeed, the ministers themselves seemed to make little doubt of 
this ; but they thought, that if Papists must have liberty, it was 
as good for them also to take theirs as to be shut out ; that it 
was not lawful for them to refuse their present freedom, though 
they were sure that evil was designed in granting it ; and that 
before men's designs could come to ripeness, God might, in 
many ways, frustrate them. All attempts, however, to get any 
comprehension, as it was then called, any abatement of the 

• The conduct of the court towards the dissenters at this time, can only be 
explained by a knowledf^e of the secret treaty with France ; the object of 
which, on Charles's part, was to be rendered independent of parUament ; the 
object of France was the re- establishment of Popery in England. Though 
the relaxation of the persecution of the dissenters is said to have proceeded 
from the advice of Shaftesbury, who had no concern in the original secret 
treaty with France, it was completely in the spirit of that compact, and roust 
have been acceptable to the king.— ^a/tom, ii. 525. 



294 TU£ UF£ AND TIMB8 

• 

rigour of the laws, or legal libe rty and union, were most effee- 
tually made void, p 

** In the beginning of the year 1671-2| the king caused hit 
Exchequer to be shut ; so that whereas a multitude of merchants 
and others had put their money into the bankers* hands, and 
the bankers lent it to the king, and the king gave orders to pay 
out no more of it for a year, the murmur and complunt in the 
city were very great, that their estates should be, as they called 
it, so surprised. This was the more complained of, because it 
it was supposed to be in order to assist the French iu a war 
against the Dutch ; they therefore took a year to be equal to 
perpetuity, and the stop to be a loss of all, seeing wars com- 
monly increase necessities, but do not supply them. Amopg 
pthersi all the money and estate that I had in the world, of my 
own, was there, except ten pounds per annum, which I enjoyed 
for eleven or twelve years. Indeed, it was not my own, which 
I will mention to counsel those that would do good, to do it 
speedily, and with all their might. 1 had got in all niy life, the 
net sum of one thousand pounds. Having no child, I devoted 
almost all of it to a charitable use, a free-school ; I used my 
best and ablest friends for seven years, with all the skill and 
industry I could, to help me to some purchase of house or land 
to lay it out on, that it might be accordingly settled. But 
though there were never more sellers, I could never, by all these 
friends, hear of any that reason could encourage a man to lay 
it out on, as secure, and a tolerable bargain ; so that I told them, 
I did perceive the devil's resistance of it, and did verily suspect 
that he would prevail, and i should never settle, but it would be 
lost* So hard is it to do any good, when a man is fully resolved. 
Divers such observations, verily confirm me, that there are 
devils that keep up a war against goodness in the world/* ^ 

The shutting up of the Exchequer, by which many were to- 
tally ruined, was one of the most infamous transactions of an 
infamous reign. The Earl of Shaftesbury was considered at 
the time the principal adviser of the measure ; but he. took care 
previously to withdraw his own money from the hands of his 
banker, and to advise some of his friends to do the same. The 
real author of the measure, it is now known, was Lord CliiFord.' 

P LifCj part iii. pp. 86—88. « Ibid, part iii. p. 89. 

' Shaftesbury defends himself against the charg^e of having advised the meft- 
sure, or approvlDg of it, in a letter to Locke> which Lord King has publisbed^ 



OF RICHAIID BAXTER. 295 

The fttoppage, as Baxter says, was intended to last only for a 
year ; but it does not appear that he ever recovered the money. 
He bore the loss, however, very patiently, and records the 
disaster rather to instruct others how to use their property, 
than to mourn over it himself. The difficulty he experi- 
enced in disposing of his thousand pounds, which he ascribes 
to the devirs resistance, is a curious illustration of the pecu- 
liarity of his own mind. He appears always to have found 
great difficulty in satisfying himself, where there was the least 
room for doubt or objection. Doubts presented themselves to 
him, which would scarcely have occurred to any other man. 
He possessed great decision of character, yet often strangely 
manifested a want of decision of mind. It is to be regretted, if 
this was owing to satanic influence, that he should have allowed 
the devil to have such advantage over him. 

We come now to a very important event in the history of 
these times ; the king's declaration, dispensing with the penal 
laws against the Nonconformists, lliis document was issued 
on the 15th of March, 1672, and declares ^* that his majesty, 
by virtue of his supreme power in matters eeelesiasHcal^ sus- 
pends all penal laws thereabout, and that he will grant a con- 
fenient number of public meeting-places to men of all sorts 
tbat conform not. Provided the persons are approved by him; 
that they only meet in places sanctioned by him, with open 
doors, and do not preach seditiously, nor against the church of 
England." • 

The evident design of this transaction, projected by Shaftes- 
bury, was to secure liberty, not to the Nonconformists, but to 
the Roman Catholics; consequently, the views of the Lon- 
don ministers, as might be expected, were not harmonious as 
to the use which should be itiade of this just, but illegal pri- 
vilege. 

It k plain enoagliy from that letter, however, that be bad taken eare tbat 
bis oim interests should not be affected by the mei^are. It was yrcfttiy the 
conmenoeinent of the national debt, and prodooed at the time oniTersal 
dltnay. 

• The Lord Keeper Bridgmao resided the ^eat seal because be would 
not attach it to this act, and Shaftesbury, the author of the measure, suceeed- 
ed to his place. Locke was at this time appointed secretary to Shaftesbury, 
far tiie presentation of benefices. It is probable, therefore, that Shaftesbury's 
^^■i^B were not intended in hostility to the dissenters. — Lard Kint(^8 lA/e of 
IjKkef p. 33. Locke's letter to a person of quality states very clearly the 
pait wbicb Shaftesbury took in this Beatvre, and the reasons whlc^ hi» 
flaeoced him* 



296 THB LIFE AND T1MB9 

'* When it came out," says Baxter, ** the London noneoiiforBi- 
able ministers were invited to return his majesty their. thanks* 
At their meeting, Dr. Seaman and Mr. Jenkins, who had beea 
till then most distant from the court, were for a thanksgiTing, 
in such high applauding terms as Dr. Manton, and almoat all the 
rest, dissented from. Some were for avoiding terms of appro* 
"bation, lest the parliament should fall upon them ; and aomCy 
because they would far rather have had any tolerable state of 
unity with the public ministry than a toleration ; supposing, 
that the toleration was not chiefly for their sakes, but for the 
Papists, and that they should hold it no longer than that inte« 
rest required it ; which is inconsistent with the interest of the 
Protestant religion, and the church of England : and that they 
had no security for it, but it might be taken from them at any 
time. 

^^ They thought that it tended to continue our divisions, and to 
weaken the Protestant ministry and church ; and that while the 
body of the Protestant people were in all places divided, one 
part was still ready to be used against the other, and many sins 
and calamities kept up. They thought the present generatioa 
of Nonconformists was likely to be soon worn out, and the pub- 
lic assemblies to be lamentably disadvantaged by young, raw, 
unqualified ministers, that were likely to be introduced ; they 
concluded, therefore, on a cautious and moderate thanksgiving 
for the king's clemency, and their own liberty ; and when they 
could not come to agreement about the form of it. Lord Arling- 
ton introduced them to a verbal, extemporate thanksgiving ; and 
so their difference was ended as to that. ^ 

^^The question, whether toleration of us in our different assem- 
blies, or such an abatement of impositions as would restore 
some ministers to the public assemblies by law, were more 

^ I apprehend Baxter has here fallen into some mistake. It is not lUceljr 
the ministers would have been received to deliver an extempore addrttt. 
Besides, if they could not a^ee among themselves what to say in writiii^» 
who would have undertaken to speak for them ? An address drawn up by 
Owen, though he seldom appears in Baxter's accounts of the London minis* 
ters, was adopted on this occasion. — JIfemoirs of Owen^ pp. 272, 273. 2d Edit. 
It was at this time, if we may believe Burnet, that the court ordered fifty 
pounds a year to be paid to most of the Nonconformist ministers in London, 
and a hundred to the chief of them. Baxter, he says, sent back his pension, 
and would not touch it ; but most of the others took it. Burnet gives this oa 
StUUngfleet's authority, and represenU it as hush money. It is very strange^ 
if this was done> that Baxter should not have mentioned lU'^Bumeft Own 
TUtsiy Tol. ii. p, 16. Calamy remarks on this passage, io * His Owa Lif(^' 
irol. ii. p. 468. 



PF RtCHAAOt BAXnR» 297 

desiraUei wai a great controversy then among the Noncon- 
kanntBj and greater it had been, but that the hopes of abate- 
ment^ called then a comprehension, were so low as made them 
the IcM concerned in the agitation of it. But whenever there 
was a new session ai parliament, which put them in some little 
hope of abatement, the controversy began to revive according 
to the measure of those hopes. The Independents and all the 
lectaries, and some few Presbyterians, especially in London, who 
liad large congregations, and liberty and encouragement, were 
rather for a toleration. The rest of the Presbyterians, and the 
episcopal Nonconformists, were for abatement and comprehen-* 
non/' * 

The several parties were influenced by their respective prin« 
dples of church government and civil establishments. All par- 
ties, however, were glad to obtain what they could, and to use 
the temporary freedom which was allowed, though in a very 
wicoDstitutional manner, for the promotion of the interests of 
religion* The attachment to Popery on the part of the reign- 
ing powers, threatened great danger to the country ; but I very 
moch doubt, whether if this had not created much anxiety to 
the church party, the Nonconformists would not have been en- 
tirely crushed. From the conflicting interests of party, the 
cause of the dissenters in this country has often been permitted 
to gain ground, till their body has arrived at such a measure of 
strength as even now constitutes its best security. 

In the month of October of this year, Baxter fell into a dan- 
gerous fit of sickness, which, he says, God, in his wonted 
mercy, did, in time, so far remove as to restore him to some ca- 
pacity of service*—*^ I had till now forborne, for several reasons, 
to seek a license for preaching from the king, upon the tolera- 
tion ; but when all others had taken theirs, and were settled in 
London and other places, as they could get opportunity, I de- 
layed no longer, but sent to seek one, on condition 1 might have 
it without the title of Independent, Presbyterian, or any other 
party, but only as a Nonconformist. Before 1 sent. Sir Thomas 
Player, chamberlain of London, had procured it me so, without 
my knowledge or endeavour. I had sought none so long, because 
I was unwilling to be, or seem, any cause of that way of liberty, 
if a better might have been had, and therefore would not med- 
dle in it. I lived ten miles from London, and thought it not just 
to come and set up a congregation there till the ministers had 

• Life, part iii. pp. 99, 100. 



998 trm tin anb ttiifet 

fully settled thein^ who had borne the burden in the times of 
the raging plague, and Are, and other calamitiet, leet I ahottld 
draw away any of their auditors^ and hinder their maintenanee. 
No one that erer I heard of till mine could get a lioense^ mdeat 
he would be entitled in it^ a Presbyterian^ Independent Aoa* 
baptist, or of some sect. 

^ The 19th of November,'^ my baptism day, was the first day, 
after ten years' silence, that I preached in a tolerated, puUic 
assembly, though not yet tolerated in any consecrated church, 
but only against law, in my own house. Some merchants set 
up a 'Fuesday's lecture in London, to be kept by six minis- 
ters, at Pinner's Hall, allowing them twenty shillings a piece 
each sermon, of whom they chose me to be one. But when 1 
bad preached there only four sermons, I found the Independents 
so quarrelsome with what I said, that ail the city did ring of 
their backbitings and false ac<!Usations ; r eo that^ had I but 
preached for unity, and against division, or unnecessary with* 
drawing from each other, or against unwarrantable narrowing of 
Christ's church, it was said, abroad, that I preached against the 
Independents. Especially if I did but say that man's will had a 
natural liberty, though a moral thraldom to vice ; that men 
might have Christ and life, if they were truly willing; and tfiat 
men have power to do better than they do ; it was cried abroad, 
among all the party, that I preached up Arminianism, and 
free will, and man's power ; and, O ! what an odious crime was 
this ! » 

'^ On January the 24th, 1672-3, I began a Tuesday leetura 
at Mn Turner's church, in New Street, near Fetter Luie, with 
great convenience, aud God's encouraging blessing ; but 1 



' Here is another discrepanqr of date from what is given in tbe * BmpiktmA 
Register/ and reCerred to in the first page of this volume. According to tfais, 
he was uot baptised either on the sLtth or the sixteenth ; hut it is pretty erf* 
dent be was born on the twelfth of November, according to hit own- 

y For some reason or other, Baxter and the Independents steoL never Sft 
agreed. There were probably faults on both sides ; though, 1 apprehend, the 
principal causes were, the rashness and imprudence with which he carrifld 
things to the pulpit, aud allowing himself to be influenced by miscfaievou and 
often trifling reports. 

* The Tuesday rooming lecture now set up, continues to the present time, 
and is regularly preached at New Broad-street Meeting-house. It is not to the 
credit of the dissenters, that somts of their most respectable ministers were long 
left to deliver that lecture to almost empty benches. The lectareiv, amchto 
their honour, though I believe they derive no pecuniary benefit from their !•• 
hours, continue them, as there is some property for the good of others entrusted 
to their distribution. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 299 

took a peuny of money for it from any one.* On the Lord's 
days I had no congregation to preach to, but occasionally to any 
that desired me, being unwilling to set up a church and become 
the pastor of any, or take maintenance in this distracted and 
unsettled way^ unless further changes should manifest it to be 
my duty ; nor did I ever give the sacrament to any one person^ 
but to my flock at Kidderminster. I saw it oifended the Con- 
formists, and had many other present inconveniences, while we 
had any hope of restoration and concord from the parliament. 

^^ The parliament met again in February, and voted down the 
king's declaration as illegal. The king promised them that 
it should not be brought into precedent ; and thereupon they 
consulted of a bill for the ease of Nonconformists, or dissenters, 
&Iany of them highly professed their resolution to carry it on ; 
but when they had granted the tax, they turned it off, and left 
it undone^ destroj-ing our shelter of the king's declaration ; and 
so leaving us to the storm of all their severe laws, which some 
country justices rigorously executed, though the most forbore.^ 

^ On February the 20th, I took a house in Bloomsbury, in 
London, and removed thither after Easter, with my family ; God 
having mercifully given me three years of great peace, among 
quiet neighbours, at Totteridge, and much more health or ease 
than 1 expected, and some opportunity to serve him. 

^^ The parliament grew into great jealousies of the preva« 
lency of Popery. There was an army raised which lay upon 
Blackheath, encamped, as for service against the Dutch : in 
which so many of the commanders were Papists, as made men 
fear the design was worse. They feared not to talk openly, that 

* Tht place ia which BajLter officiated io Fetter Lane, is that betweeo 
Neril's Court and New Street, oow occupied by the Moravians. It appears to 
have evistedy tbou^ perhaps in a different form, before the fire of Loudon. 
Turner, who was the first minister, wsis a very active man during^ the plag^ue. 
He wat ejected from Sunbury, in Middlesex, aud continued to preach in Fet- 
ter Lane till towards the end of the reign of Charles II., when he removed to 
Leather Lane. Baxter carried ou the Friday morniug lecture till the 24th of 
Aoj^st, 1682. The church which then met in it was under the care of Mr. 
Lobby whose predecessors had been Dr. Thomas Goodwin and Thankful Owen. 
It has been preserved by an unbroken line of Evaogelical pastors to the present 
time, in which it enjoys the ministry of my venerable friend the Rev. 
George Burder, and his worthy co-pastor the Rev. Caleb Morris.— See 
< Wilton's Disftentiog Churches,' vol. iii. p. 420. * 

^ It was suspected that the women about the king interposed, and induced 
him to withdraw his declaration. Upon this, Shaftesbury turned short round, 
provoked at the king's want of steadiness, and, especially, at his giving up the 
point about issuing writs iu the recess of parliameut.«/fa//am| vol. ii. p. 530. 



f 

SOO THE UPB AND TIMB8 

the Papists, having no hope of getting the parliament to set up 
their religion by law, did design to take down parliaments, and 
reduce the government to the French model, and religion to thor 
state, by a standing army. These thoughts put them into dismal 
expectations, and many wished that the army, at any rate, might 
be disbanded. The Duke of York being general, the parliament 
made an act that no man should be in any office of trust who 
would not take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance ; recehre 
the sacrament according to the order of the church of England; 
and renounce transubstantiation. Some that were known, sold 
or laid down their places : the Duke of York and the new lord 
treasurer, Clifford, laid down all. It was said that they did it 
on supposition that the act left the king empowered to renew 
their commissions when they had laid them down : but the lord 
chancellor told the king that it was not so ; and so they were 
put out by themselves. This settled men in the fiill belief 
that the Duke of York and Lord Clifford were Papists, The 
Londoners had special hatred against the duke, ever sinee the 
burning of London, commonly saying, that divers were takea 
casting fire-balls, and brought to his guards of soldiers to be se- 
cured, whom he let go, and both secured and concealed them."* 

It was in these circumstances that the celebrated Test Act 
was passed. The church party, according to Burnet, showed a 
noble zeal for their religion ; and the dissenters got great repu* 
tation for their silent deportment. Tlie design of the measure 
is very obvious; but the impropriety of doing evil that good might 
come, is strikingly illustrated by it. To get rid of the Duke of 
York, and a Popish party, who might have been thrown out by 
other means, the prostitution of a sacred ordinance of religion was 
resorted to, by which a gross enormity came to be perpetuated in 
the country for more than a century and a half. 'Die disinte- 
restedness of the dissenters in submitting to let this bill pass 
quietly, is more worthy of commendation than is their wisdom ; 
while theinjustice and ingratitude of the party which then praised 
them, do it infinite discredit It is highly satisfactory to the en« 
lightened men of all parties that this abomination is now no more. 

lliough the preamble of the act, and the whole history of 
the transaction, show that the main object was a safeguard 
against Popery, it is probable that a majority of botli houses 
liked it the better for this secondary effect of shutting out the 
Presbyterians still more than had been done by previous statutes 

« Life, part ili. p. 106. 



^OF RICHARD BAXTER. 801 

of this reign-. There took place, however, a remarlcable coalition 
between the two parties; for many who had always acted as high 
churchmen and cavaliers, sensible, at last, of the policy of their 
common adversaries, renounced a good deal of the intolerance 
and bigotry that had characterised the present parliament. The 
dissenters, with much disinterestedness, gave their support to 
the Test act : in return, a bill was brought in, and, after some 
debate, passed to the Lords, repealing, in a considerable degree, 
the persecuting laws against their worship. The Upper House, 
perhaps insidiously, returned it with amendments more favour- 
able to the dissenters, and insisted upon them, after a conference. 
A sudden prorogation put an end to this bill, which was as 
unacceptable to the court as it was to the zealots of the church 
of England.^ 

^ On* the 20th of October, the parliament met again, and 
suddenly voted an address to the king, about the Duke of York's 
marriage with the Duke of Modena's daughter, an Italian Papist, 
akin to the pope, and to desire that it might be stopped, she 
being not yet come over. As soon as they had done that, the 
lung, by the chancellor, prorogued them till Monday following, 
because it was not usual for a parliament to grant money twice 
in a session. On Monday, when they met, the king desired 
q>eedy aid of money against the Dutch ; and the lord chan- 
cellor set forth the reasons and the unreasonableness of the 
Dutch. But the parliament still stuck to their former resent- 
ment of the Duke of York's marriage, and renewed their mes- 
sage to the king against it, who answered them that it was de- 
bated at the open council, and resolved that it was too late to 
stop it. On Friday, October 31, the parliament went so high 
as to pass a vote that no more money should be given till the 
eighteen months of the last tax were expired, unless the Dutch 
proved obstinate, and unless we were secured against the dan- 
ger of Popery, and Popish counsellors, and their grievances 
were redressed. It voted also to ask of his majesty a day of 
humiliation, because of the growth of Popery. It intended 
solemnly to keep the Gunpowder Plot, and appointed Dr. Stil-r 
lingfleet to preach before it, who was then mostly engaged in 

* HaUaiii, vol. ii. pp. 532, 533. Some of the ablest discussions respecting 
the Test act, and the circumstances in which it was passed, took place in the 
debates on the passings of the Repeal bill, in the year 1828. Lord Holland's 
speech, on introducing the bill in the House of Lords, is a masterly specimen of 
historical accuracy and parliamentary eloquence. In the 'Test Act Reporter,' 
all the debates are accurately recorded. 



S09 TnS LfPB AND TIMES 

writing againut Popery : but on the day before, being Novem^ 
ber 4th, the king, to their great discontent, prorogued the par* 
liament to the 7th of January. 

^ On that day, the parliament met again, and voted that their 
first work should be to prevent Popery, redress grievances, and 
be secured against the instruments or counsellors of these 
evils. They shortly after voted the Dukes of Buckingham and 
Lauderdale unfit for trust about the king, and desired their 
removal. When they came to the Lord Arlington, and would 
have treated him in the same manner, without an impeachment 
it was carried against that attempt; and because the members 
who iavoured the Nonconformists were against the rest, and 
helped oflf Lord Arlington, the rest were greatly exasperated 
against them, and reported that they did it because he had fur^ 
thered the Nonconformists' licenses for tolerated preaching. 

** The 3d of February was a public fast against Popery, the 
first which I remember, beside the anniversary fasts, whidi had 
ever been since this parliament was called, which had now sat 
longer than that called the Long Parliament. The preacher^ 
Dr. Cradock and Dr. Whitchcot, meddled but little with that 
business, and did not please them as Dr. Stillingfleet had done; 
who greatly animated them and all the nation against Popery, 
by his open and diligent endeavours for the Protestant cause. 

*' During this session, the Earl of Orrery** desired me to draw 
him up, in brief, the terms and means which I thought would 
satisfy the Nonconformists, so far as to unite us all against 
Popery ; professing that he met with many great men that were 
much for it, and particularly the new lord treasurer, Sirlliomas 
Osborn, afterwards created Lord Danby,* and Dr. Morley, bishop 
of Winchester, who vehemently professed his desires of it. Dr. 
Fulwood, and also divers others, had been with me to the like 
purpose, testifying the said bishop's resolution herein. I wished 
them all to tell him from me, that he had done so much to the 

' Formerly Lord Brogbill, UDder which title he is generally spoken of bf 
Baxter, aud other writers of that period. He was a very distinguished mao, 
and probably sincerely desirous on this occasion to promote the good of the 
couutryi and the benefit of the Nonconformists, to whom he was a stcydj 
friend. 

* Danby succeeded Cliflford^ on the fall of the cabal ministry. He was not 
a Papist like bis predecessor; but was a corrupt man, capable of resorting to 
measures, to please the court, which were most injurious to the constltutba 
and interests of hiscouutry. It was through his instrumentality, boweveft that 
the marriage of the Princess Mary with the Prince of Orange was effected| to 
which circumstance we ultimately owe thfi Revolution. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 308 

ooQtrwy, and never any thing this way, since his professions of 

that sort, thattill his real endeavours convinced men, it would 

not be believed that he was serious. But when 1 had given the 

Bmrl ci Orrery my papers, he returned them me with Bishop 

IMorlejr's strictures, or animadversions, as by his words and the 

Hsmd-writing I had reasons to be confident; by which he made 

nie aee fully that all his professions for abatement and concord 

iwere deceitiul snares, and that he intended no such thing.'* ' 

Again, our worthy and indefatigable friend of peace took up hie 
pen, and detoted no small attention to this new scheme of union* 
S-Iis proposals. Bishop Morley's strictures, and his reply, are 
Si^'^^o R^ 1*1^9 ^^ his own narrative ; ' but it would be useless 
%4» tronble the reader with any part of the documents, sinco 
trbe whole ended, as all other schemes of the same kind had 
^one, in disappointment. 

^ A little after, some great men of the House of Commons 
dfcw np a bill, as tending to our healing, to take off our oaths, 
sobscrf ptions, and declarations, except the oath of supremacy, 
and allegiance, and subscriptions to the doctrine of the church 
of England, according to the 13th of Elizabeth. But showing 
it to the sud Bishop of Winchester, he caused them to forbear, 
and broke it ; and instead of it he furthered an act, to take off 
(miy 0$ieni and eomentf and the renunciation of the govern- 
ment; which would have been but a cunning snare to make 
us more remediless, and do no good; seeing that the same 
things, with the repeated clauses, would be still, by other 
continued obligations required, as may be seen in the canon for 
subscription, art. ii., and in the Oxford act, for the oath and for 
confining refusers. It is credibly averred, that when most of 
the other bishops were against this ensnaring show of abate- 
ment, he told them in the house that had it been but to abate us 
a eenemony, he would not have spoken in it : but he knew that 
we were bound to the same things still, by other clauses or 
obligations, if these were repealed. 

^ On February 24th, all these things were suddenly ended, 
the king early and unexpectedly proroguing the parliament 
till November : whereby the minds of both houses were much 
troubled, and multitudes greatly exasperated and alienated 
from the court: of whom many now saw that the leading 
bishops had been the great causes of our distractions; but 

' Life> psrt iU. pp. 102-109. s lliitl. pp. 113—140. 



sot THB LIFE AND TIMSS 

otheiB hating the Nonconformists more, were ttill as liot for 
prelacy and violence as ever* 

^^ All this while, the aspiring sort of Conformists, who looked 
for preferment, and the chaplains who lived in fuluessi and 
other malignant factious clergymen, did write and preach to 
stir up king, parliament, and others, to violence and crodty 
against the liberty and blood of the Nonconformists, who lived 
quietly by them in labour and poverty, and meddled not with 
them* Some railed at them as the most intolerable villauis in 
4he world, especially Sam. Parker, who was jocularly confuted and 
detected by Mr. Marvel, a parliament man. On6 Hickering-' 
hill, and others, came near him in their malignity ; and Pkipists 
taking the advantage, set in and did the like. One wrote a 
* Sober Inquiry' of the reasons why the nonconfonnable minis* 
ters were still so valued by the people, which was their grievous 
vexation, and pretended many causes ; I know not whether 
more malignantly or foolishly, which none could believe bvt 
strangers, and those that were blinded by faction, malignity^ or 
false reports.^ 

** The Lord's-day before the parliament was dissolved, one of 
these prelatists preached to them, to persuade them that we are 
obstinate, and not to be tolerated or eased by any means bat 
vengeance, urging them to set fire to the faggot, and teach us 
by scourges or scorpions, and open our eyes with gall. Yet 
none of these will procure us leave to publish, or offer to autho- 
rity the reasons of our nonconformity. But this is not the 
first proof that a carnal, worldly, proud, ungodly clergy, who 
never were serious in their own professed belief, nor felt the 
power of what they preach, have been, in most ages of the 
church, its greatest plague, and the greatest hinderers of holi- 
ness and concord, by making their formalities and cere.monies 
the test of holiness, and their worldly interest and domina- 
tion the only cement of concord. Oh how much hath Satan 
done against Christ's kingdom in the world, by setting up pas- 
tors and rulers over the churches, to fight against Christ in his 
own name and livery, and to destroy piety and peace, by a pre- 
tence of promoting them ! 

^^ At this time, April, 1674, God so much increased my 
languishing, and laid me so low, by an incessant inflation of my 

k See an accouDt of the controversy here referred to, and of the bebanour 
of Parker and Marvel, iii * Memoirs of Owen/ pp. 268-273« 



or BICHARD BAXTER. SOS 

beady and translation of my great flatulency tbither to the nenrea 
anfl members, increasing for ten or twelve weeks to greater 
punsi that I had reason to think that my time on earth 
would not be long. And, oh ! how good hath the will of Grod 
profed hitherto to me : and will it not be best at last ? Expe- 
rience cauaeth me say to his praise, ' Great peace have they 
that love his law, and nothing shall offend them ; and though 
my flesh and heart do fail, God is the rock of my heart, and my 
portion for ever/ 

^ Taking it to be my duty to preach while toleration conU-^ 
naed, I removed the last spring to London, where my diseases 
incieaaing fimr about half a year, constrained me to cease my 
Friday's lecture,^ and an afternoon's sermon on the Lord's day 
io my own house, to my grief; and to preach only one sermon 
a week at St. James's market-house, where some had hired an 
inoonvenienc place. But I had great encouragement to labour 
there, because of the notorious necessity of the people : for it was 
noted as the habitation of the most ignorant, atheistical, and 
popish, about London ; while the greatness of the parish of St. 
Martin, made it^ impossible for the tenth, perhaps the twen-^ 
tieth person in the parish, to hear in the parish church ; and 
the next parishes, St. Giles and Clement Danes, were almost in 
(be like case. 

** On July 5, 1674, at our meeting over St. James's market-* 
house, God vouchsafed us a great deliverance. A main beam, 
weakened before by the weight of the people, so cracked, that 
three times they ran in terror out of the room, thinking it was 
fidling, but remembering the like at St. Dunstan's in the West, 
1 reproved their fear as causeless. But the next day, taking up 
the bo^ds, we found that two rends were so great, that it was a 
wonder of Providence that the floor had not fallen, and the roof 
with it, to the destruction of multitudes. The Lord make us 
thankful ! ^ 

^' It pleased God to give me marvellous encouragement in my 

^ I suppose he renewed it a^io, and continued it, though perhaps with fre« 
queot interruptions, till 1682, when he finally gave it up. 

J On this occasion Mrs. Eiaxter discovered grtat presence of mind. After 
tiic first crack was heard, she went immediately down suirs, and accosting; 
the first person she met, asked what was his profession. He said, a carpenter. 
^ Can you suddenly put a prop under the middle of this beam ?" said she. 
The man dwelt close by, had a great prop ready, suddenly put it under, while 
the congregation above knew nothing of it, but had its fears increased by the 
man's knocking. — Memoirs o/JUrs^ BaxUr^ p. 61. 

VOJU U X 



306 THB UFX AND TIMBS 

preaching at St. James's. The crack having frig^iteiaed tmf 
most of the richer sort, especially the women ; most of die. coih 
gregation were yomig men of the most capable age, who heard 
with very great attention, and many that bad not ooaie tp 
chmrch for years, received so much, and manifested so great a 
change (some Papists, and divers others, returning public thaoles 
to God fi>r their conversion), as made ^1 my charge and tronbie 
easy to me* Among all the popish, rude, and ignorant oailtH 
tude who were inhabitants of those parts, we had scarce any thajf 
opened their mouths against us, and that did not speak well of 
the preaching of the word among them ; though, when I fiiat 
went thither, the most knowing inhabitants assured om thai 
some of the same persons wished my death. Among the nder 
sort, a common reformation was notified in the place^ in their 
conversation as well as in their judgments. 

'^ But Satan, the enemy of God and souls, did quickly vse 
divers means to hinder me : by persecution, by the chairgct of 
the work, and by the troublesome clamours of some that were 
too much inclined to separation. First, a fellow, that ttade 
a trade of being an informer, accused me to Sir William PMt 
teney, a justice near, upon the act against conventiclea. Sir 
William dealt so wisely and fairly in the business, as frustrated 
the informer's first attempts, who offered his oath against roe ; 
and before he could make a second attempt, Mr. David Lloyd, 
the Earl of St. Alban's bailiff, and other inhabitants, so searched 
after the quality of the informer, and prosecuted him to aecute 
the parish from the charge of his children, as made him flee^ md 
appear no more. I, who had been tlie first silenced, and the fint 
sent to gaol upon the Oxford act of confinement, was the first 
prosecuted upon the act of conventicles, after the parliament's 
condemning the king's declaration, and licenses to preach* 

^^ Shortly after this, the storm grew much greater. The mi* 
nisters of state had new consultations. The Duke of Lander^ 
dale, the Lord Treasurer, the Earl of Danby, the Lord Keeper, 
Sir Heneage Finch ,^ Bishop Morley, and Bishop Ward, &c., were 

^ Sir Heneage Ftoch was one of Uie leading^ ncmbers of tho parilsMiBl 
which restored Charles II., by whom he was made solicitor-feoefal Imow- 
diately after. He became attorney*fl^neral in 1670, and lord-ke^er o# Iks 
grttit seal in 1673 ; was raised to the chancellorship in 1675, and cwstsd 
Eari of Nottinipham in 1681. His lordship was properly the founder of the 
noble family of Winchilsea. He possessed good learning, considerable elo* 
qnence, and was, on the whole, a respectable public cbaracter« He himfilf 
refused to put the great seal to I^ni Paaby'i pardon* 



or ftlCRARD BAxmu S07 

lie men whom the world talked of as the dden of die business. 
[lie first thing that appeared, was, his majesty calling the bishops 
ip to London to give him advice what was to be done for the 
ecoriog of reli^on. The bishops, after divers meetings and 
telajRi, the said duke and lord treasurer being appointed 
D meet with them, at last advised the king to recall his li- 
duei, and put the laws in execution, which was done by a pro- 
lemation, declaring the licenses long since void, and requiring 
lie cxecation of the laws against Papists (who were most largely 
Mntioned) and conventicles. No sooner was this proclamation 
Mriilithed, but special informers were set at work, to ascertain 
lie execution, and I must here also be the first to be- accused.''^ 

It appears that Baxter, partly to avoid the penalties for not 
aomplying with the act of uniformity, and partly for his own 
!die^ employed an assistant, who read a portion of the church 
lervice for turn on the Lord's day. This partial conformity occa» 
noned many fidse reports respecting his sentiments, which gave 
Imn great trouble, while it failed to commend him to the staunch 
mpporters of ecclesiastical order. 

^ The Separatists gave out presently that I had conformed, and 
upenly declared my assent and consent, &c.; and so confidently 
lid they affirm it, that almost all the city believed it. The 
pielatiBts again took the report from them, with their own will« 
ingness that so it should be, and reported the same thing. In 
me q>iBcopal city, they gave thanks in public that I had conr* 
formed; in many counties their news was, that I most certainly 
wnformed, and was, thereupon, to have a bishoprick; which if I 
ihonld, I had done foolishly in losing thirteen years lordship 
ind profit, and then taken it when I was dying. This was di-> 
relged by the C<mformists, to fortify their party in the conceits 
jf their innocency, and by the Separatists, in spleen and quarrel- 
lome aeal ; but confident lying was too common with both. And 
feitf the next day, or the next day save one, letters fled abroad^ 
Ml the contrary, that I was sent to gaol for not conforming. 

^ While 1 was thus murmured at by backbiters, sectaries and 
prelatists, when tlie king's licenses were recalled, I was the first 
that was apprehended by warrant, and brought before the justices 
la a conventicler. One Keeling,"' an ignorant fellow, had got^ 
I warrant, as bailiff and informer, to search after conventiclers^ 

Life, part Hi. pp. 140—153. 
■ Burnet ^ves a luDg^ account of Keeling, with his conduct as a contriver 
if pkti, and an informer.— Vol. ii. pp. 369-»390. 

x2 



dOS THB LIFE AND TIMB& 

Papists and Protestants, which he prosecuted with gre«t 
mosity and violence. Having then left St. James's, the kise 
of the house being out, 1 preached only on Thursdays, at Mr« 
Turner's. By the act, it was required I should be judged by 
a justice of the city or division where I preach ; but be lEs- 
trained on by warrant from a justice of the division or etiaatj 
where I live. So that the preaching place being in tbe dtf, 
only a city justice might judge me. Keeling went to many of 
the city justices, but none of them would grant him a wamBt 
against me ; he therefore went to the justices of tiie ooonty, 
who lived near me, and one. Sir John Medlicot, and Mr. Be»- 
net, brother to Lord Arlington, ignorant of the law herrio, give 
their warrant to apprehend ipe, and bring me before them, or 
some other of his majesty's justices. The constable, or is* 
former, gave me leave to choose what justices I would go to. 
I accordingly went with them to seek divers of the best jnstieei^ 
but could find none of them at home, and so spent that day, 
in a state of pain and great weakness, being carried up and 
down in vain. But I used the informer kindly, and spake thit 
to him which his conscience, though a very ignorant fellow, did 
not well digest. The next day, I went with the constable and 
him, to Sir William Pulteney, who made him show his warranty 
which was signed by Henry Montague, son to the late worthy 
Earl of Manchester, as bailiff of Westminster, enabling him to 
search, after mass-priests and conventiclers. Sir William show- 
ed him and all the company, from the act, that none but a citf 
justice had power to judge me for a sermon preached in the 
city, and so the informer was defeated. As I went out of 
the house, I met the Countess of Warwick and Lady Lacy 
Montague, sister to the said Mr. Henry Montague, and told 
them of the case and warrant, who assured me, that he whose 
hand was at it, knew nothing of it ; and some of them sent to 
him, and Keeling's warrant was called in within two or three daysi 
It proved that one Mr. Barwell, sub-bailiff of Westminster, was 
he that set Keeling on work, gave him his warrant ; and told him 
how good a service it was to the church, and what he might 
gain by [it. Barwell sharply chid Keeling for not doing hit 
work with me more skilfully. Lord Arlington most sharply 
chid his brother for granting his warrant ; and within a few 
days, Mr. Barwell, riding the circuit, was cast by his horse, and 
died in the very fall. Sir John Medlicot and his brother, a few 
weeks after, lay both dead in bis house together. Shortly after 



or EICUARD BAXTRB# 309 

Keeling eame several times to have spoken with me^ to ask my 
forgiveness ; and not meeting with me, went to my friends in 
the dty^ with the same words : though a little before, he had 
boaited, how many hundred pounds he should have of the city 
justiees for refusing him justice. At last he found me within^ 
woold have fallen down on his knees to me, and asked me 
eunestly to forgive him. I asked him what had changed his 
mind j he told me that his conscience had no peace from the 
hour that he troubled me, and that it increased his disquiet, 
that no justice would hear, nor one constable of forty execute 
Ae vranrant, and all the people cried out against him ; but that 
which aet it home, was Mr. Barwell's death, for of Sir John Med- 
licoC's he knew not. I exhorted the man to universal repent- 
anee, and reformation of life. He told me he would never meddle 
in toch businesses, or trouble any man more, and promised to live 
better Umself than he had done. 

^Ae the next session of parliament approached. Bishop 
Morlejr set upon the same course again, and Bishop Ward, as 
hit aeeond and chief co-agent, joined with him ; so that they were 
fiuned to be the two bishops that were for comprehension and 
ooneord : none so forward as they. At last, Dr. Bates brought 
me a message from Dr. Tillotson, dean of Canterbury, that he 
and Dr. Stillingfleet desired a meeting with Dr. Manton, Dr. 
Bates, Mr. Pool, and me, to treat of an act of comprehension 
and union ; and that they were encouraged to it by some lords, 
both spiritual and temporal. We met to consider whether such 
an attempt was safe and prudent, or whether it was offered by 
some bishops as a snare to us. I told them my opinion, that 
experience could not suffer my charity to believe better of some 
of them ; but as they knew Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Tillotson 
to be the likeliest men to have a hand in an agreement, if such 
a thing should be attempted ; they would therefore make them- 
selves masters of it to defeat it, and no better issue could be 
expected from them. Yet these two doctors were men of so 
much learning, honesty, and interest, that I took it as our duty 
to accept the offer, and to try with them how far we could 
agree, and. whether they would promise us secrecy, unless it 
eame to maturity, when it might be further notified by consent. 
I thought that we might hope for success with these two men ; 
and, in time, it might be some advantage to our desired unity, 
that our t^rms were such as they consented to.'' ^ 

» Life, part Ui. pp. 154*157. 



It IS Irksome to record these constantly recmring mkanm of 
comprehension and union, from which nothing whatefcr 
suited, milotson suid Stillingfleet appear to have he&k 
while neither Morley nor Ward was so ; and thus, after 
meetings and discussions, Baxter, who had taken the tRmbfaof 
drawing up a ** Healing Act,'^ and sereral petitions or 
to the king, which were never used, was left only with tin 
fort of reflecting that he had conscientiously sought that 
which others either wanted the will or the power to prcMnota. 

*' While the said two bishops were fraudulently seenung to Mt 
us in this treaty, their cause required them outwardly to pietaid 
that they would not have me troubled ; but I was still die fint 
that was hunted after and persecuted. For even while I waa in 
this treaty, the informers of the city, set on work by the Inabopa^ 
were watching my preaching, and contriving to load me with- 
divers convictions and fines at once, lliey found an aldeman- 
justice, even in the ward where I preached, fit for their dengn, 
one Sir Thomas Davis, who understood not the law, but was 
ready to serve the prelates in their own way. To him, cmth was 
made against me, and the place where I preached, for two aer^ 
mons, which came to threescore pounds fine to me, and fbw- 
score to the owner of the place where we assembled ; but I only 
was sought after and prosecuted. 

^ The execution of these laws, which were to ruin us for 
preaching, was so much against the hearts of the citizens, that 
scarcely any could be found to execute them. Though the cor- 
poration oath and declaration had new moulded the city, and all 
the corporations of the land, except a few, such aa Taunton, 
which were entirely dissolved by it, the aldermen were;, £or 
the most part, utterly averse to such employment; ao that, 
whenever an informer came to them, though they forfeited a 
hundred pounds every time they refused to execute their office, 
some shifted out of the way, and some plainly denied and re- 
pulsed the accusers, and one was sued for it. Alderman Forth 
got an informer bound to his behaviour, for breaking in upon 
him in his chamber, against his will. Two fellows, called Stroud 
and Marshall, became the general informers in the city. In ail 
London, notwithstanding that the third parts of those great 
fines might be given the informers, very few could be found to 
do it : and those two were presently fallen upon by their credi- 
tors on purpose. Marshall was laid in the Compter for debl^ 
where he remained for a considerable time ; but Stroud, keeping 



OF EJCBAftD BAXTBB* 311 

% eifiMkhcme, was not so deep in debt, and was baiied. Had 
)a ttnuiger of anothei; land come into London, and seen five or 
six poor, ignorant, sorry fellows, unworthy to have been inferior 
aervwits to an ordinary gentleman, hunting and insulting even 
the ancient aldermen, and the lord mayor himself, and all tha 
icfeiend, faithful ministers that were ejected ; while eigbty*mne 
chmnehea were destroyed by the fire ; and, in many parishes, the 
diurches yet standing, could not hold a sixth or tenth part of 
die people, yet those that preached for nothing were prosecuted 
to utter ruin, with such unwearied eagerness, sure he would 
ha«e wondered what these prelates and prosecutors were« It may 
' eoimnce us that the designation Sm^jSaXm (false accusers), given in 
S c ri ptur e to some, is not unmeet, when men pretending to be the 
iiltiers of the church, dare turn loose half-a-dozen paltry, silly 
fdlows, that know not what they do, to be to so many thousand 
•ober men, as wolves among the sheep, to the distraction of 
ioeh a city, and the disturbance of so many thousands for wot « 
shipping God. How lively doth this tell us, that Satan, the 
prince of the aerial powers, worketh in the children of disobe* 
dience ; and that his kingdom on earth is kin to hell, as Christ's 
kingdom is to heaven 1 

^ When I understood that the design was to ruin me, by heap«« 
ing up convictions, before I was heard to speak for myself, E 
went to Sir Thomas Davis, and told him, that I undertook to 
prove I broke not the law, and desired him that he would pass 
no judgment till I had spoken for myself before my accusers; 
Bat I found him so ignorant of the law, as to be fully persuaded 
that if the informers did but swear in general that I kept an un-J 
lavrftil meeting on pretence of a religious exercise in other 
manner than according to the liturgy and practice of the church 
of England, he was bound to take this general oath for proof, 
and to record a judgment ; so that the accusers were indeed the 
judges, and not he, I told him that any lawyer would soon tell 
him the contrary, and that lie was judge whether by particular 
proof they made good their general accusation, as in case a 
man be accused of felony or treason, it is not enough that men 
swear that he is a felon or traitor, they roust name what the 
act was, and prove him guilty. Though I was at charge in 
feeing counsellors to convince him and others, yet I could not 
persuade him out of his mistake. I told him that if this were 
so, any two such fellows might defame and bring to fines and 
punishment himself and all the magistrates and parliament men 



512 THX LIFE AND TIlifJKf 

themselves^ and all that meet in the parish churches, and they 
iKOuld have no remedy. At last, he told me that he would cooMilt 
vrith other aldermen at the sessions, and they would go one way. 
When the sessions came, I went to (xuildhall, and again denied 
that I might be heard before I was judged; but though the other 
aldermen, save two or three, were against such doingSf I could 
not prevail with him ; but professing great kindness, he thai bid 
all on Sir John Howell, the recorder, saying that it waa hb 
judgment, and he must follow his advice. I requested him, and 
Sir Thomas Allan, to desire the recorder that I might be heaid 
before I was judged, and as it must pass by his judgment, 
that he would hear me speak ; but I could not procure it^ as the 
Mcorder would not speak with me. When I saw their tcsobh 
tion, I told Sir Thomas Davis, if I might not be heard, I would 
record to posterity the injustice of his judgment. But I per* 
ceived that he bad already made the record, though he had not 
yet given it in to the sessions. At last, upon consultation with 
his leaders, he granted me a hearing, and three of the infonneit 
that had sworn against me met me at his house." ® 

At this meeting, Baxter was charged by the informers with 
preaching in an unconsecrated place, with being a NonconfiMr- 
mist, and with not using the common prayer. These accusations 
he met in such a way as confounded the informers andperplesced 
the alderman, who accordingly suspended his warrant to distrain. 

^^ In the mean time, the parliament met on the 13th of April, 
1675, and fell first on the Duke of Lauderdale, renewing their 
desire to the king, to remove him from all public employment and 
trust. His chief accusing witness was Burnet, late public professor 
of theology at Glasgow, who said that he asked him whether the 
Scotish army would come into England, when Lauderdale replied, 
that if the dissenting Scots should rise, an Irish army should 
cut their throats, &c. But because Burnet had lately magnified 
the said duke, in an epistle before a published book» many 
thought his testimony how to be more unsavoury and revenge- 
fiil ; every one judging as he was affected, p But the king sent 

* lAftf part iii. pp. 165, 166. 

V Baxter refers here to Bishop Burnet's * Vindication of the Autboritj and 
Constitution of the Church of Scotland/ 12mo, 1673, which is dedicated ta 
the duke, who was then the kinj^'s commissioner for Scotland. Burnet liiai- 
self, was at the time professor of theolojpy in the Unirersity of Glas|^w« The 
dedication is abundantly fulsome and adulatory. The duke's ** paCrocinj/' 
the author very earnestly implores. The style of this document It not much 
hi harmony with the character which Burnet afterwards gave of Iht Mofy 



OF BICHAIU9 BAmnt. 313 

tfiem mMwer, that the words were spoken before his late act of 
pfdoD, which, if he should violate, it might cause jealousies in 
hia subjects, that he might do so also by the act of indemnity* 

^Tbeir next assault was against the lord, treasurer, the Earl 
of Dnby, who found more friends in the House of Commons, 
vUdi at last acquitted him. But the great work was in the 
Hoose of Lords, where an act was brought in to impose such an 
oath on lords, commons, and magistrates, as was imposed by 
the Oxford act of confinement on ministers, and like the corpo- 
lation oath 3 of which more anon. It was now supposed that 
the bringing of the parliament under this oath and test, was 
the great w6rk which the house had 'to perform. The sum of 
it was, that none commissioned by the king may be by arms 
tesisted, and that none must endeavour any alteration of 
tiie government of church or state. Many lords spake vehe* 
itly against it, as destructive to the privileges of their house, 
should vote freely, and not be pre-obliged by an oath 
to the prelates. The Lord Treasurer, the Lord Ke^r, with 
Bishop Morley, and Bishop Ward, were the great speakers for 
it; and the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord HoUis, Lord Halifax, 
the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Salisbury, the chidT 
qieakers against it ; they that were for it being the major part, 
many of the rest entered their protestation against it. 

^The protesting lords having many days striven against the 
test, and being outvoted, attempted to join to it an oath for 
honesty and conscience, in these words : ^ I do swear, that I 
will never by threats, injunctions, promises, or invitations, by or 
from any person whatsoever, nor from the hopes or prospects of 
any gift, place, office, or trust whatever, give my vote, other 
dian according to my opinion and conscience, as I shall be truly 
and really persuaded upon the debate of any business in parlia- 
ment.* But the bishops on their side did cry it down, and cast 
it out. 

*^ The debating of this test, did more weaken the interest 

ftc^-Htf/. vol. i. pp. 142 — 144. I suspect the bishop himself did not rej^rd 
this publication as among^ the wisest things he ever did. In his * Own Timet/ 
however, he explains the circumstances in which he' appeared against the 
ifaike, and defends himself a^inst the char^ of Ingratitude or revenge.— 
vol. i* pp. 123— 12*^. Bishop Burnet acknowledged to Calamy that ** if he had 
any acquaintance with serious, vital religion, it was owing to bis reading^ 
Baatitr's practical works in his younger days. These works he greatly ex* 
toUedy saying many handsome things of Baxter and his writings ; but ex« 
pwi s c d his dislike of the Biultitude of his di8tinctioii8.*'««Cafoiiijf'# Own Ltft, 
¥oLi«p.46a» 



914 THX Wn AND TlliXS 

and reputation of the bishops with the nobles, thaft any Haag 
that ever befell them after the king came in : so mueh dolh wh 
quiet orer-doing tend to undoing. The Lords, that would not 
have heard a Nonconformist say half so much, when it came 
to be their own case, did long and vehemently plead against 
that oath and declaration being imposed upon them, wUeh 
they, with the Commons, had before imposed upon otbent 
They exercised so much liberty, for many days together, in op* 
posing the bishops, and by free and bold speeches against thdr 
test, as greatly turned to the bishops' disparagement. The 
JBarl of Shaftesbury, the Duke of Buckingham, the £vl «f 
Bristol,^ the Marquis of Winchester, the Earl of SaHabnry, 
Lord HoUis, Lord Halifax, and the Lord of Aylesbnry, die- 
tinguished themselves in the debate; wbicb set the tonguea of 
men at so much liberty, that the common talk was against the 
bishops. It was said there were so few among the bishopa, ahle 
to speak to purpose. Bishop Morley, of Winchester, and Bishop 
Ward, of Salisbury, being their chief speakers, that they greir 
very low, even as to the reputation of their parts. 

'* At last, though the test was carried by the majority, those 
who were against it, prevailed to make so great an alteration of 
it as made it quite another thing, and turned it to the greatest 
disadvantage of the bishops, and the greatest accommodaticHi of 
the cause of the Nonconformists, of any thing that this parKa- 
ment ever did, for they reduced it to these words of a declare* 
tion and an oath. 

'^ ^ I, A. B., do declare that it is not lawful, on any pretenoe 
whatsoever, to take arms against the king ; and that I do abhor 
that traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against 
his person, or against those that are commissioned by him ao^ 
cording to law, in time of rebellion and war, in acting in pur<« 
suance of such commission.' 



4 Bristol was a Roman Catholic, but appears to have opposed this bHI 
much the same grounds with the Protestant dissenters. He >considertd that 
it endangered the constitution and interests of the country. — JRapm, vol. ii. 
p. 670. 

' The declaration ori^nally proposed, was as follows: — ** I, A. B., dodiw 
clare, that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatever, to take up anus 
against the king ; and that I do abhor that traitorous fiosition of taking amt 
by bis authority, against his person, or against those who are eomralstioiitd 
1^ bim, in pursuance of such commission ; and 1 do swear that i will not, al 
any time, endeavour the alteration of the government, either in church off 
state— So help me God,' *^Loeke"s fVorks^ vol. x. p. 213. The modifying 
clauses finally introduced, did not alter the spirit or principle of the mtmswe, 
but rendered the oath ambiguous^ and thus so far extracted its poison. 



of RICHARD BAXTRR4 SIS 

^ ' I^ A« B^ do swear that I will not endeavour an akcratioit 
ef the Ph^testant religion now established by law in the chureh 
of England ; nor will I endeavour any alteration in the gopcm- 
nent of this kingdom in church or state, as it is by law esta- 
Wished.' ''> 

Baxter mentions that the Nonconformists would hasve takes 
this declaration and oath, had they been offered them, instead 
af the Oxford oath, the subscription for conformity, and the 
oorpoiation and vestry declarations. Bat the argumeats, bjr 
which he endeavoured to prove the lawfulness of taking then, 
thoqgfa they were doubtless satisfisiptory to his own' aund, savour 
more of the subtlety of the schoolmen, than of Christian sim- 
plicity.. By the same mode of reasoning, it would be easy to 
show the lawfiibiess of the most unjust and absurd proceedings, 
or at submission to the grossest outrages on the rights and 
liberties of men*^ 

** While this discussion was carrying on in the House oC 
Lords, and five hundred pounds voted to be the penalty of the 
refiosers of the test, before it could come to the Commons, a dif- 
ference lock place between the Lords and Commons about theb 
privilege This was occasioned by two suits that were brought 
before the Lords, in which two members of the Commona 
were parties, which led the Commons to send to the Tower Sir 
John Fagg, one of their members, for appearing at the Lords* 
bar without their consent, and four counsellors. Sir John 
Churchill, Serjeant Pemberton, Serjeant Pecke, and another, for 
pleading there. This the Lords voted illegal, and that they 
diould be released. Sir John Robinson, lieutenant of the Tower, 
obeyed the Commons ; for which the Lords voted him to be a 
delinquent ; and so far went they in daily voting at each other, 
that the king was fun to prorogue the parliament, from June 

• Life, pftrt Hi pp. 167, 168. 

aiieldon ftt this time discovered bis wonted actirity in buntini; out tepe* 
rmtists from the church of Eng^laud. Calamy has preserved another circular 
letter from him, addressed to the bishops of the province of Canterbury, en- 
joining them to make returns of the number of persons in their dioceses, of 
aU Popish recosants, and ** what number of other dissenters wera in aadi 
parish, of what sect soever, which either obstinately refuse, or wboliy absent 
themselves from the commuDion of the church of Eog^land, at such times as 
they are by law required." — Calamy^s Ahridgment^ vol. i. p. 345. 

* A full and admirable account of the memorable debate on this bill in tlie 
House of Lords, is g^vea by Locke> in his letter to a person of quality; in 
whichf availing himself of the iutimacy he enjoyed with Lord Shaftesbury, ha 
opens the sacret spriaf^s of several of the measures then proposed^— X«0cAe't 
mrhi^ YoL X. pp. 240—246, edit. 1812. 



Sid TBS XJR AND Tllin 

fhe 9th fill October the 13th; there appearing no hope of reoofi- 
eiKng them, v^ich rejoiced many that they roee withoat ckring 
iiirther •harm/' ^ 

The debate on this celebrated bill, commonly called ^ the 
Bishops' Test/' on account of their united zeal for its aeeom- 
idishment, lasted five days, before it was committed to a com- 
mittee of the whole house. It was afterwards debated rixteen 
or seventeen whole days ; the house sometimes sitting from 
morning till midnight. After it passed the committee in the 
manner described by Baxter, the grand contest arose betiveeii 
the two houses about their privileges, in consequence of wfaieh 
the king was obliged to prorogue the parliament, so that the 
bill was never reported to the house by the committee. Its 
defeat was generally ascribed chiefly to Lord Shaftesbury^ who 
was at the head of the country party, and who was, in private, 
greatly assisted by John Locke.^ In this manner did Phm- 
dence defeat that unjust attempt to injure the rights and liber* 
ties of the people of England. 

^^ Keeling, the informer, being commonly detested fbr 
prosecuting me, was cast into gaol for debt, and wrote 
to me to endeavour his deliverance, which I did. A while 
before, another of the chief informers of the city and my 
accuser, Marshall, died in the Compter, where his creditors 
laid him, to keep him from doing more harm; yet did 
not the bishops change or cease. Two more informers 
were set on work, who first assaulted Mr. Case's meeting, 
and next got in as hearers into Mr. Read's meeting, where 
I was preaching. When they would have gone out to fetch 
justices, for they were known, the doors were locked to 
keep them in till I had done ; and one of them, supposed to 
be sent from Fulham, stayed weeping. Yet went they straight 
to the justices, and the week following heard me agun, as 
informers, at my lectures ; but I heard nothing more of their 
accusation, 

*^ Sir Thomas Davis, notwithstanding all his warnings and 
confessions, sent his warrants to a justice of the division where 
I dwelt, to distrain on me, upon two judgments, for fifty pounds, 
for preaching my lecture in New-street.^ Some Conformists are 

« Life» part Hi. p. 171. * Lord King's < Life of Locke/ p. 37. 

r When the warranti were issued by Sir Thomas Davis, Baxter says, " My 
wife did, without anj repining^, eucourag^e me to undergo the loss, and did 
herself take the trouble of removing and hiding my library awhile (many 
soorss of books being so loit), and after, to give it away, bondjlie^ some to 



or RICBABJ> BAxniu S17 

paid to the Value of twenty pounds a sermon for their preaehiog, 
and I inost pay twenty pounds, and forty pounds, a sermon, for 
preaching for nothing, O, what pastors hath the church of 
England, who tlunk it worth their unwearied hbonrs, and all 
the odium wluch they contract from the people, to keep such as 
I am from preaching the Gospel of Christ, and to undo us for it 
as fur as they are able ; though these many years they do notf 
for they cannot accuse me for one word Uiat ever I preached, 
nor one action else that I have done ; while the greatest of tho 
Inihops preach not three a year themselves ! 

^ The dangerous crack over the market-house, at St. James's, 
pm many upon desiring that I had a larger and safer place for 
meeting; and though my own dulness, andgreat backwardness to 
tnmblesome business, made me very averse to so great an under^^ 
taking, judging that it being in the face of the court, it would 
never be endured, yet the great and incessant importunity of 
many, out of a fervent desire of the good of souls, did constrain 
me to undertake it. When it was almost finished, in Oxenden* 
street, Mr. Henry Coventry, one of his majesty's principal secre* 
taries, who had a house joining to it, and viras a member of 
parfiament, spake twice against it in the parliament, but no one 
seconded him/' * 

For the building of this place he received considerable sub* 
scriptions from a number of respectable and wealthy persons. 
Among the most distinguished of these were, Lady Armine, Sir 
John Maynard, Sir James Langham ; the Countesses of Clare, 
Tyrconnel, and Warwick, the Ladies Clinton, Hollis, Richards^ 
and Fitzjames ; Mr. Hambden ; Alderman Ashurst, &c. 

By the zeal and influence of his wife, another place was built 
in Bloomsbury for Mr. Read, in which Baxter engaged to help 
him occasionally : but he was still doomed to be harassed and 
hunted by his persecutors. The following is a painful statement 
of what he endured ; while it supplies an interesting illustration 
of the kindness of Providence which he experienced, as well as 
of the happy state of his mind ; 

'* I was so long wearied with keeping my doors shut against 
them that came to distrain on my goods for preaching, that I 
was fain to go from my house, and to sell all my goods, and to 

New England, and the most at home, to avoid distrainiof on tbem/'-^^r* 
mmn •/Mrs. Baxter^ p. 70. It appears that he lent valuable prcieiitt of books 
to Harvard College. 
• LifCj part lit. pp. 171 



316 THB Un AKD TIMM 

Ude my Ubrary fint, and afterwards to tell it$ ao that tf boob 
had been my treasure (and I valued little more on earth), I had 
now been without a treasure. For about twelve years, 1 was 
driven a hundred miles from them ; and when I had paid dear ftr 
the carriage, after two or three years, I was forced to aell theoL 
The prelates, to hinder me from preaching, deprived me also of 
these private comforts ; but God saw that they vrere my snare. 
We brought nothing into this vrorld, and we must carry nothing 
out. The loss is very tolerable. 

^^ I was the more willing to part with goods, books, and aD, 
that I might have nothing to be distrained, and so go on to 
preach ; and accordingly removing my dwelling to the new 
chi^l which I had built, I purposed to venture to preach in it, 
there being forty thousand persons in the parish, as b rappoaed, 
more than can hear in the parish church, who have no place to 
go to for Ood's public worship; so that I set not up church 
against church, Init preached to those that must else have had 
none. When I had preached there but once, a resolution waa 
taken to surprise me the next day, and send me for six months 
to the common gaol, upon the act for the Oxford oath. Nol 
knowing this, it being the hottest part of the year, I agreed to 
go for a few weeks into the country, twenty miles off; but the 
night before I should go, I felt so ill, that I was fain to send to 
disappoint both the coach and my intended companion, Mr« 
Sylvester, When I was thus fully resolved to stay, it pleased 
God, after the ordinary coach hour, that three men, from three 
parts of the city, met at my house, accidentally, just at the same 
time, ahnost to a minute ; of whom, if any one had not been 
there, I had not gone ; viz., the coachman again to urge me, 
Mr. Sylvester, whom 1 had put off, and Dr. Cox, who oompdled 
me, and told me he would, else, carry me into the eoach. It 
proved a special, merciful providence of God; for, after one 
of languishing and pain, 1 had nine weeks' greater ease than 
I expected in this world, and greater comfort in my woiic. For 
my good friend, Richard Beresford, esq., clerk of the Exeheqaer, 
whose importunity drew me to his house, spared no cost^ labour, 
or kindness, for my health or service.'' * 

The extraordinary variety of Baxter's diseases, the ename- 
ration of which follows this passage, would be any thing but 
entertainment to the reader: suflSce it to say, that he was, for 
many years, a living wonder to himself, and to those who were 

* Llfei part iii. p. 17^* 



Of HIGIURD BAXTIR. 819 

aoqounfeed with his condition. It is amazing how he eould 
exist, and atiU more wonderful how he was capable of the un- 
cettiq; labour in public or in writing, in which he was engaged. 
ThoQgh " in deaths oft/' he prosecuted, with unremitting and 
growing ardour, the service of his Master, and the salration of 
hii fellow-creatures. 

^ B^ng driven from home, and having an old license yet iu 
fora^ by the countenance of that, and the great industry of Mr* 
Beresibrd, I had leave and invitation for ten Lord's days, to 
preach in the parish churches round about. The first parish that 
I preached in, after thirteen years' ejection and prohibition, was 
Rickmersworth, after that at Sarrat, at King's Langley, at 
Cbeibam, at Chalford, at Amersham, and that often twice a 
day. Tliose heard, who had not come to church for seven years ; 
ladtfro or three thousand heard, where scarcely an hundred were 
woDt to come, and with so much attention and willingness as 
gave me very great hopes that I never spake to them in vain | 
thot soul and body had these special mercies, * 

" But the censures of men pursued me as before : the envious 
•ort of the prelatists accused me, as if I had intruded into the 
parish churches too boldly, and without authority. The quar* 
relsome Sectaries, or Separatists, did, in London, speak against 
me, for drawing people to the parish churches and the liturgy^ 
and many gave out that I did conform. All my days, no* 
^iug hath been charged on me as crimes, so much as my cost- 
liest and greatest duties. But the pleasing of God, and saving 
^uls, will pay for all. 

^^The country about Rickmersworth, abounding with Quakers, 
because W. Penn, their captain, dwelleth there, I was desirous 
^hat the poor people should once hear what was to be said for 
^heir recovery, which coming to Mr. Penn's ears, he was for* 
^ard to a meeting, where we continued speaking to two rooms 
'ull of people, fasting, from ten o'clock till five.** One lord, 
^Wo knights, and four conformable ministers, beside others, being 
present; some all the time, some part. The success gave me 

^ No account of this meeting has been printed, as far as is known to me ; but 
Part oi the oorrespoodeuce between Penn and Baxter remains. From the let* 
^rs oi Penn it appears that Baxter proposed the meetinjf, to which Penn ae» 
Ceded. A second meetiug appears to have been demandedi but does not seem 
to have taken place. Peon's language to Baxter, in two of his letters, i« vciy 
abusive. He tells him, " I perceive the scurvy of the mind is thy distemperj 
and I fear it is incurable. 1 had rather be Socrates at the day of judgment, 
than Richard Baxter/'. la the lait Itttsr, however, he speaks in a much mora 



820 THS LIFB AKD TIlfBS 

cmiise to believe that it was not labour lost : an acoomit of Ae 
conference may be published ere long, if there be cause.* 

^ While this was my employment in the country^ my frioidi 
at home had got one Mr. Seddon^ a Nonconformist, of Deilijfi- 
shire, lately come to the city as a traveller, to preach the seeool 
sermon in my j(ew-built chapel ; he was told, and overtoUy dl 
the danger, and desired not to come if he feared it. I had kit 
word, that if he would but step into my house through a door, 
he was in no danger, they not having power to break open sBf 
but the meeting house. While he was preaching, three juitieeii 
supposed of Secretary Coventry's sending, came to the door to 
seize the preacher. They thought it had been I, and had 
prepared a warrant upon the Oxford act, to send me (or as 
months to the common gaol. The good man, and two wok, 
honest persons, entrusted to have directed him, left the hove 
where they were safe, and thinking to pass away, came to the 
justices and soldiers at the door, and there stood by them till 
some one said, * This is the preacher ;' and so they took tisit 
blotted my name out of the warrant and put in his ; thoogh 
admost every word fitted to my case was folse of his. To the 
Gate-house he was carried, where be continued almost three 
months of the six : and being earnestly desirous of deliveranoei 
I was put to charges to accomplish it, and at last, having 
righteous judges, and the warrant being found faulty, he had 
an habeas corpuSy and was freed upon bonds to appear again 
the next term." ^ 

Baxter was now placed in great jeopardy. His prosecutors 
were exasperated against him, and determined, if possible, to 
succeed in the next warrant, which they only waited an oppor- 
tunity to get against him. Several of the justices, however, 
who had been his greatest enemies, died. At the same time, be 
lost his kind and excellent friend, Judge Hale, to whom he had 
often been indebted, and of whose death he speaks in a very 
affecting manner. Before proceeding to notice his next trialSf 
I shall just mention the books which he wrote during the period 
which this chapter embraces. 

courteous style ; aod acknowledg^es the great civility he had experienced froia 
Baxter at the roeetiug. The correspondence is curious, as showing, ia one 
nvay^ that Penn was both a man of talents and a gentleman ; and, in another, 
that, when excited by his religious views, he was rabid and vulgar. Baxter 
could be severe, but it was the severity of ao ardent and ingenuous miodi 
Ibe severity of Penn is sheer ribaldry.— ^axffr's MSS, 
« Ufe, partiii. 174. ^ Ibid. p. 174^ 175^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. S2l 

He paUbhed, in 1671> his Defence of the Principles of Love 
—His Answer to Exceptions against it— The Divine Appoint- 
meat of the Lord's Day — ^The Duty of Heavenly Meditation— 
Hidiness the Design of Christianity — ^The Difference between 
die Power of Magistrates and Church Pastors — ^Vindication of 
God's Goodness — Second Admonition to Mr. Bagshayv. In 
1672} appeared More Reasons for the Christian Religion — 
Dteertion of the Ministry Rebuked — Certainty of Christianity 
irithout Popery — A Third Answer to Bagshaw. In 1673 
nd I674j he published his Christian Directory, on which he 
had .been employed for some years. In these two years, he 
•bo published his Full and Easy Satisfaction, and his Poor 
Man's Family Book, tn 1675, he produced his Catholic The- 
oliigy^^a folio volume, which was followed by several other 
pieees in the course of that and the following year, which 
I need not now enumerate. Looking at the number and 
variety of these works, this must have been one of the busiest 
periods in his life as a writer. He preached less ; but during 
Ui affictive retirement, he laboured incessantly with his pen. 
Hie mere oversight of the press of so many works, would have 
been employment enough for an ordinary man. But Baxter 
■mat not -be measured by this standard. He lived but to labour; 
«id labour was his life. 



VOL. I. 



8SS THS L1f£ ANl> TIMBI 



CHAPTER XL 
1676— 168U 



Baxter retumes preacbing: in the parish of St. Martin-— Koncoiif^malMft 
ag;ain persecuted— Dr. Jane — ^Dr. Mason— Baxter preacbei in SfralkNK 
itreet— Compton, Bishop of London— Lamplui^h, Bishop of £telar-44loyil> 
Bishop of Worcester— Various slanders af^inst Bajcter— Death of Dr.MwlW 
— Pinner's*HaU Lecture-^Popiih Plot— Earl of Danby— Baater'a intcrfih^ 
reace on behalf of banished Scotsmen — H unitarians— the haag Parilameni 
of Charles 11. dlssolfed- Transactions of the New Pariianent— Bill of Ba«» 
elusion— Meal-Tub Plot— BaateVs ReEections on the Timee— Writinci- 
Death of Friends^^udge Hale— Stubbs— Corbet— Gouge— Ashnnt-^Bas* 
ter*s Step-mother-^Mrs. Baxter. 

In the latter years of Baxter's life, the information whtch he hii 
furnished respecting himself, is much less particular, than whai^ 
he has supplied respecting the earlier and more bustling perioA. 
of it. As he advanced in age, he appears to have lived more 
retired ; and either from choice, or from necessity, took a le8» 
active part in public affairs. His ill state of health rendered 
retirement absolutely necessary, and his experience of ths 
uselessness of contending against the disposition of the govern—' 
ment, and the bigotry of the church, probably reconciled 
to wait and pray for better times, which happily he lived to 
The gleanings of his last days, however, we must endeavour* 
carefully to gather up. He thus resumes his narrative : 

" Wheu I had been kept a whole year from preaching in the 
chapel which I built, I began in another, in a tempestuous time^ 
on account of the necessity of the parish of St. Martin ; where 
about 60,000 souls had no church to go to, nor any public 
worship of God ! How long. Lord ! 

'< About February and March, 1676, it pleased the king im- 
portunately to command and urge the judges, and London jus* 
tice8,to put the laws against Nonconformists in .execution ; but 
the nation was backward to it. In London they were often and 
long commanded to it 3 till, at last^ Sir Joseph SbeldoUj the 



OF RICHAID BAXniU 823 

AfdilMiop of Canterbury's near relation^ being lord mayor, on 
April 80th, the execution began. They were required especially 
to send all the ministers to the common jails for six months, on 
the Oxford act, for not taking the oath, and dwelling within 
five miles. This day, Mr. Joseph Read was sent to jail, being 
taken out of the pulpit, preaching in a chapel in Bloomsbury, 
in the parish of St. Giles. He did so much good to the poor 
^orant people who had no other teacher, that Satan owed him 
a MaliciouB disturbance. He had built the chapel in his own 
house (with the help of friends), in compassion to those people^ 
wiio^ as they crowded to hear him, so did they follow him to 
the justiees, and to the jail, to ^ow their affection. It being 
the plaee where I had been used often to preach, I suppose was 
iomewhat the more maliced. The very day before, I had new 
sctret hints of men's desires of reconciliation and peace, and 
motions to offer some proposals towards them, as if the bishops 
were at last grown peaceable. To which, as ever before, I 
yielded^ and did my part, though long experience made me sus- 
pect that some mischief was near, and some suffering presently 
to be expected from them. 

^ Mr. Jane, the Bishop of London's chaplain,* preaching to 
Ibe lord mayor and aldermen, in the month of June, turned his 
<Mioii against Calvin- and me. My charge was, that I had 
sent as bad men to heaven as some that be in hell ; because, in 
ny book called the ' Saint's Rest,' I had said, that I thought of 

* Dr. Janey of whom Baxter givt% this account, was one of the highest of 
the bifb charchnen of his day. His father was a member of the Long Par- 
liaaeot ; oae of the most decided frieods of the kiojc ; aud author of the 
CnctvaxXorsf, the * Ima^ unhroken/ in answer to Milton's EtKotwox^nity 
Ui€ * Image Broken.' The sou was educated at Westminster and Oxford, and 
Bo doobC expected to rise high in the church, for his father's services. He does 
Bot appear, however, to have advanced beyond the deanery of Gloucester, 
vhich he held with the precentorship of the church of Exeter. He had 
^^ principal ahave in drawiof: up the famous decree passed by the University 
^ CbLford, on the 21st of July, 1683, condemning the |X)litical princi- 
ples and writings of Locke, Baxter, Owen, and others of their description. 
^^ the !Mth of that month, it was presented to Charles II., in the presence of 
^he Duke of Yoik, by Dr. Jane and Dr. Huntingdon, but had the honour to 
^ harnt by the common hangman, by order of the House of Lords, in 1710. 
Notwithstanding the principles avowed in this document, Dr. Jane was one of 
'^^Hir sent to the Prince of Orange, when on his march to London, with an 
^^erof the University plate, to his highness, who declined it; but Jane 
bought his services then so important, that he took the opportunity of soli- 
^^tiog for himself the see of Exeter. This could not be obtained : in conse- 
HUence of which he remained secretly disaffected to King William, during 
^U reign. Jane died in MIG.—Birch^s Life of TiUoUon, pp. 173, 174. 

y 2 



324 THE LIFB AND TIMES 

heaven with the more pleasure, because I should there meet 
with Peter, Paul, Austin, Chrysostom, Jerome, Wicliff, I^ither, 
Zuinglius, Calvin, Beza, fiullinger, Zanchy, Parseus, Piscator, 
Hooper, Bradford, Latimer, Glover, Sanders, Philpot, RejmoMi,. 
Whittaker, Cartwright, Brightman, Bayne, Bradshaw, BoltoOy 
Ball, Hildersham, Pemble, Twisse, Ames, Preston, Sibbsi 
Brooke, Pym, Hampden. Wliich of. these the man knew to be 
in hell, I cannot conjecture : it is likely those who differed firom 
him in judgment; but till he prove his revelation, I shall not. 
believe him. 

^^ This makes me remember how, this last year, one Dr. 
Mason, a great preacher against Puritans,' preached against me 
publicly in London ; saying, that when a justice was aendiQg 
me to prison, and offered to let me stay till Monday, if I 
would promise not to preach on Sunday, I answered, ^ 1 ,9Ml 
nof,' equivocating; meaning, I shall not jpromwe, when he thought 
I meant, I shall not preach, O, these, say the malignants, are 

your holy men ! and was such a falsehood fit for a . 

pulpit ? Yet such men never spake one word to my face in their . 
lives ! The whole truth is this ; Ross and Phillips, being ap- 
pointed to send me to prison, for preaching at Brentford, shot 
the chamber doors, and would neither show nor tell me who 
was my accuser or witness, or let any one living be present bat 
themselves. It being Saturday, I requested to stay at home to set 
my house in order till Monday. Ross asked me, whether I would 
promise not to preach on Sunday ? I answered, ^ No ; I shall 
not :' the man not understanding me, said, ' Well, you promise 
not to preach.' I replied, * No, Sir, I tell you ; I will not pro- 
mise any such thing : if you hinder me, I cannot help it, bat I 
will not otherwise forbear.' Never did I think of equivocatimi. 
This waB my present answer, and I went straight to prison upon 
it ; yet did this Ross send this false story behind my back, and 
among courtiers and prelatists it passed for current, and was 
worthy Dr. Mason's pulpit impudency. Such were the men 
that we were persecuted by, and had to do with. Dr. Mason . 
died quickly after. 

" Being denied forcibly the use of the chapel which I had 
built, I was obliged to let it stand empty, and pay thirty pounds 

' The person of whom Baxter ^ives this account was, I apprebeod). 
Charles Mason, who was made rector of St. Mary Woolchurcb, in 160l» * 
prebendary of St. J'aul's in 1663, and collated to the rectory of St ?fX^ 
Le Poor, in 1669. He was author of two or three serraoni, of which 1 knuV - 
Bothio|^. He died ia 1677. 



op AICHARD BAXTER. ' 825 

• 

annom for the ground-rent myself, and glad to preach for 

'Nothing, near it, at a chapel bfiilt by another for gain, in Swallow- 

•^•■^tt^f It was among the same poor people who had no preach- 

^^Sf ^® parish having sixty thousand souls in it more than the 

^l^nrch could hold. When 1 had preached there awhile, the 

•^•■esaid Justice Parry, with one Sabbes, signed a warrant to 

•^l^prehend me, and on the 9th of November, six constables, four 

*^^adle8, and many messengers, were set at the chapel doors to 

^"^ccute it. I forbore that day, and afterwards told the Duke of 

■-•auderdale of it, and asked him what it was that occasioned 

^^icir wrath against me. He desired me to go and speak 

'^th the Bishop of London.^ I did so, and he spake fairly, 

^d with peaceable words ; but presently, he having spoken 

bIso with some others, it was contrived that a noise was 

raised, against the bishop at court, that he was treating 

of a peace with the Presbyterians. But after awhile, I went to 

him again, and told him it was supposed that Justice Parry was 

either set at work by him, or at least a word from him would 

take him oiF; I desired the bishop, therefore, to speak to him, or 

provide that the constables might be removed from my. chapel 

doors, and their warrant called in. I offered also to resign 

my chapel in Oxendon-street to a Conformist, if so be he would 

procure my continued liberty in Swallow-street, for the sake of 

the poor multitudes that had no church to go to. He did as 

good as promise me, telling me that he did not doubt to do it, 

and so I departed, expecting quietness the next Lord's day ; 

but instead of that, the constable's warrant was continued, 

though some of them begged to be excused ; and against their 

will they continued guarding the door for above four-and -twenty 

f There has been a Scots church in Swallow-street for a g^'eat manj 
yean: bat 1 believe neither the present building^, nor the congregation, 
arose from the labours of Baxter. The Enj^lish Presbyterian cong^rec^atiou 
formed by Baxter's preaching, was dissolved about the beginning of last 
century,— ff^lson* 8 Diss. Churches, vol. iv. pp. 44 — 46. 

^ Compton was raised to the see of Loudon, on the death of Hiuch- 
man. He bad formerly been a soldier, and did not take orders till he wa<% 
past thirty. He was not a man of learning, or of much talent. According 
to Buroet, he was humble and modest; but weak, wilful, and strangely wed- 
ded to a party. Yet he applied himself diligently to the business of the dio- 
cese, and was considered decidedly opposed to Popery. — Own Times, vol. ii. 
p. 144. He did not entirely forget his martial character after he wore lawn 
sleeves; for, on the landing of the Prince of Orange, he carried off the Priu* 
cess Anne to Nottingham, and marched into that town at the head of a fine 
troop of gentlemen and their attendants, as a guard for her highness. 



326 THB LIFE AND TIMBS 

Lord^s days after. So I came near the bishop no more when I 
had tried what their kindnesses and promises signify. 

^^ It pleased God about this time to take away that excellent^ 
fiuthful minister^ Mr. Thomas Wadsworth, of Southwark. Just 
when I was thus kept out at Swallow-street, his flock invited 
me to fill his place, where, though I refused to be their pastor, I 
preached many mopths in peace, there being no juatice willing 
to disturb us. This was in 1677* When Dr. William Lbyd 
became pastor of St. Martin's in the Fields, upon Lamplugh's 
preferment,* I was encouraged by Dr. Tillotson, to offer m; 
chapel in Oxendon-street^ for public worship^ which he ac 
cepted, to my great satisfaction; and now there is ccHiatan' 
preaching there; be it by Conformists or Nonconfonnists, 
rejoice that Christ is preached to the people in that pariihiK 
whom ten or twenty such chapels cannot hold."^ 

This account of the transaction was some time afterwards pul 
licly and shamelessly contradicted. Baxter, in the memoir of hi 
wife, had stated that ^^ Dr. Lloyd and his parishioners had ac 
cepted the chapel for public worship on the offer of himself an< 
his wife.""^ The author of ^ The Complete History of England,' 
after Calamy's ^ Abridgment of Baxter * was published, states 
'^ that this part of the relation, as to the offer of a chapel, i 
known to be false ;" thus giving the lie direct to Baxter's 
declaration. Lloyd, however, then bishop of Worcester, bein 
applied to for an explanation of the circumstance, stated ^^ 
Mr. Baxter being disturbed in his meeting in Oxendon-street b; 
the king's drums, which Mr. Secretary Coventry caused to 









* Dr. Lampluffh, formerly rector of St. Martin's, was raised to the liiiho| 
rick of Exeter, in 1<676; aud after the ReTolution, was made archbishop 
York. Judging from an anecdote of him told by Baxter, ' Life,' part ii' 
pp. 178, 179, he must have been both a high and a fierce roan. While 
of St. Martin's, he met old Mr. Sanger, a Nonconformist, at the bouse oi oi 
of his parishioners, who was sick, aud accosted him, '< Sir, what busing 
have you here ?" ** To visit and pray with my sick friend, who tent for me.^ ^s^" 
was the answer. The doctor then fiercely laid hold of his breast, and thm^^^sst 
him to the door, saying, '< Get out of the room, Sir ;" to the great dismay of 

the sick woman, who had shortly before buried her husband. 

>* After the cliapel in Oxendon-street, built by Baxter, had been a cbapd 
ease to the parish of St. Martin for more than a century, it fell again ii 
the hands of the dissenters. The lease of it was taken, in 1807, by 
Scots secession clmrch, ttien under the ministry of the late Rev. Dr. Jerme ^ ^l, 
who has been succeeded by my respected friend, the Rev. William Broadfc 
its present minister. — ff^U$on*s Diss. Churches, vol. iv. p. 56. 

» Life, part iii. pp. 176—179. 

" Breviate of the Life of Mrs. Baxter, 4to, p. 57. 




OP BICBARD BAXTBR. 327 

Qod^r the windows, made an offer of letting it to the 
^^riih of St. Martin for a tabernacle, at the rent of forty pounds 
^ jear; and that hiB lordship hearing itj said be liked it well. That 
••"aerefore Mr. Baxter came to him, and proposed the same 
^ing. He then acquainted the vestry with it, which took it 
%pon those terms/' ° Thus the veracity and disinterestedness of 
3axter were satisfactorily vindicated. Lloyd, who became sue- 
^caaively bishop of St. Asaph and Worcester, was one of the 
M^ informed men of his profession, and, on the whole, more 
noderate in his principles than most of them. 

'* About March, 1677; fell out a trifling business^ which I will 
nention, lest the fable pass for truth when I am dead. At a 
soffee-house, in Fuller's Rents, where many Papists and Pro- 
:eatants used to meet together, one Mr.Dyet,son to old Sir Richard 
Dyety chief justice in the north, and brother to a deceased, dear 
Mend of mine, the wife of my old, dear friend. Colonel Silvanua 
Fiiylor,^ one that professed himself no Papist, but was their fa- 
nailiar, said openly that I had killed a man with my own hand ; 
dial it was a tinker, at my door, who, because he beat his kettle 
ind disturbed me in my studies, I went down and pistoled him. 
One Mr. Peters occasioned this wrath, by oft challenging, in 
w^in, the Papists to dispute with me; or answer my books 
•gainst them. Mr. Peters told Mr. Dyet that this was so 
ahameless a slander, that he should answer for it. Mr. Dyet 
told him that a hundred witnesses would testify it was true, and 
that I was tried for my life at Worcester for it. To be short, 
lllr. Peters ceased not till he brought Dyet to my chamber to 
confess his fault, and ask my forgiveness. With him, came one 
Mr. Tasbrook, an eminent, sober, prudent Papist ; I told him 
that these usages to such as I, and far worse, were so ordinary^ 
and I had long suffered so much more than words, that it must 
be no difficulty to me to forgive them to any man ; but espe- 
cially to one whose relations had been my dearest friends ; and 
that he was one of the first gentlemen who ever showed so much 
ingenuity as to confess and ask forgiveness. He told me, he 

« Cslaniy't Abridgment, vol. i. p. 348. 

* Colonel Taylor was an officer in the parliamentary army» and served some 
years under Colonel Massey. He was an active man in the county of Here- 
IbrL He appears, however^ to have obtained favour after the Kestoration, 
and was appointed keeper of the king's stores at Harwich , where he died iu 
1678. He was a great antiquary ; a distiuguisbed amateur in music, having 
poblisbcd ' Court Ayres or Pavios,' * Almaine's Corants and Sarabands ;' and 
a good mathematician and linguist. — Jthen, Oxoiu vol. iii. p. 1175} Aukreff^ 
voL ill. p. 555« 



328 THE LTFE AND T1MB8 

'\ivould hereafter confess and unsay it, and vindicate me u openly 
as he had wronged me : I told him, to excuse him, that perhaps 
he had that story from his late pastor at St. Giles', Dr. Boreman, 
who had printed that such a thing was reported ; but I never 
heard before the particulars of the fable. Shortly after, at the 
same coflfee-house, Mr. Dyet openly confessed his fault.'' p 

'^ In November, 1 677> died Dr. Thomas Manton, to the great 
loss of London, being an able, judicious, faithful man, and one 
that lamented the intemperance of many self-conceited ministers 
and people, who, on pretence of vindicating free«grace and 
Providence, and of opposing Arminianism, greatly corrupted 'the 
Christian doctrine, and schismatically impugned Christian kife 
and concord, hereticating and making odious all who spake not 
as erroneously as themselves. Many of the Independents, in- 
dining to half Antinomianism, suggested suspicions against Dr, 
Manton, Dr. Bates, Mr. Howe, myself, and such others, as 
if we were half Arminians. On which occasion, I preached tivo 
sermons on the words of Jude, ' They speak evil of what they 
understand not.' " ^ 

These discourses, which were preached at the merchants' 
Tuesday morning lecture, at Pinner's Hall, were never, I believe, 
printed. Baxter had rashly carried some idle reports into the 
pulpit, and thus occasioned a considerable flame l^oth among the 
lecturers and the people. The preachers consisted of four Pres- 
byterians and two Independents. I believe the whole matter 
was, the Independents were more thorough systematic Calvinists 
than the Presbyterians, though there was no difference of im- 
portance between them. They finally separated in 1695, in 
consequence of the mischievous dispute about Dr. Crisp's sen- 
timents.^ 

" About October, 1678, fell out the murder of Sir Edmund 
Burry Godfrey, which made a very great change in Englaiid. 
One Dr. Titus Oates had discovered a plot of the Papists, of 
which he wrote out the particulars very largely, telling how they 
fired the city, and were contriving to bring the kingdom to Po- 
pery, and in order thereto to kill the king. He named the lords, 

'Life, part iii. p. 179. I have not quoted the tail- piece of this fooUih 
ttory. It is very odd to find such a man as Baxter accused twice of killiof 
persons. Dr. Boreman's story, to which he aUudes, is the affair of Major 
Jennings, of which we have ^ven an account, with its refutation, in pp. 69 
—71. They must hav^ been greatly at n loss for scandal, when it wm foanS 
necessary to accuse Baxter of niurdeft 

4 Life, part iii. p. 182. ' Neal's Purit. vol. v. p. 414. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 329 

SemiS^f pritttSy and others, who were the chief contrivers, and 
said that he himself had delivered to several of the lords their 
Gominissions z that Lord Bellasis was to be general. Lord Petre 
lieutenant-general. Lord Stafford major-general, Lord Powis lord 
chancellor, and Lord Arundel, of Warder, (the chief,) to be lord' 
treasuren He told who were to be the archbishops, bishops, 
&C., and at what meetings, and by whom, and when all was con* 
trived, and who were designed to kill the king. He first opened 
all this to Dr. Tongue," and both of them opened it to the king 
and oouncih He mentioned a multitude of letters, which he 
liiinself had canied or seen, or heard read, that contained all 
these contrivances. But because his father and he had once been 
Anabaptists, and when the bishops prevailed, had turned to be 
conformable ministers, and, afterward, the son turned Papist^ 
and confessed that he long had gone on with them under many 
oaths of secrecy,^ many thought that a man of so little conscience 
was not to be believed. His confessions however were received 
by some justices of the peace. None was more fonVard in the 
search than Sir Edmund Burry Godfrey, an able, honest, and 
diligent justice. While he was following this work, he was 
suddenly missing, and could not be heard of. Three or four 
days after, he was found killed near Mary-le-bonne Park. It 
was plainly found that he was murdered.^ The parliament 
took the alarm upon it, Oates was now believed ; and, indeed, 
all his large confessions, in every part, agreed to admiration. 
Hereupon the king proclaimed pardon and reward to any one 
that Would confess, or discover the murder. One Mr. Bedlow, 
that had fled to Bristol, began, and confessed that he knew of it, 

* Dr. Israel Tongue was one of the city divines, whose head was full of all 
sorts of fancies about Romish plots and conspiracies. According to Wood, 
** be understood chronology well, and spent much time and money in the art 
of alchemy. He was a person cynical and hirsute, shiftless in the world, yet 
absolutely free from covetousness.^ — Jthen. Oxon, vol. iii. p. 1260. Jt seems 
more probable that he was imposed on by Oates, than that he was a party to 
a scheme of deception. — Burnet j vol. i. pp. 424, 425. 

* From Crosby's < History of the Baptists,' it appears that this account of 
Oatet is substantially correct. He was a Baptist in his youth, and, after 
mulling the round of religious professions, was, in the latter part of his 
life, received among them again, after a separation of thirty years. In a 
aliort time, however, the church with which he connected himself was obliged 
to exclude him. He seems to have been a consummate hypocrite and villain. 
— 'DnM^, vol. iii. pp. IfiG, 182. 

"The death of Sir Edmund Burry Godfrey is a subject involved in great 
obscurity. Burnet gives a very minute account of his disappearance, and of 
the state in which his body was found, but throws no light on the manner 
ill which be came by his death. 



890 THB LIFE AND TIMBt 

and who did it, and named some of the mdnj the plaott wi^ 
time ; it was at the queen's house, called Soroeraet Hmuc^ hf^ 
Fitzgerald and Kelly, two Papist priests, and four otberm fierr]^ 
the porter. Green, Pranse, and Hill, llie priests fled ; Fhmie^ 
Berry, Green, and Hill, were taken. Pranse Brst confessed alji^ 
luid discovered the rest aforesaid, more than Bedlow knew of^ 
and all the circumstances^ and how he was carried away, and by"- 
whom ; and also how the plot was laid to kill the king. ThuMi 
Oates' testimony, seconded by Sir Edmund's murder, and Bed-^ 
low's and Pranse's testimonies, came to be generally believed^ 
Ireland, a Jesuit, and two more, were condemnedj as designing 
kill the king. Hill, Berry, and Green, were condemned for 
murder of Godfrey, and executed ; but Pranse was, by a Papist 
first terrified into a denial again of the plot to kill the king^ and. 
took on him to be distracted, but quickly recanted of this, aiicl 
had no quiet till he told how he was afflicted, and renewed all 
his testimony and confession.' 

^^ Coleman, the Duchess of York's secretary, and one of the 
Prists' great plotters and disputers, being surprised, though 
he made away all his later papers, was hanged by the former 
ones that were remaining, and by Oates's testimony j^ but the 
parliament kept off all aspersions from the duke : the hopes of 
some, and the fears of others of his succession prevailed with 
many. 

^^ At last, the lord treasurer. Sir Thomas Osborne, made Bad 
of Danby, came upon the stage, having been before the object 
of the parliament's and people's jealousy and hard thoughts. 
He being afraid that somewhat would be done against bin, 
knowing that Mr. Montague, his kinsman, late ambassador in 
France, had some letters of his in his keeping, which he thought 
might endanger him, got an order from the king to seise on all 
Mr. Montague's letters 5 who suspecting some such usage, had 

. * The character of Oates was such that no dependence could be pUead 
upon his testimony. He appears to have been a finished scoundrely who vat 
afterwards sent to the piUory for perjury in this affair, thouf^h he scent to 
have risen a little in credit after the Revolution. There is reason to beUere 
niuch of this plot was contrived entirely by him, thou|^h some circumttsaott 
l^ave a colour of truth to his statements. Baxter's account shows the degree 
of credit which it then generally obtained. They who would examine the 
subject fully must examine the histories of the period. 

y There is little doubt but that Oates perjured himself, though it it equaUjr 
certain that Coleman was a great knave, and had acted often in the most un- 
principled manner. He served masters who made no scruple of sacrififiiig 
their servants, after they had accomplished their own ends by them^p— Any 
net, vol. ii. pp. 214—216. 



OV RICHARD BAXTBRf 83 1 

Wmfid away the chief letters ; and telling the parliament 

ivfceie they were, they sent and fetched them. On the reading 

^f them they were so irritated against the lord treasurer, thaC 

^hejr impeached him in the Lords' House of high (reason. But 

Aot long after, the king dissolved the long parliament, which he 

*^^^ kept up about seventeen or eighteen years.' 

^ About thirty Scotchmen, of which three were preachers, 

^^^re by their council sentenced to be not only banished, but 

^C]^]d as slaves, to the American plantations. They were 

brought by ship to London, where divers citizens offered to pay 

^lleir ransom. The king was petitioned for them; and I went 

^te the Duke of Lauderdale, but none of us could prevail for one 

^an. At last the ship-master was told, that by a statute it was 

H capital crime to transport any of the king's subjects out of 

Biogland, where they now were, without their consent, and so 

lie set them on shore, and they all escaped for nothing.* A great 

number of Hungarian ministers had before been sold for galley 

slaves, by the emperor's agents, but were released by the Dutch 

admiral's request, and some of them largely relieved by collec- 

tiona in London.*' 

" The belt account which I have met with of the Earl of Daohy't adminis- 
tratioOy aDd of the circumBtances relating to his fall, is Hallam'B. That able 
writer^ thoogfa he does not approve of Danby's principles and conduct, neverthe- 
less idndicates bim from charges, which much more belong to his royal master 
than to him. Danby escaped from the charge of impeachment, and took out 
a pardon from the king. To. this the two Houses would not submit. After 
a great deal of altercation between the king and parliament, he was com- 
mitted to the Tower, where be remained till 1684, when be was released on 
bail. He was created Duke of Leeds in 1694. 

* The persons here referred to by Baxter were banished from Scotland, for 
the high crime of attending conventicles contrary to law. Severe as the suf- 
feriogt of the Nonconformists in England were at this period, they were no- 
thing compared with what was endured by the poor Presbyterians of Scotland. 
The Highland Watch, as it was called, was let loose upon the country : its 
inbabitants were spoiled of their goods, cast into prisons, banished, and sold 
as slaves ; and multitudes of them shot in cold blood, and otherwise but- 
cberedy aometimes with, and sometimes without, form of law. Woodrow't 
' Hiitory of the Sufferings of the Church of Scoland,' contains recitals of the 
most horrible deeds ever perpetrated in a civilized country. 

^ The Hungarian ministers referred to by Baxter, were driven out of their 
oountiy, or sold for slaves, by the Emperor of Austria. The contest which 
produccud this result was rather for civil than for religious privileges, though 
the Protestants of Hungary were treated with the utmost barbarity, chiefly on 
account of their religion. Their churches were seized, their estates and 
booses sequestered, their persons imprisoned, and dragged to public execu- 
tion. Two hundred of their ministers were, at one time, in the Spanish gal« 
leys, coupled with Turks, Moors, and malefactors. It was for the relief 
of such sufferers that British benevolence was excited.— Z>ff Foe's Life and 
TleMfyTol. !• p. 9U 



833 THB LIFE AND TIMB8 

** The long and grievous parliament, which silenced about two 
thousand ministers, and did many works of such nature^ being 
dissolved on the 25th day of January, 16/8, a new one was 
chosen^ and met on the (ith day of March, following. The 
king refusing their chosen speaker, Mr. Seymore, raised in them 
a great displeasure against the lord treasurer, thinking him the 
cause ; but after some days they chose Serjeant Gregory. The 
Duke of York removed, a little before, out of England by the 
king's command ; who yet stands to maintain his succestton. 
The parliament first impeached the aforesaid Papist lords for 
the plot or conspiracy, the Lord Bellasis, Lord Arundel^ Lord 
Powis, Lord Stafford, and Lord Petre, and after them the 
Lord Treasurer. 

^* Upon Easter day the king dissolved his privy council^ and 
settled it anew, consisting of thirty men^ most of the old ooesi 
the Earl of Shaftesbury being president, to the great joy of the 
people then, though after all was changed. On the 27th day of 
April, 1679) though it was the Lord's day, the parliament sa^ 
excited by the confession of Stubbs, that the firing plot went oo, 
and the French were to invade us, and the Protestants to be 
murdered by the 28th day of June. They voted, that the 
Duke of York's declaring himself a Papist, was the cause of all 
our dangers by these plots, and sent to the Lords to concur in 
the same vote. But the king, that week, by himself and the 
chancellor, acquainted them that he should consent to any thing 
reasonable to secure the Protestant religion, not alienating the 
crown from the line of succession ; and particularly that he would 
consent, that till the successor should take the test, he should 
exercise no acts of government, but the parliament in being 
should continue, or if none then were, that which last was should 
be in power, and exercise all the government in the name of the 
king. This offer took much with many, but most said that it 
signified nothing. For Papists easily obtain dispensations to 
take any tests or oaths; and Queen Mary's case showed how 
parliament will serve the prince's will. 

" On the Lord's day, May 1 Ith, 1679, the Commons sat ex- 
traordinarily, and agreed in two votes, first, that the Duke of 
York was incapable of succeeding to the imperial crown of Eng- 
land; secondly, that they would stand by the king and the 
Protestant religion with their lives and fortunes ; and if the king 
came to a violent death, which God forbid, tliey would be 
revenged on the Papists. The parliament was shortly after- 



OF RICHARD BAXTER^ 383 

wards duaolved while it insisted on the trial of the lord 
treasurer.^ 

Tlie bill of exclusion afterwards passed the House of Com- ' 
iBcms, and was carried to the House of Lords, where it was lost 
on the second reading, by a majority of thirty, of whom four- 
teen were bishops. This fact clearly shows the leaning of many 
of the dignitaries of the church to the arbitrary and Popish 
principles which were well known to characterise the Duke of 
York. In the same session of parliament, which passed the ex- 
dnaion bill, another business occupied their attention, which 
also brought to light the unprincipled conduct to which the 
court could resort. By an act of the 25 th of Elizabeth, it was 
provided that those who did not conform to the church, should 
abjure the kingdom upon pain of death ; and for some de- 
grees of nonconformity, they were adjudged to die, without the 
favour of banishment. Both Houses passed a bill to repeal this 
aet. It went heavily indeed in the Lords, for many of the 
Mshops, though they were not for putting the law in execution, 
thought the terror of it was of some use, and that the repeal of 
it would make the party more insolent. On the day of the pro- 
rogation, when the bill should have been presented to the king^ 
the clerk of the crown, by the king's own particular order, with- 
drew it. He could not publicly refuse it, but he would not 
pass it; and therefore resorted to this infamous method to de- 
stroy it. On the morning of the prorogation, however, as if the 
Commons anticipated something, they passed two resolutions : — 
That the laws made against recusants, ought not to be executed 
against any but those of the church of Rome ; and that in 
the cqpinion of the House, the laws against dissenters ought not 
to be executed. This was thought a great invasion of the rights 
of the other branches of the legislature ; and as it was under- 
stood to be the wish of the House that courts and juries should 
regulate their proceedings by this resolution, it gave great 
offence ; so that instead of operating as kindness to the Non- 
conformists, it raised a fresh storm against them all over the 
nation;*^ 

" There came from among the Papists more and more converts, 
that detected the plot against religion and the king. After 
Gates, Bedlow, Everard, Dugdale, and Pranse, came Jervison, a 
gentleman of Gray's Inn, Smith, a priest, and others; but 
nothing stopped them more than a* plot designed to have 

• Ufe, psrt ui. pp.183— 186. « Burnet, vol. ii. pp. 300, 301. 



384 THB LIFE AND TIMS8 

turned all the odium on the Presbyterians and the nrotettaut 
adversaries of Popery. They hired one Dangerfield, to mmarngt 
the matter; but by the industry of Colonel Mansel^ iHio ww to 
have been first accused, and Sir William Waller, the plot tMH 
fiilly detected ; and Dangerfield confessed all, and eontinueth a 
steadfast convert and Protestant to this day.* 

^But my unfitness, and the torrent of late matter here, 
stop me from proceeding to insert the history of this age. It ii 
done, and likely to be done so copiously by others, that these 
shreds will be of small signification. Every year of late hadi 
afforded matter for a volume of lamentations. But that poi^ 
terity may not be deluded by credulity, I shall truly tell then^ 
that lying most impudently in print against the most notorioai 
evidence of truth, in the vending of cruel malice against men ef 
conscience, and the fear of God, is become so ordinary a trade^ 
that it is likely with men of experience, to pass ere long far t 
good conclusion, dictum vel scriptum est h maUgfdif ergo /UU 
nan est. Many of the malignant clergy and taity, cspeeiMtf 
L'Estrange, *The Observator,'' and such others, do with io grett 
confidence publbh the most notorious falsehoods, that I nrait 
confess it hath greatly depressed my esteem of moat histocfi 
and of human nature. If other historians be like some of these 
times, their assertions, whenever they speak of such as they dis* 
taste, ought to be read like Hebrew, backward ; and are so tu 
from signifying truth, that many for one are downright lies« It 



• The above paragraph rerers to the iofamous Meal -tab plot, u it was taJM^ 
from the pretended scheme beiiif^ fouud In a small book concealed ia a mtthttiL 
The object of this »ham plot, which caused ^reat trouble to tome of tba Nna- 
couformists, was to throw the whole blame of the Popish plot on the ditscntin. 
It was by the good providence of God completely defeated. Pan gerfl e W , il 
whom Baxter, by a Strang mistake, ipeaks as a food Protestant, was aa ia^ 
famous liar. He was tried for his conduct, in King James's rei^, seBteacadli 
be whipped at the cart's tail, from New^te to Tyburn i and while undaqpolaf 
the punishment, was struck on the head by a student, which canted kll 
death, and for which the fellow wa^ justly hanged.— ihirfi«r'« Oma f\mm, 
vol. iii. p. 29. 

' * The Observator,' was a political pamphlet of three or four sheets, which 
L*Estraujre published weekly. Having lived during all the troabiee of tM 
country, and possessing an exhaustless copia verbarum, which he poured teth 
without any restraint, he was one of the most efficient instruments ot a coi^ 
rupt court which then existed. His great object was to defame the bmb of 
principle, whether out of, or in, the church ; and especially to prodnce a be^ 
lief among the clergy, that their ruin was intended. He never fUled to caa* 
suit his own interests, and obtained considerable sums for the service whidi 
he did. Henry Care was one of the ablest of L'£strange's opponents, and 
his 'Weekly Packet from Rome,' was intended as a set- off against *Thc Ob* 
strvatofy' and other productions of the same stamp* 



OP RICtiAftD BAXtM, dSS 

in no wonder perjury hath grown so common^ when the most 
impadent lying hath so prepared the way/' « 

Sneh were the sombre reflections with which Baxter con- 
eludei his brief notices of this period of his history. It is not 
nirprising that he was deeply pained^ or that he cherished the 
moat gloomy forebodings respecting his country. Religion was 
in a very perilous and oppressed condition. Tlie best men had 
been driven out of the church, and their places too generally 
inpplied by persons who cared little for the terms on which they 
enteredy provided they could secure the emoluments. The doc- 
trines of the Gospel were no longer heard in the vast majority 
of the pulpits ; and even the more respectable clergy preached 
in a cold and inefficient manner. The Nonconformists were 
continually harassed and persecuted ; many of them had died, 
or left the country, while few were rising up to fill their 
placet, or share in their tribulations, llie immoralities and 
profligacy of the court, were shocking to every sober and well- 
eonsdtuted mind. Its principles and policy were every day 
more apparently at variance with the constitution, freedom^ and 
proeperity of the country. Under the influence of France, to 
which Charles had basely sold his country to support his mis* 
tresses, the dissenters were oppressed or eased, persecuted or 
protected, as the interests of Popery, and the caprices of despot- 
ism or licentiousness, might dictate. When they suffered se- 
verely, they had not the consolation to think, that it was for 
their own attachment to truth and principle they suffered. 
They were afiSicted, oppressed, or deprived of their privileges, 
by parliament, chiefly that Roman Catholics might be punished. 
When they were relieved by the king, it was not that he cared 
for them, or had become concerned for their wrongs, but that 
he might promote the interests of a party, which, while it pre- 
tended to kiss them as fellow sufferers, was preparing to stab 
them as soon as it had the power. In such circumstances, vaiki 
was the help of man ; appeals to justice or to mercy were alike 
unavailing. Prayer and patience were the only refuge ; and to 
these the Nonconformists betook themselves, not without hope 
in Him, ^' who has engaged to hear the prayer of the destitute, 
and not to despise their prayer." 

That Baxter, *^ though cast down, was not destroyed " in 
spirit, appears from the number of books which he published 
during Uiis period, and which seem to have chiefly occupied his 

f Life, part iii. p. 187. 



336 THB LIFB AND TIMB8 

time. These related mostly, though not exclusivelyy to tibe 
Popish and Nonconformist controversies. He publbhed Sdcefe 
Arguments against Popery ; His Sermon in the Morning Es— > 
ercises, on the same subject; his Roman Tradition Examined ^ 
his Naked Popery; Which is the True Head of the Church i^ 
— ^and, On Universal Roman Church Supremacy. All thes^ 
works were on that subject which then so deeply engaged tb^ 
minds of men. 

On the other topic, he brought out in 1676, The Judgment of 
the Nonconformists ; a thick quarto volume, containing several 
tracts ; The Nonconformist's Plea for Peace ; the Second and 
Third Parts of the Plea; the Defence of it; the True and only 
way of Concord; his Church History of Bishops; his Answerco 
Dr. Stillingfleet; his Treatise of Episcopacy; his Apology for the 
Nonconformists' Ministry ; his Dissent from Dr. Sherlock ; hit . 
Search for the English Schismatic ; and, his Second True Defence 
of the Mere Nonconformists. All these, beside his Latin Metho- 
dus, and various other pieces of a miscellaneous nature^ were the 
production of four or five years only; and those, years of sorroifi 
affliction, and persecution. They evince the unsubdued ardour 
of Baxter's mind, and what importance he attached to the prin- 
ciples for which he and his brethren were called to contend and 
to suffer. When it is considered that he had only to affix his 
name to a document containing little that in itself he objected 
to, but implying his sanction of some wrong principles, with his 
approbation of unchristian exactions; by doing which he would 
not merely have escaped from reproach and suffering, but 
have risen to worldly honour and distinction ; his conduct and 
consistency entitle him to an honourable place among those, 
who have counted it a privilege, not only to believe, but also to 
suffer for the sake of Christ. Compared with this honour^ how 
poor are all the distinctions, which wealth and rank can bestowl 
None of the lords, spiritual and temporal, of his day, will be 
known over so great a portion of the world, or remembered so 
long, as Richard Baxter. 

During this period, he lost many of his most valued friendS| 
for several of whom he preached and published funeral sermons. 
Of some of these excellent individuals, it may be proper to give 
a short account. 

His excellent and attached friend. Sir Matthew Hale, whose 
character has already been given at length, took his departure, 
after a long and severe illness, on Christmas day^ 167(>« H^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR* 33? 

went into the churchyard, and chose his grave, a few days 
before his death. As a token of his love for Baxter, he left him 
forty shillings in his will ; with which, says Baxter, *^l purchased 
the largest Cambridge Bible, and put his picture before it, 
u a monument to my house. But waiting for my own death, 
I gave it Sir William Ellis, who laid out about ten pounds 
to put it into a more curious cover, and keep it for a monu- 
loeot in hb honour.'' ^ 

The Rev. Henry Stubbs was bom at Upton, on an estate 
that was ^ven to his grandfather by King James I., with whom 
he came from Scotland. After a private education in country 
schools, he was sent to Wadham College, Oxford, where he staid 
till be took his degrees. He first was minister of St. Philip's, 
Bristol, and afterward of Chew-Magna. In 1654, he was of the 
dty of Wells, and assistant to the commissioners, appointed by 
the parliament to* eject ignorant and scandalous ministers. The 
Act of Uniformity found him in Dursley ; though he was not in- 
ciimbent there, but assistant to Mr. Joseph Woodward, who 
died of a consumption before Bartholomew day. After he was 
silenced, he preached from place to place, with unwearied dili- 
gence and great success. 

On his arrival ^n London, he preached nearly every day; 
and some days twice. More than once he fell down in the pulpit 
in a fit ; but recovering, went on again ; till at last he was quite 
disabled by fever and dysentery. What much emboldened 
him was, that he had often gone into the pulpit ill, and come 
out of it better. This holy and peaceable man, who lived, 
Baxter says, " like an incarnate angel," was a minister of the 
Gospel about fifty years ; and dying in London, July 7th, 1678, 
aged 73, was interred in the new burying- place, Bunhill- 
fields. Being of a charitable disposition, he devoted the tenth 
part of his income to pious uses, with which was purchased 
four pounds per annum for Dursley and Horsley, for teaching 
poor children, and buying them books. He also gave 200/. to 
Bristol, and a like sum to London, to be annually laid out for 
the good of the poor, to buy them Bibles, and to assist poor 
ministers' widows in their necessities.' 

^Lif^IMirtii.p. 181. 

* Calamy, vol. ii. p. 318—320. It would ^e very frratifyinj: to know what 
has become of these lea^ocies ; whether they are applied for the henefit of the 
|K>or, either in Uristul ur London. 

VOL« !• Z 



S38 THB UFB AND TIMES 

Baxter preached his funeral sermoiiy from Acts xx. !24; ii 
the course of which he speaks very strongly of the emineBt 
spirituality and devotedness of this excellent man. ^ He wti 
the freest/' he says, ^* of most that ever I knew, from that deceit 
of the serpent, mentioned in 2 Cor. xi. 3, who corruptedi men 
by drawing them from the simplicity which is in Christ. Ks 
breath, his life, his preaching, his prayers, his conference^ hii 
conversation, were Christian simplicity and sincerity* Not si 
the world calleth simplicity, folly ; but as it is contrary to hy- 
pocrisy, to a counterfeit zeal, to mere affectation, to a dividU 
heart. He knew not how to dissemble or wear a mwk ; Ui 
face, his mouth, his whole conversation, laid bare his hesit 
While he passed by all quarrels, few quarrelled with him ; sod 
he had the happiness to take up head, heart, and time, with 
only great, sure, and necessary things.'^ ^ 

The Rev. John Corbet was bom and brought itp fai the eitj 
of Gloucester, and a student in Magdalen Hall, Qxon. He 
began his ministry in his native city of Gloucester, and fivsd 
for some years, under Dr. Godfrey Goodman, a Popish bishop 
of the Protestant church. Here he continued in the time of 
the civil wars, of which he was an observant but moomfiil 
spectator. His account of the siege of Gloucester, gives a good 
view of the rise and springs of the war, in a narrow compass.' 
He afterward removed to Chichester, and thence to Branisbot, 

k Workfi vol. xviii., p. 71. 

1 The little iwork referred to is, < An Historical Relation of the Milituj Go- 
vernment of Gloucester, from the Beginning of the Civil War to the Removd 
of Colonel Massie, 1645.' He wrote alto a ' Vindication of the Maf^lstralrs 
of Gloucester, from the Calumnies of Robert Bacon ; 1647,' ClanodoB ku 
given a long account of the siege of Gloucester, which is honourable to tbe 
courage and perseverance of the besieged. His representation of the ambti- 
sadors of the people, and their reply to the king's summonses, is verj gnpliic, 
bat veiy ludicrous. " Within less than tbe time prescribed, together witli tbt 
trumpeter, returned two citizens from the town, with lean, pale, sharp, tad 
bad visages ; indeed, faces so strange and unusual, and in such a garb and 
posture, that at once made the most severe countenances merry, and tbs 
moot cheerful hearts sad ; for it was impossible such ambaMadors could briif 
less than a defiance. The men, without any circumstances of dittiy or good 
manners, in a pert, shrill, undismayed accent, said, ' They bad brought ss 
answer from the godly city of Gloucester to the king ;' and were so mdf 
to give insolent and seditious answers to any question, as if their businen 
were chiefly to provoke the king to violate his own safe conduct."— iSKif* #/ 
ike ReheL vol. ii. p. 315. Their answer, notwithstanding this caricature, «bs 
hrm and respectful ; and CharleS| after exerting his utmost streiig4i vai 
at last obliged to raise the siege. 



OF RICHARD BAXtBR. 839 

ifin; of inor6 (han 200/. a year, from which he was ejected 
1662. He lived privately in and about London, till the 
ig't indulgence, in 1671^ when a part of his old flock invited 
1 to Chichester, where he continued his labours with great 
idnity and success. 

jbd a£Bicted him many years with the stone, but while the pidti 
t tolerable to nature, he endured it, and continued to preach,tili 
hia a fortnight of his being brought up to London to be cut | 
before that could be done, he left this for a better life, De« 
iber 26th, 1680."^ His funeral sermon was preached by Bax- 
who represents him, as a man of great clearness and sound- 
I in religion, and blamelessness of conversation. '^ He was of 
preat moderation and love of peace, that he hated all that was 
inst it, and would have done any thing for concord in the 
rch, except sinning against Qod, and hasarding his salva*^ 
u He was for catholic union and communion of saints, 
1 for going no further from any church or Christians than 
f force us, or than they go from Christ. He was for loving 
1 doing good to all, and living peaceably with all, as far as waa 
lit power. Something in Episcopacy, Presbytery, and Inde- 
kdeney, he liked, and some things he disliked in all. He Was 
B to his conscience, and valued not the interest of a party or 
tion. If all the Nonconformists in England had refused, he 
tdd have conformed alone, if the terms had been reduced to 
at he thought lawful. He managed his ministry with faith- 
oess and prudence. He had no worldly designs to carry on^ 
; Was eminent in self-denial. He was not apt to speak 
unst those by whom he suffered, nor was he ever pleased 
Ji ripping up their faults. He was very careful to preserve 
I reputation of his brethren, and rejoiced in the success of 
At labours^ as well as of his own ; and a most careful avoider 
all divisions, contentions, or offences. He was very free in 
cnowledging by whom he profited ; and preferring others be- 
« himself. He was much employed in the study of his own 
art ; as is evident from the little thing of his that is published, 
lied, ' Notes of Himself,' &c. He had good assurance of his 
m sincerity j and yet was not altogether without his mixture 
fears. He had the comfort of sensible growth in grace : 
easily perceived a notable increase in his faith and holiness, 
avenliness, humility, and contempt of the world, especially 
his latter years, and under his affliction, as the fruit of 



m 



Calamy, vol. ii. pp. 332—336. 

z2 



349 THB UFB AND TJMBS 

God's correcting rod ; and died at last in great aeranty and 
peace."'' 

Of another roan of the same school and character^ Baxter 
has left the following memorial : — " The Rev. Thomas Goyge 
was a wonder of industry in works of benevolence. It wonW 
make a volume to recite at large the charity he used to lu> . 
poor parishioners at St, Sepulchre's, before he was ejected 
and silenced for nonconformity. His conjunction with Alde^ 
man Ashurst and some others, in a weekly meeting, to take 
account of the honest, poor families in the city that were in 
great want, he being the treasurer and visitor ; his volontarj 
catechising the Christchurch boys when he might not preach; 
the many thousand Bibles printed in Welsh, that he dispersed ia 
Wales ; * The Practice of Piety ;' * The Whole Duty of Man;' 
^ My Call,' and many thousand of his own writings given fredy 
all over the principality ; his setting up about three or four 
hundred schools in it, to teach children to read, and the cate- 
chism ; his industry, to beg money for all this, besides most of 
his own estate laid out on it ; ' his travels over Wales once or 
twice a year, to visit his schools, and oversee the execution. This 
was true Episcopacy in a silenced minister, who went con* 
stantly to the parish churches, and was authorised by an old 
university license to preach occasionally; yet for so doing 
he was excommunicated even in Wales, white doing all this 
good. He served God thus to a healthful age, seventy-four or 
seventy-six. I never saw him sad, but always cheerful. About 
a fortnight before he died, he told me that sometimes in the 
night, some small trouble came to his heart, he knew not what: 
and without sickness, or pain, or fear of death, they heard him 
in his sleep give a groan, and he was dead. Oh, how holy and 
blessed a life, and how easy a death !"® 

Henry Ashurst, esq., was one of the most valued friends of 

" Funeral Sermon. Workr, voL xviii. pp. 185—192. The sermon ift 
founded on 2 Cor. xii. 1—9, and is oneof the most beautiful of Baxter*! dis- 
courses. It is full of striking thoughts and pathos. Corbet was a maa alto- 
gether to Baxter's taste, and of his own mode of thinkinfi^. 

^ Life, part iii. pp. 190, 191. A full account of this exceUent many who 
seems to have been quite an apostle of benevolence, is g^ven in Clark's 
< Lives.' Archbishop Tillotson, then dean of Canterbury, preached his fu- 
neral sermon, in which he speaks in the highest terms of his jftety, philaa- 
thropy, and moderation. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 341 

Bnter^ as well as one of the most distinguished lay Nonconform- 
ists of that period. He was the third son of Henry Ashurst, 
of Ashurst, in Lancashire^ by Casandra, daughter of John 
Bndshaw, of Bradshaw, in tfie same county. His father was a 
man of great wisdom and piety, and very zealous for the re- 
fenned religion in a county where Popery greatly abounded. 
Henry came to town when he was only fifteen years of age, 
where he was bound apprentice to a man void of religion, by 
vhom' he was rather severely treated. During his apprentice- 
sh*p^ however, he became decidedly religious, spent most of his 
spare time in devotion, and of his spare money in procuring 
religious books. He commenced business as a draper, with 5002., 
in partnership with a Mr. Row, who left him the whole business 
ID about three years. By his wife, he had a fortune of about 
iSOOL From this commencement, with diligence and economy, 
le acquired a very ample fortune. His generosity and zeal 
)D relieve distress during the plague and fire of London, and to 
lie distressed Nonconformist ministers, were very great, as 
MS been already noticed ; but they were not limited to this 
mmtry. 

So great was his desire of doing good, that not only England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, experienced the benefit of it, but America 
ibo. His active services for the interests of New England, both 
luring the Commonwealth, and after the Restoration, have been 
elsewhere narrated. For nineteen years after the settlement of 
he affairs of the New England Society, when he was made trea- 
lurer, he had, along with the Honourable Robert Boyle, the chief 
nanagement of the whole business. Through their instrumen-* 
ality, Elliot was enabled to carry on his evangelical labours 
imong the poor Indians^ and to translate the Scriptures into 
heir language. Mr. Ashurst left in his will a hundred pounds 
x> Harvard College, and fifty to the society. He was univer- 
Ally beloved and respected for active benevolence, and un- 
vearied zeal in doing good. Among the Nonconformists, 
le acted as a father and a counsellor, while his purse was ever 
ipen to relieve their wants, ahd his house for a refuge to them 
vhen persecuted and oppressed. He paid the fine, rather than 
lerve the office of alderman, avoiding as much as possible 
ill connexion with public affairs. " He was," says Baxter, 
^ my most entire friend, and commonly taken for the most 
!xemplary saint of public notice in the city. So sound in 
udgment, of such admirable meekness, patience^ and universal 



342 THK LIFB AND TIMB8 

charity, that we knew not where to find hit equal. After much 
•ufFering and patience, he died with great quietness of mind, and 
hath left behind him the perfume of a most honoured name, 
and the memorials of a most exemplary life, to be imitated by 
all his deseendants/'P 

Baxter preached his funeral sermon, in which he expatiates 
largely on his character and many virtues, from a very appro- 
priate passage, John xii. 26. He entitles it ^Faithful Souls shall 
be with Christ,' and dedicates it in a most affectionate addren to 
his widow ; to his son Henry, who, as well as his father, was the 
devoted friend of Baxter, and a lover pf all good men ] and to 
all his brothers and sisters. ^ 

** Near the same time," he says, ^' died my bther's second 
wife, Mary, the daughter of Sir Thomas Hunks, and sister to 
Sir Fulke Hunks, the king's governor of Shrewsbury, in the wan. 
Her mother, the old Lady Hunks, died at my father's house, be- 
tween eighty and one hundred years old ; and my mother-in- 
law died of a cancer, at ninety ^six, in perfect understanding; 
having lived, from her yduth, in the greatest mortification, an- 
^terity to her body, and constancy of prayer and all devotion, of 
any one that ever I knew. She lived in the hatred of aO sin, 
strictness of imiversal obedience, and, for thirty years, longing 
to be with Christ ; in constant, acquired infirmity of body, got by 
avoiding all exercise, and long, secret prayer, in the coldest sea- 
sons, and such-like. Being of a constitution naturally strong, 
she was afraid of recovering whenever she was ill. For some days 
before her death she was so taken with the ninety-first P^m, 
that she would get those who came near her to read it to her 
over and over ; which Psalm, also, was a great means of com- 
fort to old Beza, even against his death."' ' 

But the greatest loss which Baxter sustained was that of his 
wife, which took place, after a short but painful illness, on the 
14th of June, 1681. She was buried on the 17th of the same 
month, in Christchurch, then still in ruins, in her own mo- 
ther's tomb. " The grave," he says, " was the highest, next 
the old altar, or table, in the chancel, on which her daughter had 
caused a very fair, rich, large marble-stone to be laid, about 
twenty years ago, on which I caused to be written her titles, and 
some Latin verses, and these English ones : 

» Life, part Ui. p. 189. % Works, xviii. p. 12U > USt, part Ui« p. 189. 



OF RICHARD BAXTRR. 843 

* Tlios mmt My flesh to silent dust descend. 
Thy mirth and worldly pleasure thus will end ; 
Then, happy, holy souls ! — but wo to those 
Who heaven forgot, and earthly pleasures chose. 
Hear, now, this preaching grave :— without delayi 
Believe, repent, and work while it is day.' 

But Christ's church on earth is liable to those changes of which 
the Jerusalem above is in no danger. In the doleful flames 
of London, 1666, the fall of the church broke the marble all to 
pieces ; so that it proved no lasting n\pnument. I hope this 
paper monument, erected by one who is following even at the 
door, in some passion indeed of love and grief, but in sincerity of 
truth, will be more publicly useful and durable than that marblo 
stone was.'' * 

Howe preached the funeral sermon, and dedicated it to her 
husband. The text is, 2 Cor. v. 8 ; and the discourse is worthy 
of the talents and piety of the author ; but it contains little 
about Mrs. Baxter. He appears to have known something of 
her before her marriage, when she displayed ^' a strangely-vivid 
and great wit, with very sober conversation.'' ^ He commends 
the greatness of her mind, and her disinterestedness in choosing 
Baxter for a husband, as well as her amiable conduct after she 
became his wife. 

Of this excellent woman, so remarkably fitted to be the wife 
of such a man as Richard Baxter, we have already spoken at 
some length. The attachment, as may be guessed at from allu* 
sions occurring in certain parts of his Breviate of her Life, com« 
menced on her part, and had almost killed her in consequence 
of her effort to conceal it. Throughout, it seems to have been 
exceedingly ardent; and her husband often hints that she 
had expected more from him than she found. He also tells 
us, however, that she confessed she expected more sourness 
and bitterness than she experienced. She was active, benevo« 
lent, and intelligent ; devoted to the service of Christ ; and dis« 
posed, in every possible way, to aid her husband in his unwearied 
labours. He has said little about her in the account of his own 
life, owing to having given a full account of her in a separate 
biography. In that little work he has drawn her portrait at full 
length, detailing, with his usual minuteness and fidelity, both her 

• Mrs. Baxter's Life, p. 9^. Mrs. Baxter's mother died in 1661. He 
preached a funeral sermon for her at St. Mary Mai^alene, Milk-street, where 
he then occasionally officiated. She appears to have been an excellent^ de- 
voted Christian. — fVorkSi xviii. 1 — 56. 

^ Howe's Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Baxter, pp*40j 41. 



344 THE I.IFE AND TIMB8 

faults and virtues. ' A few ])assages from this work; will illus-' 
trate her personal character and piety. 

'^ As to religion, we were so perfectly of one mind, that I 
know not that she differed from me in any one point, or cir* 
cumstance, except in the prudential management of what we^ 
were agreed in. She was for universal love of all true Chm^ 
tians, and against appropriating the church to a party; and. 
against censoriousness and partiality in religion. She was firar 
acknowledging ail that was of God in Conformists and Noncoo^^ 
formists ; but she had much more reverence for the elder Con—- 
ibrmists tlian for most of the young ones, who ventured upon. 
things which dissenters had so much to say against, witholit 
weighing or understanding the reasons on both sides ; merely 
following others for worldly ends, without a tender fear of sin- 
ning. If any young men of her own friends were inclined merely 
to swim with the stream, without due trial of the case, it greatly 
displeased her, and she thought hardly of them. 

'^ The nature of true religion, holiness, obedience, and all duty 
to God and man, was printed, in her conceptions, in so distinct 
and clear a character, as made her endeavours and expectations 
still look at greater exactness than I, and such as I, could reach. 
She was very desirous that we should all have lived in a con- 
stancy of devotion and a blameless innocency ; and in this re- 
spect she was the meetest helper that I could have had- in the 
world, that ever I was acquainted with. For I was apt to be over 
careless in my speech and too backward to my duty, and she 
was still endeavouring to bring me to greater readiness and 
strictness in both. If I spake rashly or sharply, it offended her. 
If I carried it (as I was apt) with too much neglect of ceremony 
or humble compliment to any, she would modestly tell me of it. 
If my very looks seemed not pleasant, she would have me amend 
them (which my weak, pained state of body indisposed me to 
do). If I forgot any week to catechise my servants, and famili- 
arly instruct them personally, beside my ordinary family duties, 
she viras troubled at my remissness. And whereas of late years 
my decay of spirits, and diseased heaviness and pain, made me 
much more seldom and cold in profitable conference and dis- 
course in my house than I had been when I was younger, and 
had more ease, and spirits, and natural vigour, she much blamed 
me, and was troubled at it, as a wrong to herself and others. 
Yet her judgment agreed with mine, that too much and 
often table talk of the best things, doth but tend to dull the 



OF RICHJOID BAXTSB. 345 

anmoD hearers, and harden them under it, as a customary thing; 
nd that too much good talk may bring it into contempt, or make 

ineffectual/' "" 

Hie death of such a woman, in the prime of life (for she was 
ttle n^ore than forty when she died), was an irreparable loss to 
iaxten She had tenderly nursed him for many years, and now, 
ith increased age and infirmity, he was left to sorrow over her 
jmb, though not without hope. The decision of her character, 
be fenrency of her piety, the activity and disinterestedness 
f her Christian benevolence, left no doubt remaining that her 
pirit rested with God, where it has long since been joined by 
bat of her much-loved companion and husband* 

* Life of Mrs, Baxter, pp. 76—80. 



346 THB Lin AMD TIMM 



CHAPTER XII. 



1681—1687. 



The continued Suffering's of Baxter— Apprehended and bit Goods dittraioed 
— Could obtain no Redress— General Sufferin|rs of %hp Dissenters — ^Mayofi 
Legacy — Baxter again apprehended and bound to his good bebaTiour— 
Trial of Rosewell fur High Treason — Baxter brought before the Justices, 
and again bound over — His concluding Reflections on the State of his own 
Times — Death of Charles II. — Fox*s notice of the Treatment of the Dissen- 
ters, and of the Trial of Baxter — Apprehended on a Charge of Sedition- 
Brought to Trial — Indictment — Extraordinary Behaviour of Jefferies to 
Baxter and his Counsel — Found Guilty — Endeavours to procure a Neir 
Trial, or a mitigated Sentence — His Letter to the Bishop of London- 
Fined and imprisoned — Remarks on the Trial — Conduct of L'Estrang^- 
Sherlock — Behaviour while in Prison— The Fine remitted — Released from 
Prison— Assists Sylvester in the Ministiy. 

While friend after friend was consigned to the tomb^ and 
Baxter was left alone to endure what he justly describes as a 
living death, in the constant and increasing sufferings of his dis- 
eased and emaciated body, his enemies would allow him no 
rest. Bonds and imprisonment still awaited him. With an 
account of a series of these vexations and trials, this chapter 
is chiefly occupied. The reader will probably find it diffi- 
cult to determine whether he ought more to feel indignant at 
the treatment which an aged, infirm, and most respectable mi- 
nister of Christ endured, from a professedly Christian govern- 
ment, or admiration of the principles and temper by which it 
was sustained. The first of the iniquitous proceedings is thus 
described by himself. The latter part of the statement must 
touch the heart of every feeling individual. 

He had retired into the country, from July, 1682, to the 14th 
of August following, when he returned in grea,t weakness. *^ I 
was able," he says, " to preach only twice ; of which the last 
was my usual lecture^ in New-street^ and which fell out to be 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR* ' 847 

the 84th of Aognst, just that day twenty years that I^ and near 
€wo thousandj more, had been by law forbidden to preach. I 
^wras sensible of God's wonderful mercy that had kept so many 
€)f us twenty years, in so much liberty and peace, while so many 
severe laws were in force against us, and so great a number 
i¥ere round about us, who wanted neither malice nor power to 
afflict us. I took, that day, my leave of the pulpit and publio 
ivork in a thankful congregation : and it was like, indeed, to bo 
my last. 

^ But after this, when I had ceased preaching, and was 
newly risen from extremity of pain, 1 was suddenly surprised 
hy a poor, violent informer, and many constables and officers, 
who rushed in, apprehended me, and served on me one warrant 
to seize my person for coming within five miles of a corpora- 
tion, and five more warrants to distrain for a hundred and 
ninety pounds for five sermons. They cast my servants into fears, 
and were about to take all my books and goods, when I con- 
tentedly went with them towards the justice to be sent to jail, 
and left my house to their will. But Dr. Thomas Cox meeting 
me, forced me in again to my couch and bed, and went to five 
josUoes, and took his oath, without my knowledge, that I could 
not go to prison without danger of death. On that the jus^ 
tices delayed a day, till they could speak vrith the king, and 
told him what the doctor had sworn : so the king consented 
that, for the present, imprisonment should be forborne, that I 
might die at home.^ But they executed all their warrants on 
my books and goods, even the bed that I lay sick on, and sold 
them all. Some friends paid them as much money as they 
were prized at, which I repaid, and was fain to send them 
away. The warrant against my person was signed by Mr« 
Ptirry and Mr. Phillips; the five warrants against my goods, by 
Sir James Smith and Sir James Butler. I had never the least 
notice of any accusation, or who were the accusers or witnesses, 
much less did I receive any summons to appear or answer for 
myself, or ever saw the justices or accusers. The justice that 
signed the warrants for execution, said, that the two Hiltons 
solicited him for them, and one Buck led the constables who 
distrained. 

" But though I sent the justice the written deeds, which 
proved that the goods were none of mine, nor ever were ; and 

* The ViBg saidj " Zei him die in his bed,** — jBaxter*s PcnUcul Confe«svmS) 
p. 39, 



348 THE LIFB AND TIMBS 

sent two witnesses whose hands were to those comreyanoeSi and 
offered their oaths of it ; and also proved that the books I had 
many years ago alienated to my kinsman, this signified nothii^ 
to them, they seized and sold all nevertheless ; and both pa* 
tience and prudence forbade us to try the title at law, when 
we knew what charges had lately been given to justices and 
juries, and how others had been used. If they had taken only 
my cloak, they should have had my coat also ; and if theyhad 
smitten me on one cheek, I would have turned the other : for I 
knew the case was such, that he that will not put up with one 
blow, one wrong, or slander, shall suffer two ; yea, many more. 
*' But when they had taken and sold all, and I had borrowed 
some bedding and necessaries of the buyer, I was never the 
quieter ; for they threatened to come upon me again, and take 
all as mine, whosesoever it was, which' they found in my posses- 
sion. So that I had no remedy, but utterly to forsake my house 
and goods and all, and take secret lodgings at a distance, in a 
stranger's house ; but having a long lease of my own houses 
which binds me to pay a greater rent than now it is worth, 
wherever I go, I must pay that rent. 

^^ The separation from my books would have been a greater part 
of my small affliction, but that I found I was near the end both 
of that work and that life which needetfa books, and so I easily 
let go all. Naked came I into the world, and naked must I go 
out; but I never wanted less what man can give, than when men 
had taken all away. My old friends, and strangers, were so 
liberal, that I was fain to restrain their bounty. Their kindness 
was a surer and larger revenue to me than my own. But God 
was pleased quickly to put me past all fear of men, and all 
desire of avoiding suffering from them by concealment; by 
laying on me more himself than man can do. Then imprison- 
menti with tolerable health, would have seemed a palace to me; 
and had they put me to death for such a duty as they persecute 
me for, it would have been a joyful end of my calamity : but day 
and night I groan and languish under God's just afflicting hand. 
The pain which before only tried my reins, and tore my bowels, 
now also fell upon my bladder, and scarce any part, or hour, 
is free. As waves follow waves in the tempestuous seas, so one 
pain followeth another in this sinful, miserable flesh. I die 
daily, and yet remain alive. God,- in his great mercy, knowing 
my dulness in health and ease, doth make it much easier to re- 
pent and hate my sin, loat\\e m^'^eX?, co\vXfcm\\\!cv^Nt^\\^^«sA«3iw 



OP RICBARD BAXTBR. 349 

nit to the sentence of death with willingness, than otherwise it 
IVM ever likely to have been. O, how little is it that wrathful 
enemies can do against us, in comparison of what our sin and 
Kbe justice of God can do ! and, O, how little is it that the best 
md kindest of friends can do for a pained body, or a guilty, sin- 
Eld soul, in comparison of one gracious look or word from Ood 1 
Wo be CO him that hath no better help than man : and blessed 
is he whose help and hope are in the Lord ! '' ^r 

While we execrate the tyranny which doomed this righteous 
nuui to so much undeserved suffering, every Christian must un- 
Engnedly bless God for the illustration of the principles and 
power of religion, which Baxter was enabled to afford in such 
trpng circumstances. Those who think of him only as a 
sectarian, or a wrangling controversialist, must now regard 
him with admiration, exercising the faith and patience of the 
saints ; braving danger, enduring pain, despising life, and re- 
joicing in the hope of the glory of God. In his case, tribulation, 
indeed, wrought patience, and patience experience, and experi- 
ence hope, which made him not ashamed. 

Notwithstanding the resolutions of the House of Commons, 
mentioned in the former chapter, the dissenters continued to be 
exceedingly molested in every part of the country. Orders and 
directions were issued from the king and the Council Board, to 
suppress all conventicles ; which were zealously obeyed by the 
justices of Hicks' Hall, in Southwark, and by some of the city 
justices. The dissenters were tried by mercenary judges, before 
packed juries, on Irish evidence. Their meetings were o^ten inter- 
rapted and broken up, and their ministers imprisoned and fined.' 
Distress and dismay were every where experienced, and no end 
seemed approaching of the sufferings which they were doomed to 
endure. The employment of informers^ the invention of plots, and 
the variety of schemes adopted to entrap and ensnare men, pro- 
duced almost universal mistrust and suspicion. It was dangerous 
to give utterance to the expression of fear, or hope, and far more, 
to indulge in the language of complaint or censure. Every advan- 
tage was taken, and every dishonourable method resorted to, to 
ensnare the innocent, and to crush the influential. God, alone, 
could deliver his people and the country from the woes which 
already distressed, and the greater woes which promised to 
follow. 

With the statement of Baxter's case, in reference to his late 

rJJfe, part W. pp. 191, 192. ■ Calamy, vo\.\. v?* ^^>^Vi . 



350 THE LXFB AND TllfXt 

treatment, had he been allowed to present it in eonrt, it ii iiH 
necessary to occupy these pages. It is a satisfactory defence of 
himself, even as the law then stood ; and his own view of it wai 
supported by the opinion of eminent counsel. But what signi* 
iies law, when they who occupy the seat of judgment^ are de* 
termined to oppress, and act unjustly. As an evidence of tbii) 
take the following example : ^' About this time, one Mr. Robert 
Mayot,* of Oxford, a very godly man, that devoted all his ettata 
to charitable uses, a Conformist, whom I never saw, died^ and, 
beside many greater gifts to Abingdon, &e., gave, by his last w31| 
600/., to be by me distributed to sixty poor, ejected minitteni 
adding, that he did it not because they were NonconfonnittSi 
but because many such were, poor and pious. But the liing^s 
attorney, Sir Robert Sawyer,^ sued for it in Chancery^ and the 
Lord Keeper North ^ gave it all to the king ; which made many 
resolve to leave nothing to charitable uses after their death, bat 
do what they did while they lived." ^ 

Providence mercifully interposed to defeat this unrigfateooi 
measure. The money was paid into Chancery by order of tbt 
court, to be applied to the maintenance of a chaplain for Chelsea 
College. It was there kept safely till after the Revolution, 
when the commissioners of the great seal restored it to Baxter, 
to be applied according to the will of the testator ; which was 
done accordingly.* It is remarkable in how many instances God 

* Mr. Mayot was a beneficed clergyman of the Church of Eng^Iand. Hit 
will was made in 1676. He died in 1683. His leg^acy is a striking^ proof of the 
estimation in which Baxter was held, not only among the Nonconformistti 
but among the respectable part of the Church. 

^ Sawyer, the attorney-general, was a dull, hot man ; and forwanl to serre 
all the designs of the court. — Burnet, ii. 353. 

<: Roger North, the biogmpher of this noble family, has given a paiticokr 
account of the Lord Keeper Guildford; from which it would seem that he was 
a man of parts and learning, though he did not appear to great advantage in tbt 
court of Chancery. He was considered to be too much inclined to faronr the 
court, though he seems to have been often sick of its measures. Bomtt 
speaks of him as a crafty and designing man ; guilty of great mal-adminis« 
tration of justice ; and who died despised and ill-thought of by the whole na- 
tion. — Oum Times, vol. ili. pp. 67, 68. 

* Life, part iii. p. 198. 

« Calamy, vol. ii. p. 361. Some account of this affair is given in Vernon's 
' Reports ;' in which Baxter is unjustly represented as swearing that he was a 
Conformist. Whereas he only swears to his answer given in tu the attorney- 
general's bill of complaint. That answer merely alleges Baxter's moderation 
in the matters of controversy with the Church, and his joining, from lime to 
time, in the worship of the Church, which it is well known he often did. Bax- 
ter's answer, with some appropriate TemtuWs ock Vernon, by Calamy, Is given in 
the coDtiaimtUiii of his * Account of l\x« E\tc\«^lA.m\«^ftt%; x^Vxu Y^«^^nar->^(!a« 



or RICHARD BAXTIR. 351 

• 

tliwarts the designs of the wicked, and accomplishes the object 
which his seirants have contemplated with a view to his glory* 
A wicked and unjust policy may succeed for a time ; but it gene« 
rally defeats its own purpose, and furnishes the means by which 
its designs are entirely frustrated. We are thus supplied with 
continued marks of the footsteps of a Divine Providence in the 
ivorld ; so that, long before the final consummation, men may 
idraw the conclusion, that there is an essential difference between 
the righteous and the wicked, and ^' that verily there is a Ood 
who judgeth in the earth/' ' 

^ In 16S4, while I lay in pain and languishing, the justices of 
rthe sessions sent warrants to apprehend me, about a thousand 
more being in catalogue to be all bound to their good behaviour. 
I thought they would send me six months to prison for not taking 
tiie Oxford oath, and dwelling in London, and so I refused to 
open my chamber door to them, their warrant not being to 
break it open : but they set six officers at my study door, who 
watched all night, and kept me from my be4 and food, so that 
the next day I yielded to them, who carried me, scarce able to 
stand, to the sessions, and bound me in four hundred pounds 
bond to my good behaviour. I desired to know what my crime 
was, and who were my accusers ; but they told me it was for no 
fault, but to secure the government in evil times, and that they 
had a list of many suspected persons that they must do the like 
with, as well as me. I desired to know for what I was num« 
bered with the suspected, and by whose accusation ; but they 
gave me good words, and would not tell me. 1 told them 1 
had rather they would send me to jail than put fne to wrong 
others, by being bound with me in bonds that I was likely to 
break to-morrow; for if there did but five persons come in 
when I was praying, they would take it for a breach of good 
behaviour. They told me not if they came on other business 
unexpectedly, and not to a set meeting, nor yet if we did no-> 

' Tbere is another curious case of a will, which is connected with Baxter. 
Sir John Gayer, who died a good while after him, left 5000/., *' to poor mi* 
Blsten, who were of the pious and charitable principles of the late Rer. 
Bichaid Baxter." His peculiar manner of deyisiug the legacy gave rise to 
doabu, as to whether the money should be distributed among Churchmen or 
IHtsetiters. The executrix and the trustees differed between themselves. But 
•fler a considerable delay the question was brought into the court of Chan* 
eery, when the master of the rolls, Sir Joseph JekyI, in a very handsome 
manner, decided in favour of the Dissenters. — Calamy*$ Own lAfe^ vol. ii. 
pp. 476—478. 



352 THB LIFE AND TIIISS 

thing contrary to law and the practice of the church* I told 
them our innocency was not now any aecurity to us. , If two 
beggar women did but stand in the street, and swear that I 
spake contrary to the law, though they heard me not, my bonds 
and liberty were at their will ; for I myself^ lying on my bed, 
heard Mr. J. R. preach in a chapel, on the other side of. my 
chamber, and yet one Sibil Dash, and Elizabeth Cappell, two 
miserable, poor women who made a trade of it, swore to the 
justices that it was another that preached, and they had thus 
sworn against very many worthy persons, in Hackney, and else- 
where, on which their goods were seized for great mulcts* or 
fines. To all this I had no answer, but that I must give bond, 
when they kn^w that I was not likely to break the behaviour, 
unless by lying in bed in pain/* ^ ' 

. The trial of the Rev. Thomas Rosewell, at this time, created 
a great sensation in the country. He was minister of Rothcr- 
hithe, and was imprisoned in the Gate-house, in Westmin^er, 
by a warrant from Sir George Jefferies, for high treason. A 
bill was found against him at the quarter sessions at Kingston, 
in Surrey ; upon which he was arraigned on October the 23th, 
and tried November the 18th following, at the King*s Bench 
by a Surrey jury, before Chief Justice Jefferies and three 
other judges of that court, Withins, Holloway, and Walcot. 
The high treason, as laid in the indictment and sworn to by the 
witnesses, was, that in a sermon which he preached on Septem- 
ber the I4th, he said these words: — *That the people,' mean- 
ing the subjects of our sovereign lord the king, ^ made a flock- 
ing to the said' sovereign lord the king, ^ upon pretence of 
healing the king's evil, which he,' meaning our said sovereign 
lord (he king, ^ could not do; but that we,' meaning himself 
and other traitorous persons, subjects of our said lord the king, 
' are they to whom they,' meaning the subjects of our said 
lord the king, ^ ought to flock, because we,' meaning himself 
and the said other traitorous persons, 'are priests and pro- 
phets, that, by our prayers, can heal the dolors and griefii of 
the people. We,' meaning the subjects of our said sovereign 
lord the king, ' have had two wicked kings,' meaning the 
most serene Charles the First, late king of England, and our 
said sovereign lord the king that now is, ' whom we can resem- 
ble to no other person but to the most wicked Jeroboam/ 

t Life, part iii. p. 198, 199. 



OT RICHARD BAXTBR. 353 

And ' that if they/ meaning the wd evil-dUposed persons » 
then and there^ sO) as aforesaid^ with him^ unlawfully assembled 
and gathered together, would stand to their principles, ^ he/ 
meaning himself, ^ did not fear but they/ meaning himself- and 
the said evil-disposed persons, ^ would overcome their ene- 
miesy' meaning our said sovereign lord the king and his sub- 
jeetSy ^ as in former times, with rams' horns, broken platters, 
and a stone in a sling/ The witnesses were three women, 
who swore to the words as they stand, without the inuendos* 
The trial lasted about seven hours. Roswell made a full and 
Inminous defence of himself, very modestly, and yet stre- 
nuously^ vindicating his innocence, to the satisfaction of 
those who were present, and so as to gain the applause of 
many gentlemen of the long robe. The jury, however, after 
they had been out about half an hour, brought him in guilty. 
The women who were the witnesses were infamous persons, 
laden with the guilt of many perjuries, which might easily have 
been proved against them before the trial, could justice have been 
obtained ; but they were screened by the recorder, who was the 
person that laid the whole scheme, and patched up the indict- 
ment, in terms suited to his known abilities. But such of them 
as could be met with were afterwards convicted of perjury ; 
and Smith, the chief witness, was pilloried before the Exchange. 
Sir John Talbot, who was present^ represented to the King 
the state of the case as it appeared on the trial, who ordered 
Jefferies to find some evasion. Whereupon he assigned him 
counsel afterwards (o plead to the insufficiency of the indict- 
ment, in arrest of judgment, and the king gave him his pardon, 
' after which he was discharged. ^ 

The issue of Roswell's trial, though a kind of triumph, led to 
no mitigation of the treatment of others. Baxter still continued 
to lie under bond, and even that did not satisfy his persecutors. 
"On the 11th of December, 1684/' he says, " I was forced, in 
all my pain and weakness, to be carried to the sessions- house, 
or else my bonds of four hundred pounds would have been 
judged forfeit. The more moderate justices, who promised my 
discharge, would none of them be there, but left the work to 
Sir William Smith and the rest ; who openly declared that they 
had nothing against me, and took me for innocent; but that I must 
continue bound lest others should expect to be discharged also; 
which I openly refused. My sureties, however, would be bound) 

r Calamy. vol. i. pp. 363—365. 
VOL. 1. A A 



354 THB LIFE AND TIMM 

against .my declared will, lest I should die in jail, and lo I vami 
continue. Yet they discharged others as soon as I was gone, 
I was told that they did all by instructions from — — — and 
that the main end was to restrain me froih writing ; wliich now 
should I do with the greatest caution, they will pick out aonie* 
thing that a jury may take for a breach of my bonds. 

^^ January 17th, I was forced again to be carried to the ses- 
sions, and after divers good words, which put me in expectation 
of freedom, when I was gone, one Justice Deerbam said, that 
it was likely these persons solicited for my freedom that they 
might hear me in conventicles^ On that they bound me again 
in a four hundred pound bond for above a quarter of a year$ 
and so it is like it will be till I die, or worse ; though no one 
ever accused me for any conventicle or preaching since they 
took all my books and goods about two years ago, and I for the 
most part keep my bed. 

^' Mr. Jenkins died in Newgate this week, January 19thy 
1684-5, as Mr. Bampfield, Mr. Raphson, and others, died lately 
before him. The prison where so many are, suffocateth the 
spirits of aged ministers ; but blessed be God, that gave them so 
long time to preach before, at cheaper rates. One Richard 
Baxter, a Sabbatarian Anabaptist, was sent to jail for refusing 
the oath of allegiance, and it went current that it was I. As 
to the present state of England, — the plots ; the execution of men 
high and low ; the public counsels and designs ; the qualities and 
practice of judges and bishops ; the sessions and justices ; the 
quality of the clergy, and the universities and patrons; the church 
government by lay civilians ; the usage of ministers and private 
meetings for preaching or prayer ; the expectations of what is 
next to be done, &c. : — the reader must expect none of this sort 
of history from me. No doubt there will be many volumes of 
it transmitted by others to posterity ; who may do it more &lly 
than I can now do."^ 

Thus Baxter concludes the interesting memorials which lie 
has left of his own age and life. The darkness was now in- 
creased till it had spread universal gloom and despondency. 
Private meetings were occasionally held to consider whether any 
hope remained, or what could be done to prevent the entire ruin 
of the religion and liberties of the country. But though these 
were managed with the greatest possible caution^ and the parties 

>» Life, part iii. pp. m, 200. 



OP RICHARD baxtbr. 35S 

genctally proceeded no farther than to mourn over the pastj 
and dwell in gloomy forebodings over the prospect of the future, 
the consequences to some of them were most disastrous. Plots 
mnd conspiracies were hatched to ensnare the innocent and ter- 
rify the timid* The death, or rather murder, of Lord William 
Russell^ the Earl of Essex, and Algernon Sydney, to which 
Baxter probably alludes, seemed like putting the extinguisher on 
the last hopes ' of freedom, and preparing the country for the 
most abiolute despotism. The corporation of London was de* 
prhred of its charter, and other towns shared in its fate. Enor- 
mous and ruinous fines were levied. The judges prostituted 
dieir authority and influence to promote the corrupt designs of 
the court* Juries were browbeaten, and frightened into verdicts 
which ¥rere neither according to law nor justice* The clergy in 
general^ were either timid and truckling, or destitute of sufficient 
influence to resist the rapid advances which were making towards 
Rome. The Nonconformists, oppressed and dispirited, finding 
complaint unavailing, and redress hopeless, surrendered them- 
selves to suffering, till, if it were the will of God, deliverance 
should be afforded them. The reign of Charles, as it approached 
its termination, only increased in gloom and oppression, while 
the prospect of his successor filled all men's hearts with dismay 
and terror. It was indeed a period of ^^ trouble and darkness, 
and dimness of anguish." 

In these circumstances, Charles II. was called, unexpectedly, to 
give in his account, on the 6th of February, 1684-5. His charac- 
ter is familiar to every reader of English history ; most of whom 
will agree, that he was one of the greatest curses to the nation 
that ever occupied the throne. His father and brother had some 
redeeming qualities in their character, while their fate will 
always render them objects of pity. The former was a good 
husband and father ; the latter sacrificed his throne to his su- 
perstition. But Charles the Second had neither the personal 
virtues of the one, nor the superstitious regard to religion of the 
other* He was as worthless as a man as he was unprincipled 
as a sovereign. He was gay, affable, and witty ; but he was 
heartless, profane, and licentious : equally regardless of his own 
honour, as of his country*^ good. What had happened to his 
fifither, and all he had suffered during his own exile, seem to 
have produced no salutary influence on his principles or dispo- 
sitions* Every thing was made subservient to the love and en- 
joyment of pleasure. His ambition was directed solely against 

A a2 



356 THB LIFB AND TIMES 

his own subjects ; and his desire of power was unmixed with 
the love of glory. His court was little better than a brothel. 
He sacrificed the morals, the honour, and the happiness, of his 
country, to his mistresses and his licentious courtiers. Sach a 
man's pretension to religion, in any form, is offensive to de- 
cency and common sense. He was an infidel while he lived in 
pleasure ; and only the fear of death drove him to that sptem 
of iniquity which pretends to provide a healing balsam, but which 
is only a poisonous opiate to the soul of a dying profligate. The 
mind turns away with sickness and horror from such a death* 
bed scene as that of Charles II. * 

The prospects of the poor Nonconformists on the ascensioa 
of James to the vacant throne, were far from flattering. His 
well-known attachment and devotedness to Popery, promised 
nothing but ruin to what remained of the religion and libertyof 
the country ; while the decided part which the NoneonformistB 
had taken in every measure which tended to limit his power, or 
to exclude him from the throne, marked them out to be the ob- 
jects of his implacable hatred and revenge. Pretexts would 
not be wanting, and he was already furnished with instruments 
prepared to carry forward and execute any oppressive and cruel 
measure. Here I cannot deny myself the pleasure of introducing 
the account given by Mr. Fox, of the conduct of the court 
towards the dissenters ; his character of Jefferie^, and his re- 
marks on the character and trial of Baxtei*. It does great credit 
to the discernment a,nd candour of that eminent man. 

" Partly from similar motives, and partly to gratify the na- 
tural vindictiveness of his temper, James persevered in a most 
cruel persecution of the Protestant dissenters, upon the roost 
frivolous pretences. The courts of justice, as in Charles's days, 

* There are two accounts of the death-bed of Charles ; the one by Protea- 
tants, the other by Roman Catholics. The former may be caUed bit Protet* 
tant death, when be was attended by the bishops, who spoke to. him as the 
JLrord's anointed, and requested his blessing. Bishop Ken absolved him from 
his sins in the presence of his uiistreits and his illeg^itimate ofTspring. The 
Catholic death is described by Father Hudleston, who attended and officiated 
in the last ceremonies of the church. From this it is very certain that Cbarlct 
died a Roman Catholic ; which in fact he had been before the restoratioOy 
whatever he had pretended to be to the Nuuconfurmists and the Church of 
England. Both the Popish and the Protestant death of Charles are recorded 
by Burnet, ii. pp. 456^460. £Uis, in the first series of his letters on English 
history, has given an account of the Protestant death of the i(.iug, by the 
chaplain to the Bishop of Ely, who was then in the room. Vol. ill. p. ;S33. la 
the second series he has givea Hudlestoo's accouat of the Popish death t Vol* 
iT. pp. 76| 80. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 357 

were instruments equally ready, either for seconding the policy, 
or for gratifying the bad passions, of the monarch ; and Jef- 
ferieSy whom the late king had appointed chief justice of Eng- 
land a little before Sidney's trial, was a man entirely agreeable 
to the temper, and suitable to the purposes, of the present go* 
vemment. He was thought not to be very learned in his pro- 
fession $ but what might be wanting in knowledge, he made up 
in positiveness; and, indeed, whatever might be the difficulties 
in questions between one subject and another, the fashionable 
doctrine which prevailed at that time, of supporting the king's 
prerogative in its full extent, and without restriction or limita- 
tion, rendered, to such as espoused it, all that branch of law 
ivhich is called constitutional, extremely easy and simple. He 
was as submissive and mean to those above him, as he was 
liaughty and insolent to those who were in any degree in his 
power ; and if, in his own conduct, he did not exhibit a very 
nice r^;ard for morality, or even for decency, he never failed to 
animadvert upon, and to punbh, the most slight deviation in 
iiChers, with the utmost severity, especially if they were persons 
whom he suspected to be no favourites of the court. 

^ Before this magistrate was brought for trial, by a jury suffi- 
.ciently prepossessed in favour of tory politics, the Reverend 
Richard Baxter, a dissenting minister, a pious and learned man, 
of exemplary character, always remarkable for his attachment 
to monarchy, and for leaning to moderate measures in the dif- 
ferences between the church and those of his persuasion. The 
pretence of this prosecution was a supposed reference of some 
oassages in one of his works to the bishops of the church of 
England ; a reference which was certainly not intended by him, 
and which could not have been made out to any jury that had 
be^n less prejudiced or under any other direction than that of 
Jefferies. The real motive was the desire of punishing an eminent 
dissenting teacher, whose reputation was high among his sect, 
iind who was supposed to favour the political opinions of the 
whigs."* 

Thus far Mr. Fox. That Baxter was not a whig was well 
known at court; and that his sentiments as a dissenter were 
considered to be very moderate, can as little be doubted. The 
design unquestionably was to strike terror into all the Noncon- 
formists, by severely punishing one of their leading ministers, 
who might be regarded, in point of sentiment, as less obnoxious 
than most of his brethren. If Baxter must be thus treated, who 

^ Fox'i *• History of the Reiga of James 11.^ pp. 101— lOa. 



35& TUB LIFE AND TIMSft 

can be safe ; if a harmless, uncontroversial paraphrase on the 
Scriptures be construed into a libel, it must be impoesible 
either to state our sentiments or defend them, without bringing 
down upon us the heavy arm of the law. These mnal have 
been the views of the court, and the reasonings of the disaenten 
respecting this affair. The malignant designs of the one, how- 
ever, and the fears of the other, were finally disappointed* 

As the trial of Baxter, for the sentiments expressed in his 
' Paraphrase on the New Testament,' * is among the most oxtnip- 
ordinary circumstances of his life, and one of the moat cariooB 
specimens of the style in which justice was administered by the 
monster who then presided over the justice of his eoantry, ll 
is much to be regretted that we have not an account of it, etthtt 
by Baxter himself, or more correctly reported by those who 
were present. No printed report of the trial exists, except 
what is contained in Calamy's abridgment of Baxter's life. The 
report in the ^ State Trials' is merely a copy of that. Among the 
Baxter MSS. in Redcross Street Library, however, there is a 
letter from a person who was present at the trial, which was sent 
to Sylvester, with a view to its being used by hhn. FVom tfan 
document, and Calamy together, I have endeavoured to give a 
fuller account, though it is still imperfect, than has hitherto been 
laid before the public, of this remarkable affair. 

That he was designed for jail before the death of Charles, 
was intimated by the Duke of York ; so, to secure him till they 
could find matter of accusation against him, he was bonnd to 
his good behaviour. They declared, at the same time, that they 
considered him innocent, but did this for security, and till they 
were prepared."* 

On the 28th of February, Baxter was committed to tiie 
King's-Bench prison, by warrant of Lord Chief Justice Jefieries, 
for his * Paraphrase on the New Testament,' which had been 
printed a little before; and which was described as a scandaloes 
and seditious book against the government. On his commit* 
ment by the chief justice's warrant, he applied for a AoleM 
corpus^ and having obtained it, he absconded into the country to 
avoid imprisonment,- till the term approached. He was indnced 
to do this from the constant pain he endured, and an apprehen* 
sion that he could not bear the confinement of a prison. 

On the 6th of May, which was the first day of the term, 

' A particular accouot of the ' Paraphrase oa the New Testament^* will k^ 
found in the second part of this woric* * 

" Penitent CQDfeMions> p^ 4(^ . . - 



•or RICHAUD BAXT£R. 359 

Jw appeared in Westminster Hall, and an information was then 
ardened to he drawn up against him. On the 14th of May, he 
pleaded not guilty, to the information. On the 18th of the 
same month, being much indisposed, it was moved that he might 
have further time given him before his trial, but this was denied 
hioL He moved for it by his counsel ; but JefFeries cried out, in a 
passion, ^ I will not give him a minute's time more, to save hit 
life. We have had to do,' said he, ' with other sorts of persona^ 
bnt now we have a saint to deal with ;_ and I know how to deal 
with aunts as well as sinners. Yonder,' said he, ^ stands Oates 
in the pillory ' (as he actually did at that very time in the New 
Rdace Yard), ' and he says he suffers for the truth, and so says 
Baxter ; bnt if Baxter did but stand on the other side of the 
piUoiy with him, I would say, two of the greatest rogues and 
rascals in the kingdom stood there.' ® 

The foiloi^nng is a copy of the indictment, which, from its 
singular nature, I have preferred giving in its original state to 
a translation. Even the mere English reader will have little 
di£Bcu]ty in understanding its scope, and the substance of its 
meaning, as it is so much interlarded with quotations from the 
Paraphrase :— • 

^ Quod Richardus Baxter, nuper de, &c., Clericus existena 
person* seditiosa et factiosa, pravae mentis, impiae, inquietse^ 
turbulent' disposition' et conversation', ac machinans, practi-* 
eana et intendens, quantum in ipso fuit, non solem pacem et 
oomomnem tranquillitat'dict' Dom' Regis infra, hoc regnum 
Angl' inquietare, molestare et perturbare, ac seditionem, dis« 
eord' et malevolent' int' ligeos et fideles subdit' diet' Dom' Regis 
movere, p'curare et excitare, verum etiam sinceram, piam, 
heatam, et pacificam Protestan' Religion' infra hoc regn' Angl* 
usital:', ac Prelat', Episcopos, aliosq ; Clericos in Ecclesia An* 
glicana legibus hujus regni Angl' stabilit', ac Novum Testamentu' 
Dom' Salvator' nostri Jesu Christ! in contempt' et vilipend' in- 
ducere et inutile reddere; quodq; p'd',R. B. ad nequissimas, 
nefandissimas et diabolicas intention' suas, pred' perimplend' 
perficiend' et ad effect' redigend' 14 die Febr', anno regni diet 
Dom' Jacobi Secundi, &c. primo, vi et armis, &c. apud, &e. 
fidso illlcite, injuste, nequit', factiose, seditiose et irreligiose fecit, 
eoroposuit, scripsit, impressit et publicavit, et fieri, componi^ 

^ Colonel Dang^erfiekl bad been tried before JefTeries, ami condemned to be 
Y^iipped tbat mornings at Westminster Hall, for tbe Meal-Tub plot; so tbat 
JeflMes was quite in a whipping humour. 



380 THB L1F£ AND TIIIBS 

Bcribi^ imprimi et publican causavit, qaendam falraoi^ teAtiotiiliii 
libellosum, factiosum et irreligiosum libnim^ intitulat* A Panh 
phrase on the Testament, with Notes doctrinal and fradied: 
In quo quidem, falso, seditioso, libellosoj factioso et imligioto 
libro int' al' content' fuer' has falsae, factiosae nialitio6« aeanda- 
losae, et seditiosse sententiae de eisdem Prelat' Epiacopity aliisq; 
Clericis Ecclesiae hujus regn' in his Anglican' verbis sequen', 
videl't, Note, Are not these Preachers and PrehdeB* (Epte 
aliosq ; Clericos, prsed' Ecclesise hujus regn' Angl' innuend') then 
the least and basest that preach and tread down Christian km 
of all that dissent from any of their presuwptionSy andsopreaek 
down not the least, but the great commands £c ult' idem At- 
torn' diet Dom' Regis nunc general' pro eodem Dom' Rege dat 
Cur' hie intelligi et informari, quod in al' loco in p'd* fidad^ 
acandaloso, seditioso et irreligioso libroj int' al' content* fiwf^ 
hae al' falsse, libellosae, scandalosae, seditioaae et irreligiosae aententf 
sequent' de Clericis Ecclesiae hujus regn', videl't. Note, // ti 
folhf to doubt whether there be Devils, while Devils tueonwlf 
tivehere amongst us (Clericos pred' hujus regni Angl' innuendo); 
What else but Devils, sure, could make ceremonious kgpocrUes 
(Clericos pred' innuendo) consult with Politic Royalists Qigeoi 
et fidel' subdit' diet' Dom' Regis hujus regni Angl' innuendo) to 
destroy the Son of God for saving men's health and Hives by 
miracle ? Quaere, Whether, if this withered hand had been 
their own, they tvould have plotted to kill him, that would have 
cured them by a miracle, as a Sabbath-Breaker ? And whether 
their successors (Prelat', Episcopos, Aliosq; Clericos Ecclesis 
hujus regni Angl' qui deineeps fuerint innuendo) would silence 
and imprison godly ministers (seipsum R. B. et al' factiosaa et 
seditias as p'son' infra hoc regn' Angl' contra leges hujus regni 
ac Liturg' Ecclesiae infra hoc reg' stabilit' p'dican' innuendo) 
if they could cure tliem of all their sicknesses, and help them to 
preferment, and give them money to feed their lusts ? Et alt' 
idem Attorn' diet Dom* Regis nunc general' pro eodem Dom' 
rege dat Cur' hie intelligi et inform ari, quod in al' loco in pred' 
falso, libelloso, scandaloso et irreligioso libro inter al' content' 
filer' hae al falsae, libellosae, scandalosffi, seditiosae et irreli^ostt 
Anglican' sentent' sequen' de et concernen' Ep'is p'd' et 
Ministris Justitiae hujus regn' Angl', videft, Note, Men that 
preach in Christ's name (seipsum R. B. et al' factiosas et sedi- 
tiosas p'son' infra hoc regn' Angl' contra leges hujus regn' 
Angl' et Liturg' Ecclesiae hujus regn' per legem stabilit' pred' 



OF aiCHARB BAXTER* S6l 

Bumen^) thefrfmre osre not to be sUeneedy though faulty j \f theif 
(prcd maJae dispo' it factiosas et sediUosas person' pred' iterum 
imnendo) do more good than harm; dreadful, then, is the case 
^them (Bpiacopos et Ministros Justidas infra hoc regn' Angl' 
mmieadD) that silence Christ's faithful ministers (seipsuin R.B* 
el al' seditioBas et factiosas person' pred' innuendo). Et ulteriua 
idem Attorn' diet' Dom' Regis nunc general' pro eodem Dom' 
Rage dat Cur' hie intelligi et informari^ quod ad excitand' popul' 
Imjiii regn' Angl' in illicit' Conventicul convenire et defamand' 
Jwtit* hujus regn' impuniendo illicit' Conventicul'^ in al' loco in 
fnd* falso, scandaloso, seditioso, et irreligioso libro, nit' al' 
eontent' fuer' has al' falsae, scandalosse, libellosae, seditiosae et 
irrdigioafle Anglican' sentent' sequen', videl't, (I) Note, It was 
weB that they considered what might be stdd against them, 
wkiek now mast Christians do not in their disputes. (2) These 
Persecutors J and the Romans , had some charity and considera* 
Hm^ in that they were restrained by the fear of thepeople, and 
dU fiat accuse and fine them as for Routs, Riots, and Seditions, 
(S) They that deny necessary premises are not to be disputed 
witk. Etulterius idem Attorn' diet' Dom' Regis nunc general' 
pro eodem Dom' Rege' dat Cur' hie intelligi et informari quod 
in al' loco in pred' falso, scandaloso, seditioso et irreligioso libro, 
intal' content' fiier' hae al' falsae, libellosae, scandalosae, seditiosae 
et irreligiosae Anglican' Sententiae sequent' de et concemen' Epis- 
eopis et al' Clericis hujus regn' Angl', videl't, (3) Let not those 
proud hypocrites (Episcopos et al' Clericos Ecclesiae hujus regn' 
Angl' innuendo) deceive you (subdit' dicti Dom' Regis hujus 
regn' Angl innuendo) who by their long Liturgies and Cere^ 
monies, (Liturg' et Ceremon' Ecclesiae hujus regn' Angl' innu- 
endo^) and claim of Superiority, do but cloak their WorldH- 
nssSj Pride, and Oppression, and are religious to their greater 
Damnation. Et ulterius idem Attorn' dicti Dom Regis nunc 
general' pro eodem Dom' Rege dat Cur' hie intelligi et informari, 
qood in al' loco in pred' falso, scandaloso, seditioso et irreligi- 
oso libro iht'al' content' fuer' hap al' falsae, libellosae, scandalosae^ 
seditiosae, et religiosse, Sentent' Anglican' sequent' de et con* 
eemen' Clericis hujus regn' Angl', (2) Note, Priests now 
are many (Clericos Ecclesiae hujus regn' Angl' innuendo) but 
Labourers few; what men are they that have and do silence the 
fait^uUest labourers (seipsum R. B. et al' facti' as et sedit' as 
p' son' pred' innuendo) suspecting that they are not for their 
Interest ? (interesse Clericor' Ecclesiae hujus regn' Angl' innu- 
endo). Et ulterius idem Attorn' dicti' Dom* Regis nunc geue« 



362 THB LIPK AND TIMS» 

ral' pro eodem Dom' Rege dat Cur' hie intelligi et infiBnaaii^ 

quod in al' ioco in pred' falso acandaloeo^ seditioso et irreligioio 

libro, inter al' content' Aienint hee al' falss, libelloas tcaiidak— , 

seditiosK et irreligiosse sentent' sequen' de et concemen' Cidieii 

Jiujps regn' Angl', videl't, (3) Note, Ckrisfs MuMen mti 

CM'8 ordinancea to save Men, tmd the DevU's Ctergjf (Clerion 

Ecclesiee hujus regn' Angl' innuendo) U8e them for Smarm, Mm^ 

tUef, and Murder. (2) 7A€y(Clerico8Eecle8iashiyiit regit' Ao^ 

innuendo) wiU not let tt^e people be Neuters between God mni Of 

Deviifbutforce them (subdit hujus regn' Angl' innuendo) ioteimr 

forming Persecutors. Et ulterius idem Attorn' dicti' Dom' Begm 

nunc general' pro eodem Dom' Rege dat Car' hie intelligi et infiBr* 

mari, quod in al' loco in praed' falso, scandaloso, seditioso et 

irreligioso libro, int' al' content' fuerunt hm alise falsce, libclli—^ 

scandalosae, seditiosae et irreligiosae sententis Anglicanae aequen' 

de et concernen' legibus hujus regn' Angl' contra illidt' Coa» 

venticul', et ad excitand' popul' convenire in illicit' Conventieal'i 

videl't, (2) Note, To be Dissenters and DiqnUmUa, 

errors and tyrannical impositions, tg^on conscience (leges et 

tut' hujus regn' Angl' contra person' factios' et Lituig' Bed* 

hujus regn' Angl' adversar' Anglice), against Dissentere (edit* 

et provis' innuendo) , is no Fault, but a great Duty. In magnani 

Dei omnipotent' displicent' in contempt' leg' hujus regn' Angl* 

manifest' in malum et pernitiosissim exemplum omniu' al' in tali 

casu delinquen' ac contra pacem dicti Dom' Regis nunc, coron' 

et dignitat' suas, &c. Unde idem Attorn' dicti Dom' Regis mmq 

general pro eodem Dom' Rege pet' advisament' Cur' hie in pro* 

miss' ct debit' legis process' versus ipsum prefat R« B» in hao 

parte fieri ad respond' dicto Dom' Regi de et in premi88,&c»" . 

On May the 30th, in the aftemoon,*^ Baxter was brought to 
trial, before the lord chief justice, at Guildhall. Sir Henry 
Ashurst, who would not forsake his own and his father's friend^ 
stood by him all the while. Baxter came first into court, and^ 
with all the marks of sincerity and composure, waited for tba 
coming of the lord chief justice, who appeared quickly afteri 
with great indignation in his face. 

^' When I saw," says an eye-witness, '^ the meek man stand 
before the flaming eyes and fierce looks of this bigot, I thought 
of Paul standing before Nero. The barbarous usage which hi 

• 

« Hargreaves' State Trials, vol. x. App. p. (37). The Editor eaprcMSS his 
regret that no account of this trial exists, except what is given hy Cstainj. 
He snys, " It shovia the temper of the chief juitice, and the cruel usage of the 
JniSDner.** • ' 



.op RICHARD BAXTBIl* SOS 

feceived drew plenty of tears from my eyes, as well as from 
.otben of the auditors and spectators : yet I couh 1 not but 
^nile aometimes, when I saw my lord imitate our modern pulpit 
drollery^ which some one saith any man engaged in such a de- 
lugn would not lose for a world. He drove on furiously, like 
Haanibal over the Alps, with fire and vinegar, pouring all the 
contempt and scorn upon Baxter, as if he had been a link-boy 
or knave ; which made the people who could not come near 
enough to hear the indictment or Mr. Baxter's plea, cry out^ 
* Surely, this Baxter had burned the city or the temple of Del^ 
phos/ But others said, it was not the custom, now-a-days, to 
TOeeive ill, except for doing well ; and therefore this must 
needs be some good man that my lord so rails at.'' p 

Jefferies no sooner sat down than a short cause was called 
and tried ; after which the clerk began to read the title of an** 
other cause. ' You blockhead, you,' said Jefferies, ' the next 
cause is between Richard Baxter and the king :' upon which 
Baxter's cause was called. 

On the jury being sworn, Baxter objected to them, as incom- 
petent to his trial, owing to its peculiar nature. The jurymen 
being tradesmen, and not scholars, he alleged they were inca« 
pable of pronouncing whether his ^Paraphrase' was, or was 
not, according to the original text. He therefore prayed that 
he might have a jury of learned men, though the one-half of 
them should be Papists. This objection, as might have been 
expected, was overruled by the eourt.*i 

The passages contained in the indictment, were, it is under- 
stood, picked out by Sir Roger L'Estrange and some of his 
associates: and a certain noted clergyman, who is supposed 
to have been Dr. Sherlock, put into the hands of his enemies 
some accusations out of Rom. xiii., &c. as against the king, 
which might have affected his life ; but no use was made of 
them. The great charge was, that, in these several passages, 
he reflecteid on the prelates of the church of England, and so 
was guilty of sedition.' 

9 Baxter MSS. i Ibid. 

• * As the 'Ptraphrase* Ss not in every body's bands, I have extracted the pas« 
sages and notes referred to in the indictment, and placed them together, that 
the readers may have fairly and fully before them the grounds on which the 
cbarne of sedition was preferred. Some of the phraseology is pointed and 
severe, characteristic of Baxter's style, but all josUy called for by the treat- 
laent which be and others had experienced. i 

' Matt. V. 19. '* if any shall presume to break the least of these commands^ 
Wcaon it is a little one, and teach men so to do, ne shaU be TUified as he tiH* 
fied God's law, and not thought fit for a place in the kingdom of the MeMM { 



864 THE LIFB AND TIM88 

Tke king'i counsel opened the information at large, with iU 
aggravations. Mr. Pollexfen, Mr. Wallop, Mr. Williams, Blr. 
Rotherhani, Mr. Atwood, and Mr. Phipps, were Baxter** ooQa- 
•el, and had been fee'd by Sir Henry Ashurst. 

Pollexfen then rose and addressed the court and the jury. 
He stated that he was counsel for the prisoner, and felt that he 



bat be ftball be tbere neatest that it most exact in Mmg and t§me k mg aU tht 
law of God." 

NHe,-^" Are not those preachers and prelates, then, the ieiui and baiwt , 
that preach and tread down Chriitian love of all that dissent from aoy of thdr 
presumptions, and so preach down, not the least, but the greai eonmaad." 

Mark iii. 6. << It is folly to doubt whether there be deviU, while detib 
Incarnate dwell among^ us. What else but devils, sure, could eaimaeaiNf 
hypocrites consult with politic royalists to destroy the Son of God» for savlaf 
men's health and lives by miracle ? Query: Whether this wither^ lumdbai 
been their own, they would have plotted to kill him that would bare caiti 
them by miracle, as a sabbath-breaker ? And whether their succ«ason wodd 
silence and imprison goodly ministers, if they could cure them of all thdr 
sicknesses, help them to preferment, and ipve them money to feed their loili?* 

Mark ix, 39. Noie.—^' Men that preach in'Christ's name, therefbrey an aol 
to be silenced, thouf^h faulty : if they do more pood than hana» dreadftdi 
then, is the case of them that silence Christ's faithful ministers.'* 

Mark xi. 31. Note,--** It was well that they considered what migbt be said 
•gainst them, which now most Christians do not in their disputee. Tbcii 
persecutors, and the Romans, had some charity and consideratiooy in tfatf 
they were restrained by the fear of ' the people, and did not accuse and fini 
them, as for routs, riots, and seditions.' " 

Mark xii. 38—40. Note, — ** Let not these proud hypocrites deceive you, who, 
by their long liturgies and ceremonies, and claim of superiority, do but doak 
their worldliness, pride, and oppression, and are religious to their greater 
damnation." 

Luke X. 2. iVo^tf.— "Priests now are many, but labourers are few. Whit 
men are they that hate and silence the faithfuUest labourers, suspecting thi< 
they are not for their interest ?" 

John xi. 57. Note."'" I.Christ's ministers are God's ordinances to save nca, 
and the devil's clergy use them for snares, mischief, and murder. 2. They 
will not let the people be neuters between God and the devil, but force then 
to be informing persecutors.'- 

Acts XV. 2. Note. — " 1. To be dissenters and disputants against errors and 
tyrannical impositions upon conscience is no fault, but a great duty. 2. Itii 
but a groundless fiction of some that tell us that this was an appeal to Jem* 
talem, because it was the metropolis of Syria and Antioch, as if the metropo- 
litan church power had been then settled ; when, long after, when it wasd^ 
vised, indeed, Antioch was above Jerusalem ; and it is as vain a fictioii thai 
this was an appeal to a general council, as if the apostles and elders at Jeru- 
salem had beeu a general council, when none of the bishops of the gta* 
tile churches were there, or called thither. It is notorious that it was an ap- 
peal to the apostles, taking in the elders, as those that had the most ccrtaia 
notice of Christ's mind, having conversed with him, and being intrusted te 
teach all nations whatever he commanded them, and had the greatest men* 
sure of the Spirit ; and also, being Jews themselves, were such as the Juda- 
iaiog Christians had no reason to suspect or reject"— jBiixfer'f New TetUmed 
inU)cit. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 365 

had a veiy unusual plea to manage. He had been obliged, he 
aaid^ by the nature of the cause, to consult all our learned com- 
mentators, many of whom, learned, pious, and belonging to 
the church of England, too, concurred with Mr. Baxter in his 
paraphrase of those passages of Scripture which were objected 
to in the indictment, and by whose help he would be enabled 
to nianage his client's cause. '^ I shall begin,'' said he, ** with 
Dr. Hammond ; and, gentlemen, though Mr. Baxter made an 
objection against you, as not fit judges of Greek, which has 
been overruled,* I hope you understand English, common sense, 
and can read." To which the foreman of the jury made a pro* 
fonnd bow, and said, ^^ Yes, sir." 

On. this his lordship burst upon Pollexfen, like a fury, and 
told hfan he should not sit there to hear him preach. ^' No, 
my lord," said Pollexfen, '^ I am counsel for Mr. Baxter, and 
rfudl ofler nothing but what is ad rem." ^^ Why, this is not," 
said Jefferies, '^ that you cant to the jury beforehand." ^' I beg 
your lordship's pardon," said the counsel, ^^ and shall then .pro- 
ceed to business." ** Come, then," said Jefferies, ^^ what do 
yon say to this count: read it, clerk :" referring to the paraphrase 
on Mark xii. 38—40. '^ Is he not, now, an old knave, to inter- . 
pret thb as belonging to liturgies ?" ^' So do others," replied 
Pollexfen, '^ of the church of England, who would be loth so to 
wrong the cause of liturgies as to make them a novel invention, 
or not to t>e able to date them as early as the Scribes and Phari- 
sees." " No, no, Mr. Pollexfen," said the judge : " they were 
long-winded, extempore prayers, such as they used to say when 
they appropriated God to themselves : ^ Lord, we are thy peo- 
ple, thy peculiar people, thy dear people.' " And then he snorted^ 
and squeaked through his nose, and clenched his hands, and 
lifted up his eyes, mimicking their manner, and running on 
furiously, as he said they used to pray. But old Pollexfen gave 
him a bite now and then, though he could hardly get in a word* 
** Why, my lord/' said he, ^^ some will think it is hard measure 
to stop these men's mouths, and not let them speak through their 
noses." " Pollexfen," said Jefferies, " 1 know you well ; I will 
set a mark upon you : you are the patron of the faction. This 
is an old rogue, who has poisoned the world with his Kidder- 
minster doctrine. Don't we know how he preached formerly, 
' Curse ye Meroz ; curse them bitterly that come not to the 
help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.' 
He encouraged all the women aud maids to bring their bodkins 



888 THB LIFB AND TIMES 

and thimblei to carry on their war agunst the Idng of mr 
blessed memory. An old schismatical knave, a hypocriticil 
villain 1" 

'^ I beseech your lordship/' said Pollexfien, ^ suffer me a 
word, for my client. It is well known to all intelligent mea of 
age in this nation, that these things do not apply to the ebane- 
ter of Mr. Baxter, who wished as well to the king and roytl 
family as Mr. Love, who lost his head for endeavouring to hnng 
in the son long before he was restored. And, my lord, l^lr« 
Baxter's lojral and peaceable spirit. King Charles wonld have 
rewarded with a bishoprick^ when he came in^ if he wonld 
have conformed." 

^f Aye, aye," said the judge, ^^ we know that; but what ailed 
the old blockhead, the unthankful villain, that he would nH 
conform ? Was he wiser or better than other men ? He baA 
been, ever since, the spring of the faction. I am sure he hath 
poisoned the world witli his linsey-woolsey doctrine." Here lui 
rage increased to an amazing degree. He called Baxter a eon* 
ceited, stubborn, fanatical dog. ^^ Hang him," said he; ^^thb 
one old fellow hath cast more reproach upon the constitutioo 
and discipline of our church than will be wiped off this hun- 
dred years ; but I'll handle him for it : for, by G , he de- 
serves to be whipped through the city." 

" My lord," said Pollexfen, ^' I am sure these things are not 
ad rem. Some persons think, my lord, it is very hard these 
men should be forced against their consciences from the churcli* 
But that is not my business, my lord. I am not to justify their 
nonconformity, or give here the reasons of their scruples to ac« 
cept beneficial places, but rather to suffer any thing. I know 
not, my lord, what reasons sway other men's consciences ; ny 
business is to plead for my client, and to answer the charge of 
dangerous sedition, which is alleged to be contained in hii 
* Paraphrase of the New Testament.' ' 

■ Baxter MSS. Pullexfeo, who acted as first counsel in the trial of BaxtcTi 
is not mentioned at aU in Calamy's account of the trial. The whole that I 
have ^ven ahuve is contaiocd in ihe manuscript account furnished by a p«^ 
sou who was present. As far as it proceeds in the remainder of the narrative 
it agprees with Calamy. Pollexfen was descended from a |^ood family la 
DeTonshire, and rose to the highest ranlc in his profession. He was coudmI 
for the Earl of Danby, in 1679, was employed by the Corpoimtion of Las* 
doD, in the affair of their charter, and was oDe of the counsel retained for the 
bishops. He was knighted after the Revolution, and made chief justice of the 
Common Pleas. He died in i692r^Nobi9*9 Continuatwn of Granger^ voL L 
p.l70« 



OF RICHARB BAXTRR. 367' 

Mr. Wallop said, that he conceived, the matter depending 
beug a point of doctrine, it ought to be referred to the bishop 
hit ordinary ; but if not, he humbly conceived the doctrine was 
innocent and justifiable, setting aside the inuendos, for which 
there was no colour, there being no antecedent to refer them to 
fu e. BO hishop or clergy of the church of England named) ; 
ht aaid Ae book accused, i. e. the * Comment on the New Tes- 
tunent,' contained many eternal truths : but they who drew the 
iafermation were the libellers, in applying to the prelates of the 
church of England, those severe things which were written 
canceming some prelates who deserved the characters which he 
gave. ^* My lord," said he, ^^ I humbly conceive the bishops Mr. 
Baxter speaks of, as your lordship, if you have read church his- 
tory, must confess, were the plagues of the church and of the 
warkL" 

^ Mr. Wallop,'^ said the lord chief justice, *' I observe you 
are in all these dirty causes : and were it not for you gentlemen 
of the long robe, who should have more wit and honesty than 
to support and hold up these factious knaves by the chin, we 
should not be at the pass we are." '^My lord," replied Wallop, 
^I humbly conceive that the passages accused are natural de- 
ductions from the text." '^ You humbly conceive," said Jeffieries, 
^and I humbly conceive. Swear him, swear him." **My lord," 
said he, "under favour, I am counsel for the defendant, and if I 
understand either Latin or English, the information now brought 
against Mr. Baxter upon such a slight ground, is a greater re- 
flecUon upon the church of England, than any thing contained 
in the book he is accused for." " Sometimes you humbly con- 
ceive, and sometimes you are very positive," said Jefferies } " you 
talk of your skill in church history, and of your understanding 
Latin and English; I think I understand something of them as 
well as you ; but, in short, must tell you, that if you do not un- 
derstand your duty better, I shall teach it you." Upon which 
Mr. Wallop sat down. 

Mr. Rotherham urged, ^^ that if Mr. Baxter's book had sharp 
reflections upon the church of Rome by name, but spake well of 
the prelates of the church of England, it was to be presumed, 
that tlie sharp reflections were intended only against the pre- 
lates of the church of Rome." The lord chief justice said, 
** Baxter was an enemy to the name and thing, the office and 
persons, of bishops." Rotherham added^ ^^ that Baxter frequently 



368 THB LIFB AND TIMVS 

attended divine service, went to the sacrament, and persuaded 
others to do so too, as was certainly and publicly known ; and 
had, in the very book so charged, spoken very moderately and 
honourably of the bishops of the church of fingland." 

Baxter added, " My lord, I have been so moderate with 
respect to the church of England, that I have incurred the ccn« 
sure of mapy of the dissenters upon that account.'^ ^ Baiter 
for bishops !" exclaimed Jeiferies, *^ that is a merry conceit in- 
deed : turn to it, turn to it.'' Upon this, Rotherham turned to 
a place where it is said, ^^ that great respect is due to thoK 
truly called to be bishops among us;" or to that purpose: 
'^ Aye,'' said Jefferies, '^ this is your Presbyterian eant ; tnly 
called to be bishops : that is himself, and such rascals, caDed 
to be bishops of Kidderminster, and other such places. Bishop 
set apart by such factious, snivelling Presbyterians as himadf: 
a Kidderminster bishop he means. According to the saying of 
a late learned author^— And every parish shall maintain a tithe 
pig metropolitan." 

Baxter beginning to speak again, Jefferies reviled him; 
'^ Richard, Richard, dost thou think we'll hear thee pcinoa the 
court ? Richard, thou art an old fellow, an old knave ; thofl 
hast written books enough to load a cart, every one as full of 
sedition, I might say treason, as an egg is full of meat. Hadst 
thou been whipped out of thy writing trade forty years ago, it 
had been happy. Thou p'retendest to be a preacher of the 
Gospel of peace, and thou hast one foot in the grave : it is time 
for thee to begin to think what account thou intendest to give. 
But leave thee to thyself, and 1 see thou'lt go on as thou hast 
begun ; but, by the grace of God, I'll look after thee. I kuow 
thou hast a mighty party, and I see a great many of the bro- 
therhood in corners, waiting to see what will become of their 
mighty Don, and a Doctor of the party (looking to Dr. Bates) 
at your elbow ; but, by the grace of Almighty God, I'll crush 
you all. Come, what do you say for yourself, you old knave | 
come,;»peak up. What doth he say ? I am not afraid of yoOi 
for all the snivelling calves you have got about you i" alluding 
to some persons who were in tears about Mr. Baxter. ** Your 
lordship need not,'' said the holy man ; ^^ for I'll not hurt yoa. 
But these things will surely be understood one day ; what foob 
one sort of Protestants are made, to persecute the other." And 
lifting up his eyes to heaven, said, ^^ I am not concerned to an« 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 869 

•uch Btaff J but am ready to produce my writings for the 
mfiitatioti of all this; and my life and conversation are known 
» mny in this nation.'' ^ 

Mr. Rotherham sitting down, Mr. Atwood began to show, 
ml not one of the passages mentioned in the information 
i^t to be strained to the sense which was put upon them by 
le inuendos; they being more natural when taken in a milder 
nae : nor could any one of them be applied to the prelates of 
le church of England, without a very forced construction. To 
ram this, he would have read some of the text : but Jef- 
aries cried out, '^ You shan't draw me into a conventicle with 
por amiotations, nor your snivelling parson, neither." *^ My 
ffdy" said Mr. Atwood, ^^ that I may use the best authority, 
emiit me to repeat your lordship's own words in that case." 
No^ you shan't," said he : ^^you need not speak, for you are an 
Bthor already ; though you speak and write impertinently." 
twood replied, '^ I can't help that, my lord, if my talent be no 
Btter, but it is my duty 'to do my best for my client." 

Jefleries then went on inveighing against what Atwood 
id published ; and Atwood justified it as in defence of the 
iiglish constitution, declaring that he never disowned any 
ling diat he had written. Jefferies, several time;s, ordered him 
I rit down; but he still went on. '^ My lord," said he, ^' I have 
tatter of law to urge for my client." He then proceeded to cite 
sveral cases wherein it had been adjudged that words ought to 
e taken in the milder sense, and not to be strained by inuendos. 
iVell,' sud Jefferies, when he had done, * you have had your 

Mr. Williams and Mr. Phipps said nothing, for they saw 
was to no purpose. At last, Baxter himself said, '^My 
ird, I think I can clearly answer all that is laid to my charge, 
id I shall do it briefly. The sum is contained in these few 
^lers, to which I shall add a little by testimony." But he 
onld not hear a word. At length, the chief justice summed up 
le matter in a long and fulsome harangue. '^ It was notoriously 
^^ywn,'' he said, ^^ there had been a design to ruin the king and 
le nation. The old game had been renewed ; and this person 
id been the main incendiary. He is as modest now as can be ; 
Dt time was, when no man was so ready at, ^ Bind your kings 
I chains, and your nobles in fetters of iron ; ' and ' To your tents, 
^ Israel.' Gentlemen, for God's sake, don't let us be gulled 

* Baxter's MSS. 
VOL. I« B B 



$70 THfi Lt»B ATib ftMltf 

twice \n lUi Age." And when he concluded, h« teld the jtlry^ 
** that if .they in their consciences believed he meant the bMiopi 
and clergy of the church of England, in the passages whitlh the 
information referred to, and he could mean nothing eke ; they 
must find him guilty. If not, they must find him not gtlilty*** 
When he had done, Baxter said to him, ** Does your lont- 
ship think any jury will pretend to pass a Terdict upon me upon 
such a trial?" *' I'll warrant you, Mr. Baxter,'' said he } ^don'C 
you trouble yourself about that." 

The jury immediately laid their heads together at the bar, 
and found him guilty. As he was going frotn the . bar^ 
Baxter told the lord chief justice, who had so loaded him with 
reproaches, and still continued them, that a predecessor of hllf 
had had other thoughts of him ; upon which he replied, ^thal 
there was not an honest man in England but what took him for 
a great ktiave." Baxter had subpoenaed sereral clergymen, who 
appeared in court, but were of no use to him, .throng the 
violence of the chief justice. The trial being over, Sir Henry 
Ashurst led him through the crowd, and conveyed him away in 
his coach«^ 

Between the time of his trial, and of his being brought up fbr 
sentence, Baxter employed what influence he possessed, td pro- 
cure a more favourable result than he had reason to expect fit>n 
the temper of Jefferies. He addressed himself to a nobleman of 
influence at court, whose name does not appear, and also to the 
Bishop of London, entreating them to interpose on his behalf* 
His letter to the bishop, is Worthy of being inserted entire. It 
gives a calm and correct view of his case, shows his attachment 
to the church, the labour he had bestowed to promote its 
interests ; and entreats that he might yet be heard before a more 
impartial and competent tribunal. 

^ Sir Henry Ashurst, who acted in this trnljr Christian aiid aoble naaMr to 
Baxter, feeing his couAsel» standings hy him at bis trial, and coDYcgriBf bi« 
home in his uwn carria^, was the son of one of his oldest and best friend 
and la all respects worthy of the ikiiiily Whos« btHioura he suslatticd and it* 
creased. He married Lady Diana> lh« Afth daughter of WiUiam I»td Pugali 
by whom he had several children. She died in August, 170/^ when a funenl 
sermon was preached. on the occasion by the Rev. Richard Mayo. Sir Ileiiiy 
was the intimate frirad and correspondent i}f the Rev. Philip tfcnry. tk 
ipublished a short life of the Rev. Nathaniel H«ywood, tire ejected mialfter if 
Ormslciric, which shows that he was not ashamed of his connexion with tiMt 
despised race of confessors. Sir Henry died at his seat at Wateratoke, Dcir 
Coventry, on the ISth t>f Apriij 17iO-Il.^$ee the Lives t»f MRp aad MlAbeir 
Henry, by Mr. Williams. 



O? RICHAED BAXTER. 871 

^ Being by q)i8Copa] ordination vowed to the sacred min** 
rjy and bound not to desert it, when by painful diseases and de- 
ify I wuted for my change, I durst not spend my last days in 
tsMaa, and knew not how better to serve the church than by 
Icing a ^ Ptoiphrase on the New Testament/ purposely fitted 
the use of the most ignorant, and the reconciling of doctrinal 
Incnces about texts' variously expounded. Far was it from 
f design to reproach the church, or draw men from it, having 
eiein pleaded for diocesans as successors of the apostles over 
iny churches; though I confute the overthrowing opinion 
liich setteth them over but one church, denying the parishes 
be churches. But some persons offended, it is like, at some 
her passages in the book, have thought fit to say that I scan- 
dised the church of England ; and an information being ex- 
faited in the. King's Bench, at a trial before a common jury, 
I my owning the book, they forthwith found me guilty with- 
it hearing my defence, and I have cause to expect a severe 
dgment, the beginning of the next term. All this is on a 
large that my unquestionable words were meant by me to scan- 
dise the church, which I utterly deny. If God will have me 
id a painful, weary life, by such a suffering, I hope I shall 
liah my course with joy ; but my conscience commandeth mc 
» value the churches strength and honour before my life, and I 
ight not to be silent under the scandal of suffering as an enemy 
• it« Nor would I have my sufferings increase men's prejudice 
punst it« I have lived in its communion, and conformed to as 
uch as the Act of Uniformity obliged one in my condition ; I 
ive drawn multitudes into the church, and written to justify the 
lurch and ministry against separation, when the Paraphrase 
aa in the press : and my displeasing writings (whose eagerness 
id faults I justify not) have been my earnest pleadings for the 
ealiog of a divided people, and the strengthening of the church 
f love and concord on possible terms. 1 owe satisfaction to you 
lat are my diocesan, and therefore presume to send you a copy 
r the infonnadon against me, and my answer to the particular 
misations; humbly entreating you to spare so much time from 
Nir weighty business as to peruse them, or to refer them to be 
emsed for your satisfaction. I would fain send with them one 
leety (in vindication of my accused life and loyalty, and of posi- 
ve proofs that I meant not to accuse the church of England, 
dd of the danger of exposing the clergy to charges of thouglits 

fi b2 



372 THB LIFB AND TIBOtSt 

and meanings as prejudice shall conjecture,) but for fear of db* 
pleasing you by length. For expositions of Scripture to be that 
tried by such juries, as often as they are but called seditiousi b 
not the old way of managing church differences; and of what 
consequence you will easily judge. If your lordship be satisfied 
that I am no enemy to the church, and that my punishment «nll 
not l}e for its interest, I hope you will vouchsafe to present mj 
petition to his majesty, that my appeal to the chnrch may.siMh 
pend the sentence till my diocesan, or whom his majesty shall 
appoint, may hear me, and report their sense of the cause. Bf 
which your lordship will, I doubt not, many ways serve the wdlr 
fare of the church, as well as 

*^ Oblige' your languishing 

*« Humble Servant."* 

It does not appear that these applications, or any other 
influence employed, was of much avail. It will not be thought 
that he received a mitigated sentence, though perhaps this was 
the case. 

On the 29th of June, he had judgment given against hini« 
He was fined five hundred marks, condemned to lie in prisoa 
till he paid it, and bound to his good behaviour for seven yeaiSt 
It is said that Jefferies proposed a corporal punishment, namely, 
whipping through the city ; but his brethren would not accede 
to it. In consequence of which, the fine and imprisonment were 
agreed to.^ 

Thus ended this strange, comic tragedy; for such it moit 
have appeared to be, even to the parties most deeply interested 
in the result. Had Jefferies intended to bring all law and justice 
into contempt, or to render judicial proceedings the object ofdis* 
gust throughout the kingdom, he could not have adopted a more 
effectual method than the conduct he pursued at Baxter's trial, 
llie apology which has sometimes been offered for this uojuit 
judge, that his cruelties were perpetrated to please his royal 
master, will not, I am afraid, stand the test of a rigid examioa- 
tion. That James was cold, and cruel too, cannot be doubted; 
but the conduct of Jefferies on this and similar occasions, seem 
evidently to have arisen from his own nature, which was savage^ 
vulgar, and unrelenting. He was a fit instrument for doing the 
work of a despotic government; but he was also admirably 
qualified for rendering that government an object of universal 
s Baxter*! MSS. r Ibid. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. S78 

Mticd and loathing. Nothing, probably, contributed more ef- 
ectnaUy to the downfall of James's authority, and the utter ex- 
inetion of his influence in the country, than the brutal outrages 
f this man. lliey may be sud to have commenced with his 
mtment of Baxter^ and to have terminated with his western 
anpaign* His track was marked with blood and murder, which 
t last brought down the vengeance of Heaven on his infatuated 
nqployers, and led to the final deliverance of his oppressed and 
ngnred country. 

On the legal merits of Baxter's trial, there can now be but 
ne opinion. It is highly probable, as has been already re- 
oaiked, that he was singled out to be the first victim, and with 
k view of striking terror into all his brethren. His services to the 
tench, by his writings in her defence, and by the division which 
le mainly contributed to keep up among the dissenters, were 
my considerable. If such a man, therefore, must be severely 
nmished, and that for one of the least offensive of his publica- 
aonsy what might others expect? The notes fastened on, cer- 
minly contain no sedition. They do not even name the bishops, 
ht constitution, or the services of the church of England. It was 
iKTcfore entirely by inuendOy or insinuation, as the counsel all- 
eged, that his words were construed to be an attack on the pre- 
Itfcsand liturgy of the church. As he was a believer in bishops, 
md no enemy to a liturgy, he could only refer to unsuitable 
lersons holding the office, or to the abuse of the forms of the 
sfaurch. To constitute allusions to such things in a commen- 
ary on the Scriptures, high legal offences, endangering the 
iberty or lives of the subjects, shows either that the court was at 
I Ums for grounds of prosecution, or that even at this early period 
if James's reign, a deep-laid plot had been formed to ruin the 
iiasenters, and, with them, the liberties of England. 

At the end of the second edition of the Paraphrase, he left 
ihe following note to be inserted : " Reader, — It's like you have 
heard how I was, for this book, by the instigation of Sir Roger 
L'Sstrange and some of the clergy, imprisoned nearly two years, 
by Sir George Jefferies, Sir Francis Wilkins, and the rest of the 
judges of the King's Bench, after their preparatory restraints, 
md attendance under the most reproachful words, as if I had 
been the most odious person living, and not suffered at all to 
qieak for myself. Had not the king taken off my fine, I had 
continued in prison till death. Because many desire to know 
what all this was for, I have here written the eight accusations 



374 THB LIFE AND TIMB8 

wKich (after the great clergy search of my book) were brought 
in as seditious. I have altered never a word accined^ that joa 
may know the worst. What I said of the murderers of Chriat^ and 
the hypocrite Pharisees and their sins, the judge sud I meant 
of the ^hurch of England, though I have written for it^ nnd 
still communicate with it." Then follow the patoagea of SeiifH 
ture, which have been given in a preceding note. ^Thcac^" ha 
adds, '^were all, by one that knoweth his own name; put into 
their hands, with some accusations out of Rom. xiii.^ aa tgainiC 
my life ; but their discretion forbade them to use or name them." 

The conduct of L'Estrange, in promoting the proteeotioD of 
Baxter, is only in harmony with other parts of his ehamcter/ 
He was one of the most unprincipled, mercenary scribbleta of te. 
age to which he belonged ; a man who stuck at nothing wUek 
the interests of arbitrary power and high-church politica xequired. 
To such a man, Richard Baxter afforded delicious food : he 
often before attacked him by his pen; he now employed a 
formidable and dangerous weapon, the attorney-general anA 
Lord Chief Justice Jefferies. 

The conduct of the clergyman referred to, understood to be 
Dr. Sherlock, who suggested a charge of treason, founded oa 
the annotations on tlie 13th chapter of the Romans, h more 
difficult to be accounted for. There was not sufficient grooad 
for the charge, otherwise it would doubtless have been adopted. 
But what could instigate Sherlock to such a proceeding, affect- 
ing the life of a venerable servant of Christ, must be left to the 
disclosures of another day. We would hope Baxter may haie 

* Echard relates a curious anecdote of Baxter and L'Estran^e. '* When Dr. 
Sharp, afterwards archbishop of York, was rector of St. Giles-lii-the-FMdt, 
L'Estranf^e, Baxter, and the notorious Miles Pranse, who was oonvicicd tf 
perjury in the affair of Sir Edmund Godfrey, all approached the conmooioa 
table, on a sacrament day ; L'Estrange at one end, Pranse at the othery anl 
Baxter in the middle. Baxter and Prance, from their situation, rectlTed be- 
fore L'Estrange, who, when it came to bis turn, taking the bread in hit haadi 
asked the doctor if he knew who that man was, pointings to Pranse. To which 
the doctor answering in the negative, L'Estran^ replied, < That is MUci 
Pranse ; and I here challenge him, and solemnly declare, before €kid and Ifaif 
congregation, that what that roan hath sworn or published coacemiiig meit 
totally and absolutely false ; and may this sacrament be ny damnatioo if all 
this declaration be not true/ Pranse was silent; Mr. Baxter took sjiecisl 
notice of it; and Dr. Sharp declared he would have refused Pnune the 
aacrament, had the challenge been made In time." — Eckarft Omttk AC 
What a scene this was for a communion table ! 1 am surprised it did not 
forever disgust Baxter at occasional couformity, and teach him the importance 
of knowing something about the persons with whom he held reilgiottt ftiknr- 
ship in this sacred ordiaance* 



htfm undfr lome mistake^ au4 that Sherlook was not guilty of 
#ueh bise and atrocious conduct. 

Baxter baing unable to pay the fine, and aware that, though 
ba didf he might soon be prosecuted again, on some equally 
mjoat pretencai went to prison. Here he was visited by his 
friands^ and even by some of the respectable clergy of the 
fburcb, who sympathised with his sufferings, and deplored the 
]i|jaatiee be received. He continued in this imprismiment 
paariy two years ; during which he enjoyed more quietness than 
ha had done for many years before. 

Aa imprisonment of two years would have been found very 
tffiog and irksome to most men. To Baxter, however, it does 
npt appear to have proved so painful, though he had now lost 
bia beloved wife, who had frequently before been his companion 
in solitude and suffering. His friends do not appear to have 
Qlflected or forgotten him. The following extract of a letter 
ftiQ^i the well-known Matthew Henry, presents a pleasing view 
of tlie manner in which he endured bonds and afSictions for 
Christ's sake. It is addressed to his father, and dated tha 
17tb of November, 1685, when Baxter had been several months 
qmfiffad* Mr* Williams justly remarks, *^ It is one of those 
pictures of days which are past, which, if rightly viewed, may 
produce lasting and beneficial effects ; emotions of sacred sor- 
fOW (or the iniquity of persecution ; and animating praise, that 
tha demon in these happy days of tranquillity, is restrained 
though npt destroyed.'^ 

^' I went into Sputhwark, to Mr. Baxter. I was to wait upon 
him once before, and then he was busy. I found him in pretty 
comfortable circumstances, though a prisoner, in a private 
bouse near the prison, attended on by his own man and maid* 
My good friend, Mr. S[amuel] L[awrence], went with me. He 
is in as good health as one can expect ; and, methinks, looks 
blotter, and speaks heartier, than when I saw him last. The 
toktn you aent, he would by no means be persuaded to accept^ 
aad was almost angry when I pressed it, from one outed as 
well as himself. He said he did not use to receive ; and I un« 
derstand since, his need is not great. 

.^ We sat with him about an hour. I was very glad to find 
fbat he so much approved of my present circumstances. He 
said be knew not why young men might not improve as well, as- 
by travelling abroad. He inquired for his Shropshire friends, 
and observed, that of those gentlemen who were with hiq; at 



376 THB LIFK AND TUCBS 

Wem, he hears of none whose sons tread in their h&itnf stqps 
but Colonel Hunt's. He inquired about Mr. Macworth's, tad 
Mr. LIoyd*s (of Aston) children. He gave us some good coansd 
to prepare for trials ; and said the best preparation for them wi% 
a life of faith, and a constant course of self-denial. He iban(^ 
it harder constantly to deny temptations to sensual lusts and 
pleasures^ than to resist one single temptation to deny Chrkt 
for fear of suffering : the former requiring such constant watdw 
fulness; however, after the former, the latter will be the eamr. 
He said, we who are young are apt to count upon great 
things, but we must not look for them ; and much more to this 
purpose. He said he thought dying by sickness usually much 
more painful and dreadful, than dying a violent death ; espeei- 
ally considering the extraordinary supports which those have 
who suffer for righteousness' sake."* 

When it was seen that Baxter would neither pay the fine, 
nor petition for his release, a private offer appears to have been 
made through Lord Powis, that the king would grant it as mat- 
ter of favour.^ A person of the name of Williams, at the end 
of 1686, offered to assist him, through that nobleman, in pro- 
curing his liberty. Baxter appears to have had some suspicion, 
either of the man, or of his design ; whose object at last Bf- 
peared to be to get money, as he afterwards made a demand of 
38/. for his trouble. Baxter resisted this demand, and applied 
to Lord Powis to know what influence he had in procuring his 
release. His lordship declared solemnly, as in the presence of 
God, he had had no influence whatever, and deserved no reward.* 
Lord Powis, however, appears to have been the person who 
managed this affair, and obtained Baxter's deliverance from 
prison, though not his release from the bond of his good be- 
haviour. It is probable that Baxter owed the favour he expe- 
rienced to the change in the disposition of the court towards the 
dissenters generally at this time, owing to the difficulties expe- 
rienced from the opposition to Popery on the part of the church, 
and the hope that by courting the dissenters^ their fears might 
be quieted, and the object more easily secured. 

* For this letter I am inrlebted to the 'Memoirs of the Rev. Matthew Henry/ 
p. 22, by my respected friend Mr. Williams, of Shrewsbury. Both in this, and 
in his enlar^ < Life of Philip Henry/ he has conferred ^reat oblif^tions on 
all the lovers of truly Christian and evangelical biography. Both works art 
replete with matter calculated to produce the most salutary iufluence on all 
classes of our reli^ous community. 

^ Penitent Confession, p. 40. • Baiter's MSS, 



OF RlCRAftD BArrsB. 877 

Ob tht 84di of November, 1686, Sir Samuel Astrey sent 
kb warrBDt to the keeper of the Kmg's Bench prison, to dis« 
ehttge lum« He gave sureties, however, for his good behaviour. 
Us auyesty dechmng for his satisfaction, that it should not 
bo interpreted a breach of good behaviour for him to reside in 
Lottdon, which was not consistent with the Oxford act. After 
this release, he continued to live some time within the rules of the 
Beodi; till, on the 28th of February, 1687, he removed to his 
boBse in the Charter-house-yard; and again, as far as his health 
Bnonld permit, assisted Mr. Sylvester in his public labours.*^ 

' Calamy^ toK i« p. 375* 



37^ .TUB LIVB AMD THOf 



CHAPTER XIII. 



1687— 1691. 



Baxter's Reriew of his own Life and Opinions, and Account of hU iuk'^ 
tured Sentiments and Feelings— Remarks on that Review— The Public' 
Events of his last Years->The Revolution— The Act of Toleration— Baxter^^ 
sense of the Articles required to be subscribed by this Act — Agmmmktof 
the Presbyterian and Independent Ministers of London— Last Years oi 
Baxter— Preaches for Sylvester— His Writinf^s— Visited by Dr. Calamy^ 
Account of his last Sickness and Death, by Bates and Sylvester— Galnmni- 
ous Report respecting the State of his Miud— Vindicated by Sylvesto^^ 
Buried in Christ-church— His Will— William Baxtei^Funeral SenDonsbj 
Sylvester and Bates — Sketch of his Character by the latter — Condndin^ 
Observations on the Characteristic Piety of Baxter. 

I 

Having brought down the narrative of this venerable man'i 
life and times nearly to the close of his active career, I appre- 
hend this is the proper place to introduce his own review of the 
progpress of his mind and character. He who was so attentive 
to others, and who drew the character of many, was not indif- 
ferent about himself, and exercised a much more rigid scrutiny 
into his own principles and conduct than he ever employed on 
those of his fellow men. He strongly recommended self-es- 
amination and self- judgment; it will now appear how consci- 
entiously he practised them. The virtue of candour he ever 
enforced, with all the energy and eloquence of which he was 
master ; and in the development, which he furnishes of the 
state of his own mind, and of his most secret thoughts, he 
shows how he was trained to practise it. 

In his case, we have an advantage which is not frequently 
enjoyed in writing the lives of distinguished individuals. We 
are furnished with his own views at length, not merely of his 
life and labours, but of the gradual and successive changes of 
his mind. Had this been the production of a weak, self-con- 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 379 

^eited man, or of one little accustomed to trace the workingaof 
ia intellectual and moral principles, it would have been worth' 
cry little ; but being the work of a man of deep pietyi mi- 
jgned humility, and of the most discriminating powers of 
And ; of one who studied himself, as well as others, with the 
rofeundest attention, and who was more ready to disclose his 
i^n fiulures and imperfections, than to speak of his own virtues, 

is exceedingly valuable. As he has left it with the ezpiCM 
kwof enabling posterity to form a correct idea of himsdf } of 

nan who was warmly applauded by one party, and not lesa 
isKgned by another, it would be altogether wrong to withhold 
t^ or to give it in any other words than his own. It was writ* 
a towards the latter part of his life, and comprises an extent 
m review of his experience, opinions, and writings. I omit 
oly what I conceive to be extraneous or now unnecessary, and 
serve his opinion of his writings, with a few other passages, 
w the second part of this work. If the reader make a little 
Uowance for a slight appearance of egotism and garrulity, he 
ill probably find this among the most instructive parts of the 
fe of Baxter. It is the summary of his matured views, after 

long and busy career, in which he had seen much both of the 
virid and of the church. 

^ Because it is soul experience which those who urge me to 
us kind of writing expect, that I should, especially, oommu** 
icate to others ; and I have said little of God's dealings with 
ly soul since the time of my younger years, I shall only give 
lie reader so much satisfaction as to acquaint him truly what 
hange God hath made upon my mind and heart since those 
nriper times, and wherein I now differ in judgment and dispo* 
icion from myself. For any more particular account of heart 
ccnrrences, and God's operations on me, I think it somewhat 
nssvoury to recite them, seeing God's dealings are much the 
sme with all his servants in the main, and points wherein he 
arieth, are usually so small, that I think such not fit to be re- 
eated. Nor have I any thing extraordinary to glory in, which 
I not common to the rest of my brethren, who have the same 
pirit, and are servants of the same Lord. The true reasons 
fbj I do adventure so far upon the censure of the world as to 
ell them wherein the case is altered with me, is, that I may take 
ff young inexperienced Christians from over confidence in their 
nt apprehensions, or overvaluing their first degrees of grace, 
r too much applauding and following uniumished, inesperi- 



SSO THB LIFE ANB T1MB8 

enced men; and that they may be directed what nund and 
ooune of life to prefer, by the judgment of one that hath tried 
both before them. 

^ The temper of my mind hath somewhat altered with tte 
temper of my body. When I was young I was more Tigoroa^ 
affectionate, and fervent, in preaching, conference, and prayer, 
than, ordinarily, I can be now. My style was more extempo- 
rate and lax, but, by the advantage of warmth, and a ruj 
familiar moving voice and utterance, my preaching then did 
more affect the auditory, than it did many of the last years be- 
fore I gave over preaching. But what I delivered then wai 
much more raw, and had more passages that would not bear the 
trial of accurate judgments; and my discourses had both lev 
substance and less judgment than of late. 

^ My understanding was then quicker, and could more easQy 
manage any thing that was newly presented to it upon a sudden; 
but it is since better furnished, and acquainted with the ways of 
truth and error, and with a multitude of particular mistakes of 
the world, which then I was the more in danger of, 'because I 
had only the faculty of knowing them, but did not actually 
know them. I was then like a man of a quick understanding^ 
that was to travel a way which he never went before, or to cast 
up an account which he never laboured in before, or to play on 
an instrument of music which he never saw before. I am now 
like one of somewhat a slower understanding, who is travelling 
a way which he hath often gone, and is casting up an account 
which he hath ready at hand, and that is playing on an instro* 
ment which he hath frequently used : so that I can very confi- 
dently say my judgment is much sounder and firmer now than it 
Mfas then : for though I am now as competent a judge of the 
actings of my own understanding as then, I can judge better 
of the effects. When I peruse the writings which I wrote in 
my younger years, I can find the footsteps of my unfurnished 
mind, and of my emptiness and insufficiency : so that the man 
that followed my judgment then, was likelier to have been mis* 
led bv me than he that should follow it now. 

^ In my younger years, my trouble for sin was most about my 
actual failings ; but now i am much more troubled for inward 
defects and omissions, for want of the vital duties or graces 
of the soul. My daily trouble is so much for my ignorance of 
God, weakness of belief, want of greater love to God, strange- 
ness to him and to the life to come, and for want of a greater 



OF AlCHARD BAXTER. S81 

viffillgiiMi to die, and more longing to be with God in heaven^ 
Ami I take not tome immoralities^ though very great, to be in 
tbemsehres so great and odious sins, if they could be found 
lepaimte from these. Had I all the riches of the world, how 
{iadly should I give them for a fuller knowledge, belief, and love, 
of God and everlasting glory ! These wants are the greatest 
burden of my life, which oft maketh my life itself a burden. I 
cannot find any hope of reaching so high in these enjoyments^ 
while I am in the flesh, as I once hoped before this time to have 
attained ; which maketh me the wearier of this sinful world, 
that is honoured with so little of the knowledge of God. 
• ^ Heretofore, I placed much of my religion in tenderness of 
heart, grieving for sin, and penitential tears ; and less of it in 
the love of God, in studying his goodness, and engaging in his 
joyftil praises, than now I do. Then I was little sensible of the 
greatness and excellency of love and praise, though I coldly 
qpake the same words as now I do. I am less troubled for want 
of grief and tears (though I value humility, and refuse not need- 
fkl humiliation), but my conscience now looketh at love and 
delight in God, and praising him, as the t6p of all my religious 
duties ; for which it is that I value and use the rest. 

^ My judgment is much more for frequent and serious medita- 
tion on the heavenly blessedness than it was in my younger days. 
I then thought that a sermon on the attributes of God, and the 
joys of heaven, was not the most excellent ; and was wont to 
say^ ' Every body knoweth that God is great and good, and that 
heaven is a blessed place ; I had rather hear how I may attain 
it.' Nothing pleased me so well as the doctrine of regeneration 
and the marks of sincerity, because these things were suitable 
to me in that state ; but now I had rather read, hear, meditate, 
o«i God and heaven, than on any other subject. , I perceive that 
it is the object which altereth and elevateth the mind ; which 
will resemble that which it most frequently feedeth on. It 
is not only useful to our comfort to be much in heaven in be- 
lieving thoughts ; it must animate all our other duties, and fortify 
us against every temptation and sin. The love of the end is the 
poise or spring which setteth every wheel a-going, and must put 
m on to all the means ; for a man is no more a Christian indeed 
than he is heavenly. 

^ Formerly I knew much less than now, and yet was not half 
so much acquainted with my ignorance : I had a great delight 
in the daily^ new discoveries which I madcj and of the light which 



389 THB UFB AND TIMBS 

•hined in iipon me, like a man that cometh into a ocuntiy vfatke 
he never was before ; but I little knew either how imperfectly I 
understood those very points whose discovery so much delighted 
me, or how much might ,be said against them, or how many 
things I was yet a stranger to: I now find &r greater daikncsi 
in all things, and perceive how very little we know in compaii- 
son of that of which we are ignorant. I have, therrfoN^ fiv 
meaner thoughts of my own understanding, though I most 
needs know that it is better furnished than it was then* 

^ I now see more good and 'more evil than heretofore I didi 
I see that good men are not so good as I once thought they were, 
but have more imperfections; and that nearer apjproach and 
fuller trial do make the best appefu- more weak and faulty than 
their admirers at a distance think. I find that few are ao bad 
as either malicious enemies or censorious, separating profetson 
do imagine* In some, indeed, I find that human nature is cor^ 
rupted into a greater likeness to devils tlian I once thought any 
on earth had been ; but even in the wicked, usually, there ii 
more for grace to make advantage of, and more to testify for 
God and holiness, than I once believed there had been. 

^' I less admire gifts of utterance and the bare profession of 
religion than I once did ; and have much more charity for many 
who by the want of gifts do make an obscurer profession. I 
once thought that almost all who could pray movingly and 
fluently, and talk well of religion, had been saints* But expe- 
rience hath opened to me what odious crimes may consist with 
high profession ; while I have met with divers obscure personi, 
not noted for any extraordinary profession or forwardness in 
religion, but only to live a quiet, blameless life, whom I have 
after found to have long lived, as far as I could discern, a truly 
godly and sanctified life ; only ttieir prayers and duties were, by 
accident, kept secret from other men's observation. Yet he that 
upon this pretence would confound the godly and the ungodly, 
may as well go about to lay heaven and hell together. 

^^ I am not so narrow in my special love as heretofore : beiif 
less censorious, and taking more than I did for saints, it must 
needs follow that I love more as saints than I did formerly. I 
think it not lawful to put that man off with bare church com- 
munion, and such common love which I must allow the wicked, 
who professeth himself a true Christian, by such a profession as 
I canuot disprove. I am not so narrow in my principles of 
church conununiou as once I was* J more plainly perceive the 



Of RicnAftD lAxna. I9S 

J Ml btMt lifcW fi flU the ehurich as oongregaiei or thtble^ anS !•• 
fflgcMmte, or mvBticiU. I can now distingiiish between sincerity 
Aftd pffufeMion ; that a credible profession is proof suiBcient of 
a man's title to church admission ; and that the profession is 
credible infinro eeelerim, which is not disproved. I am not for 
narroifring the church more than Christ himself alloweth -tu| 
nor for robbing him of any of his flock. I am more sensible how 
ttmeh it is the will of Christ, that every man be the choceer 
or refuser of his own felicity, and that it lieth most on his 
own hands whether he will have communion with the church 
or not^ ahd that if he be an hypocrite, it is himself that will 
bear the loss« 

^ Yftt I am more apprehensive than ever of the great use and 
need of ecclesiastical discipline ; what a sin it is in the pastors 
of the church to make no distinction, but by bare names and 
sacraments, and to force all the unmeet, against their wills, to 
church communion : though the ignorant and erroneous may 
sometimes be forced to hear instruction. What a great dia* 
honour to Christ it is, when the church is as vicious as Pagan 
and Mahometan assemblies, and differs from them only in cene* 
mony and name ! 

^ I am much more sensible how prone many young professora 
are to spiritual pride, and self-conceitedness, and unrulinessi 
and division, and so to prove the grief of their teachers, and fire* 
brands in the church ; and how much of a minister's work lioth 
in preventing this, and humbling and confirming such young 
inexperienced professors, and keeping them in order in their 
progress in religion. Yet I am more sensible of Uie sin and 
mischief of using meq cruelly in matters of religion, and of 
pretending men's good and the order of the church, for acts of 
inhumanity or uncharitableness. Such know not their own infir^ 
mity, ncA* yet the nature of pastoral government, which ought 
to be paternal and by love ; nor do they know the way to wia 
a soul, or to maintain the cliurch's peace. 

'^My soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of this 
mis^able Worid, and more drawn out in desire of its conversion^ 
than heretofore. I was wont to look but little fiirtlier than 
England in my prayers, not considering the state of the rest 
of the world ; or if I prayed for the conversion of the Jews, that 
was almost all. But now, as I better understand the case of the 
worid^ and the method of the Lord's prayer ; there is nothing 
in the world that lieth so heavy upon my hearty as the thought 



884 THB Lins AND TIMB8 

of the miaerable nations of the earth. It is the mostaatMusUng 
part of all God's providence to me, that he so far foiaakcth 
almost all the world, and confineth his special favour to so few; 
that so small a part of the world hath the profession of Chm> 
tianity, in comparison of heathens, Mahometans, and other infi- 
dels ; that among professed Christians there are so few that an 
saved from gross delusions, and have any competent know- 
ledge ; and that among those there are so few that are aeriondj 
religious, and who truly set their hearts on heaven. I cannot be 
affected so much with the calamities of my own relations or the 
land of my nativity, as with the case of the heathen, MahomeUOi 
and ignorant nations of the earth. No part of my prayers an 
so deeply serious as that for the conversion of the infidel and 
ungodly world, that God's name may be sanctified^ and his king- 
dom come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 
Nor was I ever before so sensible what a plague the division cf 
languages is, which hindereth our speaking to them for their 
conversion. Nor what a great sin tyranny is, which keepeth 
out the Gospel from most of the nations of the world. Could 
we but go among Tartars, Turks, and heathens, and speak their 
language, I should be but little troubled for the silencing of 
eighteen hundred ministers at once, in England, nor for all the 
rest that were cast out here, and in Scotland, and Ireland ; there 
being no employment in the world so desirable in my eyes as to 
labour for the winning of such miserable souls ; which maketh 
me greatly honour Mr. John Elliot, the apostle of the Indians in 
New England, and whoever else have laboured in such work. 

^^ I am more deeply afflicted for the disagreements of Chris- 
tians than I was when I was a younger Christian. Except the 
case of the infidel world, nothing is so bad and grievous to 
my thoughts as the case of divided churches : and therefore I 
am more deeply sensible of the sinfulness of those prelates and 
pastors of churches who are the principal cause of these 
divisions. Oh ! how many millions of souls are kept by them 
in ignorance and ungodline^, and deluded by faction, as if it 
were true religion ! How is the conversion of infidels hindered 
by them, and Christ and religion heinously dishonoured ! Tlie 
contentions between the Greek church and the Roman, the 
Papists and the Protestants, the Lutherans and the CalvinistSi 
have wofully hindered the kingdom of Christ. 

^ I am farther than ever I was from expecting great matters 
of unity, splendour, or prosperity, to the church on earthy or 



OP RICHARD BAXTfiK. 385 

It ftaints should dream of a kingdom of this world, or flatter 
tmselves with the hope of a golden age^ or of reiguing over the 
pKlly» till there be a new heavens and a new earth, whereia 
cUeth righteousness. On the contrary, I am more apprchen- 
e that suffering must be the church's most ordinary lot; 
i true Christians must be self-denying cross-bearers, even 
lere there are none but formal, nominal Christiana to be the 
Mt-makers : for though, ordinarily, God would have vicissi- 
iea of summer and winter, day and night, that the church 
ly grow externally in the summer of prosperity, and inten- 
dy and radically in the winter of adversity ; yet, usually^ 
dr night is longer than their day, and that day itself hath ita 
nrms and tempests. 

** I do not lay so great a stress upon the external modes and 
noB of worship, as many young professors do, I have sua* 
cted myself, as perhaps the reader may do, that this is from a 
oUng and declining of my former zeal, though the truth is, I 
▼er much complied with men of that mind ; but I find that 
4gineut and charity are the causes of it, as far as I am able 

discover. I cannot be so narrow in my principles of church 
tfnmunion as many are, that arc so much for a liturgy, or 

much against it ; so much for ceremonies, or so much 
lainst them, that they can hold communion with no church 
at is not of their mind and way. 

'^ If I were among the Greeks, the Lutherans, the Indepen- 
^nts, yea, the Anabaptists, owning no heresy, nor setting them- 
Ives against charity and peace, I would sometimes hold occa* 
mal communion with them as Christians ; if they would give 
e leave, without forcing me to any sinful subscription or action, 
lOugh my most usual communion should be with that society 
hich I thought most agreeable to the word of God if I were 
ee to choose. I cannot be of their opinion, that think God 
ill not accept him that prayeth by the Common Prayer-book ; 
id that such forms are a self-invented worship, which God re^ 
cteth ; nor yet can I be of their mind that say the like of 
^tempore prayers. 

^ I am much less regardful of the approbation of man, and set 
luch lighter by contempt or applause, than I did long ago. I 
n oft suspicious that this is not only from the increase of self-* 
?nial and humility, but partly from my being glutted and sur- 
ited with human applause. All worldly things appear most 
un and unsacibfactory when we have tried them most: but 

VOL. !• c c 



386 TBB LIFE AND TIMS8 

though I feel that this hath some hand in the eflFiect, yet, as to 
as I can perceive, the knowledge of man's nothingness, and God i 
transcendent gpreatness, with whom it is that I have moat to doy 
and the sense of the brevity of human things, and the neameai 
of eternity^ are the principal causes of this eflfect ; which some 
have imputed to self-conceitedness and morosenesa. 

'* ] am more and more pleased with a solitary life, and though 
in a way of self-denial, I could submit to the roost public Kfe to 
the service of God, when he requireth it, and would not be vh 
profitable, that I might be private, yet I must confess it is mock 
more pleasing to myself to be retired from the worid^ and t» 
have very little to do with men, and to converse with God and 
conscience and good books. 

*^ Though I was never much tempted to the sin of covetoiuneM} 
yet my fear of dying was wont to tell me that I was not i«S« 
cienUy loosened from the world : but I find that it is compaia- 
tively very easy to me to be loose from this world, but hard to 
live by faith above. To despise earth, is easy to me j but not lo 
easy to be acquainted and conversant with heaven* I hate ink 
thing in^this world which I could not easily let go ; but to get 
satisfying apprehensions of the other world is the great and 
grievous difficulty. 

^^ I am much more apprehensive than long ago of the odkios* 
ness and danger of the sin of pride. Scarcely any sin appeaiedi 
more odious to me, having daily more acquaintance with the 
lamentable naughtiness and frailty of man, and of the miscUeft 
of that sin ; and especially in matters spiritual and ecclesiastictL 
I think so far as any man is proud, he is kin to the devil, and ot* 
terly a stranger to God and to himself. It is a wonder that it 
should be a possible sin to men that still carry about with then^ 
in soul and body, such hutnblhig matter to remedy as we all do. 

^ I am much more sensible than heretofore, of the breadth, and 
length, and depth, of the radical, universal, odious sin of selfish* 
jiess, and therefore have written so much against it ; and of the 
excellency and necessity of self-denial, and of a public mind, and 
of loving our neighbours as ourselves. 

'* I am more solicitous than I have been about my duty to-God, 
and less solicitous about his dealings with me ; being assured 
that he will do all things well ; acknowledging the goodness of 
all the declarations of his holiness, even in the punishment of 
man ; and knowing that there is -no rest but in the will and 
goodness of God. 



or RICHARD BAXTBR. 387 

** niODgh Hiy works were never such as could be any tempUa 
Ml to me to dream of obliging Ood by proper merit in com-^ 
itative justice, yet one of the most ready, constant, undoubted 
ideneea of my uprightness and interest in his corensnt, isy the 
tiacioo sn ess of my living devoted to him. I the more easily 
Here the pardon of my failings throi^h my Redeemer, wUle 
know that I serve no other master^ and that I know no other 
4, or trade, ot business, but that I am employed in his work^ 
id make it the object of my life to live to him in the worlds 
iHritlistanditig my infirmities. This bent and business of my 
e, whh my kmgiiig desires after perfection, in the knowledge 
id love (rf God, and in a holy and heavenly mind, are the two 
fetidlng, constant, discernible evidences which most put me out 
' doubt of. my sincerity. I find that constant action and duty 
Vvriiat keep the first always in sight; and constant wants 
id weaknesses, and coming short of my desires, do make these 
irires the more troublesome, and so the more easily still per- 

^ Though my habitual judgment, resolution, and scope of life, 
I still the same, yet I find a great mutability as to the actual 
iprehensions and degrees of grace ; and consequently find that 
I ftratable a thing as the mind of man, would never keep itself 
Ood were not its keeper. When I have been seriously musing 
Mm the reatsons of Christianity, with the concurrent evidences 
ethodically placed in their just advantages before my eyes, I 
B so clear in my belief of the Christian verities, that Satan hath 
tie room for a temptation ; but sometimes when he hath on a 
idden set some temptation before me, when the foresaid evi- 
mees have been out of the way^ or less upon my thoughts, he 
iCh^ by such surprises, amazed me, and weakened my faith m 
e present act. So also as to the love of Ood, and trusting in 
n^ sometimes when the motives are clearly apprehended, the 
ity is more easy and delightful ; and at other times I am merely 
issive and dull, if not guilty of actual despondency and distrust. 
^lYras much of the alterations of my soul since my youi^er 
lars, I thought best to give the reader, instead of all those ex" 
*riences and actual motions and affections, which I suppose 
m rather to have expected an account of. And having tran- 
ribed thus much of a life which Ood hath read, and conscience 
ith read, and must further read, I humbly lament it, and beg 
irdon of it, as sinful, and too unequal and unprofitable^ I warn 

cc2 



388 TUB JLIFB AND TIMES 

the reader to amend that in his own, which he findeth to have 
been amiss in mine; confessing, also, that much hatli been amiss 
which I have not here particularly mentioned, and that I ban 
not lived according to the abundant mercies of the Lord. Bat 
what I have recorded hath been especially to perform my vonvi 
and declare his praise to all generations, who hath filled up mj 
' days with his invaluable favours, and bound me to blett hii 
name for ever. I have done it also to prevent the defectiie 
performance of this task by some overvaluing brethren, who I 
know intended it, and were unfitter to do it than myself ; and 
for such reasons as Junius, Seultetus, Thuanua, and many otben^ 
have done the like before me. The principal of which are theie 
three: 1. As travellers and seamen use to do after great ad- 
ventures and deliverances, I hereby satisfy my conscience, in 
praising the blessed Author of all those undeserved mercki 
which have filled up my life. '2. Foreseeing, by tiie attempts of 
Bishop Morley, what Prelatists and Papists are likely to say of 
me, when they have none to contradict them, and how pos- 
sible it is that those who never knew me may believe thcnii 
though thay have lost their hopes with all the rest, I take it to 
be my duty to be so faithful to that stock of reputation which 
God hath entrusted me with, as to defend it at the rate of 
opening the truth. Such as have made the world believe thst 
Luther consulted with the devil, that Calvin was a stigmatised 
sodomite, that Beza turned Papist, &c., to blast their labours, I 
know are very likely to say any thing respecting me, which their 
interest or malice tell them will any way advantage their cause, 
to make my writings unprofitable when I am dead. 3. That 
young Christians may be warned by the mistakes and failiogs 
of my unriper times, to learn in patience, live in watchfulnesi, 
and not be fierce and proudly confident in their first coocep* 
tions ; to reverence ripe, experienced age, and to beware of 
taking such for their chief guides, as have nothing but imma- 
ture and inexperienced judgments, with fervent affections and 
free and confident expressions ; but to learn of them that have 
with holiness, study, time, and trial, looked about them, as well 
on one side as on the other, and attained to clearness and im* 
partiality in their judgments. 

^^ Having mentioned the changes which I think were for the 
better, I must add, that as I confessed many of my sins before, 
so I have been guilty of many since which, because materially 



or RICHARD RArrBR. 389 

they leeiited small, have had the less resistance^ and yet on the 
review3 do trouble me more than if they had been greater, done 
in ignorance. It can be no small sin formally, which is committed 
against knowledge and conscience and deliberation, whatever 
excuse it have. To have sinned while I preached and wrote 
agiiinst sin, and had such abundant and great obligations from 
God, and made so many promises against it, dotli lay me very 
low : not so much in fear of hell, as in great displeasure against 
myself, and such self-abhorrence as would cause revenge upon 
myself, were it not forbidden. When God forgiveth me, I 
eannot forgive myself; especially for my rash words or deeds, 
by which I have seemed injurious and less tender and kind than. 
I sboiild have been to my near and dear relations, whose love 
abundantly obliged me. When such are dead, though we never 
differed in point of interest, or any other matter, every sour or 
cross, provoking word which I gave them, maketh me almost 
irreconcilable to myself, and tells me how repentance brought 
some of old to pray to the dead whom they had wronged, to 
forgive them, in the hurry of their passion. 

"That which I named before, by-the-by, is grown one of my 
great diseases ; I have lost much of that zeal which I had to 
propagate any truths to others, save the mere fundamentals. 
When I perceive people or ministers to think they know what 
indeed they do not, which is too' common, and to dispute those 
things which they never thoroughly studied, or expect that I 
should debate the case with them, as if an hour's talk would 
serve instead of an acute understanding and seven years' study, 
I have no zeal to make them of my opinion, but an impatience 
of continuing discourse with them on such subjects, and am apt 
to be silent or to turn to something else ; which, though there 
be some reason for it, I feel cometh from a want of zeal for the 
truth, and from an impatient temper of mind. I am ready to 
think tliat people should quickly understand all in a few words ; 
and if they cannot, to despair of them, and leave them to them- 
selves. I know the more that this is sinful in me, because 
it is partly so in other things, even about the faults of my 
servants or other inferiors ; if three or four times warning do no 
good to them, I am much tempted to despair of them, turn 
them away, and leave them to themselves. 

" I mention all these distempers that my faults may be a warn- 
ing to others to take heed, as they call on myself for repentance 
and watchfulness. O Lord ! for the merits, and sacrifice, and 



390 TUB LIFB AMD TIUMM 

interceesion of Chriat, be merciful to me^ a sinnerj waA fbrgifs 
my known and unknown sins T'* 

Thus fiar Baxter^s review of his own experience and qnnioiiii 
<^If ever a human being was made transparent by ita own sim- 
plioity and integrity, we may be justified in saying it was Bi- 
chard Baxter. In this lengthened and rigid descriptipn of 
himself, he may be regarded as furnishing us with that windoir 
in the breast, for which the philosopher so ardently, but vainlji 
sighed, and by which he has enabled us to see all its movemsati 
and hidden springs. Making every allowance for the deceitfiil- 
ness of the human heart, and that partiality to ourselves, whidi 
constitutes one of the leading evils of our nature, no reasonable 
doubt can be entertained that Baxter has given a very fair sod 
full view of his principles and character. It is evident that bit 
judgment of himself leaned to the severe rather than to Chs 
lax side ; and that while he properly wished to be acqoitbri 
before men of evils and crimes of which he had not been guilty, 
and the admission of which would have fixed reproach on the 
Gospel, he was chiefly desirous that no over estimate tbonid 
be formed of his attainments as a Christian. 

His solemn warnings to the young and inexperieneed, 
against being led away by novelties, and by rash, inexperienced 
teachers, are not to be regarded as the doting of an old 
man, peevish from his own waning popularity, or from being 
overshadowed by the splendid attractions of others. He bsd 
had much experience among the professors of religion, aw 
many of whom he had been compelled to mourn. His instnK* 
tions are as applicable now as ever, when so many are injured 
by want of sobriety of mind, and are ready to be tossed about 
by every wind of doctrine ; when Christianity has come to be 
regarded as a new discovery, which nobody has understood tiS 
lately, and the Bible considered as a book of enigmas, csps- 
ble of the wildest solutions, and the most fanciful combini" 
tions. To follow truth, wherever it may lead, is the dntf 
of all Christians ; to have the fortitude to stop where its en» 
dence ceases ; not to substitute our own fancies in the place of 
the revelation of God ; to be ready to receive from all, and to 
refuse submitting to the dictation of any, ought no less to be 
our study and our aim. 

The love of controversy is hateful, the fear of it is pusillani* 

c Life, part i. pp. 124—138. 



OF mCHAAD BAXTER. 391 

BUN18. Both ought to be avoided by erery rightly constituted 
mind* No man of his age engaged in it to so great an extent 
as Baxter, and yet no man spoke more against it« In both he 
was sincere. He loved not controversy for its own sake ; but 
he was frequently impelled by regard to truth, or that which he 
considered as truth, to engage in what was most unpleasant to 
his Christian feelings. He sometimes erred in his judgment in 
these matters, but never was influenced by imworthy motives, or 
guilty of disingenuous conduct. He loved peace, and he loved 
his friends ; but he loved truth more. 

It is instructive to observe the deep humility of his mind, and 
the tenderness of his conscience. As he approached the world 
of glory, and appeared to others to be eminently fitted for its 
enjoyments, the contemplation of its light and splendour only 
made his own darkness and pollution more apparent to himself. 
The increasing clearness of his perceptions had not oidy a 
direct, but a reflex, operation. If it increased his knowledge of 
heaven, and inflamed his desire of its blessedness, it also filled 
him with a deeper consciousness of his own unmeetness for its 
pure and perfect felicity. He rejoiced, but he also trembled ; 
he exulted in hope, but he also feared as a sinner. While the 
Divine Character attracted him by its infinite love and compas* 
sion, it awed him by the majesty of its holiness, and its peerless 
gkiry. 

- The importance which he attached to the enjoyment of God 
as the main spring and principle of genuine religion, and the 
degree in which he appears to have experienced it, are delightful 
proofii of the ripeness of his own soul for that blessedness for 
which he so earnestly panted. The expansion of his love to 
God, increased his love to men ; led him to bear with their in* 
firmities, to mourn over their evils, and to pity their miseries. 
As he approached nearer to heaven, he seemed to breathe more 
of its spirit, and to carry its very atmosphere, an atmosphere of 
holy love, about him. He felt he had little more to do on earth, 
than to pray for its guilty inhabitants, and supplicate God to 
establish his own kingdom. Thus did he continue to bless that 
world in which he had experienced so much ingratitude and 
affliction, and prepare for the mansions of his Father's house, in 
which he is now occupying a distinguished place. 

The public transactions of the nation, during the last years 
of Baxter's life, were of the highest interest, but it does not 



392 /THB ]JF£ AND TIMBS 

appear, from any thing I can discover, that he took much part 
in them. During the whole of the reign of James, with occa» 
sioual intermissions, the dissenters continued to be oppressed 
and persecuted. The declaration for general liberty of ooa- 
science, which was issued by the king, in April 1687, waa not 
intended to benefit them, but to promote the interests of Popery. 
Still it was a mercy to conscientious men, to enjoy an interval 
of repose from suffering. The dissenters accepted the boon, 
though they hated the principle on which it was conferred. 
Addresses to the court were expected from them, and some 
were accordingly presented ; but in these Baxter, and severs! 
of his brethren, refused to join; though he availed himself of 
the privilege, which was justly, though unconstitutionally be- 
stowed. ' 

What his ^ews were of the Revolution, I am unable to state. 
No man would more heartily rejoice in the deliverance of hii 
country, and the overthrow of Popery, than Baxter : though it ii 
not improbable that his conscientiousness, and his peculiar prin- 
ciples on the subject of legitimate monarchy, might cause some 
doubt in his mind respecting the right of William and Mary to 
the throne of England. This, however, is merely conjecture. 
The dissenting ministers of London, to the number of ninety, 
soon after the arrival of the Prince of Orange in London, waited 
on him, to congratulate him on his success, and to assure him of 
their hearty concurrence in his enterprise. I suppose Baxter 
was not of the number, his age and infirmities rendering him 
unequal to such a service, though he had fully approved of iL 

In that ever -memorable event, no class of persons had greater 
reason to rejoice than the I'rotestant dissenters. On the part of 
William, there was the disposition as well as the interest to pro* 
tect and encourage them. A thorough Protestant himself, and 
bred in a country of religious freedom, he was the natural friend 
of all true Protestants, while he was superior to those namnr 
prejudices which an exclusive system is apt to create and to 
foster. Had his own views and wishes been realised, he would 
have put an end to the most invidious of the distinctions 
between churchmen and dissenters, and would not have left it 
to the present parliament of George IV., to perform an act of 
tardy justice to a large body of men who have always deserved 
well of their countrv. 

All the efforts of William, and of the few enlightened men by 

' Calamy, vol. i. p* 377. 



OP EICHAai> BAXTER. 393 

m be was surrounded, failed to induce the houses of parlia* 
C to repeal the Test act, or to adopt measures for compre* 
ling the Nonconformists within the pale of the established 
«b. An act of toleration, however, was passed, by which 
dissenters, on taking the oaths to government, and subscribe 
thirty-five and a half of the thirty^nine articles, should be 
ed under the full protection of the law. This, though an 
srfect measure, was an unspeakable blessing to men who had 
; been oppressed and persecuted for righteousness' sake. It 
the last public measure, also, in regard to which Baxter 
Murs to have taken some active part. To relieve his own 
dy and to assist his brethren in coming to such conclusions 
night at once satisfy their consciences, and enable them to 
I themselves of the benefit of this act, he drew up a paper 
Gaining his sense of the articles which he was called to sub- 
9e» The substance of this paper deserves to be communi* 
dy as it shows what were the sentiments of Baxter on some 
ortant points, towards the close of his life, the construction 
sh he put on some doubtful expressions in the articles, and 
principle on which he thought it lawful to subscribe ac- 
ting to the act of parliament, that he might enjoy the benefit 
tolerated ministry. 

lie last clause of the second article, originally contained 
■xpression in Latin, which, though left out in the English^ 
Biixter to demur about the sense. It stated that Christ died 
e a sacrifice for all (omnibus) the actual sins of men. This, 
npposed, was not meant to include final impenitence, but all 
i of sin which had been forsaken. Christ's descent into hell, 
he third article, he explained of the state of separate souls. 
It Christ, on his resurrection, '^ took again his body with flesh 
bones, and all things appertaining toihe perfection of man's 
ire, and therewith ascended into heaven," he understood as 
tifjring that Christ sitteth in heaven, with the same body^ 
ifiedf rendered spiritual, and incorruptible, which on earth 
consisted of flesh and bones. In the strict interpretation of 
artiele, the words would be contradictory to 1 Cor. xv. 50^ 
i ^ flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ;" it 
lid also give us a degrading idea of his body, as inferior to 
It his people will possess, who are to rise incorruptible and 
nortal. He agreed to the sixth article, as ^' containing all 
iga necessary to salvation^ if the ministry, sacraments^ and 



394 THB LIVB AND TDCBS 

church commDnioiii came under thU description ; and i^ iftder 
the title of *' canonical books/' were included the Epistlei to the 
Hebrews, the 2d of Peter, and the 2d and 3d of John, Jude^ 
and the Revelation. He entered his protest againat the dame 
in the seventh article, '^ That the civil precepts of the law gives 
from God by Moses, ought not of necessity to be received in anj 
commonwealth,'' unless it referred only to the particular ciiil 
laws peculiar to the Jewish commonwealth, and not to thoie 
moral laws included in the Mosaic dispensation ; which are of 
universal obligation, and common to all Christian nations. He 
assented to the eighth article on the Uiree creeds^ provided bi 
was not understood to admit two Gods, by subscribing the daiM 
in the Nicene creed, '* God of God, very God of very God;" or 
to assent to the damnatory clause of the Athanaman creed. He 
explained the infection of nature remaining even in the regene* 
rate, according to the ninth article, to be so, not in predomiaint 
force or unpardoned, but in a modified and subdued d^gitet 
The language of the tenth article, that ^^ we have no power to 
do good works," he softened into an acknowledgment that 
^^our natural powers or faculties are not sufficient withont 
grace." That the eleventh article might not be construed si 
giving countenance to a disregard of righteousness of life, be 
enters at large into it. He was anxious to be understood as 
expressing, by the twelfth article, that ^' good works do spring 
out necessarily of a true and lively faith," an hypothetical ne* 
cessity, consistent with freedom ; and he expounded the lait 
clause, ^^ that by them," t. e. good works, ^' a lively faith may 
be as evidently expressed, as a tree discerned by the fruit," to 
mean a truth of evidence, not an equal degree. His explana-' 
tion of the thirteenth article, ** Of works before juKtificatioBf" 
seems to set it aside, by asserting the existence of commoo grM^ 
preparatory to special grace; and to contradict it, by referring 
to the texts, which declare, that ^^ to him that hath by improve- 
ment shall be given, and, in every nation he that feareth God 
and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him ;" and by obsenr- 
ing, that believing in the being of God, and that he is the 
rewarder of them that diligently seek him, is, ^' better than 
nothing, and than mere sin." He supposed that the phrase, 
'* voluntary works," in the fourteenth article, or work of super* 
erogation, was not designed to stigmatise, as arrogant and inn 
^ious, voluntary canons. Impositions, oaths, and church offices* 



OF RICHABB BAXTBK. S95 

TliA rixteenth article, ^ Of sin after bapdstn,^ he mippoees to 
ftflir only to the unpardoned sin against the Holy Ghost, and a 
total departure from common grace, and some degree of habit 
■ad aet of some special grace ; but that it does not determine 
the controversy concerning a total and final falling away from 
mch an unconfirmed grace as would otherwise save. 

On the eighteenth article, ^^Of obtaining eternal salvation 
only by the name of Christ,^' he observes, that God judgeth men 
by no other law than that which they were under 2 that the 
Jewish peculiarity did not repeal the gracious law made to 
fallen mankind in Adam and Noah : that God had more people 
of old than the Jews and proselytes. On these principles he 
fiwneetves that the article could not mean to denounce a curse 
on all who thought that the spirit and grace of Christ extended 
Ifeyond the knowledge of his name, and who hoped that some 
who never heard it would be saved. If it were intended to 
apply to such, he declares that he would not curse them) 
adding, all were not accursed who hoped well of Socrates, Anto<^ 
rnius, Severus, Cicero, Epictetus, Plutarch, and such characters. 
He appeals to the case of the Jews of old, as having more im- 
perfeet notions of the character of Christ, than the apostles be- 
fore his resurrection ; and to the erroneous sentiments of even 
the apostles themselves before that event, who did not, till after« 
wards, believe in the death of Christ for our sins, in his rising 
again, in his ascension and intercession. ^' Though faith,'' he 
considered, ^^ in these facts not to be essential to Christianity ,'' 
lie declares, ^ If I durst curse all the world, who now believe no 
more than the ancient Jews and the apostles then did, yet I durst 
not curse all Christians that hope better of them, l^e twenty- 
third article, ^^ of ministering in the congregation,*' he inter* 
prets so as to make it comprehensive of the holy orders of the 
Nonconformist. The article itself describes and judges those to 
he lawfully called to preach and administer the sacraments, 
^ who are chosen and called to this work by men who have public 
authority given them in the congregation, to call and send mi- 
nisters into the Lord's vineyard/' He declares he understood 
public authority to mean '^ authority given by Christ in his 
•Scripture institution, and by those whom Christ authorises under 
him." This was a latitude of interpretation beyond the inten- 
tion of the compilers, who certainly had in view the exclu- 
sive authority of bishops. On the twenty-fifth article, of ^^ The 
Sacraments," in which they are represented, " not as badges and 



396 TH£ LIFJS AND TIMES 

tokens only of the Christian profession^'' he explains lumself as 
holding them to be ^^ certain sure witnesses and e£Rectual ugns 
of grace and of God*s goodwill :'' that they signify what God 
offers, invesit the true believing receiver in the right of pardon^ 
adoption, and salvation; and are morally operative/' On 
the twenty-sixth article, '' Of the unworthiness of ministtts, 
which hinders not the effect of sacraments," he saya^ '' That 
though the ignorance and wickedness of the minister do not 
make void the sacraments, yet the prayers, preaching, and ex* 
ample of able and godly men, are usually more effectual, since 
' God heareth not sinners,' as the blind man argued : * but if 
any be a worshipper of him, and dotli his will, him he heareth;' 
and to the wicked God saith, ' What hast thou to do to take my 
covenant into thy mouth ?' " He observes also, on this artick, 
^^ That to prefer a bad man before a better, was sin ; and that it 
was dangerous to encourage in daily sin those, who, though des- 
titute of the essential qualifications, usurped the sacred office of 
bishops or pastors." 

Baxter concludes his sense of the subscribed articles, bjr 
saying, ^Mf I have hit on the true meaning, I subscribe my 
assent; and I thank God that this national church hath doe- 
trine so sound. I pity those who write, preach, or practise 
contrary to the articles which they subscribe ; and that accuse 
those who refuse to subscribe them, take those for sinners who 
take not them for pastors, alleging that their wickedness nuUeth 
not their sacramental administrations." ' 

When he subscribed, he produced this explanation of the 
thirty-five articles and a half, that his views in doing so might 
not be misunderstood. Eighty of the dissenting ministers in Loo- 
don concurred with him in his explanations and objections; and 
thus satisfied themselves that they had done what was rigfau 
It was probably the best thing which the government could do 
at the time, so that the dissenters were glad to accept of it 
But such a subscription was found to be a poor protection, 
either to church or state, and has long since been entirely done 
away. Baxter's objections to many of the clauses in the sub- 
scribed articles, discover both his conscientiousness, and, on 
some points, the peculiarity of his sentiments. The number who 
united with him in this paper, shows the extent to which his 
views were then held among the dissenters, as well as the great 
influence which he had among his brethren. 

V Calamy's < Abridg^ineut/ vol. i. pp. 469-^76. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 39? 

The affair of the agreement of the London Presbyterian 
and Independent minUters, must have interested Baxter niuehy 
though he does not appear to have 'taken any active part in it. 
Union was on object always so dear to his heart, that every 
scheme for promoting it would meet with his cordial concur- 
leucet M l<^ng as he was capable of thinking or speaking. The 
articles were published in 1692^ but they had all been agreed to 
before Baxter's death. Howe was the leading manager of the 
agreement, the object of which was rather to discountenance 
ttdew contentions about matters of ecclesiastical discipline 
among the dissenters, than to form a corporate body, or to con- 
vey the idea of entire agreement on doctrinal points. The 
style of these articles shoMrs, I think, that Baxter's judgment 
and feelings had been consulted.^ From the date of this agree- 
ment, Presbyterianism may be said to have existed but in name 
in England. 

If we have followed Baxter through a long life of painful trials, 
and contention for peace and liberty, it is delightful that its 
closing scenes should be tranquil and cheering. < He lived not 
only till the dawn of a brighter day, but after it had considerably 
-advanced. The church, it is true, had not comprehended the 
Nonconformists, or relaxed the rigidity of her terms. On the 
contrary, after she had completely secured her own chartered 
rights and privileges, and had little to fear from the common 
enemy, she began to look on the dissenters with more sternness 
and severity than before the Revolution. But though she had 
the power and the disposition to frown and to threaten, the 
ability to injure was lost. The security and repose of the go- 
vernment, required that all parties should be protected ; Baxter 
and his brethren, therefore, were left to pursue their labours, 
whether of the pulpit or the press, without molestation. No 
longer hunted by spies and informers, traduced by malicious and 
interested enemies, dragged before packed juries and unprin- 
cipled judges, to be condemned to ruinous fines, or still more in- 
jurious imprisonments and confiscation, they were enabled, with 
comfort and joy, to ^' make full proof of their ministry." If 
they no longer worshipped in splendid and consecrated edifices, 
or enjoyed the emoluments of the state as the rewards of their 
ministry, in their quiet, sequestered meetings, sustained by the 
voluntary benevolence of their flocks, they were honoured to turn 

^ Calamy's * Abridgment,' vol. i. fp. 476— ^b3. 



398 TAB LIFE AND TlMBt 

many sinners to righteousness, and to fit many a saint (br the in- 
heritance above. In this delightful work were the few icmun* 
ing years of Baxter chiefly employed. 

From the time of his release from imprisonment, he lived is 
Charter-house Square, near the meeting-house then occopM 
by his friend Sylvester. He preaehed gratuitously far hitt m 
the Lord Vday mornings, and every alternate Thursday mornings 
as long as his strength permitted. 

" When he had continued about four yeaw and H half with 
me," says Sylvester, ** he waa then disabled from going forth 
any more to his ministerial work ; so that what be did lA the 
residue of his life was in his own hired house, where he opened hii 
doors morning and evening, every day, to all that wvnld ^aam 
to join tn family worship with him ; to ^hom he read the hdy 
Scriptures, from whence * he preached the kingdom of Ood^ and 
taught those things which concern the Liord Jesus Christ, with 
all confidence, no man forbidding him,* even as one gteat«f than 
himself had done before him. But at last, his growing dis- 
tempers and infirmities took him off from this also, eonfiniiig 
him first to his chamber . and then to his bed. There, though' 
pain and sickness wasted his body, his soul abode- rational, 
strong in faith and hope; arguing itself into, and preserving itself 
in, patience and joy, through grace; which gave him great 
support, and kept out doubts and fears concerning his etemtl 
welfare.'** 

The latter years of his life, though fiill of bodily suffering 
and sorrow, and less occupied with the public service of God,' 
were not years of idleness. Between the year 1682 and hnf 
death, he wrote many, and some of the most useful, of hjs works. 
Without giving a minute detail of single sermons and tracts, it 
is enough to mention, that, during this period, he Wrote his 

* True History of Councils, enlarged and defended ; * his * Treatises 
on the Immortality of the Soul, and the Nature of Spirits;' hb 

* Compassionate Counsel to Young Men,' and his ' Family Cate- 
chism ; ' his * Dying Thoughts; * his ' Dangerous Schismatic de* 
tected;' his 'Catholic Communion defended;' his 'Paraphrase 
on the New Testament;' his 'English Nonconformity;' hir 
Treatises on ' Knowledge and Love Compared, and Cain and 
Abel Malignity; ' several pieces on the Antinomian and Millena- 
rian Controversies, &c. &c. The very last productions of his pen 

' Sylf ester's ' Funeral Sermon,' p. 18. 



or RICHARD BAXTER* 399 

rimr, that, if his eyes had waxed dim, and his natttral force had 
abated, the vigour and ardour of his mind bad scarcely, if at all, 
been impaired* 

Dr. Calamy, who visited him during the last year of his life, 
tells OS, ** He talked in the pulpit with great freedom about 
another world, like one that had been there, and was come as a 
sort of an express firom thence, to make a report concerning it.- 
He delifered himself in public as well as in private, with great 
imcity and freedom, and his thoughts had a peculiar edge/'^ 

Dr. Bates has furnished the most minute and most interesting 
account of the last trying scene of Baxter's pilgrimage. His 
flmend sermon for him is one of the best specimens of the 
pleaching of that truly* excellent man. He had closely studied 
the character of his friend, to whom he appears to have beeir 
most tenderiy attached, and on whom he has pronounced an 
euloigium, not more deserved by his character, than it is beau* 
tifnl in itself. At present, I shall restrict myself entirely to his 
aeeoont of Baxter's sickness and death. 

^ He continued to preach so long, notwithstanding his wasted^ 
languishing body^ that the last time he almost died in the puN 
pit* It would doubtless have been his joy to have been trans- 
figured in the mount. Not long after, he felt the approaches 
of death, and was confined to his sick bed. Death reveals the 
secrets of the heart ; then words are spoken with most feeling 
and least affectation. This excellent saint was the same in his 
life and death ; his last hours were spent in preparing others 
and himself to appear before Ood. He said to his friends that 
visited him, ' You come hither to- learn to die ; I am not the 
only person that must go this way. I can assure you, that your 
whole life, be it ever so long, is little enough to prepare for 
death. Have a care of this vain, deceitful world, arid the lusts 
of the flesh ; be sure you choose God for your portion, heaven 
for your home, Qod's glory for jrour end, his word for your rule, 
and then you need never fear but we shidl meet with- comfort. 

^ Never vras penitent sinner more humble, never was a sincere 
believer more calm and comfortable. He acknowledged him^ 
self to be the vilest dunghill worm ftwas his usual expression) 
that ever went to heaven. He admired the divine condescension 
to us, c^ten saying, * Lord, what is man ; what am I, vile worm, 
to the great God !' Many times he prayed, God be merciful to 
me a sinner, and blessed God that this was left upon record in 

i Cslamy't own Life, vol. L pp. IMO, 22h 



400 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the Gospel as an effectual prayer. He said, God may justly 
condemn me for the best duty 1 ever did ; all my hopes are 
from tlie free mercy of God in Christ, which he often prayed 
for. 

*' After a slumber, he ivaked, and said^ ^ I shall rest from my 
labour.' A minister then present, said, ' And your works will 
follow you.' To whom he replied, * No works ; I will leare oat 
works, if God will grant me the other.' When a friend vru 
comforting him with the remembrance of the good many bad 
received by his preaching and writings, he said^ ' I was but a 
pen in God's hands, and what praise is due to a pen ?' 

'^ His resigned submission to the will of God in his sharp dek- 
ness was eminent* When extremity of pain constnuned him 
earnestly to pray to God for his release by death, he would chedi 
himself: * It is not fit for me to prescribe— when thou wilt, 
what thou wilt, how thou wilt.' 

^^ Being in great anguish, he said, ' O ! how unsearchable are 
his ways, and his paths ])ast finding out; the reachea of bit 
providence we cannot fathom 1' And to his friends, ^ Do not 
think the worse of religion for what you see me suffer.' 

^' Being often asked by his friends, how it was with his inward 
man, he replied, ^ I bless God I have a well-grounded assurance 
of my eternal happiness, and great peace and comfort within.' 
But.it was his trouble he could not triumphantly express it, by 
reason of his extreme pains. He said, ^ Flesh must perish, and 
we must feel the perishing of it ; and that though his judgment 
submitted, yet sense would still make him groan.' 

^^ Being asked by a person of quality, whether he had not 
great joy from his believing apprehensions of the invisible state^ 
he replied, ^ What else, think you, Christianity serves for ?' He 
said, the consideration of the Deity in his glory and greatness^ 
was too high for our thought ; but the consideration of the Son 
of God in our nature, and of the saints in heaven^ whom he 
knew and loved, did much sweeten and familiarise heaven to 
him. The description of it, in Heb. xii. 22, was most com- 
fortable to him ; ^ that he was going to the innumerable com- 
pany of angels, and to the general assembly and church of 
the first-born, whose names are written in heaven ; and to God 
the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the 
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of 
Abel.' That scripture, he said^ deserved a thousand thousand 



OF RICHARD BAXTER*' 401' 

thoughts. Oh ! how comfortable is that promise ; ^ Eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of roan 
to conceive, the things God hath laid up for those who love him/ 
At another time, he said, that he found great comfort and sweet- 
ness in repeating the words of the Lord's Prayer, and was sorry 
some good people were prejudiced against the use of it, for there 
were all necessary petitions for soul and body contained in it. 
At other, times, he gave excellent counsel to young ministers 
that visited him; earnestly prayed to God to bless their 
labours, and make them very successful in converting many 
souls to Christ ; expressed great joy in the hopes that God 
would do a great deal of good by them ; and that they were of 
moderate^ peaceful spirits. 

^ He often prayed that God would be merciful to thil misera-. 
ble^ distracted world, and that he would preserve his church 
and interest in it. He advised his friends to beware of self- 
conceit, as a sin that was likely to ruin this nation; and 
said^ ' I have written a book against it, which I am afraid has 
done little good.' Being asked, whether he had altered his 
mind in controversial points, he said. Those that please, may 
know my mind in my writings ; and that what he had done, 
was not for his own reputation, but for the glory of God. 

*' I went to him, with a very worthy friend, Mr. Mather, of 
New Elngland, the day before he died ; and speaking some 
comforting words to him, he replied, * I have pain ; there is no 
arguing against sense, but 1 have peace, I have peace.' 1 told 
him. You are now approaching to your long-desired home ; he 
answered, * I believe, I believe/ He said to Mr. Mather, *I bless 
God that you have accomplished your business; the Lord prolong 
your life/ He expressed great willingness to die ; and during 
bis sickness, when the question was asked, ^ How he did ?' his 
reply was, ' Almost well.' His joy was most remarkable, when, 
in his own apprehensions, death was nearest ; and his spiritual 
joy was at length consummated in eternal joy/' ^ 

" On Monday," says Sylvester, ^* about five in the evening, 
death sent his harbinger to summon him away. A great trem- 
bling and coldness extorted strong cries from him, for pity and 
redress from Heaven ; which cries and agonies continued for 
some time, till at length he ceased, and lay in patient expectation 
of his change. ^ Being once asked, by his faithful friend, and 

k Bates' Works, pp. 820, 821. 

> Thf bodily i ulferinj^ft of i^^xler must have b^en Inteusely great ia the 
VOL. 1. JD JD 



40i{ THB UFB AND TIMBft 

■ 

constant attendant in his weakness^ Mrs. Bushel, his house- 
keeper, whether he knew her or not, requesting some sign of it 
if he did ; he softly cried, ' Death, death V He now felt the be- 
nefit of his former preparations for the trying time. The 
last words that he spake to me, on being informed 1 was come 
to see him, were, ' Oh 1 thank him, I thank him/ and tuniiag 
his eye to me, he said, ^ The Lord teach you how to die/ "^ 

'^ As to himself, even to the last, I never could perceive hii 
peace and heavenly hopes assaulted or disturbed. I have often 
heard him greatly lament, that he felt no greater liveliness in 
what appeared so great and clear to him, and so very much de- 
sired by him. As to the influence thereof upon hb spiritj in 
order to the sensible refreshments of it, he clearly saw whst 
ground he had to rejoice in God ; he doubted not of his fight 
to heaven. He told me, he knew it should be well with him 
when he was gone. He wondered to hear others speak of their 
sensible, and passionately strong desires to die, and of their tnuH 
sports of spirit, when sensible of their approaching death ; wheoi 
though he thought he knew as much as they, and bad as ra- 
tional satisfaction as they could have that his soul was safi^ ho 
could never feel their sensible consolations. I asked him, whe- 
ther much of this was not to be resolved into bodily constitu- 
tion, he told me that he thought it might be so. 

'^He expired, on Tuesday morning, about four o'clock, 
December 8, 1691. Though he expected and desired his dis- 
solution to have been on the Lord's-day before, which, with 
joy to me, he called a hitjih day, because of his desired change 
then expected by him/'" 

A wicked and groundless report appears to have been cir- 
culated shortly after his death, that his mind had been greatly 
troubled with sceptical doubts before he died. It was brought 
to Sylvester on such authority that he found it necessary to give 
it a formal refutation. After quoting a letter from Worcester- 
shire, referring to it, he thus replies to it : 

litter part of his life. It appears from his owd narrative, that he caniidertd 
the stone one ipreat cause of the acute pains which he eiperieuced. In ptrt 
iii p. 179, is g;iven a loug and sing^ular account of himself, in reference to ihih 
At the conclusion, he says, ** Whether it be schyrus, or stone, which I doubt 
not of, I leave them to tell who shall dissect my corpse.'' He appears to havt 
formed a correct opinion uf his own case ; for though we have no account of 
any post-moriem examination of his body, a stone extracted from him is stiU 
preserved in the British Museum. It is very lar^, of a bluish colour, sa^ 
resembling in shape the kidney itself. 

• FiuMial ScrmoBi p, 1$, • FVtftM to Bailer's LIfef 



Of RIOHAAD BAXTSE. 408 

^ AMAmfmcmiur says Sylvester ; << What will degenerate 
ID stick at ! We know nothing here that conld, in the least, 
iidster to such a report as this. I that was with him all along, 
tro ever heard him triumphing in his heavenly expectation, 
d ever speaking like one that could never have thought it 
xtfa ■ man's while to be, were it not for the great interest 
nI ends of godliness. He told me that he doubted not, but 
at it would be best for him. when he had left this life and was 
UMlated to the heavenly regions. 

** He owned what he had written, with reference to the things 
Ood, to the very last. He advised those that came near him 
MiiiUy to mind their souls' concerns. The shortness of time, 

• instancy of eternity, the worth of souls, the greatness of 
Bd^ the riches of the grace of Christ, the excellency and 
iport of an heavenly mind and life, and the great usefulness 

* the word and means of grace pursuant to eternal purposes, 
■er lay pressingly upon his own heart, and extorted from 
V very useful directions and encouragements to all that came 
MV liim, even to the last ; insomuch that if a polemical or 
lamtical point, or any speculation in philosophy or divinity, 
id been but offered to him for his resolution, after the clearest 
kI briefest representation of his mind, which the proposer's sa- 
ifiwtion called for, he presently and most delightfully fell into 
mversation about what related to our Christian hope and 
ork."*> 



Baxter was buried in Christ-church, where the ashes of hifl 
iCs and her mother had. been deposited. His funeral was 
ilended by a great number of persons of different ranks, espe- 
ally of ministers. Conformists as well as Nonconformists, p 
lio were eager to testify their respect for one of whom \t 
dght have been said with equal truth, as of the intrepid re- 
vmer of the North, '^ There lies the man who never feared the 
ice of man." 

His last trill is dated July 7, 1689. The beginning of M 
Bwrves to be quoted. 

^ I, Richard Baxter, of London, clerk, an unworthy servant 
F Jesus Christ, drawing to the end of this transitory life, 
Bviog, through God's great mercy, the free use of my under** 

• PrefiMe to Baxter's Life. 

t Pr. Earl informed Mr. Palmer that be Wat one of the spectators, and that 
IS train d coaches reached from Merchant Taylors' Hall, from whence M 
iipsc wu carried, to the place of buriaL— iVMcwN. Mmm* vol^ \SL p« 400« 

DD2 



404 THB LIFE AND TIMES 

standing, do make this my last will and testament, revoking all 
other wills formerly made by me. My spirit I commit, frith 
trust and hope of the heavenly felicity, into the hands of Jesus 
my glorified Redeemer and Intercessor ; and, by his mediation, 
into the hands of God my reconciled Father, the infinite eter- 
nal Spirit, light, life, and love, most great and wise, and good, 
the God of nature, grace, and glory ; of whom and through 
whom and to whom are all things ; my absolute Owner, Ruler, 
Benefactor, whose 1 am, and whom I, though imperfecdy, 
serve, seek, and trust ; to whom be glory for ever, amen* To 
him I render most humble thanks, that he hath filled up my 
life with abundant mercy, and pardoned my sin by the merits of 
Christ, and vouchsafed by his Spirit to renew me and seal tne 
as his own, and to moderate and bless to me my long suflFerings 
in the flesh, and at last to sweeten them by his own interest and 
comforting approbation, who taketh the cause of love and con- 
cord as his own," &c. 

He ordered his books to be distributed among poor scho^ 
lar8.4 All that remained of his estate, after a few legadet 
to his kindred, he disposed of for the benefit of the souls and 
bodies of the poor ; and he left Sir Henry Ashurst, Rowland 
Hunt, of Boraton, esq., Mr. Thomas Hunt, merchant, Edward 
Harley, Esq., Mr. Thomas Cook, merchant, Mr. Thomas Trench, 
merchant, and Mr. Robert Bird, gentleman, his executors.' 

His principal heir was his nephew, William Baxter, a person 
of considerable attainments as a scholar, and an antiquary. 
He was born in Shropshire, in 1650. His early education, it 
would seem, was neglected ; which can be accounted for only 
on the ground that there was something in his situation or 
disposition that prevented his uncle from affording him that 
assistance, which he would doubtless have given. From some 
letters between him and Mrs. Baxter, still preserved, however, it 
appears that a measure of aid was afforded him. He surmounted 
the difficulties of his early circumstances, and made very consi- 
derable classical attainments. He kept an academy for soni6 
years at Tottenham Cross, Middlesex, which he gave up on 
being chosen master of Mercers'- school, London, where he con- 
tinued for twenty years, and resigned a short time before his 
death, which took place in 1723. He published several works, 

« These were distributed by Mr. Sylvester. Among the Baxter MSS. art 
t«oeipts addressed td him from various individuals who received them. 
' CaUuD/s * Abridgment,' vol. i. p. 404. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 405 

which brought him considerable fame as a scholar ; among 
others — a Critical Edition of Anacreon — and one of Horace — a 
Dictionary of British Antiquities — and a Glossary of Roman 
Antiquities. This last was a posthumous publication. It ap* 
peared in 1726, with the title of ^Reliquiae Baxterianae,* &c. 
Prefixed to it is a fragment of a Latin life of himself, in which 
he gives a short character of his uncle ; which I have inserted 
for the amusement of the learned reader, in the note below.' 

Funeral sermons were preached for Baxter, by his excellent 
friend^ and companion in labour, Sylvester; and also by Dr. 
Bates ; both of which have been published. The former was 
preached in Charter- house-yard, to what might be considered 
in part Baxter's own congregation. It is entitled ^Elisha's Cry 
after Eiisha's God,' and is founded on 2 Kings ii. 14. The latter 
was preached, by Bates, at Baxter's own desire, at the funeral, 
though it is not said in what place. The text is Luke xxiii. 46* 
'^ And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said. Father, 
into thy hands I commend my spirit." The dedication of this 
discourse to Sir Henry Ashurst, is a piece of beautiful composi- 
tion, expressive of the respect entertained for that excellent 
individual, and commemorative of the ardent attachment which 
subsisted between him andt he deceased minister of Christ. 
He mentions that, to the work on the Saint's Rest, Sir Henry 
had been indebted for his first religious impressions. He speaks 
of the love of Baxter, being ^^ directing, counselling, and excit- 
ing," and that of Ashurst, "observant, grateful, and beneficent." 
It was no small enlogium on such a man that Baxter said, on his 
death-bed, ** he had been the best friend he ever had." 

Baxter's person, according to Sylvester, was tall and slen- 
der ; and in the latter part of his life, stooped very much. 

^ Biog^raphia Britannica, vol. ii. p. 33. Edit. Kippis. " Hie v\r siquis alius 
crat et in vita Celebris et superstite faroa dccessit. Siquidem ingenio erat 
•cerrimo, doctrina haudquaquam mediocri, extemporaneadicendi facultati in* 
credibili, zelo plauu apostolico (quern tainen scurrs nostrurum temporum 
ceuUum dicuDt) morum etiam simplicitate nimis Britanuics, conteroptuque 
rerum humanarum inco<;nito suo ssculo hie tantus vir ab incuQabilis proba 
edocatufl in domo, et purissimis institutus exemplis, non ferme provincialium 
sni temporis sacerdotum inscitiam at que impuros mores (quod vel ipse in 
•chedis reliquit) spon:e quadam iudolis sua ad Calvinittnos, puritatis eo tern* 
pore damnatosj deflexit, ctsi ab Episcopo tunc temporis BrannogenienH in sa- 
Gtrdotem Anglicanum locutus. Id matrimoDio hie habuit Margai-itam mino- 
rem natu fillam ioclyti viri probati Charltouii de Castello dicto Appeleio in 
Comariis. Verum me iiistituto hcrede, importis deccssiU*'— /^/t^uur BaX' 
teriofue, Pref, Autoris fiia. 



4^06 THB LTFB AND TIMBS 

His countenance was composed and grave^ somewhat ineliaiiig 
to smile. He had a piercing eye, a very articulate speceh, wmi 
his deportment was rather plain than complimentary. He hid 
a great command over his thoughts, and had that happy fi^ 
culty, according to the character which was given of him by i 
learned man dissenting from him, that ^^ he could say what he 
would, and he could prove what he said."' 

^* He was a man of clear, deep, fixed, thought ; of copiooi 
and well-digested reading: of ready, free, and very proper elocu- 
tion, and aptly expressive of his own thoughts and sentimenti* 
He was most intent upon the weightiest and most asefiil parti 
of learning, yet a great lover of all kin^s and degrees thereof. 
He could, in preaching, writing, conference, accommodate him- 
self to all capacities, and answer his obligations to the wise and 
unwise. He had a moving va9o<, and useful acrimony in hit 
words; neither did his expressions want that emphatical accent^ 
which the matter did require. When he spake of weighty sod 
concerns, you might find his very spirit drenched therein. He 
was pleasingly conversible, save in his studying hours, wherein 
he could not bear with trivial disturbances. He was sparingly 
facetious ; but never light or frothy. His heart was warm ; his 
life was blameless, exemplary, and uniform. He was unmove^ 
able where convinced of his duty ; yet affable and condescending 
where there was a likelihood of doing good. His personal ab- 
stinence, severities, and labours, were exceeding great. He 
kept his body under, and always feared pampering his flesh too 
much. He diligently, and with great pleasure, minded his 
Master's work within doors, and without, whilst he was able. 
His charity was very great in proportion to his abilities. His 
purse was ever open to the poor ; where the case required it, he 
never thought great sums too much. He suited what he gave 
to the necessities and character of those he gave to : and hii 
charity was not confined to parties or opinions." ^ 

As Dr. Bates' sermon comprises some notices of Baxter's 
life, which have been anticipated and more fully given already, 
I shall only therefore extract a few passages, in which he de- 
scribes some of the leading features and qualities of his friend. 

** 1 am sensible," he says, ^' that in speaking of him 1 shall 
be under a double disadvantage : for those who perfectly knew 

* 'Funeral Sermon/ by Sylvester, pp. 16, 17. « l^ld. p. 14. 



* OV BICHARD BAXTBA. 4(f/ 

Urn will be apt to think my account of him to be abort and de« 
feeli?e^ an imperfect shadow of his resplendent virtues ; others, 
who were unacquainted with his extraordinary worth, will, from 
ignorance or envy, be inclined to think his just praises to be 
luidue and excessive. Indeed, if love could make me eloquent, 
I ahoukl use all the most lively and graceful colours of language, 
to adorn his memory ; but this consideration relieves nie in the 
eonedousness of my disability, that a plain narrative of what 
Mr« Baxter was and did, will be a most noble eulogy ; and that 
hit aubstantial piety no more needs artificial oratory to set it off, 
than refined gold wants paint to add lustre and value to it. 

^ His prayers were an effusion of the most lively, melting 
ttpretsions, of his intimate, ardent affections to God : from the 
abundance of the heart, his lips spake. His soul took wing for 
liaiiTen, and wrapt up the souls of others with him. Never did 
I tee or hear a holy minister address himself to God with more 
ravetence and humility, with respect to his glorious greatness ; 
never with more zeal and fervency, correspondent to the infinite 
moment of his requests, nor with more filial affiance in the di- 
vine merey. 

«< tn his sermons there was a rare union of arguments and 
motivefl, to convince the mind and gain the heart : all the foun- 
tains of reason and persuasion were open to his discerning eye. 
There was no resisting the force of his discourses, without de- 
njFing reason and divine revelation. He had a marvellous felicity 
and copiousness in speaking. There was a noble negligence in 
his style ; for his great mind could not stoop to the affected 
doquence of words. He despised flashy oratory ; but his ex- 
pressions were clear and powerful, so convincing the under- 
standing, so entering into the soul, so engaging the affections, 
that those were as deaf as adders, who were not charmed by so 
wise a charmer. He was animated with the Holy Spirit, and 
breathed celestial fire/ to inspire heat and life into dead sinners, 
and to melt the obdurate in their frozen tombs. 

^ He that was so solicitous for the salvation of others, was 
not negligent of his own ; but, as regular love requires, his first 
care was to prepare himsfslf for heaven. In him, the virtues of 
the contemplative and active life were eminently united. His 
time was spent in communion with God, and in charity to men : 
he lived above the sensible world, and, in solitude and silence, 
conversed with God. The frequent and serious meditation of 
eternal things, was the powerful means to make his heart holy 



1408 THB LIFB AND TIMBt 

and heavenly, and from thence his conversation; His'Ufeirtt 
a practical sermon, a drawing example : there wast -an air of 
humility and sanctity in his mortified countenance ; his de- 
portment was becoming a stranger upon earth and a citizeii of 
heaven. Humility is to other graces as the morning star is to 
the sun, that goes before it, and follows it in the evening. Hu- 
mility prepares us for the receiving of grace : ^ God gives grace 
to the humble.' And it follows the exercise of grace: * Not I,* 
says the apostle, ' but the grace of God in me.' 

^^ In Mr. Baxter there was a rare union of sublime knowledge, 
and other spiritual excellencies, with the lowest opinion of him* 
self. He wrote to one, that sent to him a letter full of expres- 
sions of honour and esteem, ^ You admire one you do not know-; 
knowledge will cure your error. The more we know God, the 
more reason we see to admire him ; but our knowledge of the 
creature discovers its imperfections, and lessens our esteem.' To 
the same person, expressing his veneration of him for his excel- 
lent gifts and graces, he replied with heat, ' I have the remainder 
of pride in me ; how dare you blow up the sparks of it ? ' He 
desired some ministers, his chosen friends, to meet at his house, 
and spend a day in prayer, for his direction in a matter of mo- 
ment : before the duty was begun, he said, ^I have desired your 
assistance at this time, because I believe God will sooner hear 
your prayers than mine,' He imitated St. Austin both in hb 
penitential confessions and retractions. In conjunction with 
humility, he had great candour for others. He could willingly 
bear with persons of differing sentiments ; he would not prosti- 
tute his own judgment, nor ravish another's. He did not over- 
esteem himself, nor undervalue others. He would give liberal 
encomiums of many conforming divines. He was severe to 
himself, but candid in excusing the faults of others ; whereas 
the busy inquirer and censurer of the faults of others^ is usually 
the easy neglecter of his own. 

*^ Self-denial and contempt of the world, were shining graces 
in him. I never knew any person less indulgent to himself, and 
more indifferent to his temporal interest. The offer of a bishop- 
rick was no temptation to him ; for his exalted soul despised the 
pleasures and profits which others so earnestly desire; he valued 
not an empty title upon his tomb. 

** His patience was truly Christian. God does often try his 
children by afflictions to exercise their graces, to occasion their 
inctoryi and to entitle them to a triumphant felicity. This 



or UeSAmB BAXTBK« 111 

7 nrfiiisofarisitisalliedtoimridlywiadmiiilieetr^ 
tiislyluieirit not. TV> him, conscience and the law of God, wen 
the nde of dnty, not utility, or the hope of success. There was 
no peesibility of influencing him by the promise of reward, or 
the fear of disappointment. Consequences seldom entered into 
hia calculations. He would not be deterred from preaching a 
sermon^ from writing a book, or making a speech, if duty seemed 
to require, by all the entreaties of his brethren, or the threat*- 
cningi of his enemies. The fisvour and the f^wn of God he 
alone r^arded, and by their irresistible influence he was earned 
fisarlessly onward to eternity. 

Hie nicety of many of his distinctions, and the scrupulosity 
of his conscience, arose, not merely from the metaphysical cha- 
racter of his mind, but from its high spirituality. His conscience, 
like the sensitive plant, shrunk from every touch that was calcu- 
lated, however remotely, to affect it. On this account, he could 
not subscribe what he did not understand ; he could not profess 
to believe where he had not sufficient evidence ; he could not 
promise to obey if he did not intend to perform, or if he ques- 
tioned the right to command. He was not a quibbling sophist 
who delighted to perplex and entangle, but a Christian casuist, 
alive to the authority of God, and concerned only to know and 
to do his will. 

In the high-toned character of Baxter's religion, we are fur- 
nished with an illustrious instance of the efficacious grace of 
God. It was this which made him all that he was, and effected 
by him all that he did. No man would have been more disposed 
than himself to magnify its richness, its freeness, and its power. 
Whatever mistakes may be supposed to belong to his theological 
creed, they affected not his view of this principle in the divine 
administration, or his experience of its power. But grace 
blessed him not only in bestowing pardon, and inducing its ac- 
ceptance, but by producing conformity of character to God, and 
meetness for the enjoyment of heaven ; this he cultivated and 
experienced in an eminent degree. During more than half a 
century, he adorned, by every Christian virtue, the doctrine of 
God, his Saviour, and died cherishing the deepest humility and 
self-abasement, yet rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. 

In studying the character of Richard Baxter, then, while I 
would do honour to the man, and justice to his talents ; while 
I would speak in the strongest terms of his genius and his elo- 



410 ^«B Un AND TIMU 

from enpli^ng my unskilful pencil. Besides^ nrach jfct »• 
mains to be said of Baxter and his writings, before* he ean be 
considered as fully and fairly before the reader, Resenringi 
therefore, any general view of him which I may be able to gite, 
for the conclusion of the second part, I will at present notiee 
only what I conceive to have been one grand leading feature of 
his character. 

In describing this, I have no better or more appropriate tera 
which I can employ than the word unearthly; and even that 
does not give a full view of all that was absent from, and all that 
belonged to, his character as a Christian, a minister, and a 
divine. Among his contemporaries there were men of equal 
talents, of more amiable dispositions, and of greater learning. 
But there was no man in whom there appears to have been so 
little of earth, and so much of heaven ; so small a portion of the 
alloy of humanity, and so large a portion of all that is celestiaL 
He felt scarcely any of the attraction of this world, but felt &aA 
manifested the most powerful affinity for the world to come. 

The strength and operation of this principle, appeared in ill 
the workings of his mind, and in every part of his personal 
conduct as a Christian. It was manifested in the intetiaie ardour 
of his zeal ; and the burning fervour of his preaching. It wai 
displayed in his triumph over the weakness and infirmities rf 
hts diseased body } in his superiority to the blandishments and 
charities of life, when they interfered with his work, and in his 
equal regardlessness of shame and suffering, reward or honour, 
where the service of Christ and the good of men were concerned. 
Influenced by this principle, he threw himself into the arroyj 
to check what he considered its wild career. He reproved 
Cromwell ; he expostulated with Charles ; and dared the frown 
of both. The same motive induced him to abstain from mar- 
riage, while his work required all his attention. To him a 
bishoprick had no charms, and a prison no terrors, when he could 
not enjoy the one with a good conscience, and was doomed to the 
other for conscience' sake. He stood unappalled before the baf 
of Jefieries, listening with composure to his ribaldry, and would 
have gone to the gibbet or the stake without a murmur or 
complaint. 

His very imprudences seem to have arisen from the excess 
in which, compared with others, this principle existed in binu 
He seems scarcely to have understood the meaning of the word 



or uesAmB bax'huu ' 111 

7 and in 80 far IS it it allied to woridly wtsdom, he etr* 
trialylmeirit not. TV> him, conscienee and the law of God, wen 
the nde of duty, not utility, or the hope of success. There was 
BO possibility of influencing him by the promise of reward, or 
the fear of disappointment. Consequences seldom entered into 
hia caleulatbns. He would not be deterred from preaching a 
sermon, from writing a book, or making a speech, if duty seemed 
to require, by all the entreaties of his brethren, or the threat*- 
enings of his enemies. The fsvout and the frown of God be 
alone regarded, and by their irresistible influence he was earried 
fearlessly onward to eternity. 

The nicety of many of his cUstinctions, and the scrupulosity 
of his conscience, arose, not merely from the metaphysical cha- 
racter of his mind, but from its high spirituality. His conscience, 
like the sensitive plant, shrunk from every touch that was calcu- 
lated, however remotely, to aifect it. On this account, he could 
not subscribe what he did not understand ; he could not profess 
to believe where he had not sufficient evidence ; he could not 
promise to obey if he did not intend to perform, or if he ques- 
tioned the right to command. He was not a quibbling sophist 
who delighted to perplex and entangle, but a Christian casuist, 
slife to the authority of God, and concerned only to know and 
to do his will. 

In the high-toned character of Baxter's religion, we are fur- 
nished with an illustrious instance of the efficacious grace of 
God. It was this which made him all that he was, and effected 
by him all that he did. No man would have been more disposed 
than himself to magnify its richness, its freeness, and its power. 
Whatever mistakes may be supposed to belong to his theological 
creed, they affected not his view of this principle in the divine 
administration, or his experience of its power. But grace 
Uessed him not only in bestowing pardon, and inducing its ac- 
ceptance, but by producing conformity of character to God, and 
meetness for the enjoyment of heaven ; this he cultivated and 
experienced in an eminent degree. During more than half a 
century, he adorned, by every Christian virtue, the doctrine of 
(>od, his Saviour, and died cherishing the deepest humility and 
^If-abasement, yet rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. 

In studying the character of Richard Baxter, then, while I 
Wonld do honour to the man, and justice to his talents ; while 
I would speak in the strongest terms of his genius and his elo- 



419 



TH8 UF8 4ND TIBOet i>F UCHASD BAXTIE. 



quench ; while I would venerate htm as the leader «f the noble 
army of Nonconformist confessors, whose laboors and snfieriiigi 
have secured for them a deathless renown, I would above aU 
contemplate him as the Man of God, strong in faith, rich in the 
fruits of love, and adorned with the beauties of holinera. In 
these respects he had probably few equals, and no superiorly 
even in an age when eminent characters were not rare, fiot 
what God did for him he can do for others ; and what a world 
might this be, were every country furnished with but a few luch 
men as Richard Baxtbr 1 



THE END OF PART FIRST. 



PART II. 



THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 



OF 



RICHARD BAXTER. 



1.* 

I 



THB 

LIFE AND WRITINGS 

RICHARD BAXTER. 



CHAPTER I. 

WORKS ON THB EVIDBNCBS OF BBLIGION, 

jBlradiictofy ObMnratkmt on tbe TbcQlocictl UteFBtora of the ptriod— 
AtnMgtokmkt of this Ptrt of the Work— laportaoiM <^ tht Evideoceft of 
Raligkm— < Unrcasooableotst of Infidelity '—Dedication to BroKbill'-In-i 
tended as a Reply to Clement Writer— Nature and Plan of the Worle— 
* Reasons of tbe Christian Relipon '^View of tbt Work— < More Reasons 
for the Christian Reli^on '—Intended as a Reply to Lord Herbert—^ On 
tbe Immortality of tbe Soul '—Notice of Hrst Attack in English on this 
Doctrine— Gianni— Dr. Henry More— Baxter's Notions of tbe Soul's Im* 
materiality—' Certainty of tbe World of Spirits '—Singular Nature ot this 
Book— Remarks on Witchcraft and Apparidous — Baxter, tbe First Orifi- 
nai Writer in Euglish on tbe Evidences of Revelation— Momay-^ratiua 
—Bishop Fothcrby — Stillingfleet— Concludini^ Obsemratioas. 

Having completed the regular memoir of Baxter's public and 
private life, we now proceed to what may be regarded as the 
second part of thk work, an historical and critical account of 
his very numerous writings. These occupied the principal part 
of his time for many years, and by these he will continue, though 
dead, to profit the church of God for ages to come. I have 
previously avoided almost every thing respecting his works, but 
tbe enumeration of them in the respective periods in which they 
appeared. To have noticed them in connexion with his life 
and times, would either have been destructive of the continuity 
of tbe narrative, or to avoid this, the account must have been so 
brief and general, as greatly to destroy its interest*. I have» 
therefore, reserved the consideration of his writings till the 
doM of hb life^ that I might give them an entirely di^Uuct d»« 



416 THB LIFE AND WHITINGS 

The remark which is commonly made respecting authors, 
that they are chiefly to be known by their writings, is only to a 
limited extent applicable to Baxter. The former part of thb 
work shows, that independently of his writings, he would have 
been known to posterity as one of the most considerable men 
of his times, in the class to which he belonged. He took an 
active part in all those transactions that distinguished the reli- 
gious body with which he was connected, and whose affairs often 
involve^d the politics and interests, of the nation at large. His 
influence among his brethren throughout the country, thei respect 
in which he was held by the government, his popularity as a 
preacher, and the sufferings which he ensured, all prove that his 
title to celebrity does ndt exclusively rest on his published works. 
He was not a mere recluse student, or a professional writer 3 but 
an active, laborious, and public-spirited man. 

Still, the writings of Baxter, which formed so important a por-i 
tion of those labours in which he so long engaged, were regarded 
by himself as among the chief means of his usefulness, and furnish 
us with such a comprehensive view of his mind, that they are 
justly entitled, in a life of him, to the most ample consideration. 
By their means, too, his usefulness has been extended and per- 
petuated beyond the period of his own existence, and far beyond 
the immediate sphere of his personal labours. 

Baxter lived at a time when the literature of Great Britain was 
influenced in an extraordinary degree by the peculiar circum- 
stances of a civil and ecclesiastical nature, which then occurred; 
after it had made considerable progress in some departments, 
but before it had acquired that fixed character, and definite 
form, which it assumed in the course of the following century. 
For along period after the Reformation, the chief subject which 
occupied the attention of the theological writers of England was 
the Popish controversy. They judged it then necessary to act 
both offensively and defensively towards the church of Rome; to 
maintain the grounds on which the reformed church -separated 
fVom that corrupt system ; and to show that its doctrine, cere- 
lkionie8,and genius, were all at variance with Christianity. English 
divinity was then also a new thing; hence it became of more im- 
portance to supply a wholesome pabulum, than to expend much 
labour in dressing it ; to furnish the converts from Rome with 
food of such a quality as would most effectually preserve them 
from longing after the delicacies of the imperial strunapet^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER, 417 

Out of the controversy, respecting the principles of the Re- 
fonnatioDy arose the^ puritanical and the nonconformist debates. 
Bfany;, from the beginning, were not content to stop at Canter- 
bury ; they conceived that the principles of the Reformation re- 
quired them to proceed further; they wished to divest them- 
■elves of every rag and relic which had belonged to the mother 
of abominations ; and sought to save their souls, not merely by a 
qpeedy, but by a far^distant flight from her. Hence the ques- 
tioiis about imposition, ecclesiastical authority, church govem- 
meii^ forms and vestments. The influence of the court, which 
was never reformed, except in name, and the timid and worldly 
policy of church rulers, were constantiy opposed to too wide 
a separation from Rome. 

From thisptate of things sprang the nonconformist separation 
from the Anglican church, and the numerous discussions which 
occupied so large a portion of our theological literature down to 
the times of Baxter. No period of rest and liberty had really 
been enjoyed. The public mind had come to no setded con- 
dosions on many important points. Debates on matters appa- 
rendy trifling, were often fiercely maintained, because they 
implied a diversity of opinion on other things of far more im- 
portance than themselves. 

Where much oppression was exercised on the one hand, and 
much suffering endured on the other ; in the one case a con- 
stant struggle to maintain authority, and in the other to secure 
existence ; it would lie vain to expect the refinements and delica- 
cies of literature. Biblical science, profound and elegant theolo- 
gical disquisition, the exercises of taste and fancy, in reference to 
religion, could not flourish in such circumstances. Among the 
Puritans and Nonconformists, especially, these things are not to 
be looked for. They were men bom to suffering and to combat. 
Accustomed to the din of war from their infancy, they . insen- 
sibly acquired its language, and something of its spirit. Their 
polemics were a part of their existence ; their sufferings some- 
times chastened, but more frequently roused their spirits. Hence 
they studied not so much the polish of the weapon as its temper ; 
and were more careful to maintain their sentiments, than fas- 
tidious in the mode of expressing thera. 

Tlieir writings were, from these circumstances, in a great mea- 
sure, limited to two departments, practical and controversial; the 
former including all that was felt to be necessary for the sup- 
port of the Christian life in times of peculiar distress and peril; 
the latter, all that was deemed necessary in selC-defeuci^ ot nvcl- 

VOL. I. B B 



419 THS LIFB AND WAITINGS 

dicadon, or for the promotion of thoae ^irinoiples, on aceotmt 
of which they were exposed to great tribulation. In both these 
departments they almost exhaust the subjects which they discim. 
They brought forward both argument and consolation in masses. 
They had neither time nor disposition to prune or abridge. It 
was often necessary to meet the adversary vnth the weapon 
which could be immediately seized, or roost efiectively employed] 
and as the appetite for instruction was voracious, the supply 
was required to be abundant, rather than of the finest quality. 

'^ The agitated state of surrounding drcurostanoes gsfe them 
continual proof of the instability of all things temporal*; and 
inculcated on them the necessity of seeking a happiness wluefa 
might be independent of external things. They thus practically 
learned the vanity and nothingness of life, except in Its relation 
to eternity; and they declared to their fellow-creatures the 
mysteries of the kingdom of Ood, with the tone of men who 
knew that the lightest word which they spoke outweighed in the 
balance of reason, as well as of the sanctuary, the value of 
all earth's plans; and politics, and interests, lliey were upon 
high and firm ground. They stood in the midst of that teoH 
pestuous ocean, secure on the rock of ages ; and as they Qt* 
tered to those around them their invitations or remonstrances, 
or consolations, they thought not of the tastes, but of the 
necessities of men, — they thought only of the differenee between 
being lost and being saved, and they cried aloud, and spared 
not. 

*^ There is no doubt a great variety of thought, and feeling, 
and expression, to be met with in the theological writers of that 
elass; but deep and solemn seriousness is the common cha- 
racter of them all. They seem to have felt much. Religion 
was not allowed to remain as an unused theory in their beads ; 
they were forced to live on it as their food> and to have recourse 
to it as their only strength and comforts Hence their thoughts 
are never given as abstract views : they are always deeply im- 
pregnated with sentiment. Their style reminds us of the light 
which streams through the stained and storied windows of an 
ancient cathedral. It is not light merely, but light modified by 
the rich hues, and the quaint forms, and the various incidents 
of the pictured medium through which it passes : so these vene- 
rable worthies do not merely give us truth, but truth in its his« 
torical application to the various struggles, and difficulties, and 
dejections, of their strangely-chequered lives«'' * 

• Erikios's « Jmrod^okiiy Ibmy to Bstttr** Mat'i Rett^' pp. f, «. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 419 

' TBoe beatitiful sentences accurately characterise the writings 
of the Poritans and Nonconformists in general^ while they 
justly explain the causes of those peculiarities by which they 
are distinguished. 

FVom the time of the civil wars, another circumstance affected 
the character of our theological writing. The restraints on the 
press, and consequently on the minds of men, being then taken 
away, every man who began to breathe the air of freedom, and 
who deemed himself capable of putting his thoughts together, 
judged that he had a call to do so. There was no longer any 
fear of the Star Ch&mber or High Commission. A nation of 
writers was bom in a day. Sects increased, controversies mul- 
tiplied, the press teemed with an innumerable progeny 

** Hourly conceiTed, 
And hoarly born ;" 

whose nature partook of the quality of the circumstanced 
which gave them birth. They were crude, ill-formed, and mis- 
shaped ; and capable, for the most part, of only an ephemeral 
existence. *' Then," as Milton says, '' was the time in special, to 
write and speak what might help to the further discussing of 
matters in agitation. The temple of Janus, with his controver-* 
aial faces, might not insignificantly be regarded as set open; 
All the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth ; 
but truth vf^ prepared to grapple with falsehood, and sustained 
uo injury in a free and open encounter."^ 

Of the infinite and motley generation of writers thus pro^ 
duced, but a small number of master spirits could be expected 
to survive that oblivion to which the great body was inevitably 
doomed ; and even these could not escape injury from the bad 
qualities of those circumstances by which they were constantly 
surrounded. Only a few men, of any age, are destined for im- 
mortality on earth ; the far greater number must always be for- 
gotten. Spencer, Shakspeare, Bacon, Milton, and a few others, 
are the men of their respective periods, to whom alone almost 
the world of intellect looks back with admiration, as giving cha- 
racter and importance to the times in which they lived. 

Hooker, and Hall, Taylor, Barrow, and Chillingworth, Owen, 
Baxter, and Howe, occupy a similar place among the religious 
writers of their respective times. The great majority of their 
contemporaries have already ceased to exist as authors; and 
even a more select class are slowly floating to an oblivion which 
^ Areopss«tics, ProM Worki, p. 394. £dl(. 1097. 

bb2 



420 TBB UR AKB WBlTtNGS 

certainly awaits them. The principal prodncdcma of: .the 
above^ and perhaps of a few more writers, relate to matters of 
universal and perpetual interest, which render it improbable AmX 
they will ever be left behind by the stream of time. Tlidr 
principles are founded in immutable truth, while the ttroigth 
of their intellectual powers, or the brilliancy of their imaginar 
tions, are not likely to be surpassed by any of the future raee 
of mortals. 

But even they were infected or influenced by the circmn- 
stances to which we have adverted. None of them are fisnltleis. 
If they are distinguished for their splendid qualities, they are 
also strongly marked by deformities and vices. They wrote 
too much, and therefore must often have written carelessly. 
They entered deeply into the controversies of the times, and 
hence caught something of their tone and spirit. They knew 
not when to stop, or to consider their subject done. They 
choke their pages with learned quotations, and load them with 
marginal stuffings, which often savour more of conceit and 
pedantry than tend to the reader's edification. They studied 
impression rather than beauty, and often astonish us by the 
rugged grandeur of their conceptions, rather than please by the 
feKcity of their language, or the harmony of their periods. 

These remarks apply most fully and particularly to Baxter, 
as a writer. He possesses all the good and high qualities which 
have been ascribed to the choice spirits with whom he ranked. 
He was inferior to none of them in fertility of mind, loftiness 
of genius, or versatility of talent. He wrote more than any oi 
his brethren ; and more^^ of what he did write, continues to be 
read and admired. But if he partook of their excellencies, he 
also shared largely in their faults ; the former belonged pro- 
perly to the man, the latter to his circumstances. 

Baxter wrote both voluminously and on almost every topic of 
religion. His works form a system and library of themselves. 
Instead, therefore, of reviewing them in the chronological order 
of their publication, I have divided them into classes, to each of 
which I have devoted a chapter. Following the best arrange- 
ment I could adopt, under the several heads of — Works on the 
Evidences of Religion — On the Doctrines of Religion—On 
Conversion — On Christian Experience— On Christian Ethics-* 
On Catholic Communion — On Nonconformity — On Popery— 
On Antinomianism — On the Baptist, Quaker, and Millenna- 
rian Controversies— Historical and Political Works— Devotion- 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 421 

d^ Bxporitory, and Poetical Works; some account will be 
found of every thing which Baxter published. 

By pursuing this course, a more accurate view may be obtain- 
ed of his genius and labours as a virriter; while the reader 
may make his own selection of topics, on which to consult the 
opiiiions of this eminent man. In general, I have not deemed it 
necessary to present an analysis of his works. This would have 
been impracticable vrithin the bounds of my undertaking, and 
perhaps uninteresting to the reader. I have, however, always 
represented their nature and design ; the circumstances in which 
they were produced, and any known effects or consequences 
which arose from them. In this examinaUon of his writings, va- 
rioas occurrences, omitted in the regular narrative of his life, 
will be found, and notices of many of his contemporaries, both 
friends and opponents, will be given. The remainder of this 
chapter will, therefore^ be devoted to the works on the Evi- 
dences of Religion. 

The evidences of religion do not always occupy that place in 
die attention of men, which their great importance merits. The 
truth of revelation is so much taken for granted among Chris- 
tians, that few, comparatively, give themselves the trouble of ex- 
amining into the grounds of their faith. But the mind of Baxter 
was so constituted that it could not be satisfied without the most 
rigid examination of that subject, which was of all others the 
most important to him. He was early affected with doubts 
and difficulties, to remove which, he instituted the most rigid 
inquiry into the truth of religion. He made it his business to sift 
and weigh every argument, and to give to the various kinds and 
degrees of evidence, only that weight in the scale which intrin- 
sically belonged to them. On this subject, the following pas-* 
sage from his own life is entitled to attention. 

^ Among truths certain in themselves, all are not equally 
certain unto me ; and even of the mysteries of the Gospel, I 
ihust needs say with Mr. Richard Hooker, in his ^Ecdes. Polit.,' 
* that whatever men may pretend, the subjective certainty can- 
not go beyond the objective evidence; for it is caused thereby, 
as the print on the wax is caused by that on the seal/ I do 
more of late, therefore, than ever, discern a necessity of a me- 
thodical procedure in maintaining the doctrine of Christianity, 
and of beginning at natural verities, as presupposed fundament- 
aUy to supernatural ; though God may, when he pleases, reveal 



422 TAB Ltn AND WRITINGS 

all at once^ and even natural truths by supematnral 
It is a marvellous great help to my faith, to find it built <m 
so sure foundations, and so consonant to the law of nature^ I 
am not so foolish as to pretend my certainty to be greater thii 
it is, merely because it is a dishonour to be less certain; nor 
will I by shame be kept from confessing the infinfnitieSy wUch 
those have as much as I, who h)'pocritically reproach ma with 
them. 

^' My certainty that I am a man, is before my certainty tint 
there is a God ; for qtAod /acU notum, est magis noium. My 
certainty that diere is a God, is greater than my certainty that 
he requireth love and holiness of his creature ; my certafatty of 
this is greater than my certainty of the life of rewsxd and pun- 
ishment hereafter ; my certainty of that is greater than my cer- 
tainty of the endless duration of it, and of the immortality of 
-individuate souls | my certainty of the Deity is greater than my 
certainty of the Christian faith ; my certainty of the Christitti 
faith, in its essentials, is greater than my certainty of the per- 
fection and infallibility of all the holy Scriptures; my certain^ of 
that is greater than my certainty of the meaning of many par« 
ticular texts, and so of the truth of many particular doctrines, 
or of the canonicalness of some certain books. So that as you see 
by what gradations my understanding doth proceed, so also that 
Riy certainty differeth as the evidences differ. And they that 
will begin fdl their certainty with that of the truth of the Scrip- 
ture, as the princ^num cognoscendiy may. meet me at the same 
end ; but they m^st give me leave to undertake to prove to a 
heathen or infidel, the being of a God, and the necessity of holi- 
ness, and the certainty of a reward or punishment, even while 
•yet he denieth the truth of Scripture, and in order to his believ- 
ing it to be true."*^ 

Whatever may be thought of the necessity of pursuing the 
above plan, in the discussion of the evidences of Christianity, 
there is much justice in the train of Baxter's argument. Tlie 
man who looked so narrowly and cautiously for proof of every 
thing that he believed, was undoubtedly well qualified to write 
on the subject of evidence, for the benefit of others. 

In directing our attention to the writings of Baxter on the 
evidences of religion, the first work which presents itself, both in 
the order of time and that of nature, is his ^ Unreasonableness of 



'OF RICHARD BAXTU« 423 

Iiifiddsty.'^ This work is dedicated to Lord Broghill, then LoM 
Praeident of the Council of State for the affairs of Scotland. 
Baxter^ we have already seen, was well acquunted with Mm ; 
he q>eal(s of him in this dedication, very respectfully, as a re- 
ligions man, while he gives him, as was his custom, some rery 
wholesome admonition. In this respect Baxter's dedications 
aie wicvthy of imitation. They are polite and courteous, bat 
never flattering or adulatory. He knew how to point a compli- 
ment, but never forgot, in addressing others, what was due to 
his own character, as a n&an of God. Therjs b much beauty as 
well as fidelity in the address to Liord Broghili, who made a con- 
siderable figure in the political world for many years. The 
.occasion of writing and publishing this book, which appeared, 
•in 1655, he tells us, was his forming ^^a troublesome acquaint- 
ance with Clement Writer, of Worcester,* an ancient man, who 
had limg seemed a forward professor of religiousness, and of a 
good conversation, but had been perverted to he knew not what. 
A Seeker he professed to be, but was either a juggling Pkpist^ 
or an infidel ; more probably the latter. He had vmtten a 
scornful book against the ministry, called ^ Jus Divinum Presby- 
terii,' and afterwards, two more against tiie Scriptures and me. 
His assertion to me was, that no man is bound to believe in 
Christ, who doth not see confirming miracles with his own eyes.'^' 

It is very instructive to find the grand argument against 
Christianity, of which David Hume supposed himself to be the 
inventor, anticipated by a fanatical Seeker of the times of the 
Commonwealth. Mr. Hume's favourite dogma was, that a 
miracle is incapable of such proof from human testimony, as 
to entitle it to belief. Clement Writer's idea seems to haiee 
been, ^^ that whatever reality might have belonged to the miracles 
of Christ, they cannot be proved so as to oblige us.'' Campbell 
successfully demolished the ablest and most acute sceptic of 
modern times ; Baxter was no less successful in overturning his 
adversary.* 

He intended it also as a supplement to the second part of his 

* Works, Tol. %x. 

« A curious account of Clemeot Writer is given by Edwards in his ' Gaif- 
grena.' In his usual style of invective^ he calls him " an arch heretic— a 
fearful apostate — an old wolf— and a subtile man.'* He represents him as a 
inateriallst and mortalist — a denier of the divinity of the Scriptures, and of the 
lif kts of the ministry, unless possessed of apostolic powers.— Part i. p. 27. > 

' Life, parti, p. 116. 
. < Af apiece of beautiful argument, there is, perhaps, no book in the En- 
glish language better entitled to the reader's attentiooj than < The Ttt9i\»M% oyi 



424 TBS UFB AVD WftlTINGS 

^Saint's Rest,' which treats of the proofs of the trath and eer* 
tain futurity of our rest, and attempts to show that the Scrip* 
tures which promise it, are the perfect, in&lliUe word of God. 
Although the propriety of referring to the truth of the £vine 
testimony as the foundation of hope in the rest of God canaot 
be called in question, the necessity of devoting the fourth put 
of a devotional treatise to an inquiry into the truth of rdi^on, 
is very questionable. This was objected to at the time, as ap* 
pears from his preface to this part of the latter editions, of his 
^ Rest.' He did not alter the book, however ; but the objections 
appear to have led him to discuss the subject in this sepaiate 
treatise. 

^ The Unreasonableness of Infidelity,' is divided into four parts. 
In the first, he considers the Spirit's extrinsic witness to Chris* 
tianity, with the question proposed to him by Clement Writer, 
whether the miraculous works of Christ and his disdpks do 
oblige those to believe who nc^ver saw them ? In the second, he 
considers the Spirit's internal witness to the truth of Christianity. 
In the third, he furnishes a demonstration that the Spirit and 
works of Christ were the finger of God, to prevent what be con- 
sidered to be the sin against the Holy Gho^t ; and in the last, he 
endeavours to show that the arrogancy of reason and the jMride 
of ignorance, are the great causes of men's infidelity and 
quarrelling with the Word of God. 

Such is the outline of the plan pursued in this very valuable 
treatise. It evidently embraces, with one exception, which I 
shall afterwards notice, the great leading arguments on which 
Christianity is founded, and by which it may be morally demon- 
strated to have come from God. He naturally and properly 
commences with the external, ' r what he calls the extrinsic tes- 
timony of the Spirit, which he considers to be the miraculous 
works performed by Christ and his apostles. These, from their 
magnitude, from their number and variety, from the circum- 
stances in which they were performed, and from the overwhelm- 
ing conviction they produced at the time, satisfactorily prove 
that the Christian revelation is from heaven and not from men. 
The following appears to me to place the argument from miracles 
in a very forcible point of view. 

^' If any shall seal the doctrine that he bringeth in the name 
of God, with the testimony of such numerous, evident, undeni- 

Mirtclet/ bjr Dr. Campbell. As a mere iotellectual exercise, it wiU richly 
repair a careful examinatioQ. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR* 425 

bfe mindet, it is the highest proof of the truth of his doctrine, 
lat ieth and blood can expect. And if God do not give ns 
ofident hdp to discover a folsehood in the testimony, we must 
dee it for his voice and truth. For if (Sod shall let men or 
«vib use the highest mark of a divine testimony to confirm a 
m, while they pretend it to be divine, and do not control this, 
te lesfeth men utterly remediless. For we cannot go up into 
to see what hand these things are wrought by. We are 
they cannot be done without divine permission andcom- 
niwuin; we are sure that God is the true, just, merciful 
3ovenior of the world; and as sure as it belongeth to a Rector 
D pronnilgate, as well as enact his own laws, they cannot 
iblige OS, till promulgated, that is, sufficiently revealed. And 
f he shall suffer any to say, ^ God sent me to you on this 
■Mseage, and to back this affirmation with such a stream of 
nimcles through a whole age by many thousand hands, and 
ihall not any way contradict them, nor give us sufficient help 
bo discover the delusion, then it must needs be taken for God's 
Dwn act, seeing by office he is our Rector ; or else that God hath 
^twea up the world to the dispose and government of the devil. 
Nosr, let any man of right reason judge whether it be possible 
diat the just and merciful God, being naturally our governor as 
we are his creatures, should give permission or commission to 
the devil to deceive the world in his name, by changing and 
working against the very course of nature, and by means that no 
man can possibly try; and so, leave his creature remedilessly to 
be misled and perish/' 

The theological scholar will scarcely require to be informed that 
in this passage the substance of the argument of Farmer's cele- 
brated treatise on miracles, is comprised. The object of that able 
and unanswerable work is to show, that miracles prove the 
truth of the doctrine, not the doctrine the reality of the miracles; 
and that in every case in which they have been really performed, 
they have been wrought by a divine agency, and in proof of a 
message or testimony sent from God. I am far from thinking 
that Baxter has maintained his argument with the same clear- 
ness, and consistency as Farmer : but making allowance for the 
manner in which he was accustomed to treat every subject, it is 
precisely of the same nature, and managed with distinguished 
ability. 
Baxter concedes to Satan a power which Farmer denies to 

^ Works, vol. XX. p. 333. 



;436 XHS uwE and weitings 

bitn*— lliat of operating on human o'eatures in a fupernatinil 
manner. In this very book, he telb numerous ^iparitkm anl 
ghost stories ; but they are not introduced to prove that Satan 
has. the power of wor^ng miracles ; but to show from the oppo- 
site nature of Christ's works and his, that they could not proceed 
from the same quarter. It seems to me very evident, thfla^^ 
Baxter did not pursue it, that the argument in the passage es* 
tracted above, goes all the length of Fanner. 

The view which he took of miracles as the grand testimony 
of the Spirit to the truth, led him to consider the nature of thst 
channel through which this species of evidence has been braDght 
down to us. Here he takes up the historical testimony, or the 
universal and unbroken traditbn, not of the church, but of aD 
kinds of moral and historic evidence, that the Scriptures m ov 
hands are the writings of the persons whose names they bear, 
and that the facts which they record have been recognised or 
admitted from the very beginning. The argument in this and the 
preceding part is maintained with great power, and scarcely mfe- 
. rior,in clearness and cogency, to the masterly reasoning of lUey. 

It is singular that, in treating the external evidence^ b 
takes no notice of the subject of prophecy. He assigns no 
reason for this omission ; and therefore I apprehend he merely 
regarded it as unnecessary to the strength of his argument, sod 
would not allow himself to be diverted from its regular prose- 
cution by the introduction of another topic, which would haie 
required very extended consideration, and perhaps have dii- 
tracted both his own mind and that of his readers. And ai 
Writer had not adverted to the difficulties connected with pro- 
phecy, but to those belonging to miracles, he did not feel calkd 
to enter on that subject. 

In the second treatise in the volume, he examines very parti- 
cularly the Spirit's internal testimony to the truth of the Gospel 
By this intrinsic evidence he does not mean, the proofs vi^faich 
the Scriptures themselves furnish of their divine origin ; what 
Owen calls their ^^ self-evidencing power ;" but *^ Christ's witneas 
within us," which he regards as '^ the believer's special advantage 
against the temptations to infidelity." It is founded on ^' He that 
believeth hath the witness in himself,"* (IJohn v. 10,) a text 
which has been variously expounded, and which Baxter thinb 

' In this important passage I believe that the apostle uses the word test!- 
aony, /laprvpw, by a common figure of speech, for the thinp testified. Tbisi 
as appears from the followiDg^ Yerse« is the fact, thft believers have eternal life 



OP RrOHARD BAXTBR. 4711 

lignito that those enlightened and holy impressions formed on 
die eonl by the Spirit, become in us a standing testimony or 
^ntatm tot the truth within us, as the word and miracles of 
Ghikt are without us. ^' For none but the sacred Redeemer of 
Ik fvorid, approved by the Father, and working by hb Spirit, 
emdd do such works as are done on the souls of all that are 
rlndj MUietified/' This is, in fact, an argument derived from the 
power and adaptation of Christianity, considered as a moral 
tmatAy. It is rather the evidence of experiment than an inters 
od mtness. For, after all that can be said on the subject of 
the inward witness, it resolves itself entirely into the consci* 
mtrnmB of the individual that he has truly received the divine 
Attiniony, and that the feelings he experiences, and the outward 
eonduct which he pursues, are the result of God's word ope^ 
jtfiiig upon him. This experience is often peculiarly satisfiso^ 
4orj to the Christian himself, though it will go but little way in 
jDonvincing unbelievers. On this view of the subject, Baxter 
tqra oiany admirable things. His illustration of the apostle's 
triiunphant challenge, Rom. riii. 35—^9, is exceedingly beau« 
lifiil and appropriate. 

It may appear very singular that he should take up the 
^ Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost,' at such length as he does in 
Uua treatise : but he was naturally led to it by the particular 
view which he takes of the miracles of Christ ; his grand oh-* 
jeet being to show that they were works which could not have 
been performed by the devil ; and that they are, therefore, de^ 
monstrative of a divine mission, which whosoever rejects or 
calumniates must perish. On the nature of the particular sin of 
which he treats, he perhaps dwells at too great length for his 
purpose ; but he has a great deal on the topic itself which is 
valuable and interesting. The following passage, in which he 
aoins up his own views of the subject, is worthy of the reader's 
attention.^ 

^This much is out of doubt with me, that this sin lieth in the 

IbroQirh tiie Sod of God : — ** He who believeth this testimony — has that which 
ObrUtTt nDdertakinp ig designed to bestow, viz. eternal life — in himself; it ii 
not an object of future hope, but of present eojoymcut/' ver. 12. This inter* 
pretation is supported by the whole context, and removes every difficulty from 
the passage. 

■t Though Sn possession of Baxter's work when I published my ' Dis* 
coonca on the Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,' I had forgotten that he 
wrote on the subject. Had 1 thought to have consulted him, I would have 
■vailed myself of some of his idesis. For though 1 do not agree with him 
ia aumj of his remarki and reasonings, varioui thioga which he iuggcsti are 



428 THS LIFE AND WBITIlfOS 

rejecting of the objective testimony of the Spirit extraordinariljr 
then attesting Christ's doctrine, as being the highest and brt 
dbiective remedy of unbelief. The three persons in the Uesssl . 
trinity have each one their several ivays of recovering maninrf 
for the remission of his sin, and there are several ways of shnniig 
against each of them, as men sin against these dispensadonsi 
When we had sinned against the Creator and his perfect laiTi 
he gave us his Son to be our Redeemer. There was his proper 
work for our pardon, together with the acceptance of the pries 
of redemption and the giving us into the hands of his Smi m 
his redeemed ones. The Son made satisfaction to justicey and 
sent forth to the world a conditional pardon under his hand and 
seal^ with his word and Spirit to persuade them to accept it 
This is his work antecedent to our believing. The Spirit endit- 
eth and sealeth this written, delivered pardon, by mighty worin^ 
and importuneth the hearts of sinners to accept it. If it bs 
accepted. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, do actually pardon 
If it be not accepted merely as sent by the word of the Son, 
sin against the Son by unbelief. If it be not accepted or bdefcd 
as sealed and urged by the Spirit (yea, or if sealed extrinricallj 
only), then it is the sin against the Spirit, supposing that seal be 
discerned and considered of, and yet resolvedly rejected. So that 
here are three, the last remedying means rejected at once. When 
man was fallen, the Father provideth a sacrifice for his sin, and 
but one sacrifice ; the Son tendereth to us a remedying covenant^ 
and but one such covenant. The Spirit of Christ, especially in 
his extraordinary works, is the convincing, attesting seal, to ' 
draw men to believe, and there is but one such Spirit and seil. 
He that sinned against the law of works, hath all these remedies 
in their several orders. But if you refuse this one sacrifice, thae 
remaineth no more sacrifice for sin; if you refuse this one 
remedying covenant, there is no other covenant after it to be 
expected ; and if you refuse this sealing and sanctifying Spiiit, 
which would draw you into the covenant, there is no other 
Spirit or seal to be expected. This much is out of doubt; and 
therefore, he that finally continueth to refuse this sacrifieSi 
covenant, and seal of the Spirit, shall perish for ever.'*' 

The last part of the work on infidelity, strikes at the grand 

worthy of attention ; and the reader who chooses to compare the doctrioe of 
the Diicourses with the passage quoted in the text, will find that we a^ree vtrf 
nearly in our conclusion, as to the character of the offence^ and what consti- 
tutes its irremissible nature. 
^ Works, XX. 251^— This part of the worlc on infidelity, tIi. < The Treate 



OF RICBARD BAXTBR. 429 

il of the evil : the pride of man's intellect or reason, and the 
itmaey of his ignorance. It belongs to the heart rather than 
die understanding. This was the case in the days of our 
fd and his apostles ; it was the case in the days of Baxter ; 
1 it is exemplified in a still greater degree now than for* 
rij. There is less argumentative or speculative infidelity ; 
t im>bably much more sullen, determined, and high-minded 
potttion to the word of God, than at any former period of the 
ffkfs history. The light is greater, and hence the resistance 
that light must, to be successful, be the more resolute. 

To supply what Baxter deemed the deficiencies of the work 
! hRve now considered, he published in 1667, ^The Reasons of 
ft Christian Religion.^ This is a quarto volume, of six hundred 
gtMf on which the author must have bestowed a large portion 
attention. There are two dedications prefixed to it, one ad- 
ened to the Christian reader, with another to the ^^ hypocrite 
ftder.'' It is worthy of observation, that he assigns, as one 
Mon for the writing of this work, his desire to promote the 
soBversion of idolaters and infidels to God and to the Chris- 
n faith.'' At a period when few were directing their thoughts 
the state of the heathen world, it appears from various parts 
the writings of Baxter, that his mind was deeply occupied 
th it. As we have already seen, beside being the firiend of 
^le, he was the correspondent of Elliot, and the ardent ad- 
irer of his zeal and his success. He expresses in one of these 
dieations, the great pain he felt at the ^^ doleful thought that 
tt parts of the world were still heathens and Mahometans ; 
id that Christian princes and preachers did no more for 
eir recovery." ^' The opening of the true method for such a 
nk/' he says, ^' is the highest part of my design." 
How far his work is adapted to this end, is a different ques- 
m. It is divided into two parts : ' Of Natural Religion, or 
xlliness;' and 'Of Christianity and Supernatural Religion.' 
the first part, he considers what man is in himself, a creature 
sense and reason, '^ a living wight, having an active power, 
i understanding to guide it, and a will to command it." 
liat he is in relation to things beneath him, to his fellow-crea- 
res around him, and to the great First Cause above him. 

IIm Sid s^Dtl the Holy Gbott,' appeared id GermaD, tome time after its 
bllcatioD Id Eoglish.— ITo/cAa Bib. TkeoL Set. ton. L p. 254. 
■ Works 9 Tob. xx. and xxi. 



490 TH« LIF& AND WttlTIltGS 

This leads him to consider what this Cause is itf itaelf-^Chid} 
and what he is in relation to his creatures, especially man ; ia 
which he treats of him as our Owner, Govemory Benefador} 
and of man's obligations to God, as his End or chief Good. He 
then discusses the nature of man's present condition, the evi- 
dences of a future state of retribution ; and the natural light 
we have of God's mercy, and of the means of recovery* 

From this brief sketch of the plan pursued in this part of the 
treatise, the reader will perceive that it is in fact a.diasertatloo cm 
natural religioq ; or, an attempt to ascertain how far men may be- 
come acquainted with God, with their own duties, and with a fiir 
ture state, independent of revelation. The argument is oondueted 
with very considerable ability and regularity, and ^splays a 
great deal of thought, and, like all the other works of Baxter, 
a great fiind of reading. On the nature and uses of natonl 
religion, considerable diversity of opinion prevuls. It seem 
generally to have been overlooked, that man has never beca 
left entirely to the guidance of his own unaissisted reason in tbe 
affair of religion. From the beginning, there was a revelitioa 
of the character of God, beyond that which belonged to tbe 
mere works of God. In paradise God conversed with Adam, aad 
gave him information above what his unassisted faculties might 
have derived from the external manifestations of divide power 
and goodness. These original communications were never en- 
tirely lost ; and hence, though the invisible things of God 
may be understood from the things which he has made^ so that 
men are left without excuse, the responsibility of the creature 
must be considered as greatly increased by the superadded re- 
velation, though it has been in many instances thoughtlessly or 
wantonly lost. Baxter's ^Reasons,' may be regarded as prepariag 
the way for the unanswerable work of Halyburton, 'Natnrti 
Reason insufficient; and Revealed, necessary to Man's Happi- 
ness in his present state.' A book far more satisfactory then 
any other which has yet been published on this part of the 
deistical controversy. ° 

rhe second part of Baxter's work is devoted to a regulsr 
examination of the evidences of Christianity considered as a re- 
velation from God, and is altogether a very able performance. 

* Hal^burton's work was published in 4to, in 1714, after the death of the 
autbuFy which took place in 1712. He was professor of divinity in the Uoi* 
versity of St. Andrew ; and was uo less distinguished for bis sound and irdtit 
piety, than by his masculine understanding and his extensive leamiof • 



OP RICHARD fiAXTSR. 431' 

Contrary to the plan of some works on the evidences of revela- 
tion, which leave out every thing concerning the matter or sub- 
ject of the revelation itself; Baxter makes a full statement of 
the nature and properties of the Christian religion, and of its 
'^ ooogniities ;" or, in other words, its suitableness to our natu- 
ral notions of God, and its adaptation to our own characters 
and wants. He then proceeds to discuss the ^' witness of Jesus 
Christ ; or^ the demonstrative evidence of his verity and au- 
thority/* This he arranges in four parts : Prophecy, or an- 
tecedent testimony to his Messiahship — His personal character, 
as he ia the image of God in his person, life, and doctrine — His 
miracles and those of his disciples— And the constant evidence 
of his power and character in the salvation of men. Beside 
theee, there are many collateral topics examined, and a multi- 
tude of difficulties, supposed to belong to the Christian faith, met 
and resolved. 

It 18 not practicable, within the limits to which I am under the 
neceesityof restricting myself, to convey a full idea of the valuable 
reaaoningt of this work ; but even the imperfect outiine now 
giTen, may show that it is well entitied to the reader's attention. 
Some of the peculiarities of Baxter's style and manner of treat- 
ing sobjects, exist in it) but it is Aill of the indications of his 
genius, originality, and powerful intellect. His piety also richly 
imbues the whole. It contains a prayer, which, were it not too 
bng to be quoted here, I would introduce at large, as one of 
the sublimest pieces of devotion in the English language. I 
do not know whether most to admire the holy ardour which it 
breathes, the power by which it is sustained, or the felicitous 
language in which it is expressed. The concluding paragraph 
I will venture to give, entreating the reader to examine the 
whole. Addressing the divine Spirit, he says ; 

*^ As thou art the agent and advocate of Jesus my Lord, O 
plead his cause effectually in my soul against the suggestions of 
Satan ^ and my unbelief ; and finish his healing, saving work, 
and let not the flesh or world prevail. Be in me the resident 
^tness of my Lord, the author of my prayers, the spirit of 
adoption, the seal of God, and the earnest of mine inheritance. 
Let not my nights be so long and my days so short, nor sin 
eclipse those beams which have often illuminated my soul. 
Without thee, books are senseless scrawls, studies are dreams, 
learning is a glow-worm, and wit is but wantonness, imper«- 
tinence^ and folly. Transcribe those sacred precepVA owm^j 



432 THB UVE AND WRITINGS 

heart, which by thy dictates and inspiratiaiiB are recorded in 
thy holy word. I refuse not thy help for tears and groans ; bat 
O shed abroad that love upon my heart, which may keep it in 
a continual life of love. Teach me the work which I mnit 
do in heaven ; refresh my soul with the delights of holinesi, 
and the joys which arise from the believing hopes of the ever- 
lasting joys. Exercise my heart and tongue in the holy praisei 
of my Lord. Strengthen me in sufferings ; and conqiier the 
terrors of death and hell. Make me the more heavenly, by bow 
much the faster I am hastening to heaven ; and let my but 
thoughts, words, and works on earth, be likest to those wluch 
shall be my first in the state of glorious immortality ; where 
the kingdom is delivered up to the Father, and God iRdll &r 
ever be All, and in all; of whom, and through whom^ and to 
whom, are all things, to whom be glory for everw— Amen/' 

In along appendix to the preceding work, he discusses thedoc- 
trine of the soul's immortality, and immateriality; and in 16729 
he published a small duodecimo volume, entitled, ^ More Res- 
sons for the Christian Religion, and no Reason against it;'* 
designed as a second appendix to his work on the Evidences. 
Part of this little treatise is intended as an answer to an un- 
known letter-writer, who charged the holy Scriptures with con- 
tradictions ; and the chief part consists of animadversions on 
Lord Herbert's work * De Veritate,' which had not met with 
any answer previously in this country. Herbert was the esrliest 
formal deistical writer produced by England, whose laboois 
have attracted any attention. The first edition of his work 
^ De Veritate' appeared at Paris in 1624. It was republished in 
London, along with his treatise ^ De Causis Erronim,' and his 
' Religio Laici,' in 1633. His work 'De Religione Gentilium,' 
which Baxter does not appear to have seen, was printed at 
Amsterdam, in 1663. Herbert's great object seems ',to hsTe 
been, to overthrow revelation, and substitute what; he called 
natural religion, or deism, in its place. 

Baxter addresses this little work, in a letter written with 
great delicacy, to Sir Henry Herbert, influenced, he says, ^bv 
his personal, ancient obligations to him ; by his approved wis- 
dom and moderation, in the ways of charity and peace, in these 
trying times ; and by his relation to the noble author on whose 
writings he animadverts. As it is your honour,'^ he says, ^to 

* Works^ Yol. xxi. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 433 

m 

be the brother of so learned and ingenious a lord, and the bro- 
ther of so excellently holy, as well as learned and ingenious a 
peraon, Mr. George Herbert ; so it obligeth me the more to 
give you an account of this animadversion." 

He complains of " the sad case of many of his acquaintance, 
and of the increase of infidelity of late, especially among de- 
bauched, sensual gallants," whose increase was chiefly to be 
Mcribed to the profligacy of the reigning monarch, and the 
dissoluteness of the court. Baxter points out the true source 
of Herbert's infidelity ; and, indeed, of all the infidelity of the 
Christian world — the moral state of the heart. ^^ Had so great 
a wit,'' he says, *^ had but the internal conditions due to such 
an intellectual apprehension, as his and your holy and excellent 
brother had, no doubt but our supeniatural revelations and 
verities would have appeared evident to him, and possessed his 
soul with as sweet a gust, and fervent, ascendant, holy love, as 
breatheth in G. Herbert's poems ; and would have made them 
as clear to him in their kind, as some of his notituB communes^ 
Hie truth is, as he was too low for us, who number not our 
divine revelations with the verisinUliay but with the certain 
verities ; so he was too high for the atheistical sensualists of 
his age.'' 

Baxter treats his lordship with great respect and candour ; 
but remarks very freely on his fallacies, inconsistencies, and the 
imperfections of the scheme which he would substitute in the 
place of God's revelation. Leland makes honourable mention 
of Baxter, as the first of our English writers who replied to 
Lord Herbert. It is not to be considered, however, a full an- 
swer. Baxter was followed by Locke, who, both in his * Trea- 
tise on the Human Understanding/ and in his work on the 
* Reasonableness of Christianity,' meets the Baron of Cherbury. 
Whitby also wrote a very excellent tract on *The Verity and 
Usefulness of the Christian Revelation,' in which his lordship's 
system is considered. But the grand and conclusive reply to 
the father of our English Deists, is, the work of Professor Haly- 
burton, referred to in a former page. It has alleged every thing 
necessary to be said on this subject. 

In 1682, Baxter published, in a small 12mo volume, two 
treatises, ^ Of the Immortality of Man's Soul, and of the Nature 
of it, and of other Spirits.' The first is in the form of a letter, 
addressed to an unknown doubter^ whose epistle he prefixes i 

VOL. I. F F 



434 THB TJFB AND WRITINGS 



9 



the other \% a reply to Dr. Henry More's animadTersions ad- 
dressed to Baxter in a private letter, and afterwards pubKshed 
by him in the second edition of Joseph Glanvil's ^ Sadducteorai 
Triumphatus ; or. History of Apparitions/ In the prefKe to 
these discourses, he refers to his former works, the ' Reasons of 
the Christian Religion,' and the ^Unreasonableness of Infidelity,' 
and thus connects them together. The appendix t6 his ^ Rea- 
sons of the Christian Religion,' is, in fact, a laboured ^^ defenee 
of the soul's immortality against the Somatists and Epicoreans 
and other pseudo-philosophers ;'' of which this small treatise iS| 
therefore, but a continuation. His great object is to prove the 
immateriality and immortality of the soul; not by the testi* 
mony of revelation ; but by the light of nature and metaphyd-* 
cal arguments. For this kind of discussion Baxter was peeo«* 
liarly fitted by his natural acuteness, and the metaphysical 
character of his mind« He could ^^ distinguish things thtt 
differ'' more readily than most men of his own or any other 
age ; and the reader, who attentively examines these treatises^ 
will find that most of the arguments usually derived from reason, 
and from the acknowledged properties of mind and matter^ ar 
adduced by him. 

The doctrine of the immateriality and immortality of the soul, 
was first attacked in English, as far as I know, in a pamphlet, 
published at Amsterdam, in 1643, and re-published, enlarged, 
at London, in 1655. ^ Man's Mortallitie, wherein 'tis proved, 
both theologically and philosophically, that whole man (as a 
rational creature) is a compound wholly mortal, contrary to 
that common distinction of soul and body : and that the pre- 
sent going of the soul into Heaven or Hell is a meer fiction: 
and that at the resurrection is the beginning of our immor- 
tality, and then, actual condemnation and salvation, and not 
before,' &c. The author signs himself " R. O." Who or whit 
he was. Archdeacon Blackburn says, cannot now be traced. I 
believe he was Richard Overton, one of the fierce republicans of 
the Commonwealth. The production is not destitute of talent 
but is altogether sceptical in its nature and tendency. It wii 
answered in an anonymous pamphlet, ^The Prerogative of 
Man ; or, his soul's immortality and high perfection defended, 
and explained against the rash and rude conceptions of a late 
writer, who hath inconsiderately ventured to impugn it.' 4to, 
1645. Blackburn, who could not give the title of this pam- 
phlety sneers* at the author of it, and represents it as very feeble* 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 435 

I think differently; it is well written, and destitute neither of 
learning nor argument. Baxter's small treatises on this subject 
were written many years after these productions, so that he had 
probably forgotten them, if indeed he ever saw them among tho 
ephemera of the Commonwealth. 

The book of Glanvil, published by More, is a very singular 
production^ and in many points resembles Baxter's book on ap- 
paritionis and witches, noticed at the end of this chapter. The 
fittt part treats of the possibility of witches ; the second, of their 
ical existence. It is full of scriptural and philosophical argu«^ 
flttntft according to the views of the author, and abounds with 
ghoat stories of all descriptions. Many of these are very strik- 
ing, and authenticated by the names of the parties. The book 
originated in an occurrence at the house of John Mumpeson of 
Tedworth ; whieh was, for some time, disturbed by the beating 
of an invisible drum every night This happened in 1663, 
Olanvil published in 1666 some philosophical considerations, 
touching the being of witches and witchcraft ; which laid the 
foundation of a great deal of discussion, that lasted till hit 
death. As an apology for Baxter, it should be mentioned, that 
Glativil was a clergyman, a chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, 
and one of the first and most useful members of the Royal So- 
ciety. Anthony Wood says, ^^ that he was a person of more 
than ordinary parts : of a quick, warm, spruce, and gay fancy ; 
and more lucky, at least in his own judgment, in his first hints 
and thoughts of things, than in his after notions, examined and 
digested by longer and more mature deliberation.^ Baxter 
was acquainted with Glaiivil, though after the Restoration they 
pursued very different courses. He speaks of him, in his ^De-< 
fence of the Mere Nonconformists,' with considerable respect^ 
though he disapproved of part of his conduct. Among the 
Baxter MSS. there are several letters from Glanvil to Baxter, 
full of the warmest expressions of affection and admiration. 
In one of them, he begs Baxter's acceptance of the publication 
referred to ; in another he acknowledges the honour done him 
by Baxter, in sending him his manuscript answer to the Bishop 
of Worcester, l^ere is also a long letter, full of curious learn-< 
ing, in defence of the pre-existence of souls ; a doctrine which 
Glanvil believed, and to which he would gladly have made Bax- 
ter a convert. He appears to have been an amiable, philoso- 
phical enthusiast. 

' Atben, Oxop. vol. it. p. 496. 

>f2 . 



436 THB L1FB AND WRITINGS 

Dr. Henry More possessed great personal excellence, bnt had 
a very peculiar conformation of mind. Deeply read in the 
philosophy of Plato, the mysteries of the Cabalists, and m, 
profound admirer of the Cartesian philosophy; he became 
the most learned mystic of his own, or perhaps of any other 
time ; and one of the deepest students of the apocalyptic vmoiM 
and prophecies. He was learned, but credulous;, pious, but 
superstitious ; philosophical, and yet the sport oT vulgar fanciesy 
and popular errors. His writings on philosophical, theologicaly 
and mystical subjects, are numerous, and were extensivdy 
read at the time ; though now regarded rather, as objects of 
curiosity, than sought after on account of their utility. Between 
More and Baxter there appears to have been some personal in- 
timacy, and in several respects they were congenial spirits. In 
the second edition of Glanvil's ^Sadducismus Triumpbatiis,' 
published by More, he inserted a private letter from Baxter, 
with some animadversions on it, which led to what Baxter calb 
his '^ placid collation.'' According to More's account, Baxter 
was a ^' Psychopyrist, that is, a philosopher, who holds all ere* 
ated spirits to be a kind of more pure and subtile fire.'' Bai« 
ter complains that he held no such notion, but that his language 
thus interpreted had been entirely misunderstood. The follow- 
ing remarkable passage conveys an obscure idea of his specu- 
lations on this nice and difficult subject, and of the nature of 
the difference between him and More. 

"Do you think," he asks, "that the soul carrieth a bodyost 
of the body inseparable with it, or only that it receiveth a new 
body when it passeth out of the old ? If the latter, is there 
any instant of time between the dispossession of the old, and 
the possession of the new ? If any, then the soul is some time 
without a body ; and how can you tell how long ? If noti 
what body is it that you can imagine so ready to receive it 
without any interposition ? I have not been without temptation 
to over inquisitive thoughts about these matters ; and I nefer 
had so much ado to overcome any such temptation, as that to 
the opinion of Averrhoes, that, as extinguished candles go all into 
one illuminated air, so separated souls go all into one common 
anima mundiy and lose their individuation, and that maitm 
receptiva individuat ; and then, indeed, your notion would be 
probable, for the amma mundi mundum semper ammat, and so 
my separated soul should be still embodied in the world, and 
should have its part in the world's animation ; but botk Scrip* 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 437 

tore and apparitions assure us of the ihdividuatioii of spirits 

and separate souls. 

*^ I confess to vou that I have often told the Sadducees and 

infideb that urge seeming impossibilities against the resurrec- 

tiOBy and the activity of separate souls for want of organs, that 

they are not sure that the soul taketh not with it, at its depar- 

tore hence, some seminal material spirits, etherial and airy; and 

so that this spirituous or igneous body which it carrieth hence, 

is a semen to the body which it shall have at the resurrection : 

no man knoweth the contrary^ and no man knoweth that it is 
•o.'M 

The Christian reader will probably think that there is not 
moeh edification to be obtained from these speculations. The 
immateriality and immortality of the soul, are clearly taught 
in the sacred Scriptures, whose testimony, on these and many 
other subjects, is far more satisfactory than all the a priori^ 
or metaphysical reasonings of the acutest minds. Baxter him- 
self appears to have felt this, as he says, towards the conclusion 
of his first treatise: ^' But all that I have said to you, is but the 
teoBiparif in comparison of the assurance which you may have 
by the full revelation of Jesus Christ, where the state, the doom, 
the rewards, and punishments of souls, are asserted/' 

The last work in this department is intimately connected 
with the preceding, though the strangest of all Baxter's produc- 
tions. ^ The Certainty of the World of Spirits fully evinced by 
nnquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts, Ope- 
rations, Voices, &c. Proving the Immortality of Souls, the 
Malice and Misery of Devils and the Damned, and the Blessed- 
ness of the Justified. Written for the Conviction of Sadducees 
and Infidels.' ' This treatise appeared in a 12mo volume, in the 
year 1691, only a few months before the author's death. The 
subject, however, had long occupied his attention ; for his 
^ Saint's Rest,' written forty years before, contains some things 
of the same nature. And, indeed, several of his works contain 
discussions of this kind. It is necessary, however, to hear the 
author's own account of the origin and design of this publi- 
cation. 

4 On the Nature of Spirits, pp. 8,9. 

' This Biogular book was trauslated into German, and published at Nurero- 
bsif 9 in 1731. Several of the stories coutaiued in it came from Germany, so 
tiMil they would get back to their native country, probably with some im- 
jpffovemeats. 



438 TUB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

'^ As to the original of this collection, it had its rise from my 
own, and other men's need. When God first awakened me to 
think, with preparing seriousness, of my condition after death, I 
had not any observed doubts of the reality of spirits, or the im* 
mortality of the soul, or of the truth of the Gospel ; but all nqf 
doubts were about my own renovation and title to that blessed 
life. But when God had given me peace of conscience, Sataa 
assaulted me with those worse temptations; yet, througli God's 
grace, they never prevailed against my fdth; nor did he efer 
raise in me the least doubt of the being and perfections of God; 
nor of my duty to love, honour, obey, and trust him ; for I still 
saw that to be an Atheist was to be mad. 

^ But I found that my faith of supernatural revelalioD muit 
be more than believing man, and that if it had not a finn 
foundation and rooting, even sure evidence of verity, surely ap- 
prehended, it was not like to do those great works that fiuth 
had to do, to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devi!, 
and to make my death to be safe and comfortable. Therefore, 
I found that all confirming helps were useful; and among thoie 
of the lower sort, apparitions, and other sensible manifestatiooi 
of the certain existence of spirits of themselves invisible, vrere s 
means that might do much with such as are prone to judge by 
sense. The uses hereof, I mention before the book, that the 
reader may know that I write it for practice, and not to plesse 
men with the strangeness and novelty of useless stories. 

** It is no small number of writers on such subjects that I have 
read, for near threescore years time from the first occasion ; 
and finding that almost all the Atheists, Sadducees, and infidels, 
did seem to profess, that were they but sure of the reality of the 
apparitions and operations of spirits, it would cure them; I 
thought tins the most suitable help for them that have sinned 
themselves into an incapacity of more rational and excellent 
arguments. And I have long feared, lest secret unobserved 
defectiveness in their belief of the immortality of the soul, 
and the truth of the Scripture, is the great cause of all 
men's other defects. There lieth usually the unsoundness of 
worldly hypocrites, where it is prevaiUng ; and thence is the 
weakness of grace in the best, though it prevail not against 
their sincerity. By which motives i did, though it displeased 
some, make it the second part of my book, called, ^ The Saint's 
Rest;' and, afterwards, provoked by Clement Writer, 1 did 
it much more fully in a book called ^The Unreasonable- 
ness of Infidelity.' After that, provoked by the copy of 



or filCUARD BAXTER* 439 

a paper dispersed in Oxford, said to be Dr. Walker's, ques- 
tioning the certainty of our religion, and seeing no answer to 
it come from the university men, 1 wrote yet more methodically 
of all, in a book called ^ The Reasons of the Christian Religion/ 
I after added a small discourse, called * More Reasons for it,' 
provoked by one that called himself Herbert, in which also 
I answered tlie Lord Herbert De Veritaie. Since then, a 
.nameless Sadducee hath drawn me to publish an answer to him ; 
and in my ^Life of Faith,' and other books, I have handled the 
jiaoie subject. All which I tell the reader, that he may see why I 
have taken this subject as so necessary, why 1 am ending my 
life with the publication of 'these historical letters and collec- 
tions, which I dare say have such evidence, as will leave every 
Saddacee that readeth them, either convinced or utterly without 
excuse/'* 

To enter on any investigation of the truth of the extraordinary 
stories of witchcraft, apparitions, and prodigies, contained in this 
book, would be foreign from the design of these memoirs. It is 
difficult to account for many of the narratives, as they were fur- 
nished by persons of respectability, on whose veracity, therefore, 
every dependence may be placed.^ Many things can be explained 
by the supposition, that the parties were under the influence of 
diseased imaginations, and really believed that they saw the things 
of which they speak. In other cases gross imposition was with- 
out doubt practised ; and a stricter scrutiny would have de^ 
■tected the imposture and knavery of the parties. Some of the 
prodigies may be accounted for from the operation of natural 
eauses, many of which have now become familiar to us, and 
others that are still occult may yet be discovered. Much must 
be attributed to the credulity of the age. Hence it is the less sur^ 
prising that Baxter was the subject of it, when we find such men 
labouring under it as Judge Hale, More, Robert Boyle, and many 
other eminent individuals. It is not long since the statute 
book of the country was freed from laws, the operation of wliich', 
with die superstition of all classes, brought many an innocent 
individual to a horrible death.^ 

• Preface. 

* Without referring to the foreig^ncrt, whose accounts are introduced by 
Baxter in this voluuie, there are narratives furnished by many persons of 
craineuce in our own country. Lord Broghill, the Duke of Lauderdale, the 
Rer. TboB. Emlyn, of Dublin, and Dr. Dan. Williams. 

■ Honourable mention ought to be made of John Webster, practitioner 
In pbysicy who^iu 1677» when the doctrine of witchcraft was very generally 



440 TUB UFB AND WRITINGS 

I am afraid that Baxter's object in compiling and authentic . 
eating these stories, the conviction of the Sadduceea^ hat not 
been accomplished by them. It will commonly be found, I ap- 
prehend^ that if men do not believe Moses and the prophet% 
neither will they believe on the authority of ^'witdies, hobgoblinsy 
or chimeras dire/' It is not from want of evidence that they 
do not believe^ but from dislike to religion, which predispoiei 
•them to reject or to trifle with all evidence that the natare of 
the subject admits or requires. 

Various causes may be assigned for the superstitions fed* 
ings, and the dread of supernatural beings, which generally 
belong to an unenlightened state of society. There seems nsr 
turally to exist in man, not only ^ a longing after iminortalily/' 
but also a kind of dread of that world of spirits to which s 
part of his nature is allied. With this is combined a ftatmg 
desire to know what belongs to that state, and its mysteriow 
transactions. Certain passages of Scripture, misnnderstoodi 
have tended to nourish the idea, that, as in early times, 

<' Descending spirits have cdnvers'd with mtn. 
And told the secrets of the world unlcnown^" 

such things may happen again. The Romish doctrine of pur- 
gatory, with the legends of the saints, have been fruitful souroa 
of superstition, and have supplied a large portion of the materisi 
which has been wrought into the innumerable fictions that still 
continue afloat, and even yet too frequently constitute the tcr* 
ror of the nursery and the cottage. The appearance and ail- 
vance of light, however, invariably operate on these supersti- 
tious fancies, like the fabled influence of the cock crowing or 
appearance of the morning, on the spirits of the deep. They 
cannot stir, or walk abroad, under the light of heaven. 

I cannot take leave of this portion of the writings of Baxter, 
without remarking, what I believe has not been attended to, 
that he is the first original writer on the evidences of re- 
vealed religion in the English language. Before Herbert's time 



believedy and most zealously contended fur, published ' The Dispbijfiif of 
supposed Witchcraft/ in a folio volume, full of curious learning; iu which ht 
combats the erroneous opiuions which then prevailed, and had been advo* 
cated by such men as Glanvil and Casaubon. Baxter published his work Umg 
after this of Webster appeared ; it is rather surprising that he either knew it 
liot> or if be was acquainted with it, that he took no notice of it. 



OP RICHARD BAXTRR. 441 

the deislicRl controversy had not appeared in this country, 
and Baxter was the first to grapple with his lordship's argn- 
OMnt. In 1604, a translation of a work by an illustrious French, 
Pipoieatant, appeared with the following title, ^ A Work con- 
ccmiiig^the trueness of Christian Religion, written in French 
ifpunst Atheists, Epicures, Payniros, Jews, Mahometists, and 
otter infidels, by Philip Momay, Lord of Plessie Marlie. 
Be(;:iui to be translated by Sir Philip Sydney, and at his request 
finkhed by Artliur Golding, 4to.' This is a work of very 
eonaderable merit. Of the treatise of Grotius ^ De Veritate,' 
wUeh had also been translated before, it is superfluous to speak; 
its merits are well known, and duly estimated. 

Had the ' Atheomastix ' of Bishop Fotherby, published in 
1622^ been completed, it would have enjoyed the {Precedence in 
thia department which now properly belongs to Baxter* That 
learned writer proposed to treat of four subjects :«— ^ That there 
ia a God— That there is but one God — That Jehovah, our God, 
k that one God — ^And, that the Holy Scriptures are the word 
of God.'' His publication, however, embraces only the first 
two topics. These are discussed with considerable ability, 
and with a vast profusion of learning, which excite regret that 
the Ushop was not spared to grapple with infidelity, after so 
ably demolishing Atheism. 

Stillingfleet's ' Origines Sacrse,' first appeared in 1663, where 
the subject is treated with great learning and ability, and very 
daborately. This distinguished performance is entitled to 
great praise. It contains a large portion of recondite learning; 
proaecutes the subject with great strength of argument ; and 
exhibits ^ the grounds of the Christian faith, as to the truth 
and divine authority of the Scriptures," in a manner that can 
scarcely fail to produce conviction in the minds of honest 
incjuirers. The works of Baxter on the evidences of religion, 
are neither so learned nor so systematically arranged, but they 
are more adapted to popular and general usefulness than is the 
production of Stillingfleet. They are written with more point, 
and contain a greater mixture of those views of Christianity 
which are necessary to be received as the great object of its 
teatimony, and without which the discussion of its evidence is 
Kttle calculated to profit. Neither Baxter nor Stillingfleet 
appears to have borrowed from the other; and each is excellent 
in his own way. 

Since that time, a multitude of works on every btaxidci ol ^^ 



442 THE LIFE AND WEITINGS 

Christian eridence has been published. The diversified forms 
in which revelation has been attacked^ have only occanooed s 
corresponding diversity of defence. If infidelity has racked 
its ingenuity to undermine or overthrow the citadel of God, 
talent npt less powerful, and genius equally splendid, have beea 
employed in successfully resisting the attempt. In argumenti 
infidels have long since been driven from the field. They have 
been stripped of their armour ; their sophistry and guile hare 
been exposed; their malice detected, and their wit turned 
against themselves. If on the one side can be ranked s 
Hume and a Gibbon, a Voltaire and a Paine ; on the other 
can be placed, Campbell, and Hales, Lardner, Watson, Paley, 
and Gregory, with a numerous host beside ; in learning and 
talents equal to any of the adversaries of the £uth, and in monil 
worth and weight of character not to be mentioned in oonnex- 
ion with ^ch men. If their invaluable writings have in some 
measure superseded those of Baxter, it is not because tbej 
contain stronger arguments, or more ingeniious reasonings, but 
because they are better adapted to the peculiar forms whieh 
infidelity has more recently assumed. While grateful for their 
labours, it is proper we should remember, that their predeeet- 
sors did worthily in their time. They in fact cleared the groundi 
and laid the foundation of that noble structure which more 
modern architects have succeeded in rearing.^ 

* The latest work In this department t>f literature, ^hich I hare seen, Ii 
« The Divine Origin of Christianity, deduced from some of those Brldeacfi 
which are not founded on the Authority of Scripture.' By John Sbeppsidi 
2 Tols. 12mo. 1829. The author of this work is well known to the public bf 
his beautiful little work on private devotion : the present, is of an entirely 
4lflfertnt cliaracter ; but does no less credit to his talents, his leaminfySB^ 
hit acuteness. He is quite a Baxter for his scrupulosity in wei^his^ odbi* 
lancing^ proofs; and much more judicious in his manner ,q( utgiiag then* 
The work is in some dau^r of repelling superficial readers ; bo^h the arrange 
ment and the learninf^ of it require more study than they Who 'Wish to sr- 
rive at the knowled^ of all science and art by the shortest road, are gcM* 
raUy disposed to give to any subject. But the lover of close argument, tsd 
satisfactory information, will be amply repaid by the studious examiuatioD of 
these volumes. 



OP RICHARD BAXTBRtt 44S 



CHAPTER IL 



DOCTRINAL WORKS. , 

falroduelory O bwf vatl on »— * Apborismg of Justification'*^ Ammsdftrtioiit ott 
Ibe AplMwifms by Bor^ess, Warren, Wallis, Cartwri^ht, aiid LawMMi-*- 

' Other Antigoniito-^ Apology '-*J>folingttt, Crandoa, E >rti * Cftnf€MtDf 
cif Failh'---< Perserermnce '•-* lUndal -- Barkm--^epheni~« Savlof Fkitii' 
— 'Dissertations on Justification'— ^ On Justifyinf Righteousnesa' — Ctmr 

, tiovwvy with Tully— < Originai Sin '— < Universal Redemption '-^< Catholic 
Tbeoiogy*— ^ Metbodus Theologis'— ' End of Doctrinal Controversies '-^ 
General View of Baxter's Doctrinal Sentiments — Strictures on his Manner 
of conducting Controversy— Conclusion. 

Thb doctrinal works of Baxter^ which naturally follow his 
writings on the evidences of religion, with the controversies 
in which they involved him^ occupied a large portion of his ac- 
tive and useful life. It will be expected, therefore, that a full ao-^ 
count of this class of his writings, and of his peculiar theological 
sentiments, should be given in this chapter. Though I have not 
sliniqk from labour, in endeavouring to accomplish the task 
which I have voluntarily undertaken, I frankly confess that this 
put of it has been more difficult than any other ; and I fear 
It may not afford the reader all the satisfaction he anticipates 
or desires. The immense extent of Baxter's writing on dis- 
putable subjects ; the peculiar character of his mind— -subtle, 
acute, and versatile^ in an extraordinary degree j the manner in 
which he was assailed by the men of all parties and of all creeds, 
which led to a great diversity of defence and attack on his part| 
his favourite scheme of union and reconciliation — involving 
a variety of concessions, and tempting him to avail himself of 
many refined and untangible distinctions, are some of the 
eauses and sources of those difficulties which belong to the at- 
tempt to ascertain his precise sentiments, and correctly to 
present the design of his voluminous productions. 



444 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

Whatever view may be taken of his opinions on various sub- 
ordinate subjects, it is certain that on all matters of essenttsi 
and vital importance in the evangelical system, he hdd those 
truths which are most surely believed among all genuine 
Christians. He had, indeed, his own mode of explaining certain 
points, which a man who thought so much and so independoitly 
must have had. He was not formed to be an implicit bdiever 
in human creeds, or to follow in the steps of any uninspired 
master. On the other hand, he had no ambition to be the 
founder of a new school of theology ; for, though his name hsi 
been prefixed to a class, that class has never constituted a se- 
parate party, but, in as far as it has existed, has been fbmd 
among persons of various parties: few even of whom wouU 
probably have been acknowledged by Baxter himself as alto- 
gether of his mind, and still fewer of them, perhaps^ would hue 
acknowledged him as their apostle. 

The time has been when it would have been dangerous to 
the reputed orthodoxy of an individual who should have pro- 
fessed great respect for the doctrinal views of Baxter. Htgh 
Arminians on the one hand, and high Calvinists on the other, 
agreed to revile him. Baxterianism was a term of reproach, 
readily applied to many who were sounder in the faith tbiB 
some of those who arrogated to themselves the exclusive ap- 
pellation of orthodox. That time, however, has passed away. 
The character of Baxter has outlived all the reproaches fulmi- 
nated against it, and we may now, without fear of dishonour, 
state his opinions, analyse his doctrines, and defend or advocate 
his cause where we believe it to be just. It is my business to giie 
a faithful statement of matter of fact, ^^ neither to extenuate^ 
nor set down aught in malice,'' respecting our author; with 
whom I sometimes agree, and sometimes differ, on the topics 
discussed in this chapter. 

In 1649, Baxter began his career of authorship by a small 
publication, entitled ^^ Aphorisms of Justification." This work 
deserves attention, not so much on its own account, for he ac« 
knowledges it was written '^ in his immature youth, and the 
crudity of his new conceptions,"*^ as because it contains the 
germs of his leading sentiments, and was the occasion of the 

* The copy of the Aphorisms used by me is one of the second edition^ which 
was pretended to be printed at the Ha^^ue, 1655, but in reality was printed 
surreptitiously by a Cambridg^e boukseUer. This copy contains many mar* 
Sittal notes, and alterations of the text, in the band-writings of Mr. Baxter. Of 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 445 

peater part of the doctrinal controversies in which he engaged* 
Hie professed object of it is, to explain the nature of justifi- 
mtton, the covenants, satisfaction, righteousness, faith, works, 
be. This he attempts in a series of eighty theses, or prOposi- 
CioiiSy with their respective explanations. That he did not 
neoeed to his own satisfaction, he freely acknowledges; and 
that it was still less satisfactory to others, appears from the num- 
BTOiu animadversions and defences which it occasioned. He 
blames himself for deficiency and incautiousness, and for med- 
dling imprudently with Dr. Owen. ^^ It was overmuch valued," 
be aay9, ** by some, and overmuch blamed by others ; both 
Bontrary to my own esteem of it. It cost me more than any 
odier book tliat I have written ; not only by men*s offence, but 
Btpecially by putting ine on long and tedious writings. But it 
waa a great help to my understanding, for the animadverters 
were of several minds, and what one approved another confuted^ 
being further from each other than any of them were firom me.'' 

Among those who furnished him with strictures, some in ma- 
DQbcript^ and some in print, were Mr. Anthony Burgess, to whom, 
■nd Richard Vines, it was dedicated. Mr. John Warren ; Dr. 
John Wallis, one of the scribes to the Westminster Assembly, 
and .well known for his mathematical talents ; Mr. Christopher 
Cartwright, of York, a Presbyterian minister of considerable 
learning; and Mr. George Lawson, of whom Baxter gives rather 
a long description. But I must give his own account of these 
individuals, as it contains some things worthy of being recorded. 

''The first that I craved animadversions from was Mr. Bur-* 
gnSf and with much ado, extorted only two or three letters 
against justification by works, as he called it ; which, with my 
answers, were afterwards published ; when he had proceeded to 
print against me what he would not give me in writing. 

*' The next and full animadversions which I received, were 
firom Mr. John Warren, an honest, acute, ingenious man, to 
whom I answered in freer expressions than others, because he 
was my junior and familiar friend; being a school-boy at 
Bridgnorth when I'was preacher there, and his father was 
my neighbour. Next to his, 1 had animadversions from Dr. John 
Wallis, very judicious and moderate, to which I began to write 



tbe expression quoted abore is part. Many of these notes and altera* 
discover the progress of the writer's mind, and the amiable candour by 

which H was distinipiished. At the head of one the iis« be sa^S| «< There U 

amhtaif in this lection worth reading." 



446 THB LIFB AND WRITINOS 

a reply, but broke it off in tihe middle, because he little difEered 
from me. 

'^ The next I had, was from Mr. Christopher Cartwright, of 
York, who defended the king against the Marquis of Woivester. 
He was a man of good reading, as to our later divines, and wn 
very well versed in the common road ; a very good HebriciaB, 
and a very honest, worthy person. His animadversions were 
most against my distinction of righteousness into legal and 
evangelical, according to the two covenants. His answer wm 
full of citations out of Amesius, Whittaker, Davenant| &e. I 
wrote him a full reply ; and he wrote me a rejoinder ; to wUcb, 
my time not allowing me to write a full confutation^ I took «p 
all the points of difference between him and me, and handled' 
them briefly, confirming my reasons for the ease of the readff 
and myself. 

^' The next animadverter was Mr. George Lawson, die 
ablest man of them all, or of almost aiiy I know in England > 
especially by the advantage of his age, and very hard stadia, 
and methodical head, but above all, by his great skill in poll* 
tics, wherein he is most exact, which contributeth not a little 
to the understanding of divinity. He was himself near the 
Arminians, differing from them only in the point of perseverance 
as to the confirmed, and some little mattei-s more ; and though 
he went further than I did from the Antinomians, yet being con- 
versant with men of another mind, to redeem himself from their 
offence, he set himself against some passages of mine, which othen 
marvelled that he, of all men, should oppose ; especially about 
the object of faith and justification. He afterwards published 
an excellent sum of divinity, called Theopolitica ; in which be 
insisteth on these two points, to make good what he had said 
in his MS. against me. 

'* He hath written, also, animadversions on Hobbes, and a 
piece on ecclesiastical and civil policy, according to the method 
of politics; an excellent book, were it not that he seemeth to jus- 
tify the king's death, and meddles too boldly with the political 
controversies of the times, though he was a Conformist* I have 
also seen some ingenious manuscripts of his for the taking of 
the engagement to be true to the Commonwealth, as established 
without a king and house of lords, his opinions being much for 
submitting to the present possessor, though a usurper] but I 
thought those papers easily answerable. His animadversions on 
my papers were large, in which he frequently took occasion lo 



OP RICHARD BAXTKR« ' 447 

• • • 

m copious and distinGt^ in laying down his own judgment, which 
deased me very well. I returned him a full answer, and re- 
aeived from him a large reply ; instead of a r^oinder to which, 
1 tmnmed up our differences, and spoke to them briefly and dis- 
inctly, and not verbatim to the words of his book. 1 must 
lumkfully acknowledge that I learned more from Mr. Lawson 
lum from any divine that gave me animadversions, or that ever 
I eonversed with. For, two or three passages in my first reply 
» him, he convinced me, were mistakes ; and I found up and 
Itfwn in him those hints of truths which had a great deal of 
light in them, and were very apt for good improvement, espe- 
aially hit instigating me to the study of politics, in which he 
Biiicb lamented the ignorance of 'divines, did prove a singular 
benefit to me. I confess it owing to my own uncapableness that 
[ have received no more good from others. But yet I must be 
ID grateful as to confess that my understanding hath niade a 
better improvement of Grotius 'DeSatisfactione Christi,' and of 
Mr. Lawson's manuscripts, than of any thing else that ever I read. 
They convinced me how uitfit we are to write about Christ's 
government, laws, and judgment, while we understand not ther 
true ndture of government and laws in general ; and that he 
that is ignorant of politics, and of the law of nature, will be 
ignorant and erroneous in divinity and the sacred Scriptures.*' ^ 

Thus did Baxter, at a very early period of his life, launch into 
the ocean of controversy, on some of the most interesting sub- 
jects that can engage the human mind. The manner in 
which he began to treat them was little favourable to arriving at 
correct and satisfactory conclusions ; but the persons whom he 
engaged to discuss them with him, were all men of respectable 
powers in theological argument, from whose letters or publi 
cations he derived considerable profit. 

To give a concise and accurate opinion of these Aphorisms, is 
no easy task. This difficulty arises from the great number of 
separate propositions, which are neither always consistent with 
truth nor with one another. As a book, it abounds in moral and 
metaphysical distinctions, and yet its definitions are frequently 
both inaccurate and obscure. It contains a large portion of 
truth, mixed and interwoven with no small portion of error. 
When he thus expresses himself about our participation of 
Christ's righteousness, every true Christian is prepared to go 
along with him : " That God, the Father, doth accept the 

' Lif«^ part i. pp. 107^ 108. 



448 TUB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

sufferings and mediation of his Son, as a full saUsfaclaoa to hit 
violated law, and as a valuable consideration, upon which he 
will wholly forgive and acquit the offenders themselves, reem 
them again into favour, and give them the addition also* of t 
more excellent happiness, so they will but receive his Soq 
upon the terms expressed in the Gospel/' But when he 
comes to explain '^ the terms of the Gospel,'' and the manner is 
which men submit to them, we meet with much that is incai- 
tious. To a good deal of the objectionable language of his 
theses, he indeed gives a harmless interpretation in the aoeoo* 
panying explanation, or in some subsequent proposition renders 
it entirely nugatory. But still there remains much wfaieh is^ 
calculated to mislead. He speaks about the Gospel being ^t 
new law, the conditions of which are easier than those of the 
old ;" of *^ faith as the righteousness of a Christian." He de- 
fines this faith as '^ the condition of the new covenant," and 
includes in it the whole of religion. He represents the death 
of Christ as not '^ affecting any sins against the Gospel;" 
speaks of ^* works" as ^* part of the condition on which Christ's 
righteousness becomes ours," and maintains that ^we ue 
justified by sincere obedience." To this language, no man who 
understands aright the gratuitous justification which is through 
faith in the blood of Christ, will ever subscribe. 

These were some of the expressions or sentiments wfaieh 
involved Baxter in most of the doctrinal altercations thtt 
occupied so large a portion of his future life, and on account of 
which his name has been placed at the head of a peculiar creed. 
While he explained, modified, and retracted, many things in this 
first, and perhaps most objectionable of his works, he adhered 
to the substance of its sentiments to the last.^ 

Along with those sentiments, which most persons of evange- 
lical views agree to be incorrect, he has introduced some others 

y It is to be regretted that the incorrect lang^uaf^ of Baxter, on soneof tlM 
above topics, is by no means peculiar to him. Even Dr. Doddrid|^, wboie 
evangelical sentiments are so well known, is very injudicious sometimes ia his 
definitions. Thus, in his lectures, where we should suppose great accuiacy 
would be studied, be says, *' Christ has made satisfaction (or the tins vi tii 
those who repent of their sins, and return to God in the way o/sineere tkmigh 
vmptrftct obedience" p. 418. <* Faith in Christ is a very exteoiive prindpfte, 
and includes, in its nature^ and inseparable effects, the whole of moral wartm,*' 
p. 424. 2d Edit. This mode of speaking of the way of acceptance, is as objee- 
tionable as any thing I have met with <n Baxter. In other placet, bowevtr, 
both Baxter and Doddridge show that they were more contiste&t with tbt 
truth, though not consistent with themselves. 



OF m CHARD BAXTER. 449 

on which various opinions have been entertained. He denies 
die distinction, or rather the use that has been made of it, 
between the active and passive righteousness of Christ; the 
latter as the Christian's title to forgiveness, and the former to 
Kfe. He contends, if I understand him aright, that the suffer* 
inga of the Redeemer include the whole of his earthly under- 
taking, terminated by his death, and that these furnish at once 
the ground of acceptance, and the channel of heavenly and 
eternal life. On the nature and extent of the death, threatened 

00 account of the Adamic transgression, also, he held views not 
generally entertained : " That man should live here for a season 
a dying life, separated from God, devoid of his image, subject 
to bodily curses and calamities, dead in law, and at last his soul 
and body be separated ; his body turning to dust from whence 
it came, and his soul enduring everlasting sorrow, yet nothing 
lo great, as those that are threatened in the new covenant.'^ 
Ilieae things, however, he mentions in the preface, that he 
does not very confidently insist on. ' 

In the appendix to this small work, he makes an acknow- 
ledgment which explains the reason of the perplexities that 
occur in this and some other of his controversial writings. 
^ To tell the truth, while I busily read what other men 
said in these controversies, my mind was so prepossessed 
with their notions, that I could not possibly see the truth in its 
own native and naked evidence, and when I entered into public 
disputations concerning it, though I was truly willing to know 
the truth, my mind was so forestalled with borrowed notions, 
that I chiefly studied how to make good the opinions which 1 

■ The extent of the Adamic curse has occasioned a f^ood deal of discussion. 
The majority, 1 believe, of Calvinistic writers contend that it includes deaths 
temporal) spiritual, and eternal. — Vide Calvini Inti. lib. ii. c.3. ffestminster 
Cnifn chap. vi. Dr. Doddridge objects to this view of it, without intimating 
what bis own was. — Lectures, pp. 4 15,416. 2d Edit. Bishop Law maintained 
that it meant an entire destructiouy rather than a perpetual punishmeut^an 
annihilation of the soul, and a resolution of the body into its original dust. 
ne^ry of Relig. pp. 339—^51. 7th Edit. I suppose Bishop BulT was of the 
lane opinion with Law.— See Life, by Nelson, pp. 89, 197, 198, 225. Joseph 
Hsilct alto seems to have been nearly of this opinion. — Notes and Observa^ 
Omu, vol. i. pp. 313-^26. Mr. Archibald M<Leaii, of Edinburgh, in his 
tniet on original sin, endeavours to establish that the curse extended no fur- 
ther than to natural death, or the dissolution of soul and body. That a resurrec- 
tiso was not provided by the Adamic constitution, and belongs entirely to the 
ndemption of Christ, seems to be plainly intimated in the New Testament. — 

1 Cor. XV. 21^23 ; Rom. v. 12—21. Dr. Watts had some views of this sub- 
ject peculiar to himself. — See his Rum and Recovery, pp. 324—347. Dr. 
Ridgley also had au bypotbesis of his own<— See Body o/JHvimty, p. U. 

VOL. U G G 



450 TBS LIFB AKD WAITINGS 

had received, and ran fiEuther from the truth. Yea^ when I 
read the truth in Dr. Preston's and other men's writings, I did 
not consider and understand it ; and when 1 heard it from then 
whom I opposed in wrangling disputations, or read it in booki 
of controversy, I discerned it least of all. Till at last, being in 
my sickness cast far from home, where I had no book tut mf 
Bible, I eei to study the truth from thmee, mid $o,it tki 
bleesinff of Ood, cSecovered more in one week, than I had ^bme 
before in seventeen yeare^ reading, hearing, and wrem gf m g !* 
This is a most important testimony. It shows us that we muK 
look for Baxter's doctrinal views to his praetical rather than to 
his controversial writings. It is much easier to applaud the fins 
sentiment of Chillingworth, that ^^ the Bible,— »the Bible alone ii 
the religion of Protestants," than it is fully to adopt it, and to 
bring all our sentiments and thoughts under subjection to it. Yet 
it is infinitely pleasanter and more satisfactory to appeal at onoe 
to ^^ the law and the testimony," than to be bandied from 
author to author, or doomed to explore and reconcile the endkii 
contradictions and jarrings of human authority.* 

At the end of his work on Infant Baptism, published ia 
1650, the year after his Aphorisms, Baxter requested the aoi* 
madversions of his brethren on them, and was soon furnished 
with their remarks to the full extent of his desires. Beside 
those already referred to as noticing this book, IVlr. Blake, of 
Tamworth, made some exceptions to it in a work on the 
Covenants, which was published soon after. Kendall, in hit 
defence of the doctrine of perseverance against John GoodwiDf 
added an appendix of animadversions on Baxter.. William 
Eyre, of Salisbury, attacked him in a book on JustificatioOi 
ushered into the world with a preface by Dr. Owen. But tht 
most extended work in reply to him was by John CrandoOi 
minister at Fawley, in Hampshire, under the affected title of 
*^ Baxter's Aphorisms exorized and anthorized," a huge quarto 
of 700 pages, with a prefatory letter by Caryl. 

Baxter, nothing daunted by the appearance and front of 90 
many adversaries, produced, in 1654, what he calls his 'Apo- 
logy,' containing his * reasons of dissent from Mr. Blake's ex- 

• Pur an account of the part which Owen took in this controTerty, ••• 
'Memoirs of Owen/ pp. 119—132. Beside the perMius mentioned in tbt 
text, who wrote against the Aphorismf;, and of whom Mr. Ba&tcr himself 
takei notice, John Tomhes, the Baptist, wrote ' AnimadversloDct Quvdui 
in Apborismos^ RicharUi Baxter, de JustlficaiioBe/ 165d. 



Of RICHARD BAXTER. 451 

ceptions ; ' ' The Reduction of a Digressor/ in reply to Ken* 
<Ian ; an ^ Admonition to Mr. William Eyre ; ' and ^ Crandon 
Anatomized; or^ a Nosegay of the choicest Flowers in that 
Garden presented to Joseph Caryl/ Not satisfied with repelling 
lua antagonists in this volume, he goes out of the way to produce 
a'Confiitation of a Dissertation for the Justification of Infidels/ 
by Lndiomaeus Colvinus, alias Ludovicus Molinaeus^ professor 
of hbtory, in Oxford. 

The following notices of several of these opponents are fur« 
niahed. by Baxter, and will perhaps amuse the reader. 

^^ As for Ludiomseus Colvinus, it is Ludovicus Molinaeus, a 
doctor of physic, son to Peter Molinaeus, and public pro- 
fessor of history in Oxford. He wrote a small Latin treatise 
agidnat his own brother, Cyrus Molinaeus, to prove that justifi- 
cation is before faith, I thought I might be bold to confute 
him who chose the truth and his own brother to oppose. An- 
other small assault the same author made against me (instead of 
a reply), for approving of Cameron's and Amiraldus's way about 
universal redemption and grace, to which I answered in the 
preface to the book ; but these things were so far from alienating 
the esteem and affection of the doctor, that he is now at this 
day, one of those friends who are injurious to the honour of 
their own understandings, by overvaluing me ; and would fain 
have spent his time in translating some of my books into the 
French tongue. 

^^ Mr. Crandon was a man that had run from Arminianism, 
into the extreme of half-antinomianism ; and having an ex- 
cessive zeal for his opinions (which seem to be honoured by the 
extolling of free grace), and withal being an utter stranger to 
me, he got a deep conceit that I was a Papist, and in that per- 
suasion, wrote a large book against my Aphorisms, which moved 
laughter in many, and pity^ in others, and troubled his friends, 
as having disadvantaged their cause. As soon as the book came 
abroad, the news of the author's death came with it, who died 
a fortnight after its birth. I had beforehand got all, save the 
beginning and end out of the press, and wrote so much for an 
answer as I thought it worthy, before the publication of it. 

^ Mr, Eyre was a preacher in Salisbury, of Mr. Crandon *s 
opinion, who having preached there for justification before 
faith, that is, the justification of elect infidels, was publicly 
confuted by Mr. Warren, and Mr. Woodbridge, a very judicious 
minister of Newbury, who had lived in New England. Mr. 

G g2 



452 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

Wobdbridge printed his sermon, which very perepicoowly 
opened the doctrine of justification, after the method that I 
had done. Mr. Eyre, being offended with me as a partner,. 
gave me some part of his opposition, to whom I returned aa 
answer in the end ; and a few words to Mr. Caryl, who licensed 
and approved Mr. Crandon's book, for the Antinominiaos weie 
commonly Independents. No one of all the parties replied to 
this book, save only Mr. Blake, to some part of that which 
touched him."^ 

The Apology containing so many parts, is* a thick quarto, 
full of that subtle and acute reasoning for which its author was 
eminently distinguished, llie main point in the controversy, 
the subject of justification, is often lost sight of in the strife of 
words, and the multifarious discussions perpetually occurring. 
He generally treats his adversaries respectfully, with the excep- 
tion of Crandon, who had assailed him with intolerable inso«' 
lence and abuse. He prefixed to the volume, an admirable 
dedication to his old friend and companion in the army, ^ the 
Honourable Commissary^General Whalley.'' As it is not my 
intention to dwell in detail on the contents of this volume, I 
shall extract a passage from the dedication, where the author 
defends his engaging in controversy by an ingenious reference to 
the wars in which Whalley and himself had reluctantly engaged, 
and concludes with a beautiful address to the veteran soldier. 

^^ The work of these papers has been, to my mind, somewhat 
like those sad employments wherein I attended you : of them- 
selves, grievous and ungrateful ; exasperating others, and not 
pleasing ourselves. The remembrance of those years is so little 
delightful to me, that I look back upon them as the saddest part 
of my life ; so the review of this apology is but the renewing of 
my trouble ; to think of our common frailty and darkness, and 
what reverend and much-valued brethren I contradict ; but, 
especially, the fear lest men should make this collision an occa- 
sion of derision, and, by receiving the sparks into combustible 
affections, should turn that to a conflagration, which I intended 
but for an illumination. If you say, I should then have let it alone, 
the same answer must serve as, in the former case, we were 
wont to use. Some say, that I, who pretend so much for peace, 
should not write of controversies. For myself, it is not much 
matter; but must God's truth stand as a butt for every man to 
shoot at ? Must there be such liberty of opposing it, and none 

^ Life, parti, pp^ 110^ 111, 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 453 

nf defending 7 One party cannot have peace without the other's 
cboaent. To be buffeted and assaulted, and commanded to 
ddiTer up the truth of God, and called unpeaceable, if I defend 
it and resist, this is such equity as we were wont to find. In a 
wordy both works were ungrateful to me, and are so in the re- 
mw; but in both, as Providence and men's onset imposed a 
necesttty, and drove me to that strait, that I must defend or do 
worae^ so did the same Providence clear my way, and draw 
on, and sweeten unusual troubles with unusual mercies, and 
all in testimonies of grace, that as I had great mixtures of 
comfort with sorrow in the performance, so have I in the re- 
Tiew ; and as I had more eminent deliverances, and other mer- 
desi in those years and ways of blood and dolor, than in most 
of my life besides, so have I had more encouraging light since I 
was engaged in those controversies. For I speak not of these 
few papers only, but of many more of the like nature that have 
taken up my time ; and as I still retained a hope that the end 
of all our calamities, and strange disposings of Providence, 
would be soifiewhat better than was threatened of late, so ex- 
perience hath taught me to think that the issue of my moat 
ungrateful labours shall not be in vain ; but that Providence 
which extracted them, hath some use to make of them better 
than I am yet aware of; if not in this age, yet in times to come. 
The best is, we now draw no blood : and honest hearts will not 
feel themselves wounded with that blow which is only given to 
their errors. However, God must be served when he calls for 
it, though by the harshest and most unpleasing work. Only, 
the Lord teach us to watch carefully over our deceitful hearts, 
lest we should serve ourselves while we think and say we are 
serving him ; and lest we should militate for our own honour 
and interest, when we pretend to do it for his truth and glory ! 
" I hope, sir, tlie diversity of opinions in these days will not 
diminish your estimation of Christianity, nor make you suspect 
that all is doubtful, because so much is doubted of. Though 
the tempter seems to be playing such a game in the world, God 
will go beyond him, and turn that to illustration and confirma- 
tion which he intended for confusion and extirpation of the 
truth. You know it is no news to hear of men, ignorant, proud, 
and licentious, of what religion soever they be : this trinity is 
the creator of heresies. As for the sober and godly, it is but in 
lesser things that they disagree ; and mostly about words and 
methods, more than matter, though the smallest things of God 



454 THB LTFB AND WHITINGS 

are not contemptible. He that wonders to see wise nken difo, 
doth but wonder that they are yet imperfect^ and know but h 
part I that is, that they are yet mortal sinners, and not glorified 
on earth 1 Such wonderers know not what man is, and are too 
great strangers to themselves. If they turn these diflferencci to 
the prejudice of God's truth or dishonour of godliness, they sbow 
themselves yet more unreasonable than those who blame the srn^ 
that men are purblind ; and, indeed, were pride and passion laUl 
aside in our disputes, if men could gently suffer contradiedon, 
and heartily love and correspond with those that in lower mat* 
ters do gainsay them, I see not but such friendly debates niglit 
edify. 

^' For yourself, sir, as you were a friend to sound doctrine, to 
unity, and to piety, and to the preachers, defenders, and prae* 
tiseii thereof, while I conversed with you^ and, as fame informeth 
us, have continued such, so I hope that Qod, who hath ao long 
preserved you, will preserve you to the end ; and he that hath 
been your shield in corporal dangers will be so in spiritual. 

'^ Your great warfare is not yet accomplished f the worms of 
corruption that breed in us will live, in some measure, till we die 
ourselves. Your conquest of yourself is yet imperfect. To fight 
with yourself you will find the hardest, but most necessary con- 
flict that ever yet you were engaged in ; and to overcome your- 
self, the most honourable and gainful victory. Think not that 
your greatest trials are all over. Prosperity hath its peculiar 
temptations, by which it hath foiled many that stood unshaken 
in the storms of adversity. The tempter, who hath had you on 
the waves, will now assault you in the calm , and hath his last 
game to play on the mountain, till nature cause you to descend. 
Stand this charge, and you win the day/' ^ 

Whalley, to whom these faithful admonitions were addressed, 
was one of the most active of the republican officers in the par- 
liamentary army. He was one of the king's judges, and took 
a leading part in procuring the resignation of Richard Crom- 
well. He left Bngland with his son-in-law, Gough, for Ame- 
rica, a few days before the Restoration. Landing at Boston thejr 
waited on Governor Endicott, and told him who they were. They 
then took up their residence in that neighbourhood, till a hue and 
cry followed them from Barbadoes. Then they removed to New- 
haven, where they owed their preservation to John Davenport, 
the minister of the place ; who had the courage to preach to the 

^ Dedication. 



Oy RICHARD BAXTER. 435 

fk^tj when their parsiiera arrived, from baiah xri, 3, 4. 
Though large rewards were offered for thenrii and Davenport 
threateocdy as it was known he had harboured themi they were 
still cmicealed. Their hiding place was a cave on the top of a 
rock^ a few miles from the town. Here they lurked two or 
three years, when they moved to Hadley, where they were 
cotioealed by Rossd, the minister, fifteen or sixteen years. 
Dqring their lesidence in this place, a singular opportunity was 
afforded one of the fugitives to render momentous assistance 
to his preservers. During a long war between the English 
eetders and the Indian chief of Pokanoket, the Indians sur* 
prised Hadley in the time of public worship. The men of 
the towui thongh in the habit of taking arms with them when 
they attended divine service, were panic*8truck and confiMwded | 
Rnd, in all probability, not a soul of them would have been 
eaved, had not an old and venerable man, whose dress was dif« 
iierent from the inhabitants, and whom no one had seen before^ 
eoddenly iqppeared among them. He rallied them, put himself 
Rt their head, gave his orders like one accustomed to battle^, 
led them on, routed the enemy, and, when the victory was com<- 
plete, was no longer to be found* This deliverer, whom the 
people believed to be an angel, was General Gough ! Wballey 
died at Hadley in 1688, and Gough some time after* The history 
is not without interest ; and the reader will not suppose it is 
made to do honour to the regicides, when he is informed that 
the statement is taken from the Quarterly Review.<^ Con« 
sidering the opinion entertained of Whalley by Baxter, and 
the latter part of bis history, there is reason to regard him as 
another of those men who, ^' in evil times," devoted themselves 
to the interests of their country, and whose principles and cha^ 
racter (though every part of their conduct is not to be vindi* 
cated) have long been most infamously misrepresented. 

To return to Baxter* Finding that his Apology had not an- 
swered the end for which it was made — the satisfaction of his 
opponents — in 1653 he published his 'Confession of Faith| 
especially concerning the interest of repentanee, and sincere 
obedience to Christ, in our justification and salvation.* 4to« The 
object of the confession, he tells us in his own life, was '^ to save 
any more misunderstanding of his Aphorisms, and to declare 

<^ * Quarterly Review ' for November, 1809. vol.ii. p. 32. The story \% told 
by Holmes in his ' Aoaals of America.' ■ < 



456 THE UFK AND WAITINGS 

his suspension of them till he should reprint them ;*' wUdi he 
never did. '^ In my Confession/' he says, '^ I opened the whdi 
doctrine of Antinomianism, and brought the testimonies cf 
abundance of our divines, who gave as much to other worki, 
beside faith, in justification, as I did/' 

lliis remark places before us one peculiarity in Baxtei^i 
system. He regarded faith not merely as the Jtne qtui imni 
of a sinner's justification, but as what was imputed for right- 
eousness ; and included in this faith what he considered tinoeie 
obedience to Christ as a Lord or Lawgiver. Yet he had his 
own way of explaining this phraseology consistently with his 
strong and repeated declaration that '* faith itself doth not 
merit our pardon or justification, nor justify us as a work, nor 
as foith ;*' that ^^ no works of the regenerate, internal or exter- 
nal, are to join with Christ's sufferings and merits, as any part 
of satisfaction to God's justice for our sins ; no, not the leart 
part for the least sin ;'* and that '^ neither faith, love, repentance 
nor any works of ours, are true, efficient causes of our remission 
or justification, either principal or instrumental." He declares 
in the most solemn manner, ^^ I do heartily approve of the 
shorter catechism of the Assembly, and of all therein contained: 
and I take it for the best catechism I ever yet saw.'' *^ I have 
perused," he says, ^^all the articles of the Synod of Dort, and 
unfeignedly honour them, as containing sound and moderate 
doctrine ; and there is nothing that I have observed in it all, 
that my judgment doth contradict, if I be allowed these fiew 
expositions." These expositions do not affect any of the lead- 
ing points. He says : ^^ In the very article of perseverance^ 
which some are pleased to quarrel with me about, I subscribe to 
the Synod ;" ^^ yea," he adds, ^^ in the article of the extent of 
redemption, wherein I am most suspected and accused, 1 do 
subscribe to the Synod of Dort, without any exceptiouj UmiUh 
/tow, or ea^osiiiofif of any wordy as doubtful and obscure." 

As every man ought to be allowed to be the expositor of 
his own sentiments, let no man after this, question or deny 
the Calvinism of Richard Baxter. He was as much a Calvinist 
as thousands who then, or who now, bear the name without 
suspicion. He indeed used language liable to be misunderstood, 
as do all who are disposed to be too refined or metaphysical oo 
moral subjects. His very efforts at precision in the use of words 
and phrases, involved him in controversy, which, by a more gene- 
ral mode of speaking, he would have avoided. He was open and 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 457 

hoMtt; what other men swallowed in a mass^ he divided, ana- 
lytcdy and explained^ often to a troublesome extent. Yet his very 
tcmpolosity in holding and explaining his sentiments, compels us 
to respect him : while his supreme regard for the honour of God, 
the holiness of his government, and the claims of his law, en- 
titka him to our highest approbation. The man who could 
write the following passage, cannot be regarded as holding 
flitlier narrow or obscure views of the divine moral govern- 
ment; or of the system of redemption which that moral go* 
Temmcnt embraces and develops. 

^Ab in the moon with the stars unto the expanded firma- 
ment; as are the well-ordered cities with their ornaments and 
fintifications to the woods and wilderness, such is the church to 
the rest of the world, llie felicity of the church is in the love 
of God, and its blessed influence, whose face is that sun which 
doth enlighten and enliven it. If earth and sin bad not caused 
a separation and eclipse, the world and the church would have 
been the same, and this church would have enjoyed an uninter- 
mpted day-light. It is the earth that moveth and tumeth from 
this sun, and not the sun's receding from the earth, that brings 
our nighu It is not God, but man, that lost his goodness ; nor 
is it necessary to our reparation, that a change be made on him, 
but on us. Christ came not into the world to make God better, 
but to make us better ; nor did he die to make him more dis- 
posed to do good, but to dispose us to receive it. His purpose 
was not actually to change the mind of God, nor to incline him 
to have mercy who before was disinclined, but to make the 
pardon of man's sin a thing convenient for the righteous and 
holy Governor of the world to bestow, without any impeach- 
ment of the honour of his wisdom, holiness, or justice ; yea, to 
the more eminent glorifying of them all. 

*^Two things are requisite to make man amiable in the eyes of 

God, and a fit object for the Most Holy to take pleasure in : one 

is, his suitableness to the holiness of God's nature ; the other re- 

specteth his governing justice. We must, in this life, see God in 

the glass of the creature, and especially in man that bearetli his 

image. Were we holy, he would love us as a holy God i and were 

we innocent, he would encourage us as a righteous and bounteous 

Governor. But as there is no particular governing justice, 

without that universal natural justice which it pre-supposeth and 

floweth from, so can there be no such thing as innocency in us 

as subjects, which floweth not from a holiness of our natures 



458 THE UFB AND wniTiMGS 

as men. We must be good, before we can five u' the good; 
In both these respects, man was amiable in the C3ret of hb 
Maker, till sin depraved him, and deprived him of both. To 
both these must the Saviour again restore him : and this is the 
work that he cam^ into the world to do, even to seek and to savt 
that which was doubly lost, and to destroy that twofold work of 
the devil, who hath drawn us to be both unholy an J guilty. 

^^ As in the fall, the natural real evil was antecedent to the 
relative guilt ; so is it in the good conferred in the reparatioik 
We must, in order of nature, be first turned by repentance unlo 
God, through faith in the Redeemer, imd thni receive the re- 
mission of our sins. As it was man himself that was the sulgeet 
of that twofold unrighteousness, so it is man himself that matf 
be restored to that twofold righteousness wMch he lost, that is, 
sanctity, and not-guiltiness. Christ came not to possess God 
with any false opinion of us, nor is he such a physician as to 
perform but a supposed or reputative cure t he came not to 
persuade his Father to judge us to be well, because He is well ; 
or to leave us uncured, and to persuade God that we are cored* 
It is we that were guilty and unholy ; it is we that must be jus- 
tified or condemned, and therefore it is we that must be restoifd 
unto righteousness. If Christ only were righteous, Christ only 
would be reputed and judged righteous, and Christ only would 
be happy. The Judge of the world will not justify the un- 
righteous, merely because another is righteous, nor can the 
holy Odd take complacency in an unholy sinner, because 
another is holy. Never did the blessed Son of God intend, in 
his dying or merits, to change the holy nature of his Father, 
and to cause him to love that which is not lovelv, or to reconcile 
him to that which he abhorreth, as he is God, We must bear 
his own image, and be holy as he is holy, before he can approfe 
Us, or love us in complacency. This is the work of our blessed 
Redeemer, to make man fit for God's approbation and delight 
Though we are the subjects, he is the cause. He regenerateth 
us, that he may pardon us ; and he pardoneth us that he may 
further sanctify us, and make us fit for our Master's use. He 
will not remove our guilt till we return, nor will he accept our 
actual services till our guilt be removed. By supernatural ope- 
rations must both be accomplished : a regress from such a pri- 
vation as was our unholiness, requireth a supernatural work upon 
us, and a deliverance from such guilt and deserved* punishment, 
requireth a supernatural operation for us. The one Christ ^ect- 



OF AIGHARD BAXTEIU 459 

edi in Hi by his sanctifying Spirit, through the instrumentality 
of bis word, as informing and exciting ; the other he effecteth 
by Iiis own (and his Father's) will, through the instrumentality 
of his Gospel grant, by way of donation, making an universal 
eonditional deed of gift of himself, and remission and right to 
glory, to all tiiat return by repentance and faith. His Uood is 
the meritoriiius cause of both, but not of both on the same 
account ;< for directly it was guilt only that made his blood 
Doceatary for our recovery. Had there been nothing to do but 
ranew us by repentance and sanctification, this might have been 
dona without any bloodshed, by the work of the word and Spirit. 
God at first gave man his image freely, and did not sell it 
tar a price of blood ; nor doth he so delight in blood, as to 
desire it, or accept it for itself, but for the ends which it must^ 
ae a convenient means, attain. Those ends are the demonstra^ 
fioa proximately of his governing justice, in the vindication of 
tbe honour of his law and rule, and for the wrong of others : 
al tim a t ely and principally, it is the demonstraUon of his natural 
da-hating holiness, and his unspeakable love to the sons of men, 
but specially to his elect. In this sense was Christ a sacrifice 
and ransom, and may be truly said to have satisfied for our sine. 
Ha was not a sinner, nor so esteemed, nor could possibly take 
iqion himself the numerical guilt, which lay on us, nor yet a guilt 
<tf the same sort, as having not the same sort of foundation or 
efficient; ours arising from the merit of our sin and the 
eommination of the law ; his being rather occasioned than 
merited by our sin, and occasioned by the laws threatening of 
ue. He had neither sin of his own, nor merit of wrath from 
such sin, nor did the law oblige him to suffer for our sins ; but 
he obliged himself to suffer for our sins, though not as in 
our persons strictly, yet in our stead in the person of a Me^ 

Thb extract is not less worthy of attention for the beauty 
and felicity of some of its language, than for the accuracy of the 
thoughts and sentiments it contains. Beiiig divested of every 
thing controversial, it presents before us, in a plain, inartificial 
manner, the writer's views of the damage man sustained at 
the fall, and of the nature of the salvation provided in the 
Ooepel. As conveying the real opinions of Baxter, it is worth 
ten thousand pages of his controversial writing; it demolishes 
the whole system of Antinomianism. 

* * Confeition of Faitfa/ Prsfsce. 



460 THK LIFB AND WRITINGS 

Some passages, on the subject of perseverance, in his trealiM 
on * The Right Method of Peace of Conscience/ having bees 
misunderstood, he left them out of a second impression of that 
book ; but, to prevent any misunderstanding that might sriie 
from this, he published a quarto pamphlet, in 1657f entitled 
* Richard Baxter's Account of his Present Thoughts conceraiiig 
the Controversies about the Perseverance of the Saints/ It 
contains, chiefly, a statement of the great variety of opinioiii 
which prevail, according to Baxter, about the last of Ae 
five points. He enumerates twelve several modes of hoMing 
this doctrine, and gives his own views in the shape of ob- 
jection to, or approbation of, each of these modes* Hus 
method of stating his sentiments is sufficiently tiresome and 
unsatisfactory. He professes not to have attained to cer- 
tainty in understanding this point, with .all the Scriptures thit 
concern it, better than Augustine, and the common judgment of 
the church for so many ages ; and, therefore^ he dares not Wf 
that he has attained to certainty that all the justified shall per- 
severe. On the other hand, he is not disposed to maintain 
the opposite opinion ; but he endeavours ta show that the cer- 
tainty of the final perseverance of all who have been justified is 
not so necessary to comfort, much less to salvation, as many 
suppose. What his own opinions, stripped of all controversial 
and metaphysical distinctions, were, seem plainly expressed in 
the following passage : *^ Therefore, notwithstanding all the ob- 
jections that are against it, and the ill use that will be made of 
it by many, and the accidental troubles into which it may cast 
some believers, it seems to me that the doctrine of perseverance 
is grounded on the Scriptures, and therefore is to be maintained, 
not only as extending to all the elect, against the Lutherans and 
Arminians, but also as extending to all the truly sanctified, 
against Augustine, and the Jansenians, and other Dominican!; 
though we must rank it but among truths of its own order, and 
not lay the church's peace or communion upon it." 

This statement will, I apprehend, satisfy the most fastidious 
reader of the substantial orthodoxy of Baxter on this point. 
Had he said less about the opinions of others, in his controver- 
sial writings, and given us his own in fewer words than he com- 
monly employs, I apprehend he would have been found a more 
consistent and thorough Calvinist than has generally been sup- 
posed. The grand controversy on the subject of perseverancei 
about the period when Baxter wrote his pamphlet^ was carried 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 461 

on between Dr. Owen and John Goodwin. Kendal replied to 
Goodwin in defence of Owen, and by the way offered some 
remarks on Baxter's sentiments respecting justification and 
perseverance. 

^ Dr. Kendal,*' says Baxter, ^^ was a little quick-spirited man^ 
of great ostentation, and a considerable orator and scholar. He 
was driven on further by others than his own inclination would 
have led him. He thought to get an advantage for his reputa- 
tioD, by a triumph over John Goodwin and me : for those who 
■et him to work, would needs have him conjoin us both together, 
to intimate that I was an Arminian. While I was replying to 
hb first assault, he wrote a second ; and when I had begun a 
reply to that, meeting me at London, he was so earnest to take 
vp the controversy, engaging Mr. Vines to persuade me that 
Kahop Usher might determine it, and I was so willing to be 
eased of such work, that I quickly yielded to Usher's arbitration. 
He owned my judgment about universal redemption, persever- 
aace, &c« ; but directed us to write against each other no more. 
And so my second reply was suppressed."* 

Baxter's ' Confession of Faith,' proving little more satisfactory 
than his 'Apology,' and various animadversions 'having been 
made on it, he published in 1658 his ' Four Disputations of 
Justification,' 4to. pp. 423, with a view to meet some of the 
exceptions of his ** learned and reverend brethren." The chief 
of those whom he notices, was Mr. Blake,^ who died sometime 
before Baxter's work appeared ; Mr. Anthony Burgess,' whom 
he had drawn by correspondence into a discussion with him on 
the nature of faith and of imputed righteousness ; Mr. John 
Warner,^ against whose '^ confident but dark assaults" hedefends 

• Life, part L p. 110. 

' The work of Blake, to which Baxter rerers, is a ' Postscript,' addressed to 
Baxter, at the end of his book * The Covenant Sealed,' which was published 
in 1655. It is written in a very kind and ^ntlemanly manner ; thoug^h it ex« 
poaet, lomewhat stronf^ly, several of Baxter's mistakes and unprofitable dis* 
tinctiuns. 

t llie work of Burgess, on which Baxter animadverts, is * The True Doc- 
trine of Justification asserted,' 4to. 1654. The author was a man of consi- 
ilcrable talents and learning. He was a member of the Westminster Assem- 
Hy, and the author of several considerable works. He was ejected from 
Sattoi. Coldfield, in Warwickshire. 

^ Warner's book, to which Baxter replies, is the following, ' Diatriba 
Fidei Justificantis, &c.' or a Discourse of the object and office of faith 
M Justifying, distinct from other objects and acts aud offices of the same 
faith at sanctifying. 8vo. 1657. It is a scholastic and metaphysical work of 
MNDe ability. The views of the author on the subject of which he treats are 



462 TNB LIFB AND WHITINGS 

hiin«elf ; and Mc John Tonfibes, with whom he fought the 
femous battle of Bewdley J All these writera receivfl tluit met- 
sure of attention which he deemed due to their respective 
merits ; and though he treats some of them rather sharply, hs 
spoke of them all with great kindness and respect. The dis- 
cussion is carried on in a very elaborate and seholasde stjlet 
The diflferences between himself and his brethren often mm on 
mere verbal quibbles ; though in a few instances the distinctiobi 
for which Baxter contended^ are of some importance to a cktf 
statement of the important doctrine under consideration* 

In consequence of some remarks on the subject of hath, iu his 
< Saint's Rest,' at the end of Serjeant Shepherd's woik oa 
^ Sincerity and Hypocrisy/ Baxter is animadverted on, and his 
views of that subject controverted. This led him to publish, in 
1658, a 'Treatise on Saving Faith,' in which his object iste 
show that he had been misunderstood, and that he had always 
maintained that '^ saving faith is not only gradually, but apedfi- 
cally distinct from all common faith." Some sentiments in the 
work to which he replies, are of a very dangerous nature, and 
precisely similar to opinions which have been promulgated with 
great confidence in our own times : such as, that saving &ith 
** is built not on the revealed testimony of God, but upon his 
immediate revelation and testimony :" by which it is resolved 
into impulse and feeling, or mere inward persuasion, instead of 
resting on the broad ground of God's own declaration in his 
word. Also that ^^ regenerate men believe that Christ hath 
already satisfied for their sins, so as the debt is paid, and they 
freed ; that he hath reconciled the Father to them ; that their 
sins are pardoned, or tliey justified; that they are the sous of 
God here, and shall be the sons of God hereafter." Baxter 
combats these mistaken views with great success, although some 
of his own positions are not defensible. It is truly marvellous 
that the subject of faith, which the Scriptures treat with so 
much simplicity, should have led to such interminable and dis- 
tracting debates. If saving faith be something else than the 

both sound and weU stated. They are much more satisfactory than what 
Baxter would have substituted in their place, and contain notbin; of coafl- 
dence or dark assaults that 1 can see. The author was bred at Oxford, bii* 
became pastor of the church of Christ at ChristVcburchy Hampshiiw* whtfft 
he was when this treatise was written. 

* The book of Toml>es, to which Baxter replies, is the Latin nnimadvcr- 
sions on his Aphorisms, referred to in the note to a former psfe. Anthony 
Wood says, ** They were published by the said Baxter, without tbe author*! 
knowMg^f 10 1659/*— illheH. Oxoa^voVAm, \.\mCn 



op RICHARD BAXTBR. 4SS 

bdief of what Ood has revealed respecting the character and 
work of hia Son, then is the whole affair of salvation an inexpli* 
caUe riddle, which every man may interpret as best suits his 
fimcy or his disposition. 

Serjeant Shepherd was not the author of the observations 
which called forth the reply of Baxter. His *^ learned, consent- 
ing adversary," as he calls him, was Dr. lliomas Barlow, then 
provost of Queen's College, Oxford, and afterwards bishop of 
Lineoln. He was an able man — a decided Calvinist in his 
sentiments— -evidently leaning rather to tlie ultra than to the 
moderate side of the doctrine. 

Shepherd, to whose work his anonymous remarks were ap- 
pended, was made serjeant-at-law and one of the Welsh judges, 
by Cromwell. He was a considerable man as a lawyer, but, as 
was no uncommon case at the period, he distinguished himself 
alio as a divine. He wrote on law and theology* The discus- 
sion on both sides was maintained very courteously. Bax-' 
ter contends there was no real difference between them ; and 
subscribes the prefatory letter addressed to him, ^^ A great es- 
teemer of your piety and many labours.*' 

Though published many years after this, yet as a part of the 
volume was written about this period of Baxter's life, and relates 
to the discussions in which his Aphorisms engaged him, it may 
here be most convenient to notice his ^ Treatise of Justifying 
Righteousness,' in two books. It appeared in 8vo in 1676, and 
was occasioned by Dr. Tuliy's attack on him in his ^ Justificatio 
Pautma' Beside his answer to TuUy, it contains Cartwright's 
Exceptions to his Apology, which had been sent him at the 
time, but lost by Baxter. Having recovered the Exceptions, he 
published them at length, with his own answer in full. There 
is also, an Answer to Dr. TuUy's angry letter. 

The first dissertation in this volume, on the imputation of 
Christ's righteousness, was written in 1672, but it was not 
printed till 1675. Baxter explains the sense in which he conceives 
the doctrine to be understood by sound Protestants, and vindi- 
cates his own views against some objections of Dr. TuUy. He 
professes his own belief in the definition of the subject given 
\u the several Protestant confessions, though he explains some 
of the phra^co employed by them in his own way. 

Christopher Cartwright, whose Exceptions are contained in 
this volume, was a highly respectable minister of York ; and is 



464 THE LIF£ AND WRITINGS 

still advantageously known as the author of some learned, nb* 
binical works. He animadverted on Baxter's Aphorisms, par- 
ticularly on his distinction of legal and evangelical righteottsneai. 
Baxter replied to this in writing. Cartwright furnished die 
exceptions now published, which Baxter accompanies with a 
short answer. 

The reference to Dr. Tully induces me to introduce at pe- 
sent, also, another small doctrinal performance — ^TwoDisptits- 
tions of Original Sin,' pp. 245, 12mo. It appeared in 1675 
at ** the request of Dr. Tully," but the first part of it had been 
written long before. This was one of those subjects of discossioii 
which the ministers about Kidderminster were accustomed to 
agitate at those presbyterial meetings in which Baxter alwa]fa 
acted as moderator. 

It appears that Baxter had been suspected by some of enter- 
taining erroneous views on this important subject ; by one ch«, 
being considered as believing too little, and by another, too 
much. To vindicate himself from all injurious imputations, 
therefore, he published these dissertations. 

Dr. Thomas Tully, Baxter's opponent on several occasion^ 
was a respectable clergyman of Calvinistic sentiments. In the 
time of the G)mmonwealth he had been principal of Edmund 
Hall, Oxford. He was, after the Restoration, made a royal 
chaplain, and beside other things, appointed to the deanery of 
Ripon, in Yorkshire. In his treatise above referred to, he 
defends Paul's doctrine of justification without works agunst 
some things in Bull's * Hartnonia Apostolica * ^ and Baxter's 
Aphorisms. Baxter animadverted on Tully in several of his 
pieces. Tully answered the whole in a * Letter to Mr. 
Richard Baxter,' occasioned by several injurious reflections of 
his upon a treatise, entitled, * Jttstificatio PavUna^* &c. This 
called forth Baxter's answer to Dr. Tully's angry letter.— 
Making the usual allowance for Baxter's refinements, I do not 
observe any sentiment on the subject of original sin materially 
different from what is usually held by Calvinistic writers. He 
was a firm believer in the original depravity of human nature; 
and that the only cure of that depravity is furnished by the 
redemption of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. ^ 

^ An interesting account of the controversy between Bull and TuUy •«' ™* 
lubject of justification, will be found in Nehon'g * Life of Bull,' pp. 212—244. 
TuUy had the best of the ar^ment without doubt, thouf^h Nelson ascrUMS 
the victory to Bull. Dr. fully died in 1675. 

» AmoDc; the Baiter MSS, iu the Redcross-itreet library, is a lone l^tt*' •^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 465 

I must, on the same principle^ here also introduce Baxter's 
book on ^ Universal Redemption/ though it was not published 
till after his death. The editor, Mr. Joseph Read^ informs 
Qt, in the preface, that he transcribed it while living in Mr. 
Baxter's family at Kidderminster, in 1657; and that '^ the 
ministers of Worcestershire, who usually attended on his 
Thursday lecture, and heard these disputations at their 
monthly meeting, were generally desirous to have them print- 
ed." This work is an elaborate discussion of one of the main 
points on which Baxter is considered to have departed from 
the Calvinistic scheme. His mind had been directed to it at 
a Tery early period ; for at the end of his Aphorisms, pub- 
lished in 1649, he gives notice of something which ^'he had 
written on -universal redemption," and which he only kept back 
for a time in consequence of his '^ continual sickness,'' and in 
the expectation that it might be rendered unnecessary by some 
production of another pen. 

The next of his doctrinal works which requires attention, is 
his ' Catholic Theology — plain, pure, peaceable : for paci- 
fication of the dogmatical word-warriors ; who, by contending 
about things unrevealed, or not understood, and by putting 
Terbal diflferences for real, and their arbitrary notions for ne- 
cessary sacred truths, deceived and deceiving by ambiguous, 
unexplained words, have long been the shame of the Christian 
religion, a scandal and hardening to unbelievers, the incen- 
diaries, dividers, and distracters of the church ; the occasion of 
state discords and wars ; the corrupters of the Christian faith, 
and the subverters of their own souls, and those of their fol- 
lowers : calling them to a blind zeal and wrathful warfare against 
true piety, love, and peace, and teaching them to censure, 
backbite, slander, and prate against each other, for things 
which they never understood. In three books. I. Pacifying 
Principles about God's decrees, foreknowledge, providence, 
operations, redemption, grace, man's power, free will, justifica- 
tion, merits, certainty of salvation, perseverance, &c. II. A 
Pacifying Praxis, or dialogue about the five articles, justi- 

drestecl to Baxter, and occasioned by this Treatise. It was printed in tbe 
* Monthly Repository/ vol. xix. pp.577, 726 ; and by the editors is ascribed tu 
Gilbert Clerke, who was a Unitarian of some celebrity. He was tbe author 
of several Socioian tracts, and engaged in a controversy about the doctrine of 
the Nicene Creed with Bishop BuU. A short account of him is given in Bull's 
life by Nelson, pp. 502— 512. 

VOL. I. H H 



466 THB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

fication, &c., proving that men here contend alroo&t only about 
ambiguous words and unrevealed things. III. Pacifying Dispu- 
tations against some real errors which hinder reconciliation! 
viz., about physical predetermination, original sin, the extent of 
redemption, sufficient grace, imputation of righteousness^ &e. 
Written chiefly for posterity, when sad experience hath taught 
men to hate theological wars, and to love, and seek, and call 
for peace/ 

I have quoted at large the extended and curious title of this 
folio volume, which appeared In 1675, because it aSbrds a spe- 
cimen of Baxter's style of conducting discussion, and aerveSf 
in a great measure, for an analysis of the work. In the prefacei 
he gives a brief history of his own mind, of some of the contro- 
versies in which he had been engaged, and of his design in this 
publication in particular. 

*' My mind being these many years immersed in studies of 
this nature, and having also long wearied myself in aearcfaiiig 
what fathers and schoolmen have said of such things before us, 
and my genius abhorring confusion and equivocals, 1 came^ by 
many years' longer study to perceive, that most of the doctrinal 
controversies among Protestants, are far more about e<(uivoeal 
words than matter ; and it wounded my soul to perceive what 
work, both tyrannical, and unskilful disputing clergymen liad 
made thes^ thirteen hundred years in the world 1 Experience, 
since the year 1G43, till this year 1675, hath loudly called me 
to repent of my own prejudices, sidings, and censurings of 
causes and persons not understood, and of all the miscarriages 
of my ministry and life, which have been thereby caused ; and 
to make it my chief work to call men that are within my hearing 
to more peaceable thoughts, affections, and practices. And my 
endeavours have not been in vain, in that the ministers of the 
county where I lived, were very many of such a peaceable 
temper, and a great number more through the land, by God's 
■grace, (rather than any endeavours of mine,) are so minded. 
-But the sons of the cowl were exasperated the more against me^ 
and accounted him to be against every man, that called all men 
to love and peace, and was for no man as in a contrary way. 

^^And now, looking daily in this posture, when God calleth me 
hence; summoned bv an incurable disease to hasten all that 
ever I will do in this world ; being incapable of prevailing with 
the present church disturbers, I do apply myself to posterityi 
leaving them the sad warning of their ancestors' iliatractioDfl^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 467 

as a pillar of salt, and acquainting them what I have found to 
be the cause of our calamities, and therein they will find the 
cure themselves.""* 

This work he fully expected would expose him to trouble 
and opposition from various quarters ; but to his great astonish- 
ment, it met with no adversary during his life. He expected 
it would be the subject of controversy after his death; but in this 
respect also his anticipations have not been fulfilled. It still, 
I believe, remains without answer. It would be too much to 
infer from this, that all the positions maintained in it are gene- 
rally admitted, or that no persons are disposed to dispute any of 
the ^ews of its author. The size and character of the work have, 
I believe, deterred many persons from examining it with much 
care. A folio volume of 700 pages, replete with metaphysical dis- 
tpctions, on every disputed point, in the most difficult doctrines 
of theology, has few charms for the general reader, and is even 
a formidable subject for the inquisitive, theological scholar to 
digest. 

None of Baxter's works in English affords more striking illus- 
tration than this, of the amazing subtlety of his mind, as well 
as of the vastness of his reading, and his indefatigable applica- 
tion. The innumerable distinctions of the schoolmen, the de- 
bates among the Roman Catholic parties, and the contentions 
among Protestants, on all the subjects of which he treats, 
were perfectly familiar to him. The discussion, on his part, is 
carried on with so much ease, that though deeply serious, he 
seems as if he were playing with the difficulties which have 
perplexed and confounded others. Instead of finding 

*' No end, in waud'riog mazes lost," 

he threads the labyrinths with prodigious adroitness, and 
finds an out-gate where others had found only a pit or an 
insurmountable barrier. The depths in which many have 
been engulfed, seem but as the element in which he sports 
without danger and without fear. With the most peaceable 
intentions, he carries war into every camp, and makes havoc 
of every foe ; never being at a loss for a weapon, and never 
dismayed by the front or menace of an antagonist. Desir- 
ous of putting an end to contention, he furnished fresh and 
enlarged means for carrying it on, in the very abundance of 
the material of war, with which he supplied his adversaries, 
and the imceremouious manner in which he treated themt 

» Prefsce. 
HH 2 



468 THE LIFE AND WRITIKGS 

Amidst the dryness of metaphysical disquisition, however, and 
the keenness of theological debate, some fine passages occur 
illustrative of the comprehensiveness of his views, and the 
ardour of his devotion. Deep piety is the prominent fea- 
ture of all Baxter's works ; and it never, perhaps, appears to 
more advantage, than when he is engaged in those debates, 
which were powerfully calculated to excite his own passions and 
those of others. It was the oil that smoothed the troubled 
waters in which he passed his life, and which was always upper- 
most whatever was passing beneath. 

If the preceding volume appears to the reader a surprising 
effort of talent and industry, he will be still more astonished 
with the next work of Baxter in this department. I refer to 
his Latin work, the only one which he wrote in that language, 
*METHODUsTHEOLoGiiECHRJSTrANJE,'&c. It appeared in 1681, 
and consists of more than 90U large folio pages : enough to 
make about four volumes of the size of the new edition of his 
works. Of this immense undertaking he gives the following 
account : 

" Having long been purposing to draw up a method of theo- 
logy, I now began it. I never yet saw a scheme or method of 
physics or theology, which gave any satisfaction to my reason ; 
though many have attempted to exercise more accurateness in 
distribution, than all others that went before them ; especially 
Dudley Fenner, Tzegedine, Sohnius, Gomarus, Amesius, Tre- 
leatius, WoUebius, &c., and our present busy boaster. Dr. Ni* 
cholas Gibbon, in his scheme. I could never yet see any whose 
confusion, or great defects, I could not easily discover ; but not 
so easilv amend. I had been twenty- six years convinced that 
I dichotomizing will not do it, but that the divine trinity in unity 
( hath expressed itself in the whole frame of nature and morality. 
I had long been thinking of a true method, and making some 
small attempts, but found myself insufficient for it ; and so con- 
tinued only thinking of it and studying it all these years. 
Campanella, I saw, had made the fairest attempt in the princi- 
ples of nature, and Commenius after him ; but yet, as I belie\'e, 
he quite missed it in his first operative principles of heat and 
cold ; mistaking the nature of cold and darkness. So he run 
his three principles, which he calleth primalities, into many sub- 
sequent notions, which were not provable or coherent* Having 
long read his physics^ metaphysics, ^ De Sensu Eerum/ and 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 469 

^AiheUmus Triumphatusj I found him mention theology, which 
put me in hope that he had tliere also made some attempts; but I 
could never hear of any one that had seen any such book of his. 
At last, Mr. George Lawson's * Theopoliiica' came out, which re- 
duced theology to a method more political and right, in the main, 
than any I had seen before him ; but he had not hit on the true 
method of the Vestigia Trinitatis. But the very necessity of ex- 
plaining the three articles of baptism, and the three summaries 
of religion, the creed, Lord's-prayer, and decalogue, hath led 
all the common catechisms, that go that way, into a truer me- 
thod, than any of our exactest dichotomizers have hit on ; not 
excepting Treleatius, Sohnius, or Amesius, which are the best. 

" The nature of things convinced me that as physics are pre- 
supposed in ethics, and that morality is but the ordering of the 
rational nature and its actions ; so that part of physics and 
metaphysics, which opens the nature of man and of God, 
who are the parties contracting, and the great subjects of theo- 
logy and morality, is more nearly pertinent to a method of 
theology, and should have a larger place in it than is commonly 
thought of and given to it. Yet I know how uncouth it would 
seem, to put so much of these doctrines into a body of di- 
vinity ; but the three first chapters of Genesis assured me that 
it was the Scripture method. When I had drawn up one 
scheme of the creation, and sent it the Lord Chief Baron Hale, 
because of our often communications on such subjects ; and 
being now banished from his neighbourhood and the country 
where he lived, he received it with so great approbation, and 
importuned me so by letters to go on with that work, and 
not to fear being too much on philosophy, as added some- 
what to my inclinations and resolutions. Through the great 
mercy of God, in my retirement at Totteridge, in a troublesome, 
smoky, suffocating room, in the midst of daily pains of the 
sciatica, and many worse, I set upon and finished ail the 
schemes, and half the elucidations, in the end of the year 1669 
and the beginning of 16/0; which cost me harder studies than 
any thing that ever I had before attempted.*' ° 

In a subsequent part of his ' Life * he speaks of the expense 
which this work put him to, and of his disappointment in regard to 
its sale. "The times were so bad for selling books, that I was fain 
to be myself at the charge of printing my ^Methodus Theologiae,' 
Some friends contributed about eighty pounds towards it; it 

■ Life^ part iii. pp. ^9^ 70. 



47(^ TMB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

cost me one way or other about five hundred pounds ; about two 
hundred and fifty pounds of which I received from those Noncon- 
formists that bought them. The contrary party set themselves 
to hinder the sale of it, because it was mine, though else the 
doctrine of it, being half philosophical, and half conciliatory, 
would have pleased the learned part of them. Bat most lay it by 
as too hard for them, or as over scholastical and exact. I wrote 
It and my English ^ Christian Directory,' to make up one com- 
plete body of theology ; the Latin one the theory, and the 
English one the practical part. And the latter is commonly 
accepted because less difficult." ® 

This immense work, which occupied Baxter's mind so much 
during so many years, is divided into three parts. In the first 
he treats of the nature of things, in the second of the holy 
Scriptures, and in the third of the whole administration and 
practice of religion ; in other words, the theory of natural re- 
ligion, revealed religion, and the practical nature and design of 
religion. Or, taking another view of his plan, he treats of 
the kingdom of nature ; the kingdom of grace, under the Mosaic 
economy ; the kingdom of grace under the Gospel ; and the 
kingdom of glory. He discusses, with great minuteness and at 
great length, the being and attributes of God ; the constitution 
of the universe ; the character and condition of man both before 
and after the fall ; the moral administration of God under the 
law ; the mediatorial or evangelical system in all its branches, 
including the person and work of Christ, the doctrines, ordi- 
nances, and precepts, of the Gospel, and the future state of re- 
wards and punishments. To give even a faint outline of the 
innumerable discussions and definitions contained in the woFk, 
is impossible ; what precedes will afford however some idea of it 

He seems to have been partial to tracing a kind of trinity in 
unity in all things. A trinity of persons in the Godhead, the 
Father, the Word, and the Spirit ; a trinity of principles in 
man, which he calls power, intellect, and will ; corresponding 
imperfectly with three principles in the nature of God — life, * 
intellect, and will. He finds three kingdoms, or dispensations, 
nature, grace, and glory ; in nature he finds three principles, 
light, heat, and motion ; in the economy of grace he finds the 
Father governing, the Son saving, the Holy Spirit sanctifying; 
and God accomplishing all his designs of mercy in us by three 
principles, faith^ hope, and love. 

• Life, part 111. p. 190. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 471 

Jn the representation and working of this trinitarian scheme 
of' philosophy, metaphysics, and morals, Baxter has displayed 
eoDsiderable ingenuity and vast labour. Many of his schemes 
or tables are formed with great care, and present some happy 
owl useful arrangements and combinations. There is much, 
however, of what is fanciful and hypothetical in his system, and, 
taken as a whole, it is more calculated to amuse as a curious 
•peculation or effort of genius, than to answer any important 
practical purpose. The work shows that the author is entitled to 
rank high among the metaphysico-theological writers of the 
period. I am, therefore, surprised that Mr. Morell has entirely 
omitted him in his very useful. work on ^The Elements of the 
History of Philosophy and Science.' Whatever may be thought 
of his opinions, Baxter, in point of genius, as a metaphysician, ii 
not unworthy of a place on the same roll with Cudworth, and 
Leibnitz, and Clarke ; and is unquestionably superior to Bram- 
bftU and Tenison, Wilkins, Cumberland, and More. 

As Baxter wrote occasionally some Latin verse, as well as 
Bnglish poetry, I shall close the account of this proof of his stu- 
pendous industry by quoting the lines with which he concludes it. 

'* Munde dolose vale : mihi vera palestra fuisti : 

Perficitur cursus : certa corona maoet. 
Vita fug^ax cessat : PraBstant steroa caducis : 

Mens superos visit: pulvere pulvis erit. 
Excipe Cbriste tnum : tibi vixi: errata remitte: 

Spe tibi comniissuni perfice Christe tuum. 
Tu mortis mors : viue tu vita perennis : 

Gloria nostra tua est f^loria, lumen, amor. 
Non luca, non ccetus, non hioc sperata videntur. 

Optimus, Omnividens, Maximus iila videt." p 

V I have observed, since writing the preceding account of the ' Methodus,' 
in ft cfttalo^e of his works, published at the end of bis own edition of hik 
'Cooniels to Young Men,'iu 1682, a ibort analysis of this poodarous work, 
evidently written by himself. **lt consists," he says, *< of seventy-threa 
tables, or methodical schemes, pretendiug to a juster methodizing of Christian 
wiilles, acconliug to the matter and Scripture, than is yet extant ; furnishing 
■len with necessary distinctions on every subject; showing that trinity in 
unity is imprinted on the whole creation, and trichotumising is the just distri- 
bution in naturals and morals. The first part of the kingdom of nature; the 
•econd of the kingdom of i^race before Christ's incarnation ; the third of the 
kingdom of grace and the Spirit, since the incarnation ; the fourth of the 
kingdom of glory. All in one political method, in the efficience, constitutipn, 
and administration, namely, legislation, judgment, and execution. The lirst 
part mostly philosophical, \vith a full scheme of philosophy or ontology. The 
doetrine de anima mo«t largely ; with above two huudred select disputatious ; 
prolix oues on the trinity, predetermination, the faculties of the soul, original 
tin, and a multitude of controversies briefly decided." Had Baxter lived in 
ihe days of the schoolmen^ he would have been the Thomas Aquinas, or Dupi 
ScotuSy of the period. 



472 THB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

The last work of Baxter in this department, which it is ne- 
cessary to notice, was published only a short time before hit 
death, and bears a most appropriate title for the condurion of 
our account of his doctrinal views : ^ An End of Doctrinal 
Controversies, which have lately troubled the Churches, by re* 
conciling Explication without much Disputing.' 1691. 8vo. 

In his preface he gives a most characteristic account of his 
reasons for engaging so much in controversy, and of bis object 
in this book in particular. '^ Wars," he says, '^are most dreaded 
and hated by the country where they are ; but not so much by 
the soldiers, who by them seek their prey and glory, as by the 
suffering inhabitants that lose thereby their property and peace, 
who yet are forced, or drawn to be siders, lest they suffer for 
neutrality. 

^^ Religious (irreligious) wars are of no less dismal conse- 
quence, being about God himself, his will, and word ; and that 
which more nearly toucheth our souls and everlasting state, 
than our houses and worldly welfare do. Yet because men 
are more sensible of their corporal than their spiritual concem, 
these dogmatical wars are far less feared, and too commmdy 
made the study and delight, not only of the military clergy, but 
also of the seduced and sequacious laity : though those who 
have the wisdom from above, which is pure and peaceable, con- 
dole the churches calamity hereby ; knowing that envy and 
strife, the earthly, sensual, and devilish wisdom, cause confusion 
and every evil work. It is a heinous aggravation, that the 
militants, being men consecrated to love and peace, pro&nely 
father their mischiefs upon God, and do all as for religion and 
the church. Having these four-and-forty years, at least, been 
deeply sensible of this sin, danger, and misery of Christians, I 
have preached much and written more against it ; to confute 
those extremes which cause divisions, and to reconcile those 
that think they differ where they do not ; sometimes, also, using 
importunate petitions and pleas for peace, to those that have 
power to give it or promote it, and that use either word or 
sword against it. And with the sons of peace it hath not been 
in vain ; but with those that are engaged in faction and mali- 
cious strife, I am proclaimed to be the militant enemy of con- 
cord, for persuading them to concord ; and writing many books 
for peace and love, is taken for writing them against these. 
Controversies I have written of but only to end them, and not to 
make them; and who can reconcile them that never mentioneth 
them, or arbitrate in a cause unheard and not opened ? 



OP RICHABB BAXTER. 473 

' '^ Bat, readers, I must tell you that my title, ^ An End of Doc- 
trinal Controversies/ is not intended as prognostic, but as di- 
dactical and directive. I am far from expecting an end of con- 
troversies, while consecrated ignorance is by. worldly interest, 
fiurtion, and malice, mixed with pride sublimated to an envious 
seal ; and hath set up a trade of slandering all those that are 
true peacemakers, not concurring with them to destroy it, on 
pretence of defending, by their unpeaceable, pernicious terms. 
He that will now be taken for a peacemaker, must be content 
to be so called by a few, even by the sect that he chooseth to 
please, and be contrarily judged of by all the rest. And this 
satisfieth some, because their faction seemeth better than 
others, be they ever so few ; and others because their faction is 
great, or rich, or uppermost, how noxious and unpeaceable 
soever." * 

The conclusion of the preface is worthy of the writer, and in 
his best style. ^'The glorious light will soon end all our con- 
troversies, and reconcile those who by unfeigned faith and love 
are united in the Prince of Peace, or Head, by love dwelling in 
God and God in them. But false-hearted, malignant, carnal 
worldlings', that live in the fire of wrath and strife, will find, so 
dying, the woful maturity of their enmity to holy unity, love, 
and peace ; and that the causeless shutting the true servants of 
Christ out of their churches, which should be the porch of 
heaven, is the way to be themselves shut out of the heavenly 
Jerusalem. If those that have long reproached me as unfit to be 
in their church, and said Ex nno disce omneSy with their leader, 
find any unsound or unprofitable doctrine here, I shall take it 
for a great favour to be confuted, even for the good of others 
excluded with me, when I am dead." 

This work does not contain much that is new or original. It 
consists of twenty-five chapters on most of the topics on which 
he had treated often and largely before; particularly on the 
points embraced in the Arminian and Calvinistic controversy. 
The divine decrees, election and reprobation ; natural power and 
free-will, original sin, universal grace, and redemption ; justifi- 
cation and faith ; good works, merit, assurance, perseverance, 
&c., all come under his review; and on these and their collateral 
subjects he may be considered as delivering his last thoughts. 

Having come literally to the end of Baxter's doctrinal writ- 

4 Prefaoe. 



474 TUB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

ings, this is perhaps the most appropriate place for stating what 
appears to have been his sentiments on the great leading point! 
which have long been controverted among Christians. The 
task is far from being an easy one, and I doubt whether I shtll 
be able satisfactorily to perform it. Its* difficulty arises from the 
multitude of Baxter's controversial writings, from the innumer^ 
able distinctions with which they are filled, and from the estended 
and diversified explanations that he gives of every term sad 
phrase which he employs. His conscientiousness^ his fear of 
being misunderstood, his anxiety to render every thing detr 
and unambiguous, his wish to reconcile opposite aud con6ictiag 
sentiments, and to humble the pride of contentious parties, hf 
pointing out the errors to which their respective s3rBtems wera 
liable ; all tend to confound and to bewilder the reader of hb 
controversial works, and to involve his real sentiments in con- 
siderable obscurity. Possessed of a mind uncommonly pene- 
trating, he yet seems not to have had the faculty of compressing 
within narrow limits, his own views, or the accounts he was 
disposed to give of the views of others. When we expect hs 
is about to state in a few words the sum of his belief, he fiiesoff 
as it were at a tangent in pursuit of some adversary whom he 
has started, or proceeds to obviate some false construction 
which has been put, or which may be put on what he is going 
to say. He either never returns to the subject, or when he 
does return, it is but to make another flight from it, and to 
leave us as before. 

All this arose, not from any indisposition to be explicit ; for 
no man was more disposed to give a full and candid exposition 
of all he thought, and felt, and did ; but from the peculiar 
character of his mind. When, for instance, he proposes to 
give an account of faith, election, grace, perseverance, instead 
of giving a clear definition of the terms, and showing how 
their various senses mav be accounted for from conventional 
usage, consistently with the original and primary idea, he 
proceeds at once to discuss the various meanings of such 
words as they are commonly used, the ambiguities which belong 
to them, and the uncertainty of their signification, till we advert 
to the circumstances in which they occur. Hence, instead of 
saying at once how he used such terms in his own writings, he 
tells us of many kinds of faith, various acts of grace, and 
different species of election, perseverance, &c. He is perpetually 
distinguishing things into physical and moral, real and nominal. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 475 

nmterial and formal. However important these distinctions 
mfty they often render his writings tiresome to the reader, and 
hb reasonings more frequently perplexing than satisfactory. 

Baxter is generally understood to have pursued a middle 
course between Calvinism and Arminianism. That he tried to 
hold and to adjust the balance between the two parties, and that 
he was most anxious to reconcile them, are very certain. But it 
■eeina scarcely less evident, that he was much more a Calvinist 
than he was an Arminian. His declared approbation of the 
Assembly's Confession, and of the Synod of Dort's decisions, with 
trifling exceptions, are, I think, decisive on this point : while the 
general train of his writing, when he loses sight of controversy, 
is much more allied to the system of the Genevese Reformer, 
than to that of the Dutch Remonstrants. 

While this seems to me very apparent, it must be acknow- 
ledged, that if certain views, which have often been given of 
Calvinism, are necessary to constitute a Calvinist, Richard Bax- 
ter was no believer in that creed. But an individual may hold 
the great leading outline of a particular system, without being 
expected to defend every dogma or iota in the writings of its 
Ibunder. If this be implied in the profession of adherence to a 
common name, I doubt whether there is a Calvinist or an Armi- 
nian in the world. 

Baxter, if I may collect his sentiments from a general 
knowledge of his writings, rather than from particular passages 
and statements, held that there is a portion of common grace 
bestowed on all, which, if rightly improved, would lead to most 
important and salutary results; that resistance to this con* 
stitutes a leading part of man's guilt : yet that this grace, from 
the indisposition of man, is not productive of saving effects, un- 
less there is added to it a portion of special grace, which never 
fails to accomplish its design— -the salvation of the individual 
on whom it is bestowed. 

"As there is a common grace," he says, *^ actually extended 
to mankind, (that is, common mercies contrary to their merit,) 
so there is such a thing as sufficient grace, in suo generCy which 
is not effectual. By svfficient grace here, I mean such, without 
which man's will cannot j and with which it can perform, the 
commanded act toward which it is moved, when yet it doth 
not perform it.' In answer to the question, " Whether any men 
in the world have grace sufficient to repent and believe savingly 

' IBud of Controversies, p. 163. 



476 TH£ LTF£ AND WRITINGS 

who do not?'' he says, after telling us that he knows cothing 
about the matter, ^^ but that if we may conjecture upon proba- 
bilities, it 8eemeth most likely, that there is such a sufficient 
grace, or power, to repent and believe savingly in some that use 
it not, but perish." This seems to me very inexplicable. 

He believed in election, but not that reprobation is its coun- 
terpart, as it is too commonly represented. In the following 
passage he seems to express this sentiment very fairly: '^ By all 
this it appeareth that election and reprobation go not paripof' 
sUy or are not equally ascribed to God ; for in electiony God it 
the cause of the means of salvation by his grace, and of all that 
truly tendeth to procure it. But on the other side, God is no 
cause of any sin which is the means and merit of damnation ; 
nor the cause of damnation, but on the supposition of man's an. 
So that sin is foreseen in the person decreed to damnation, but 
not caused, seeing the decree must be denominated from the 
effect and object. But in election, God decreeth to give us hb' 
grace, and be the chief cause of all our holiness ; and doth not 
elect us to salvation on foresight that we will do his will, or be 
sanctified by ourselves without him." ■ 

He was accused as holding some very erroneous and danger- 
OU8 notions, respecting the work of Christ. It was chiefly 
in reference to the Antinomian controversy, that these charges 
were brought. But Dr. Stillingfleet,* in his work on the 
' Satisfaction of Christ,' fully vindicates him from all those 
charges which insinuated that his sentiments were allied to So- 
cinianism. After quoting various passages from Baxter's writ- 
ings, which had been found fault with, and showing the sense 
which they must bear to be consistent with his sentiments else- 
where clearly expressed, Stillingfleet justly remarks on him: 
" Some liberty must be allowed to metaphysical heads to 
show their skill in distinctions, above other men ; and some* 
times when there is no cause for them. But we must not pre- 
sently charge men with heresy, for new-invented distinctions; 
wherein they may be allowed to please themselves, so they do 
not cumber the faith with them ; nor be too sharp upon their 
brethren for not apprehending the use of them."^ So far were 
matters carried on this su Inject, by some of the keen supporters 
of the high Calvinistic view of the satisfaction of Christ, that 
after his death, some friend published, * A Plea for the late Mr. 
Baxter, and those that speak of the sufferings of Christ as he 

■ £od of ConCroYerdieii p. 44. * Part ii. p. 159. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 477 

does, in answer to Mr. Lobb's insinuated charge against them, 
in his late appeal to the Bishop of Worcester [Stillingfleet] 
and Dr. Edwards/ London, 1702. 

On the subject of redemption, it is evident that he believed it 
to be, in a certain sense, general or universal ; that Christ so died 
for all men, as to secure for them a certain portion of benefit. 
This view of his death he regarded as the ground of the general 
invitations of the Gospel, and of God's treatment of those who 
reject it. It is clear, however, that he also believed in what 
may be called a decretive speciality of the death of Christ. 
** When we speak of Christ's death," he says, " as a sacrifice 
for the sins of all the world, we mean no more but that esse 
eogmto et volitOy the undertaking was so far for all, as that all 
should have the conditional promise, or gift of life, by the merits 
of it." ■ On the other point he thus expresses himself : " He 
whose sufferings were primarily satis/action for sin, were se- 
condarily meritorious of the means to bring men to the intended 
end ; that is, of the word and Spirit, by which Christ causeth 
sinners to believe : so that faith is a fruit of the death of Christ 
in a remote or secondary sense." * *^ Christ died for all, but 
not for all alike or equally ; that is, he intended good to all, 
but not an equal good, with an equal intention." ^ 

The following statement of his sentiments on the subject of 
justifying faith, though it employs a redundancy of language, 
will not be objected to by many : " Justifying faith is not the 
reception of the knowledge or sense of our former justification, 
nor the belief that our sins were before actually pardoned, or 
that they are so ; but it is the true belief of the Gospel, and 
the sincere acceptance of Christ as he is offered therein. That 
is, of Christ as Christ — as the Son of God, that hath given him- 
self a sacrifice for sin, and offereth himself to me to be my Sa- 
viour from the guilt and power of siu, and eternal damnation ; 
and to give me eternal glory, and to be my Teacher, and my 
King in ruling me, in order thereto. Men are not called to be- 
lieve that they are justified, but to believe for justification." * 

■ Catholic Theology, part iii. p. (y7, * Ibid. p. 69. 

7 End of CoDtrov. p. 160. Baxter was as much a Calvinist on the subject 
of the extent of the atonement, as the late Rev. Andrew Fuller ; and may be 
regarded as distinguished from the other Calvinists of his time, as Fuller was 
distinguished from Abraham Booth. Of the controversy between Owen and 
Baxter, respecting the death of Christ, an account will be found in the Me- 
moirs of Owen. The works of Booth and Fuller, on the same subject, arc 
worth consulting. 

* Confesnon of Faith, p. 166. 



478 TUB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

His views on the subject of the perseverance of the saints, 
have been noticed and stated already. While it appears that 
he would not have expressed himself so confidently on this sub- 
ject as on some others, and did not rank it among truths of the 
first importance, he held substantially the Caivinistic view of it 

On the freedom of the will, he has generally been considered 
as holding what may be called liberal views, inclining more to 
liberty than to necessity. But I apprehend this was more in 
appearance than reality. In the following passages from hb 
* Catholic Theology/ he expresses sentiments in the fullest w> 
cordance with the strictest views of Caivinistic theology on thn 
subject. They may be considered as giving the substance of 
his opinions on the whole controversy; so that I shall not 
trouble the reader with any more extracts. 

*^ As all being is originally from God, so there is a continued 
divine causation of creatures, without which they would all 
cease, or be annihilated ; which some call a continued creatioUi 
and some an emanation, and some a continued action, or ope- 
ration, ad rerum esse. It is an intolerable error to hold, that 
God hath made the world, or any part of it, self-sufficient, or 
independent of himself, as to being, action, or perfection. We 
grant, therefore, that all the world is so far united to God, as 
to depend on his continued causality ; and that the beams do 
not more depend on the sun, or light, heat, and motion, on the 
sun ; or the branches, fruit, and leaves, more depend on the 
tree, than the creation on God. But yet these are uot parts 
of God, as the fruit and leaves are of the tree, and as the 
beams are of the sun ; but they are creatures, because God's 
emanation or causation is creation, causing the whole being of 
the eflfect."* 

^Mt is confessed that there is no substance beside himself 
which God is not the maker of; nor any action of which he is 
not the first Cause. God may well be called the perfect first 
Cause of human actions, in that he giveth man all his natural 
faculties, and a power to act or not act at this time, or to 
choose this or that, and as the fountain of nature, and life, and 
motion, doth afford his influx necessary to this free agency. So 
that whenever any act is done, as an act in generiy God is the 
first Cause of it ; for it is done by the power which he giveth 
and continueth, and by his vital influx, and there is no power 
used to produce it which is not given by God.''*' 

* Catholic Theology, part ill. p. 113. ^ Ibid, part L p. 29« 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 479 

^' I conclude with this repeated profession, that I am fully 
aatisfiedy that all the rest of the controversies, about grace and 
natnre, predestination and redemption, as they stand between 
the Synod of Dort and the Arminians, are of no greater mo-* 
ment than I have often expressed in this book ; and that the 
true life of all the remaining difficulties is, in this controversy 
between the defenders of necessary predestination, and those of 
free-will; that is, not what free* will sinners have left, but 
whether ever in angels or innocent man, there was such a thing 
18 a will, that can, or ever did, determine itself to a volition or 
nolition in specie fnoralij without the predetermining, efficient^ 
neoeasitating premonition of God as the first Cause/' ^ 

I apprehend that I have now pursued the doctrinal senti- 
menta of Baxter far enough for the satisfaction or gratification 
of the reader. While I consider him to have held sound and 
aeriptural sentiments on all important subjects, I am very far 
from thinking that he always expressed himself correctly when 
discussing them. On the contrary, his language is frequently am-* 
Uguous or obscure 3 in many instances it is calculated to obstruct 
the inquirer, or occasion him great perplexity ; and not seldom, 
it is so grossly incorrect, as to require to be most liberally con- 
strued in connexion with his wel]-known general sentiments, to 
avoid charging him with opinions subversive of the grace and 
glory of the Gospel. 

I am fully aware that many passages might be selected from 
his controversial writings, of a very different tenor from those 
which I have quoted ; and that it might be easy to prove Bax- 
ter a heretic, or at least guilty of gross self-contradiction, by 
detaching many of his statements from the connexion in which 
they occur, lliis, however, would be a species of injustice, 
wliich, though common enough among controversialists, ought 
to be discountenanced by every lover of truth. Baxter experi- 
enced much of this treatment while he lived ; and it followed 
his writings long after their author's death. The most perfect 
specimen of this with which I am acquainted, and which may 
be reverted to as a storehouse of the inconsistencies of Baxter, 
is a quarto volume with the following title : ' Baxterianism 
Barefaced ; drawn from a literal Transcript of Mr. Baxter's, 
and the Judgment of others in the most radical Doctrines of 

« CsthoHc Theok)^, part i. p. Ud. 



480 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Faith, compared with those of the Orthodox, both Conformist 
and Nonconformist/ &c. By Thomaa Edwards, esq. 1699.* 
This Nimrod among heresy hunters, endeavours to crucify Baxter 
between the Quakers and the Roman Catholics, exhibiting the 
doctrines of these two parties in every page, in parallel coiumns, 
and Baxter between them. Thus endeavouring to produce an 
impression that he was allied in sentiment to the Popish doctrine 
of the merit of good works on the one hand, and to the mti- 
taken views of the Quakers, on the subject of divine infltieiiGe, 
on the other. Curious coincidences do occur ; but who thit 
knows any thing of the real sentiments of Baxter^ can have the 
least idea that his doctrinal system bears any resemblance to 
either of those parties ? 

To form a correct judgment of Baxter's sentiments, we must 
consult his practical and devotional writings. We must attend 
him^ not when sitting in the critic's chair, or occupying the con- 
troversial arena, but when dealing with sinners, or conversing as 
a sinner himself, with God. His eloquent and fervid addresses 
to men, and his no less eloquent and burning addresses to the 
throne of the Most High, present such a. view of his real sen- 
timents, as cannot be mistaken. In these compositions, he is 
thinking of no difficulties in his theological system, or in the 
theological systems of others ; he is only intent on presenting, 
in the most simple and impressive forms, the great doctrines 
of the fall and corruption of our nature, the fulness and freeness 
of divine grace, and the necessity of faith and repentance. Tie 
love of God, as manifested to apostate transgressors, in the 
gift and sacrifice of his own Son, is then the entire theme of his 
discourse, as it was the only ground of his own hope. Nothing 

** I kDow nothing of this Edwards, except from his book. He seems to have 
been one of the high Calviidsts of the time, who entered very deeply into the 
Crispian controversy. He tried his poetical, as well as his polemical, powen 
on Baxter. It was the fashion to write epitaphs for this excellent man ; and 
the following; is the doggerel slander of Thomas Edwards, esq. :— 

" Baxter, farewell ! Hen jffy eld's* epitome, 

Rome's Vatican and conclave fell in thee ; 

St. Omer*s, mourn ! for thy disciples will 

By this find lesser grist come to thy mill. 

To say no more, write on this tomb, Here lies 

The mirror of self inconsistencies : 

Or rather thus, Papal conformity 

Hid under Reformation here doth lie." — p. 223. 

« ThU be interpreta, << Rome's Faith j" UtenOly, " Old Faith." 



OV RICHARD BAXTER. 481 

of conditional jastification, of terms and qualifications, of the 
merit of works, or the limitations of the divine call, is then 
to be found. All is represented as a scheme of sovereign 
mercy, reigning through righteousness, and dispensed with in- 
finite generosity by Jesus Christ, our Lord. 

All his own experience was that of a man who felt himself 
to be a chief sinner, saved solely by the mercy of God. This 
appears in the deep humility of his soul, in his fervent gratitude, 
in his holy life, and in his happy, though humble, state of mind^ 
in the prospect of death. There was nothing of metaphysics 
in the influence of Baxter's religion, however much of it. be- 
longed to the manner of stating his sentiments. His views 
of the corruption of human nature, and of the responsibility 
of man, led him to dwell much on these topics, and to urge 
them powerfully on all sinners. To salvation as the cure of 
sin, he attached as much importance as to salvation considered 
as deliverance from its punishment. Hence he cultivated this 
corative process in himself, and recommended its cultivation to 
others. He could find happiness only in likeness to God, which 
constituted, therefore, his constant desire, as it was the object of 
his most earnest recommendation. 

While satisfied that among Baxter's sentiments^ no important 
or vital error will be found, yet in the style and method in which 
he too generally advocated or defended them, there is much to 
censure. The wrangling and disputatious manner in which he 
presented many of his views, was calculated to gender an un- 
sanctified state of mind in persons who either abetted or opposed 
his sentiments. His scholastic and metaphysical style of ar- 
guing is unbefitting the simplicity of the Gospel, and cannot fail 
to injure it wherever such is employed. It not only savours too 
much of the spirit of the schools, and the philosophy of this 
world ; but places the truths of revelation on a level with the 
rudiments of human science. 

I am not sure whether certain effects which began early in 
the last century to appear among the Presbyterian part of the 
Nonconformists, may not be traced in some degree to the spe- 
culative and argumentative writings of Baxter. His influence 
over this class of his brethren, was evidently very great. He 
contributed more than any other man to mitigate the harsh 
and forbidding aspect which the Presbyterians presented dur- 
ing the civil wars and the commonwealth. This was well, but 
he ditl not stop here. He was inimical to all the existing 

VOL. I. I I 



482 THS UFB AND WRlTlVfiS 

« 

systems of doctrine and discipline then eentended for^ or ever be- 
fore known in the world ; while he did not present any precisely 
defined system as his own. He opposed Calvinism; he opposed 
Arminianism ; he would not allow himself to be considered an 
Episcopalian, in the ordinary acceptation of the word; he de- 
nied that he was a Presbyterian^ and scorned to be thought an 
Independent. He held something in common with them all, and 
yet he was somewhat different from all. He contended for a 
system more general, and more liberal than was then approved; 
arid, as we have stated, wished to place a variety of theological 
truths on grounds belonging rather to philosophy or meta- 
physics, than to revelation. 

On himself, this species of latitudinarianism produced little 
injurious effect, but I fear it had a baneful influence on 
others. The rejection of all human authority and influence 
in religion, requires to be balanced by a very strong sense of 
the divine authority, to prevent its generating a state of 
mind more characterised by pride of intellect, and indepen- 
dence of spirit, than by the humility and diffidence which are 
essential features in the Christian character. It is a singular 
fact, that the Presbyterians, though at first more rigid in their 
doctrinal views, and more exclusive in their spirit and system of 
church government, than the Independents, became before the 
death of Baxter the more liberal party. High views began to 
be ascribed by them to their now moderate brethren ; and, to 
avoid the charge of Antinomianism, which Baxter was too 
ready to prefer against such as differed from some of his views, 
the Presbyterians seem gradually to have sunk into a state of low 
moderate orthodoxy, in which there was little of the warmth 
or vitality of evangelical religion. 

In further illustration of the influence now adverted to, it 
must be remarked, that the first stage in that process of dete- 
rioration which took place among the Presbyterian dissenters, 
was generally characterised by the term Baxterianism : a word 
to which it is diflicult to attach a definite meaning. It denotes 
no separate sect or party, but rather a system of opinions 
on doctrinal points, verging towards Arminianism, and which 
ultimately passed to Arianism and Socinianism. Even dur- 
ing Baxter's own life, while the Presbyterians taxed the In^- 
pendents with Antiiiomianism, the latter retorted the charge 
of Socinianism, or at least of a tendency towards it in some 
of the opinions maintained both by Baxter and others of tha( 



Of mOBAail BAXTBB* 46S 

pirly. To whatever eauae it it to be attribuledj it ia a melan- 
Aoiy hctf that the declension which began even at this early 
pariod in the Presbyterian body, went on slowly but surely, till 
from the most fervid orthodoxy^ it finally arrived at the frigid 
aone of Unitarianism. 

1 wish not to be understood as stating, that Baxter either held 
any opinions of this description, or was conscious of a tendt- 
caey in his sentiments towards such a fearful consummation ; 
bat, that there was an injurious tendency in his manner of dis- 
enaaing certain important subjects. It was subtle, and full of 
logomachy ; it tended to unsettle, rather than to fix and deter- 
minis I it gendered strife, rather than godly edifying. It is not 
peesible to study such books, as his ^ Methodus,^ and his ^ Ca- 
tbcdic Theology,' without experiencing, that we are brought into 
a differait region from apostolic Christianity : a region of fierce 
debate and altercation about words, and names, and opinions } 
in which all that can be said for error is largely dwelt upon, 
as well as what can be said for truth. The ambiguities of lan« 
gaage, the diversities of sects, the uncertainties of human per- 
o^tion and argument, are urged, till the force of revealed truth 
is considerably weakened, and confidence in our own judgment 
of Its meaning greatly impaired. Erroneous language is main^ 
tained to be capable of sound meaning, and the most scriptural 
]dirases'to be susceptible of unscriptural interpretation, till truth 
and error almost change places, and the mind is bewildered, 
confounded, and paralysed. 

Into this mode of discussing such subjects, was this most ex« 
cellent man led, partly by the natural constitution of his mind, 
friiich has often been adverted to ; partly by his ardent de- 
sire of putting an end to the divisions of the Christian world, 
and producing universal concord and harmony. He failed where 
snccess was impossible, however plausible might have been the 
means which he employed. He understood the causes of differ- 
ence and contention better than their remedies ; hence the mea- 
sures which he used, frequently aggravated instead of curing the 
disease. His controversial writings, it is said, 'Svere never answer- 
ed." To answer them was impracticable. They were entrenched 
withm such lines of words, such barriers of technicalities, and 
such interminable series of distinctions, that any approach to the 
main subject was rendered utterly hopeless. Baxter was clad in an 
impenetrable coat of mail of his own framing, which not only 
entirely protected its wearer, but presented innumerable points, 

Ii2 



484 THB Lin AND WRITIlfGII 

that rendered grappling with him exceedingly dangerous to the 
assailant. Conscious of his own integrity and safety, and not 
unconscious of his giant strength, he hurled fearless defiance at 
all adversaries, and quietly waited the onset. 

Meanwhile that cause which he had so much at heart, lost 
rather than gained, from these means of promodng it. Error 
was not overthrown or dislodged; the chief difficulties attaching 
to certain truths, remained where they had ever been ; for the 
obscurity hanging over the divine purposes and administra- 
tion, continued as profound as ever. In all this we are taught 
the imbecility of man^ and how little he is capable of achieving,' 
even with the best intentions, without the special blessing of 
God. Man's apparent intelligence and wisdom have often been 
considered as of vast importance to the interests of truth and 
of heaven ; but have nearly as often as they have been thns' 
regarded, occasioned disappointment and regret. It is dnis 
God enforces his own injunction ; *^ Let not the wise man glory 
in his wisdom ; but let Him that glorieth, glory in the Lord.*^ 

While a portion of evil, probably resulted from Baxter's mode 
of conducting controversy, and no great light was thrown hj 
him on some of the dark and difficult subjects which he so 
keenly discussed, I have no doubt he contributed cousideraUy 
to produce a more moderate spirit towards each other, between 
Calvinists and Arminians, than had long prevailed. Though he 
satisfied neither party, he must have convinced both, that grest 
difficulties exist on the subjects in debate, if pursued beyond a 
certain length; that allowance ought to be made by each, for the 
weakness or prejudices of the other ; and that genuine religion * 
is compatible with some diversity of opinion respecting one or 
all of the five points. In as far as such an effect has arisen from 
his doctrinal writings, the church of Christ has derived benefit 
from them. If my opinion may be expressed at the end of 
this long chapter in a single sentence, I would say^ Bsxter 
was probably such an Arminian as Richard Watson ; and ss 
much a Calvinist as the late Dr. Edward Williams. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 485 



CHAPTER III. 



WORKS ON CONVERSION. 

fntrodoctory Remarki— ^ Treatise of Coovertion '— >' Call to the Uncoil* 
▼eried '— * Now or Nerer '— ' Directions for a Sound Conversion '— < Direc- 
tiont to the Converted '— < Character of a Sound Christian '— < Mischiefs of 
Setf-ignorance '-^The Countess of Balcarras— Controversy with Bishop 

* Motky^"* A Saint or a Brute'— Various smaller Treatises— Concludinf^ 

. Obaerrations. 

Thb class of books to which this chapter is devoted, must ever 
rank high, perhaps I should say highest, among the works of 
Baxter. As they treat of the most important subject which can 
occupy the attention of mankind in its degenerate state; so 
they discuss that subject with a power which is probably un- 
equalled in human writings. While Baxter's talents were adequate 
to any subject to which they might be directed, the conversion 
of men was the grand object to which he devoted them, in the 
fullest extent in which they could be exercised. Other things 
he might resort to as recreation, or submit to as duty ; this 
employment constituted his sacred delight. His whole soul 
was here eminently at home ; he revels and luxuriates in it, 
exulting in the privilege of calling sinners to repentance, and 
thus promoting the glory of his Lord and Master. 
- In this department of writing, I am not aware that he had 
properly any predecessor in the English language. Among the 
works both of the episcopal and puritan divines, many excel- 
lent discourses on most branches of Christian faith and duty 
had previously appeared. The Puritans excelled especially in 
the expository and didactic departments of instruction ; while 
many Conformists produced very able treatises on the several 
branches of theological and moral truth. But by no one nor all 
of them was produced such a mass of pungent and powerful ad- 
dresses to the consciences of ignorant, ungodly, and thoughtless 



486 THB uvs Aim WftflniiAs 

men, as by Baxter. Conversion in all its important aspects, 
and unutterably important claims, had not before been dis- 
cussed, at least in our language ; nor had any man previously 
employed so boundless a range of topics, in conjunction with 
such an energetic and awakening style of addressing sinners. 

To excel in this mode of preaching) requires talents and pro- 
perties of no ordinary kind. There must be a combination of 
scriptural knowledge and ardent piety, with a correctness of 
thin*king, as well as a fervency of imagination and manner, 
which are rarely found in one individual. Incorrect notions of 
the boundless grace and mercy of the Gospel, led some of Bax- 
ter's predecessors in the awakening style of preaching, to deal out 
the unmitigated thunders of the Law. These^ however, will rdf 
in the ears of sinners in vain, unless mellowed with the meek 
and persuasive allurements of the Gospel. Baxter knew how to 
connect them, so as to alarm and convince, without driving to 
despair. Taylor could describe the loathsomeness and guilt of 
the sinner, and the certainty as well as awfulness of his danger, 
with an exhaustleSs and withering power of illustration. Hi 
could inculcate penance and mortification with great fbrct of 
argument. But his manner partook more of monkish severity^ 
— of the gloom and austerity of the cloister— than of the faith- 
fulness and tenderness of Jesus and his apostles. Baxter's seve* 
rity never partakes of the nature of misanthropy. He never 
seems to take pleasure in wounding. He employs the knife 
with an unsparing hand ; but that hand always appears to be 
guided by a tender, sympathising heart. He denounces sin 
in language of tremendous energy, and exposes its hideoiM 
nature by the light of the flames of hell itself; but it is to uigr 
the sinner to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on 
the hope set before him. He never appears as the minister of 
divine vengeance, come to execute wrath, and to make men 
miserable before the time ; but as an angel of mercy, brandish- 
ing a flaming sword to drive men to the tree of .life. 

In the writings of Owen and Howe, and the preachers of the 
same school, doctrinal discussion, and elaborate ai^nment itt 
support and illustration of Gospel truths, are more prominent 
than their addresses to sinners. This, perhaps, may be ae» 
counted for, by the different circumstances of the people whoa 
they addressed. Their congregations consisted chiefly of a se» 
lect company of believers, or of those who made a, credible pro* 
fession of the Gospel. Hence their discourses were chiefly em* 



OF tf fmiRB IUJLTBII4 487 

plowed id instriictiiig and bilildin^ ap. Baxter^a hearers in 
Kidderminster, where most of his works of this class were pro- 
duced^ were of a difibrent description ; a large mass of ignorant, 
wicked persons, chieflj in the lower walks of life. When he 
entered on his labours among them^ there was scarcely a res- 
tige of religion in the place. He studied the best methods of 
gaining their attention^ and of rousing them to repentance and 
reformation. How admirably he Succeeded is evident, both 
frotn the discourses which he produced^ and the effects which 
resulted from them. The character of his early preaching re* 
nained, as is generally the case, to the last. The Christian 
minister who has this kind of work to do (and what Christian 
minister has it not to do more or less?) would therefore do 
well, to study this portion of Baxter's writings. 

To excel in this kirid of preachings he was eminently qualified. 
He possessed an untiring capability of application ; an tmeom^ 
moh degree of acuteness and nicety of discernment ; a profound 
knowledge of the depths of iniquity belonging to the human 
heart ; a fearless fidelity in the discharge of his duty ; a constant 
•ense of the divine presence on his mind, along with an im* 
peSsion, which seems never to have left him^ that death was 
jnst at hand* 

*' He preach 'd, as never sure to preach again^ 
Aod as a dying mau to dying men !"* 

He was gifted with exhaustless powers of expression, and an 
exuberance of imagination which supplied unfailing stores of 
language and illustration. He had also a soft, flexible, melo- 
dious voice ; a tenderness, pathos, and solemnity of manner, 
which clothed all he said with dignity and love. 

With such qualifications, presenting themselves even on the 
very surface of those discourses by which his popularity is still 
maintained, it is not surprising that, like some distinguished 
men in other professions, he carried those labours in which he 
had no prototype, to a perfection which has never been excelled. 
It might be easy to produce specimens, both from Baxter's 
time and since, of greater profundity of thought, and greater 
originality of conception; of more refinement of language, — 
though his language is often peculiarly happy ; of more accu- 
racy of argument and statement ; of detached passages more 

« Baxter's * t>oetical Fragmentii/ p. SQ. 



488 THB UFB AND WRITINGt 

tremendous or more touching, than any occurring in Baxtei^s* 
writings on Conversion : but we have nothing that wiH admit 
of comparison with them as a whole-— nothing so pdntedr-eo 
awful — and yet so full of tenderness and compassion. 

It is to this preaching we must chiefly look as the means of 
those amazing effects which, under divine influence, were pro- 
duced at Kidderminster, while Baxter laboured there. We. hate 
no account of any remarkable outpouring of the Spirit,-— of any 
thing corresponding with what is called, in America, a revival,— 
during the period of Baxter's residence in that town. But the 
effects produced by his ministry are perfectly intelligible to 
all who look at the means employed, and attend to the pro- 
mised blessing of God in connexion with them. Baxter was 
a man of faith, and prayer ; he was also a man of unwearied 
labour. He preached in season, and out of season. He was 
an instrument fit for the work, and diligently, employed all 
the means which God had put in his power. While he did so^ 
he found, what every faithfiil labourer will also find, that he did 
not labour for nought, or spend his strength in vain. 

These general observations will supersede the necessity of 
repeating the same things, on noticing the successive publiclis- 
tions relative to Conversion, which he produced 5 and to which 
we shall now proceed. 

The first work of this class is a ^Treatise of Conversion; 
preached and now published for the use of those that are stran* 
gers to a true conversion, especially the grossly ignorant and 
ungodly/ 1657.4to.' " It was the substance," he says, '^ of some 
plain sermons on conversion, which Mr. Baldwin, who lived in 
my house, and learned the short-hand character in which I wrote 
my pulpit notes, had transcribed. Though I had no leisure for 
this or other writings, to take much care of the style, or to add 
any ornaments, or citations of authors, I thought it might better 
pass as it was than not at all ; and that if the author missed the 
applause of the learned, the book might yet be profitable to the 
ignorant, as it proved, through the great mercy of God/'s 

He dedicates the volume^ in a most affectionate and faithful 
manner, to the inhabitants of the borough and foreign of Kid- 
derminster. A few sentences of this address deserve to be 

' Works, vol. vii. f Life, part L p. 114. 



OF RICHARD BAXCTR, 489 

quoted^ as they explain the nature of the work^ and illustrate 
die qririt of the man. 

^ As it was the unfeigned love of your souls that hath hither« 
to moved me much to print what I have done, that you might 
have the help of those truths which God hath acquainted me 
with, when I am dead and gone, so is it the same affection 
that hath persuaded me here to send you this familiar discourse. 
It IS the same that you heard preached ; and the reasons that 
moved me to preach it, do move me now to publish it ; that 
if any of yon have forgot it, it may be brought to your remem- 
brance ; or if it worked not upon you in the hearing, yet, in the 
deliberate perusal it may work. I bless the Lord that there are 
so- many among you that know, by experience, the nature of 
ccmversiony which is the cause of my abundant affection towards 
youy above any other people that I know. But I see that there 
is no place or people on earth that will answer our desires, or 
firee ns from those troubles that constantly attend our earthly 
state. I have exceeding cause to rejoice in very many of you ; 
but in many, also, I have cause of sorrow. Long have I tra* 
vailedy (as Paul speaks. Gal. iv. 19,) as in birth, till Christ 
be formed in you. For this have 1 studied, and prayed, and 
preached ; for this have I dealt with you in private exhortation ; 
for this have I sent you all such books as I conceived suitable 
to your needs, and yet, to the grief of my soul, I must speak it, 
the lives of many of you declare that this great work is yet 
undone. I believe God, and therefore 1 know that you must 
every soul of you be converted, or condemned to everlasting 
punishment. And, knowing this, I have told it you over and 
over again. I have showed you the proof and reasons of it, and 
the certain misery of an unconverted state ; I have earnestly 
besought you and begged of you to return, and if I had tears 
at command, I should have mixed all these exhortations with 
my tears ; and if I had but time and strength, (as I have not,) I 
should, have made bold to have come once more to you, and sit 
with yott in your houses, and entreated you on the behalf of your 
souls, even twenty times for once that I have entreated you. 
The God that sent me to you knows that my soul is grieved for 
your blindness, and stubbornness, and wickedness, and misery, 
more than for all the losses and crosses in the world ; and that 
my heart's desire* and prayer for you to God, is that you may 
yet be converted and saved.'' ^ 

^ Works, Tol« tIL PrdlMe, pp. ill. iv. 



490 THE ura AKD wfttrrtiGs 

A tdiin who ftpeaks iti this earnest and aflhetionale loiii^ em- 
not fail to be heard. The people must have been iinpresiel 
with his sincerity | his love gilined their confidence; and htlphdn 
and striking appeals thus found access to their conscienees aad 
hearts. 

The treatise iutlf is founded on Matt^ xviii. 8^ ^'Bxeept ye be 
conrerted, and become as little ehildren^ ye shall not enter iMo 
the kingdom of heaven/' In a series of chapters^ he etphniil 
the nature of conversion ; proves that none but those who ate 
converted can be saved ; illustrates the misery of the nnoonverl^ 
ed) and the benefits of conversion ; and discusses at Itdgdi 
twenty hinderdnees td conversion* 

It is easy to conceive of a mot'e logical arrangement than 
What is here described and followed. Buceplions might ate 
be taken to some of Baxter's definitions and distinctions, though 
they do not affect any thing of importance; There will also be 
perceived ah occasional redundancy atld repetition in some of 
his thoughts | for which there is always an apology ill preieh^ 
ing: yet it is altogether a very admirable treatise. He thai 
beautifully apologises for the plainness and eamestMiis of his 
hianner : 

^^I'he commonness and the greathess of dien's necessity) 
commanded me to do any thing that I could for their relief^ dhd 
to bring forth some water to cast upon this fire, though I hid 
not at hand a silver Vessel to carry it in, nor thought it tM 
most fit. The plainest words {ire the most profitable orHtOry itt 
the weightiest matters. Fineness' is for ornament, and delieaey 
for delight ; but they answer not necessity, though sometitnei 
they may modestly attend that whieh answers it. Yea^ wheli 
they are conjunct, it is hard for the necessitous heflrer or reader 
to observe the matter of ornament and delit*aey^ and libt to hk 
carried from the matter of necessity ; and to hear or read A 
neat, concise, sententious discourse, and not to be hurt by it) 
for it usually hindereth the due Operation of thl> matter^ 
keeps it from the heart, stops it in the fancy, and makes it 
seem as light as the style. We use not to stand upon compli- 
ment, when we run to quench a common fire, nor to liall 
men out to it by an eloquent speech. If we see ^ man fall 
into fire or water, we stand not upon mannerliness in pluckinj^ 
him out, but lay hands upon him as we can without delay/' | 

> Yfatks, TOl. 4U, Preface^ p. ii< 



69 ikicnkKb ttAkMai 4dl 

Comliioii as ^rMchihg ii amon^ i\», the fttjrk beHt lidApted 
lb die jpulpft, Abd to the gireat subjects which are thete dis« 
MMd, toy I fearj very imperfbctiy understbod. In sothe ih^ 
Atancee the langu^e of the preacher is c6rrect« chaste, clas'^ 
aical } but the discussion i^ flat> cold, and unimptessive. Th^ 
tfUth is Aeithel eoheealed hor nlisrepresehted t but there is ail 
entire absefiee of *' thoughts that breathe and wdrds thM 
burn/' In other eases, the pulpit is degraded by Yulgarity add 
edditjT) or etery kind of low buffoonery, lliis is done fb^ 
the aroWed purpose of gaining attention, and rendering truth 
Camiliar, Such persons would seetn to forget that it is practical" 
ble to be plaid, without becoming low ; to strike and secure hU 
tention, without becoming harlequins and buffoons. Who eVer 
heard of men being converted by apes and itiountebatlks F In a 
third class, finery and ornament are mistaken for eloquence ) and 
the Ooepel is supposed to be preached with power^ When it ift 
little better than buried under the rubbish of words aild massefc 
of gorgeous or tawdry flgure«^ 

All these and many otheir vices which aecompany preachings 
afiM ftom preaehera being Occupied With something else than 
their subject and the eternal good of their audience. If th# 
ftoind is but sufficiently impressed with these, there will be 
no dispoeition to cultivate either the lUdieH)us or the fine^ thi 
lofty or the low, in setting forth the words of eternal lifci Sitn^ 
plidty with earnestness is the only style of speaking which 
becomes the ministry of the Gospel. The one will enable the 
preacher to convey truth to the understanding, the other will 
give him the command of the heart. Impi'Cssed himself, he 
will impress others, and what he himself clearly understands, he 
will make intelligible to his audience^ These were the thihga 
which Baxter studied; and they constituted the power and 
charm of his eloquence. Thousands hung upon his lips when he 
preached j not to be dazzled or amused, but to be convinced of 
their danger, or led to the remedy* His popularity arose chiefly 
from his impassioned earnestness and solemnity. His hearers 
had no opportunity to be thinking of the man, or of any thing 
about him | while he spoke, their thoughts Were fixed on them- 
selves, or on Christ; and when they left him, they were compelled 
to think and to speak, not of Richard Baxter, but of the awful 
or delightful subject which he had brought before them. 

His ^ Treatise on Conversion/ was followed shortly after by 



492 THB-UFB AND WAITINGS 

the moet widely-circulated of all his puUtcationtr |A Call to 
the Unconverted to turn and live, from the Living GkxL' ^ Hie 
preface to this treatise is dated Dec. 10, 1657* The- fomer 
treatise had appeared in June, of the same year. .Of a woi)l so 
well known as the ^ Call to the Unconverted,' it is scarody .ne* 
cessary for me to speak. It is worthy, however, of historieal 
record, that he was induced to undertake these works on Con- 
version, by Archbishop Usher. That eminent man, no doubt, 
perceived what constituted the/brM of Baxter, and, therefiNC, 
suggested an employment so well suited to his powers. Hue 
following passage of his preface to the ^ Call ' contains .this .cir- 
cumstance, and gives some account of the order in which he 
intended to pursue his task. 

f* In the short acquaintance I had with that reverend, learned 
servant of Christ, Bishop Usher, he was oft, from first to Isst, 
importuning me to write a Directory for the several ranks of pro- 
fessed Christians, which might distinctly give each one their 
portion ; beginning with the unconverted, and then proeeeding 
to the babes in Christ, and then to the strong ; and mixiog 
some special helps against the several sins that they are addicted 
to. By the suddenness of his motion at our first congress, I 
perceived it was in his mind before ; and I told him, both that 
it was abundantly done by many already, and that his unac- 
quaincedness with my weakness might make him think me 
fitter for it than I was. But this did not satisfy him, he still 
made it his request. I confess I was not moved by his reasons, 
nor did I apprehend any great need of doing more than is done 
in that way ; nor that I was likely to do more. And, therefore, 
I parted from him without the least purpose to answer his de- 
sire. But since his death his words often came into my mind; 
and the great reverence whicli I bore to him, did the . more 
incline me to think with some complacency of his motion. 
Having of late intended to write a ^ Family Directory,' I began 
to apprehend how congruously the forementioned work shouM 
lead the way; and the several conditions of men's souls be 
spoken of, before we come to the several relations. Hereupon 
1 resolved, by God's assistance, to proceed in the order follow- 
ing. First, to speak to the impenitent, unconverted sinners, 
who are not yet so much as purposing to turn ; or at least 
are not setting about the work. With these, I thought, i 

^ Works, vol. vii. 



OF atCHARD BAXTER. * 49S 

wakening penuasive was a more necessary means than mere 
directions ; for directions suppose men willing to obey them. But 
the persons that we have first to deal with, are wilful and 
adeep in sin, and as men that are past feeling, having given 
themselves over to sin with greediness. My next work must be 
for those that have some purposes to turn, and are about the 
work, to direct them for a thorough and a true conversion, that 
they miscarry not in the birth. The third part must be 
diieetions for the younger and weaker sort of Christians, that 
they may be established, built up, and persevere. The foutth 
part, directions for lapsed and backsliding Christians, for their 
pafe recovery. Beside these, there is intended some short per- 
suasions against some special errors of the times, and against 
■ome common killing sins. As for directions to doubting troubled 
eonaciences, that is done already; and the strong I shall not 
write directions for, because they are so much taught of God 
already. And then the last part is intended more especially 
fiir feunilies, as such, directing the several relations in their 
duties.''! 

The ' Call' appears to be the substance of a sermon which 
he had previously preached from Ezekiel xxxiii. 11. He pre- 
fixes to it a prefatory address to ^^ all unsanctified persons who 
shall read the book, especially his hearers in the parish of Kid- 
derminster ;" which is itself a powerfully-awakening sermon ; 
fall of the most faithful statements and expostulations. The 
results in the conversion of men, arising from this book, have 
been greater probably than have arisen from any other mere 
human performance. His own account of the effects produced 
by it, which had come to his knowledge long before his death, 
must be given in his own language. And as it has passed 
through editions almost innumerable since, the good effected by 
it is beyond all calculation. 

** God hath blessed it with unexpected success beyond all the 
rest that I have written, except the ^ Saint's Rest.' In a little 
more than a year, there were about twenty thousand of them 
printed by my own consent, and about ten thousand since, be- 
sides many thousands by stolen impression, which poor men 
stole for lucre' sake. Through God's mercy, I have had informa- 
tion of almost whole households converted by this small book, 
which I set so light by ; and, as if all this in England, Scotland, 

1 Works, vol. vii. pp. 331, 332. 



104 TUB Lin AVD WB1T1V68 

and Ireland^ were not mercy enough to me^ God, lunet I nai 
ailencedy hath sent it over on his message to many bejfoiid the 
seas. For when Mr. Elliot had printed all the Bible ip the 
Indians' language, he next translated this my * Call to the 
Unconverted,' as he wrote to us here : and though it was here 
thought prudent to begin with the * Practice of Piety,\beeattse of 
the envy and distaste of the times against me, he had finished 
it before that advice came to him. Yet God would make 
some further use of it, for Mr. Stoop, the pastor of the BVeadi 
church in London, being driven hence by the dtspleaaor^ <rf 
superiors, was pleased to translate it into elegant French^ and 
print it in a very curious letter; and I hope it will not be mipro* 
fitable there, nor in Germany, where it is printed in Dutoh/'^ 

Dr. Bates tells us, in his funeral sermon for Baxter, thai sia 
brothers were at one time converted by this book. It haaiMn 
translated into Welsh and Gaelic, and most of the European huH 
guages) and Cotton Mather, in his life, mentions an Indiaa 
Prince who was so affected with it, that he kept reading it with 
tears till he died. 

llie nature of this subject naturally leads me to connect 
with the ' Call,' the next tract of this class, which we shall 
notice, though it did not immediately follow,^ Now or Nkvkr;'* 
a discourse founded on Ecclesiastes ix. 10 ; and in which '^ the 
holy, serious, diligent believer is justified, encouraged, excited, 
and directed ; and the opposers and neglecters convinced by the 
light of Scripture and reason." These tracts are so similar in 
character, style, and design, that I know not where the pre* 
ference is due in point of excellence. They are both character-* 
ised by one, strongly- marked feature-r-iNTKNss barnbstnbss— » 
the earnestness of the author's deep convictions of the awfullj^ 
perilous condition of unconverted men. This was the result of the 
clear and powerful perceptions which he had of the present guilt 
and wretchedness, and the future loss and ruin of such persons. 
It is not the working up of mental excitement till it becomes 
passion ; nor is it a laboured effort of human eloquence, which 
we admire in these treatises. Baxter was thinking of every thing 
rather than of the clothing of his thoughts, his words, or figures. 
He was thinking of the character and desert of a sinner, and 
intent only on arresting him before it might be too late. His 
object was to gain his attention, to convince his understanding, 

" Life, part i. p. 115« ■ Works, vol. vii. 



OF RIC0AED BM^TBB. 40$ 

and to impress his heart. For this purpose he desoribesi his 
reasons, he expostulatesi he threatens, be implores. He avails 
himself of every topic calculated to alarm or to allure. The 
chi^racter of God — the responsibility pf man-r-the uncertainty of 
time— 4he misery of hellr— the glory of heaven — are all brought 
forward and urged with an irresistible force of language, and in 
the tenderest appeals to the conscience and the heart. 

Baxter's ' Call' stands advantageously contrasted with a trear 
tise of a similar title, Law's * Serious Call to a devout and holy 
life/ I am far from thjnking lightly of this work. U contains 
much important truth, and much serious and valuable admonit- 
tion ; but it wants what Baxter's treatises eminently possess, the 
simplicity of evangelical doctrine. Law was more of the school 
of .Behmen than of Paul. He obscures and mystifies what 1}ax-9- 
ter represents in the simplest manner. Law's ' Ca)l ' is like 
the Egyptian taskmasters, who compelled the Israelites to make 
bricks without straw; it is an attempt to make men devout and 
holy without supplying sufficiently the means, by which alone, 
with divine influence, the effects can be produced. Baxter seeks 
to influence the mind and character entirely by those represen-p 
tations of evangelical truth, which must lie at the foundation of 
all comfortable and acceptable religion. The work of this 
celebrated mystic naturally tends to a species of self-righteous 
Pharisaism ; the work of the Nonconformist, to make an hum« 
ble, holy, and happy Christian. 

The work of Baxter I cannot help thinking preferable to a 
similar prpduction of one of his own brethren, Joseph Alleine's 
'Alarm 3' to which indeed Baxter writes a long preface, where 
he unites with the author in sounding the alarm to the uncon* 
verted. Alleine's tract is written in a style of almost unmiti-? 
gated severity. There is a forbidding sternness in it. Full 
of ^* the terrors of the Lord," it is calculated to frighten rather 
than to persuade. Some of the topics also are not hap- 
pily chosen, or discretely urged ; yet it is a powerful appeal, 
and on some minds may be fitted to prepare the way for the 
consideration of the '^ mercies of the Lord." Baxter's ' Call ' is 
adapted for more general usefulness. It breathes a softer and 
kindlier spirit, while it is no less pointed and faithful than the 
production of his friend and brother. 

The next work, according to Baxter's own arrangement, 
which appeared^ with ^ preface dated May 29| 16$8| is his 



496 TBB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

* Directions and Persuasions to a sound Conversion* for prmn- 
tion of that Deceit and Damnation of Souls, and of thow 
Scandals, Heresies, and desperate Apostasies, that are the con- 
sequents of a Counterfeit and Superficial Change/ ® ^^ Having " 
he says, ^^ in my ' Call to the Unconverted,' endeavoured to 
awaken careless souls, and persuade the obstinate to turn and 
live, I have here spoken to them that seem to be about the 
work, and given them some directions and persuasions to prevent 
their perishing in the birth, and so to prevent that hypocrisy, 
which else they are like to be formed into ; and the deceit of 
their hearts, the error of their lives, and the misery at their 
death, which are likely to follow. That they live not as those 
that flatter God with their mouths, and ^ lie unto him with their 
tongues, because their heart is not right with him, neither are 
they steadfast in his covenant/ Lest, denying deep entertain* 
ment and rooting to the seed of life, or choking it by the 
radicated, predominant love and cares of the world, they wither 
when the heat of persecution shall bfeak forth : and lest, 
building on the sands, they fall when the winds and storms arise, 
and their fall be great : and so ^ they go out from us, that they 
may be made manifest that they were not of us ; for if they 
had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us/ " ' 
This work, through some mismanagement on the pairt of the 
bookseller, was at first published at too high a price, and, in 
consequence, had a less extensive circulation than some of 
Baxter's other books. It is well calculated to undeceive those 
who take it for granted that they have been the subjects of i 
divine change, when no such change has been effected. While 
great alarm is experienced, it is not so well fitted to be usefiil, 
as after the alarm has subsided, and the conscience begins to 
be satisfied, though the great change has not taken place. 
Baxter's directions for conversion are frequently so ex- 
pressed, as if men could accomplish the change themselves ; or 
as if they would do certain things with a view to their being 
converted. For instance, he says, " If you would be truly con- 
verted, be sure that you make an absolute resignation of your* 
selves, and all that you have, to God/' Now, it is as plain as 
possible that only a converted person will make such a surren- 
der as this. The same remark will apply to many other of his 
directions. No man, however, had a stronger conviction than 
he, that conversion is peculiarly the work of God. His vie^ 

• Works, vol. viii, - » IbW. Preface, p. r. 



OF RICUARB BAXTER. 497 

of its nature and consequences^ as well as his general senti- 
ments, afford the most satisfactory evidence, that this must 
have been the case. But he did not always sufficiently discri- 
minate what belongs to God, from what falls within the province 
4>f man in the affairs of religion. He did not distinguish be- 
tween our using all suitable means to convert men, and calling 
upon men to do certain things to convert themselves. Almost 
every thing he said, considered as an appeal to the understand- 
ings and the consciences of sinners, is strictly correct as means 
which God has appointed his servants to employ for the conver- 
»ion of the world ^ but when put in the form of requesting 
sinners to perform certain acts with a view to God's converting 
them, the nature and tendency of the address are considerably 
altered^ This gives to some of Baxter's preaching the aspect 
of a self-righteous system, in which the work of salvation 
is divided between God and man. But nothing could be 
iurther from his design. He meant, in fact, nothing more 
than is intended by those solemn appeals in which the prophets 
and apostles call upon men to repent, to turn, to be con- 
verted, to make to them new hearts and right spirits, that they 
may live and not die. This language is the voice of God to 
the sinner, sleeping in security, and dead in his sins } it is the 
moral means suited to the understanding, and appointed to in- 
duce consideration and repentance, which the divine Spirit 
brings to bear on the heart, while the heart receives the impres- 
sion from which salvation and eternal life arise. 

Next to this in order^ though following after a considerable 
interval, is his ^ Directions to the Converted for their Establish- 
ment, Growth, and Perseverance/ *i It was preached in a lecture 
at Kidderminster in 1658, but was not published by Baxter till 
1668. The dedication is an affecting address to his " Dearly 
Beloved, the Church at Kidderminster." In this letter he ex- 
presses great respect for them, and unabated confidence and af- 
fection. " The things which I especially loved in you," he says, 
'^I will freely praise, which were a special measure of humility, 
a plain simplicity in religion, a freedom from common errors, 
a readiness to receive the truth, a catholic temper, without ad- 
dictedness to any sect ; a freedom* from schism and separating 
ways, and a unity and unanimity in religion; a hatred and 
disowning of the usurpations, perturbations, and rebellions 

* WorkSy vol. viii, 
VOL. I. K K 



498 TUB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

against the civil government, and an open bearing of your t«* 
timony in all these cases ; together with seriousness in rdigioOi 
and sober, righteous, charitable, and godly conversadon. But 
yet, mth all this, which is truly amiable, I know you have your 
frailties and imperfections. The weaker sort of Christians, either 
in knowledge or in holiness, to say nothing of the unsound, 
are the greater number in the best congregation that I ever 
yet knew. And what may be your case these eight years, since 
I have been separated from your presence, I cannot tell^ though, 
through the mercy of God, I hear not of your declining. It is 
our sin which hath parted us asunder, let us lay the blame upon 
ourselves. I have now done expecting my ancient comforts in 
labouring among you any more. For these six years time, in 
which I thought my great experience had made me more capa* 
ble of serving my Master better than before, his wbdom and 
justice have caused me to spend in grievous silence. And now 
my decays and disability of body are so much increased, that if 
I had leave, I have not strength, nor can ever reasonably expect 
it ; therefore, once more I am glad to speak to you as I may, 
and shall be thankful, if authority will permit these instructions 
to come to your view, that the weak may have some more 
•counsel and assistance. And if any shall miscarry, and disgrace 
religion, there may remain on record one more testimony, 
what doctrine it was that you were taught. The Lord be your 
teacher and your strength, and save you from yourselves, and 
from this present evil world, and preserve you to his heavenly 
kingdom through Jesus Christ." ' 

He assigns another reason for its publication, beside that of 
its being the third part of his intended plan. 

'^ The last sermon which I preached publicly, was at Black* 
friars, on this text, Col. ii. 6, 7 ; and presently after there came 
forth a book called * Farewell Sermons,* among which this of 
mine was one. Who did it, or to what end, I know not, nor 
doth it concern me to inquire. But I took it as an injury, both 
as it was done without my knowledge, and against my will, and 
to the offence of my superiors ; and because it was taken by the 
notary so imperfectly, that much of it was nonsense : especially 
when some foreigners that lived in Poland, Hungary, and Hel- 
vetia, were earnest to buy this with the rest of my writings, I 
perceived how far the injury was likely to go, both against me and 
many others of my brethren. Therefore, finding since among the 

» Worksj vol. vUi. p. ^b. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 499 

relies of my scattered papers^ this imperfect piece, which I hod 
before written on that text, I was desirous to publish it, as for 
the benefit of weak Christians, so to right myself, and to cashier 
that farewell sermon." * 

The second part of this treatise came out the following year, 
under the title of ' The Character of a sound, confirmed Chris-* 
tian ; as also of a weak Christian, and of a seeming Christian.'^ 
The preface to this is addressed to his friend, Henry Ashurst, 
Esq.5 and is dated from '^ his lodgings in New Prison^ June H, 
1669/' In reference to this work, he says^ in his Life : 

^ The great weaknesses, passions, and injudiciousness, of 
many religious persons, and their ill effects ^ and especially per- 
ceiring that the temptations of the times, yea, the very re* 
proofs of the Conformists did but increase these things among 
the separating party, caused me to offer a book to be licensed) 
called, ' Directions to weak Christians, how to grow in Grace/ 
with a second part, being ' Sixty Characters of a sound Chris- 
tian, with as many of the weak Christian, and the Hypocrite '; 
which I the rather writ to imprint on men's minds a right ap- 
prehension of Christianity, and to be as a confession of our 
judgment in this malignant age, when some Conformists would 
make the world believe that it is some monstrous thing, com- 
posed of folly and sedition, which the Nonconformists mean by 
a Christian and a godly man. This book came forth when I 
was in prison, having been long before refused by Mr. Grigg."* 

Of the reasons of this refusal by the bishop's chaplain, hie 
gives the following account in another place. '^This short 
treatise I offered to Mc. Thomas Grigg, the Bishop of London's 
chaplain, to be licensed for the press ; a man who had but latley 
conformed, and who possessed special respect to me ; but he 
utterly refused it, pretending that it savoured of discontent, 
and would be interpreted as against the bishops and the times. 
The matter was, that in several passages I spoke of the prospe- 
rity of the wicked, and the adversity of the godly; described 
hypocrites by their enmity to the godly, and their forsaking the 
truth for fear of suffering ; and described the godly by their 
undergoing the enmity of the wicked world, and being steadfast, 
whatever it shall cost them. All this was interpreted as against 
the Church or Prelatists. I asked them whether they would 
not license that of mine, which they would do of another man's, 
against whom they had no displeasure; and he told me^ 

f Works, vol. viu. p, 258. « Ibid. toI. yiii. « Life, part iii. p. 61, 

kk2 



500 TRB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

no; because the words would receive their interpretatian 
with the mind of the author. He asked me whether I did 
not myself think that Nonconformists would interpret it as 
against the times. 1 answered him, yes ; I thought they 
would : and so they do all those passages of Scripture, which 
apeak of persecution, and the su£ferings of the godly; but 
I hoped Bibles should be licensed for all that. I asked bim 
whether that was the rule which they went by, that they 
would license nothing of mine, which they thought any readers 
would interpret as against the bishops or their party. And 
when he told me plainly, that it was their rule or resolution, I 
took it for my final answer, and purposed never to oiS^r him 
more : for I despaired of writing that which men would not 
interpret according to their own condition and opinion ; espe- 
cially against those whose crimes are notorious before the 
world. This made me think what a troublesome thing is guilt, 
which, as Seneca saith, is like a sore, which is pained not (miy 
with a little touch, but sometimes upon a conceit that it b 
touched. It*maketh a man think that every briar is a seijeant 
to arrest him ; or« with Cain, that every one who seeth him 
will kill him. A Cainite's heart and life, have usually the 
attendance of a Cainite's conscience. I did but try the licenser 
with this small, inconsiderable script, that I might know what 
to expect for my more valued writings } I then told him that I 
had troubled the world with so much already, and said enough 
for one man's part, that I could not think it very necessary to 
say any more to them ; and therefore I should accept of his 
discharge. But fain they would have had my controversial 
writings, about universal redemption, predetermination, &c., in 
which my judgment is more pleasing to them ; but I was un- 
willing to publish them alone, while the practical writings are 
refused. I give God thanks that I once saw times of greater 
liberty, though under an usurper ; or else, as far as I can discern, 
scarce any of my books had ever seen the light." * 

Having followed the order and connexion pointed out by 
Baxter himself, in his works relating to conversion and the un- 
converted, we must now depart from systematic arrangement to 
notice several important pieces which still belong to the same 
class of writing. I siiall follow the order of time in which they 
appeared : ^ The Mischiefs of self-ignorance, and the Benefits 

' Life, part i. p. 123. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. ' SOI 

of self- acquaintance, opened in divers Sermons at St. Dunstan's, 
West/ 1661. 4to7 This volume is dedicated to Anne, Countess 
of Balcarras. Then follows an address to the people of Kid- 
derminster, giving an account of the reasons why he was not 
allowed to preach in the diocese of Worcester, and which led 
to a controversy between him and Bishop Morley. 

The subject of which he discourses, is one of great import- 
anccj and lies at the foundation of all proper knowledge and 
experience of the power of religion. It is founded on 1 Cor. 
nil. 5, ** Know ye not your own selves ? '* This treatise is pro- 
bably less known to the reading public, than many of the 
practical works of Baxter, not because it is less valuable, but 
because it has not been regularly supplied in separate and sue* 
oessive editions. Its excellence consists not in doctrinally 
imfolding the economy of grace, or in directly pressing upon the 
reader the necessity of repentance towards God, or faith towards 
our Lord Jesus Christ, but in tracing out the involutions of that 
most intricate economy of thought and feeling, judgment and 
action, moral liking and moral antipathy, which exists entire, 
and works apart in the bosom of every individual : and in this 
way it is powerfully subservient to repentance and faith, by dis- 
turbing the apathy, and combating the ignorant indifference, 
which so fatally shut them out from men's consciences and 
hearts. Its general scheme of thought is instructively arranged ; 
and although its topics are numerous, they are not diffusely 
treated ; while under each of them, there is a rich variety of 
illustrative matter, judiciously selected, and very aptly intro- 
duced. It is idle to say more of the manner of the writing, than 
that it is the manner of Richard Baxter ; showing the writer in 
every page, but clear, concise, and simple, beyond several of his 
other pieces ; while it is second to none of them in persuasive 
eloquence and impressive fervour, clothing thoughts which are 
not familiar, in very conspicuous language, and adapting itself, 
with uncommon felicity, to the inexperienced and the undis- 
ciplined. The whole style and spirit of the work are exactly 
suited to the nature of the subject; and we think it well 
entitled to a place among the few books which the parent selects 
for his child, or the pastoi: for the young of his flock, or the 
guardian for his pupil, as a means of awakening religious in- 
quiry, and forming habits of early reflection*' 

T Works, vol. xvi, 

* A good editioQ of this work has rtccntly beta published by CoIUasy of 



502 TUB LIVB AND WRlTUfCS 

Of the Countess of Balcarras, to whom this work is dedicated 
and her husband^ of whose piety the author speaks in terms of 
warm commendation, the following account will intereet the 
reader : 

*^ She was daughter to the late Earl of Seaforth in Scotlaodi 
towards the Highlands, and was married to the Earl of Bal- 
carrasi a covenanter, but an enemy to Cromwell's perfidiousness, 
and true to the person and authority of the king* With the Earl 
of Glencame, he kept up the last war for the king against 
Cromwell ; and his lady, through deaniess of affection, marched 
with him, and lay out of doors with him on the mountains. At 
last, Cromwell drove them out of Scotland, and they went 
together beyond sea to the king, whom they long followed* 
He was taken for the head of the Presbyterians with the king ; 
but, by evil instruments, he fell out with the lord chancellor, who, 
prevailing against him upon some advantage, he was for a time 
forbidden the Court ; the grief whereof, added to the distempers 
he had contracted by his warfare on the cold and hungry moun- 
tains, cast him into a consumption, of which he died. He was 
a lord of excellent learning, judgment^ and honesty; none 
being praised equally with him for learning and understanding 
in all Scotland. 

^^ When the Earl of Lauderdale (his near kinsman and great 
friend) was prisoner in Portsmouth and Windsor Castle, he fell 
into acquaintance with my books, and so valued them, that 
he read them all, and took notes of them, and earnestly com- 
mended them to the Earl of Balcarras, then with the king. 
The Earl met, at the first sight, with some passages where 
he thought I spake too favourably of the Papists, and differed 
from many other Protestants ; so he cast them by, and sent the 
reason of his distaste to the Earl of Lauderdale, who pressed 
him but to read one of the books over; which he did, and then 
read them all, (as I have seen many of them marked with his 
hand,) and was drawn to overvalue them more than the Earl of 
Lauderdale. Hereupon his lady reading them also, and being 
a woman of very strong love and friendship, with extraordinary 
entireness swallowed up in her husband's love, she, for the 
books' sake, and her husband's sake% became a most affectionate 
fViend to me before she ever saw me. While she was in France, 

Glasgow, among the ' Select Christian Authors/ with an admirable introduc- 
tion by my excellent friend the Rev. David Young, of Pertb^ from which thf 
^ecodinf peNtg raph has bf€n taken* 



or RICHARD BAXTRR* 508 

bdog zealous for the king's restoration, (in whose cause her 
iMisband had pawned and ruined his estate,) by the Earl of 
Lauderdale's direction, she, with Sir Robert Murray, got divers 
letters from the pastors and others there to bear witness of the 
king's sincerity in the Protestant religion ; among which there 
was one to me from Mr. Graches. Her great wisdom, modesty^ 
piety, and sincerity, made her accounted the saint at court- 
When she came over with the king, her extraordinary respect 
obliged me to be so often with her, as gave me acquaintance 
with her eminency in all the foresaid virtues. She was of 
•olid understanding for her sex; of prudence, much more 
than ordinary; of great integrity and constancy in her reli- 
gion; a great hater of hypocrisy; and faithful to Christ in an 
Qfifaithful world. She was somewhat over affectionate to her 
friends, which hath cost her a great deal of sorrow in the loss of 
her husband, and since of other special friends ; and may cost 
her more, when the rest forsake her, as many in prosperity 
do to those that will not forsake their fidelity to Christ. Her 
ddest son, the young Earl of Balcarras, a very hopeful youth, 
died of a strange disease ; two stones being found in hb heart, 
of which one was very great. Being my constant auditor, and 
orer-respectful friend, I had occasion for the just praises and 
acknowledgments which I have given her ; which the occasion- 
ing of these books hath caused me to mention.''* 

The death of Lord Balcarras took place on the 30th of August, 
1659. His eldest son, referred to above, died in 1662.^ In 
the margin of the passage of Baxter's life, which I have ex- 
tracted, Lady Balcarras is stated to have been afterwards 
married to the Earl of Argyle. Whether this note is Baxter's 
or Sylvester's, I am unable to say, nor can I vouch for its accu- 
imcy. She must in that case have been second wife to the 
unfortunate Argyle, who lost his life, as his father also had done, 
on a charge of high treason, at the Market Cross of Edinburgh, 
on the 30th of June, 1685. 

In his letter to die inhabitants of Kidderminster, prefixed to this 
volume, Baxter gives a short account of the Savoy Conference, 
and hints that something he had said there, with which Dr. 
Morley,the bishop of Winchester, was exceedingly offended, was 
the cause of the bishop's refusing to allow him to preach again at 
Kidderminster, or anywhere in his diocese. *^ At the conclusion 
of this conference," he says, ^^ those of the other part formed an 

» Life, part i. p. 121. ^ ' Burke's Peenge,' p. 43. 



504 THS LIFE AND WRITINGS 

argument, whose major proposition was to this sense : * What- 
soever book enjoineth nothing but what is of itself lawful, and 
by lawful authority^ enjoineth nothing that is sinful/ We denied 
this proposition, and at last gave divers reasons of our denial; 
among which, one was, ^ It may be unlawful by accident, and, 
therefore, sinful/ You know my crime, it is my concurring 
with learned, reverend brethren, to give this reason of cor 
denial of a proposition ; yet they are not forbidden to preach, 
only I." 

The bishop took fire at this statement with one or two other 
allusions to himself, and published shortly after ^ A Letter to a* 
Friend, in vindication of himself from Mr. Baxter's calumny/ 
In this letter, his lordship denies that Baxter ever had a right to 
be minister of Kidderminster ; accuses him of having robbed and 
injured the lawful vicar ; represents him to the people of Kid* 
derminster as a very improper person to hare the charge ot 
them, and accuses him of holding various ^^ maxims of treason, 
sedition, and rebellion, and as guilty of certain mis-statements.'' 
In proof of this he introduces the testimony of Dr. Gunning and 
Dr. Pearson ; and concludes by making an appeal, '^ whether a 
man of ^this judgment and of these affections ought to be per* 
mitted to preach ? " 

" When the bishop's invective was read," Baxter says, " many 
men were of many minds about the answering of it : those at 
a distance all cried out upon me to answer; those at hand 
did all dissuade me, and told me that it would be imprisonment 
at least to me, if I did it with the greatest truth and mildness 
possible. Both gentlemen and all the city ministers told me, 
that it would not do half so much good as my suffering 
would do hurt ; that none believed it but the engaged party ; 
that to others an answer was not necessary, and would be 
unprofitable, for they would never read it. I thought that 
the judgment of men that were upon the place, and knew how 
things went, was most to be regarded. But yet I wrote a 
full answer to his book, except about the words in my * Holy 
Commonwealth, Vhich were not to bespoken to, and kept it by 
me, that I might use it as there was occasion. At that time, 
Mr. Joseph Glanvil sent me the offer of his service, to write in 
my defence, but I dissuaded him from bringing himself into 
suffering, and making himself unserviceable, for so low an end : 
only I gave him, and no man else, my own answer to peruse, 
which he returned with his approbation of it. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. '505 

'^ Biit Mr. Edward Bagshaw (son to Mr. Bagshaw, the lawj^er, 
Ihat wrote * Mr. Bolton's Life ') without my knowledge wrote a 
book hi answer to the bishop's. I could have wished he had let 
it alone ; for the man hath no great disputing faculty, but only 
a florid, epistolary style, and was wholly a stranger to me and to 
the matters of fact, and, therefore, could say nothing to them : 
but only being of a bold and Roman spirit, he thought that no 
suffering should deter a man from the smallest duty, or cause 
him to silence any useful truth. And I had formerly seen a 
Latin discourse of his against monarchy, which no whit pleased 
me, being a weak argumentation for a bad cause."^ 

Glanvirs letters, offering to write in Baxter's defence against 
Dr. Morley, still remain. They are full of commendation of 
Baxter's character, and of the success with which he had met 
the bishop's charges. *^ Mcthinks," he says, " 'tis a great pity 
but the world should be disabused, and that your right reverend 
libdler should be made ashamed, of his misreports and slander* 
ons falsifications." He advises Baxter, by all means to publish, 
BS^ till his defence appeared, ^^ the reverend father's lies will be 
taken for irrcproveable truths." ^ This language is abundantly 
plain from a son of the church towards one of her reverend pre- 
lates ; and it is certainly more illustrative of his attachment to 
Baxter, than of his respect for the episcopal hierarchy. 

Though Baxter suppresse'd his answer to the bishop's letter, 
he took notice of it in the epistolary preface to his ' True and 
Only Way of Concord/ published in 1680, which he addressed 
to Bishops Morley and Gunning, whom he considered the chief 
instruments in defeating the design of the Savoy Conference. 
In some other of his controversial pieces, Baxter also alludes to 
the bishop's conduct. 

That the bishop felt an impression had been made against 
him by Baxter's publications, is very evident ; for at the distance 
of twenty years from the original discussion, when in the eighty- 
fifkh year of his age, he published a quarto volume of more than 
five hundred pages, ^ The Bishop of Winchester's Vindication of 
himself from divers false, scandalous, and injurious Reflections, 
made upon him by Mr. Richard Baxter in several of his writ- 
ings/ 16S3. In this large volume, the bishop reprints the 
* Letter to a Friend,' already noticed, and then in his Vindica- 
tion, proceeds to support his charges against Baxter, the pro- 
priety of his conduct in silencing him^ and of his own behaviour 
• Life, part ii. p. 378. * BaxVm MSS. 



506 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

at the Savoy Conference. The whole is mixed up mth the 
bishop's political and high-church sentiments, n^ich were m 
little in accordance with the principles of the British oonstitntiooy 
as with the spirit of the New Testament. Baxter wrote no formal 
answer to this work ; but in reference to it, he says : '' Btshop 
Morley was accounted one of the most eminent of the clergTi 
for parts and orthodoxy. One book against me, called Ui 
Letter, is most shameless for untruths in public matters of &et 
His last and greatest is to prove against me, that the parliament 
hath no part in legislative power, nor the whole kingdom any 
right of self-defence against any commissioned by the king od 
any pretence whatsoever. This accuser is an eminent member 
of the best church in the world. Is this bundle of gross untruth 
a proof that he is one of the best men in the world ? He ssitk 
that ^ the good that I wrote was for mischievous ends.' Bat 
what should move a man, in pain and expectation of speedf 
death, to write above six score books, great and small, that ait 
contrary to the bent of his own heart ? And, for that which he 
would mischievously overthrow to spend his life iigainst hit 
own affections ?"* 

Having finished this digression on the controversy with 
Bishop Morley, we return to the class of books whtch is the 
proper subject of this chapter. 

The next work which flowed from the pen of our untiring 
writer, in this class, bears a very singular and perhaps objection- 
able title, ^ A Saint or a Brutb. The certain necessity and 
excellency of holiness, so plainly proved, and urgently applied, 
as by the blessing of God may convince and save the mis^nble^ 
impenitent, ungodly sensualists, if they will not let tbm ., A 
hinder them from a sober and serious reading/ 1662. 4to.' 

*> ' Penitent Confession/ p. 65. The controTersy between Moriqr tid 
Baxter appears to have been taken up very hotly by several persons on bocli 
sides. It occasioned — Hypocrisy Unveiled, in a Letter to Mr. Baxter, 1653— 
A Letter to a Person of Honour, containing some Animadversions on tiie 
Bishop of Worcester's Letter to Mr. Baxter, 1662 — A Second Letter on tbf 
same subject, 1662 — A Letter, with some Aninuuiversions -on the Aninad- 
verter, on the Bishop of Worcester's Letter, by J. C, M. D. 1662— D. t» 
Defeated ; or, a Reply to a late scurrilous Pamphlet against the Blsbop 
«>f Worcester's Letter, 1662 — Reflections upon the Animadversioos upon tfat 
Bishop of Worcester's Letter, by H. G. 1662— Vindication of the Buhcf of 
Worcester's Letter touching Mr. Baxter, from the Animadversioos of !)•£• 
1662. Behold how great a fire a little matter kindleth! 

' Worksy vol. X. 



OF RICnARD BAXTER* 507 

'Fkom' the dedication to his flock at Kidderminster, and hi« 
Iste hearen in London, I cannot avoid quoting a paragraph or 
twO| beautifnliy written : 

^^ Once more, through the great mercy of Qod, 1 have liberty 
lo send you a preacher for your private families, which may 
•peak to you when I cannot, and when 1 lie silent in the dust. 
I take it for no small mercy, that I have been so much employed 
tbottt the great and necessary things, in despite of all the 
flMdice of Satan, who would have entangled me, and taken up 
my time in personal vindications and barren controversies. 

'' I was also, when I first intended writing, under another temp* 
tation : being of their mind who thought that nothing should 
be made public but what a man had first laid out liis most choice 
art upon, I thought to have acquainted the world with nothing 
but what was the work of time and diligence) but my con* 
•eience soon told me that there was too much of pride and 
selfishness in this, and that humility and self-denial required me 
to lay by the affectation of that style, and spare that industry 
Hrhich tended but to advance my name with men, when it 
biudered the main work, and crossed my end. Providence, 
drawing forth some popular unpolished discourses, and giving 
them success beyond my expectation, did thereby rebuke my 
■elfish thoughts, and satisfy me that the truths of God do 
perform their work more by their divine authority, and proper 
evidence, and material excellency^ than by any ornaments of 
fleshly wisdom. And, as Seneca saith, though I will not despise 
an eloq tent physician, yet will I not think myself much the 
happier for his adding eloquence to his healing art. Being en*^ 
cour'*.''ed, then, by reason and experience, I venture these po* 
pi. >ermons into the world, and especially for the use of you, 
my late auditors, that heard them. I bless God that when 
more worthy labourers are fain to weep over their obstinate, un* 
profitable, unthankful people, and some are driven away by 
tiieir injuries, and put to shake off the dust of their feet agmnst 
them; I am rather forced to weep over my own unthankful 
heart, that did not sufficiently value the mercy of a faithful 
flock, who parted with me rather as the Ephesians with Paul, 
and who have lived according to the plain and necessary 
doctrine which they had received. Among whom. Papists, who . 
persuade men that our doctrine tendeth to divisions, can find no 
divisions or sects ; who have constantly disowned both the am- 
bitious usurpations which have shaken the kiugdoiii) ^xvdi ^<& 



508 THB JLIPB AND WIHTIKGS 

factions, censoriousuess, and civil violence in the churehf which 
pride hath generated and nourished in this trying age. Amaqg 
whom, I have enjoyed so very large a proportion of mercy, io 
the liberty of so long an exercise of my ministry, with so nni- 
versal advantage and success, that I must be disingennoosly 
unthankful if I should murmur and repine at the prewnt 
restraining hand of God. But I must say with David; ^If 
I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will briof 
me again, and show me the ark and habitation/ There, or 
elsewhere, use me in his service. But if he say, * I have na 
delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me at it 
seemeth good unto him.' "' 

It was not the pleasure of God that Baxter should resume Ui 
labours in the place which occupied so much of his heart and 
of his thoughts. Painful as he felt this trial to be, he learned 
to submit to it in quietness and patience, and no doubt fomd 
that it was among the things which worked together for bii 
good. 

The most objectionable part of this work is its tide, whidi 
presents a more offensive aspect to the reader than is derirabie^ 
or than the nature of the subject warrants. The great object of 
it is to convince men '^ that holiness is the most pleasant way; 
that the godly choose the better part, and that the ungodly sen- 
sualists live as brutes, while they unreasonably refuse to lire at 
saints." The treatise is founded on Luke xi. 41, 42, and, like 
many other of his practical writings, is the substance of the dis- 
courses which he delivered from the pulpit. Part of it relates 
to the deistical controversy, and is recommended by himself to 
be read in connexion with the second part of his ^ Saint's Rest,' 
and the ' Treatise against Infidelity.' Many of his statements aie 
strong and pointed, and though the argument is maintained in avery 
discursive manner, it is prosecuted with his characteristic ability. 

The other and smaller performances in this class I sbaD 
group together; as none of them require a distinct notice, 
llie titles in general, sufficiently explain their nature and de* 
sign. They were all the substance of sermons preached in 
different places, though published rather in the form of tracts, 
or treatises, than sermons. 

^ Making Light of Christ and Salvation,' preached at St 
Lawrence Jewry, London.^ * The One Thing Necessary; oTj 

' Works, vol. X. pp. 3-*-5. ^ ibid. vol. xtL 



OF RICHARD BAXTER* 509 

Christ's Justification of Mary's Choice.' 1684.^ 'Cain and 
Abel Malignity; or, Enmity to serious Godliness^ lamented, 
described, detected/ &c. 1689.*^ This treatise is partly de- 
aipied to expose the evil of enmity to serious godliness, as the 
root of all persecution. Preface to Alleine's 'Alarm.' 'A Sermon 
of Judgment/ preached at St. Paul's, before the lord mayor and 
aldermen of London, Dec. 17, 1654.* 'Redemption of Time.'"* 
Baxter mentions some circumstances respecting two of 
these sermons, which illustrate his popularity as a preacher, 
and are therefore worth the recording. ^^ When I returned 
home, I was solicited by letters to print many of the sermons 
which I had preached in London ; and in some of them I gra- 
tified their desires. One sermon which I published, was against 
men's making light of Christ, upon Matt. xxii. 5. This sermon 
was preached at St. Lawrence Jewry, where Mr. Vines was pas- 
tor ; where, though I sent the day before to secure room for the 
Lord Broghill and the Earl of Suffolk, with whom I was to go 
in the coach ; yet when I came, the crowd had so little respect 
to persons, that they were fain to go home again, because they 
would not come within hearing. The old Earl of Warwick, 
who stood in the lobby, brought me home again; and Mr. 
Vines himself was fain to get up into the pulpit and sit behind 
me, and I stood between his legs ; which I mention, that the 
reader may understand that verse in my poem concerning him, 
which is printed, where I say that, 

* At once one pulpit held ui both.' 

^ Another of those sermons which I published, was a sermon 
of judgment, which I enlarged into a small treatise. This was 
preached at St. Paul's at the desire of Sir Christopher Pack, 
then lord mayor, to the greatest auditory that ever I saw.''*^ 

It is impossible to survey the class of writings which we 

have thus briefly brought under review, without admiring the 

goodness and wisdom of God, in raising up a man capable of 

pr9ducing them. With all the imperfections belonging to 

them as human performances, written often in haste, and amidst 

the distractions of a period of great affliction and agitation, 

where shall we find, in the wide range of human literature, so large 

a portion of powerful and heart-stirring appeal ? They comprise 

deeply interesting and comprehensive views of the guilt and 

> Works, vol. X. ^ Ibid. ^ Ibid. * Ibid* 

" Life, part i. pp. Ill, 112. 



510 THB LIP£ AKD WRITIK68 

misery of man, and the (livine provision of mercy through 8 
Saviour; of the awful punishment which awaits the wicked, and 
of the immortal blessedness provided for the righteous, lliese 
topics are interwoven, in general, with great address^ with everjr 
thing that is tender in entreaty, solemn in warning, and faithfU 
in reproof and expostulation. Baxter appeals not to the pas- 
sions only, but to the judgment. His aim is to convince the 
anderstanding, as well as to subdue the heart. He calculated 
on no impressions being lasting or useful, but those which weie 
produced by enlightened views of truth and error, holiness and 
sin, time and eternity. He dealt not in noisy and vapid dedi- 
mation ; but in sound and persuasive argument. He felt tiie 
goodness of his cause, and the weight of the reasons which he 
could adduce in its support, and with a giant's strength^ and tn 
angel's earnestness, he urged the subject home on every niaa'i 
bosom and business. 

It will probably be remarked, that in these discourses there 
is a larger portion of the Law than of the Gospel 5 and that thejr 
are more calculated to operate on the fears than on the hopes 
of men. While 1 admit this to be true, I doubt whether it 
ought to be regarded as a fault, llie object of the author is to 
awaken and convince ; he therefore went, what he considered to 
be, the straightforward road to it. He did not conceal the pro- 
mises of the Gospel, but they did not constitute the chief topics 
of his preaching to men whom he wished to rouse. Judging 
by the success attending his labours, which arose, there is 
reason to believe, from the great plainness and fidelity with 
which he warned men, instead of censuring, it would be well to 
imitate the style of his preaching. 

He was never afraid of carrying the warmth and enei^ of his 
appeals too far. He often complains of his own coldness, hot 
never of the excess of his zeal. The charge of fanaticism gsre 
him no concern. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, he cued 
nothing for the displeasure or the frown of men, but made it 
his grand concern to be found faithful. To win souls was his 
object ; the gaining of them wad his reward. Nor did he lose 
his aim. If few men have laboured harder, or under greater 
bodily suffering, or more severe reproach, few, indeed, hive 
enjoyed a richer reward. In the many fruits of his labours, hi 
could exult even while on earth ^ they now constitute his crowi 
of rejoicing in heaven. 



/ 



OV RICHARD BAXTBR. 511 



CHAPTER IV. 



WORKS ON CHRISTIAN EXPSRIBNCB, 

iBtroductory Remarki--' Rigbt Method for fettled Peace of Conscience '-^ 
ColoDcl Bridget—' The Crucifyio; of the Worid '—Thomas Foley, Esq.— 
« Treatite on Self-Denial '— < Obedient Patience '— < Life of Faith '— ' Know- 
led^ and Lore compared ' — Sir Henry and L4uly Diana Ashurst— ' God'i 
Goodneu Vindicated'— Various Discourses— < Cure of Melancholy '—Bax- 
ter^t Experience among Persons thus afflicted— Conclusion. 

Ir the works noticed in the preceding chapter, show how ad- 
mirably qualified Baxter was for dealing with the unconverted, 
and how powerfully and successfully he d rected his energies to 
benefit thein« the present chapter will bring before the reader, 
a class of books which equally illustrates his capacity for in«- 
structing and edifying Christians, and shows that this branch 
of the Christian ministry was cultivated by him no less than 
the former. 

When a sinner has been converted from the error of his ways, 
only the first step hsts been taken towards the kingdom of heaven. 
His knowledge probably extends but to the merest elements of 
religion ; or to those first truths, which as they are the simplest, 
so are they the most powerfully calculated to interest the under- 
standing, and engage the affections. His perceptions of the 
extent of his wretchedness and danger, and of the divine suitable- 
ness of Heaven*s plan of recovery, comprehend, perhaps, all that 
is true, and yet embrace but a narrow range. As he becomes 
fiuniliar with these, he perceives their connexion with other 
subjects, more difficult and complex. His mind requires fresh 
excitement to counteract its natural bias, to prevent its return to 
former pursuits and habits, and to carry it on in the new course 
into which it has been led. 

But new discoveries of truth, and of the way of righteousness, 
are not the only discoveries which a man comes to make in the 



512 THB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

progress of Christianity. He makes discoveries of the deprafitj 
and deceitfulness of his heart, for which he was not at first, per- 
haps, at all prepared ; which astound and perplex him, lead 
him to question his own sincerity, the reality of the change 
which he supposes had taken place in his mind ; and thus bring 
him into deep distressi His conscience is wounded, his spirit* 
are depressed, and his confidence in the adaptation of the Goi- 
pel remedy, or in his right to use it, is very considerably abated. 

Much skill is required in the treatment of persons in thb 
state. Severity or tenderness, when unduly or improperly ex- 
ercised, may be almost equally injurious. The one may create 
despondency and desperation ; the other may soothe and quiets 
wound without healing it. In some cases it is necessary to apply 
a sedative, in others a stimulus. The sensibility of some b 
quicker than their understandings ; the judgment of such most 
be informed. In other cases the mind is sufficiently enlightened, 
but the conscience is not properly under its guidance; the moral 
faculties of such must be the chief object of attention. Some 
instructors, like quacks in medicine, have a spiritual panacea ior 
every case. This they apply without judgment or discrimini* 
tion, healing some, and killing others; but in both the pro- 
fessions, while the cures are magnified and blazoned, we hear as 
little as possible of the deaths which are inflicted. 

Christianity is perfectly adapted to all the diversified forms 
of evil which can or do occur among men. If it were not, 
it would not be what the Scriptures represent it — the fruit of 
Jehovah's highest wisdom, the profoundest display of his good- 
ness to creatures ; and therefore worthy of the reception of 
every human being to whom it is addressed. Hence the great 
business of the Christian ministry, in relation to believers, is, 
to unfold the various parts of this infinitely wise and beneficent 
scheme ; to obviate the difficulties arising from their imperfect 
acquaintance with it ; to illustrate the relative connexiou and 
harmony of its various principles, and the holy tendency and 
design of all its provisions and enactments. 

By many ill-informed persons, who make a profession of 
religion, a kind of nausea is felt, when the -subject of Chris- 
tian experience is mentioned. It is instantly regarded as 
the cant of a party, or as something akin to fanaticism. At all 
events it is set down as what belongs only to the weaker portion 
of the religious community, or is charitably ascribed to an over- 
sensitive conscience^ or the undue cultivation of a spirituality 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 513- 

wluch b not adapted to present circumstances. The subject is 
therefore discarded, as unworthy of attention from men of 
mcnre enlarged and cultivated minds* 

It is readily granted that the subject has been abused ; that 
a phraseology has been employed in treating it both disgusting 
md absurd; that it has bieen substituted in the place of the 
Ugher morals of religion, and treated as if it were compatible 
with outward carelessness and even gross misconduct* Still it 
would be as foolish to deny the existence of what is commonly 
called Christian experience, as to deny that individuals who 
an under a process of cure or healing, have any consciousness 
of the effects which are produced by the medicines that are 
prescribed to them. If the Gospel is destined and fitted to 
aet as a remedy, there must be a sensible experience to cor- 
mpcmd with it. There must be a consciousness of the effects 
if the truth has exerted a searching power on the con- 
acience, a healing influence on the heart, and a transforming 
operation on the whole character. If it has infused a new 
principle of life into the soul, giving a new tone and direction 
to its thoughts and pursuits, and surrounding it by a healthier 
and holier atmosphere than it ever before breathed, there must 
be some knowledge of all this. As the process of divine influence 
advances or retrogrades ; as it experiences checks from within, 
or counteractions from without ; as there is a vigorous and per- 
severing co-operation on our part with God's revealed purposes 
and plans, or a state of inactivity or positive resistance, so will 
the work of salvation be advancing or receding. Now all this 
makes up what we understand by religious experience, or the 
Christian life, to cultivate which both the ministry and writings 
of Baxter were devoted. 

The first work on this subject which he published is, his 
^ Right Method for Settled Peace of Conscience and Spiritual 
Comfort.' <" 1653. 12mo. This was the fourth of Baxter's 
publications, and was occasioned, chiefly, by the lady of Colonel 
John Bridges, for whose benefit, in the first instance, it was com- 
posed and printed. He accordingly dedicates it to Colonel and 
Mrs. Bridges, and to Mr. and Mrs. Foley, all of whom were persons 
in opulent circumstances, who belonged to his congregation at 
Kidderminster. ** Though one only," he says, ** had the origi- 
nal interest in these papers, I now direct them to you all^ as not 

• Works, Tol, ix. 
VOL. U hL 



i\4 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 

knowing how, in this, to separate you. You dwdl together it 
iny estimation and affection : one of you a member of the 
church which I must teach, and, legally, the patron of its ramii-: 
tefnance and minister; the other, a special branch of that fiunOy, 
to which I was first indebted in this county. You lately jdncd 
in presenting to the parliament the petition of this county lor 
the Gospel and a faithful ministry. When I only told yoa of 
my intention of sending some poor scholars to the University, 
you freely and jointly offered your considerable annual allowanee 
thereto, and that for the continuance of my life, or their necet^ 
sities there. I will tell the world of this, whether yoa will or 
not; not for your applause, but for their imitation, and the shame 
of many who will not be drawn to do the like." v 

Colonel Bridges, then patron of the parish of Kidderminster, 
was the long and tried friend of Baxter, and one who made a 
considerable figure during the Commonwealth. He had the 
command of a regiment in Ireland immediately before the 
Restoration, and, by a dexterous manc^uvre, got possession of 
Dublin Castle, without bloodshed ; of which he published a 
short narrative. ^^ Had it not been for that action," says Bax- 
ter, ^^ it is probable that Ireland would have been the refuge and 
rendezvous for the disbanded or fugitive army, and that there 
they would not only have maintained the war, but have em- 
bodied against England, and come over again, with resolutions 
heightened by their warnings. The reward that Colonel Bridget 
had for this service was the peaceful testimony of his conscience, 
and a narrow escape from being utterly ruined; being sued insn 
action of fourscore thousand pound ; as one that, after Ed^ill 
fight, had taken the king's goods, which was proved false, and 
he, being cleared by the court, did quickly after die of a fever, 
at Chester, and go to a more peaceable and desirable world." ^ 

^ Mrs. Bridges,'' Baxter informs us, ^^ was often weeping out her 
doubts to him, about her long and great uncertainty of her true* 
sanctification and salvation. He told her that a few hasty words 
were not direction enough for the satisfactory resolving of lo 
great a case ; and that he would, therefore, lay her down a few 
of those necessary directions, which she should read and study, 
and get well imprinted on her mind." When he had begun it, 
he fgqnd he could not make it so brief as he had ^pected, and 
judging that it might be useful to others as well as to the lady 
who occasioned it, he enlarged it, to meet other cases beside hers.' 

r Epistle Dedicatory, Works, vol. ix. i Life, part i. p. 106. ' Ibid. p. 109. 



i 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. SlSl 

' The fmall tract, originally designed to be but ^'one sheet of 
paper/' thus swelled out into a little volume, containing "Thirty- 
two Directions " for the attainment or the preservation of the 
important blessings-peace of mind. The Puritans and Non- 
conformists may be said to have excelled in the class of books 
to which this work belongs. Sibbs's ^ Bruised Reed, and Soul's 
CSonfliet ; ' Symond's ^ Deserted Soul's Case and Cure 5 ' the 
works of Preston, Perkins, Ball, and Culverwell, on similar to- 
picsy were all prior to this of Baxter's ; but cannot be regarded 
as superseding it. It is better written than most of its prede-, 
cessors of the same class, and is, on the whole, well calculated 
to answer the purpose for which it was intended. The direc- 
tions arey indeed, sufficieutly numerous, and some of them quite 
as much calculated to entangle and perplex as to assist. Ho 
fiiund, he informs us, respecting it, 

^ This book pleased Dr. Hammond well, and many rational 
persons, and some of those for whom it was written ; but tho 
women and weaker sort, I found, could not so well improve clear 
reason as they can a few comfortable, warm, and pretty sen-^ 
fences. It is style, and not reason, which doth most with them^ 
Some of the divines were angry with it, for a passage or two 
about perseverance; because I had said that many men are cer- 
tain of their present sanctification^ who are not certain of their 
perseverance and salvation, meaning all the godly that are as- 
sured of their sanctification, and yet do not hold the certainty 
of perseverance. But a great storm of jealousy and censure was^ 
by this, and some such words, raised against me by many good 
men^ who lay more on their opinions and party than they ought ; 
therefore, as some would have had me to retract it, and others 
to leave it out of the next impression, I did the latter." ' 

From a Dedication to the Poor in Spirit, which is prefixed 
to this work, I extract an admirably descriptive passage of the 
Antinomians of that period. It is equally applicable still. 
''One thing more, I confess, did much prevail with me to make 
these papers public, and that is, the Antinomians' common^ 
confident obtrusion of their anti-evangelical doctrines and me- 
thods for comforting troubled souls. They are the most noto- 
rious mountebanks in this art, the highest pretenders, and most 
unhappy performers, that most of the reformed churches ever 
knew. And none, usually, are more ready to receive their doc-v 
trine9 than such weak women or unskilful people, that, being in 

•Lif€,psrti. pp,lQ9, no. 
L L 2 



516 THB LIFS AMD WRiriNGS 

trouble, are like a sick man in great pain, who is glad to bear 
what all can say, and to make trial of ev^ thing by wlddi 
he hath any hope of ease. Then there is so much ojnnm ia 
these mountebanks' nepenthes, or antidote of rest; so many 
principles of carnal security and presumption, which tend to the 
present ease of the patient, whatever follows, that it is no wonder 
if some well-meaning Christians do quickly swallow the Wt, 
and proclaim the rare effects of this medicament, and the ad* 
mirable skill of this unskilful sect, to the ensnaring of otheii, 
especially that are in the like distress/'^ 

In 1658, he published ' The Crucifying of the World by die 
Cross of Christ,' ^ a treatise in quarto, the substance of wfaidi 
had originally been delivered as an assize' sermon^ which was 
preached at Worcester, when Thomas Foley, esq., was high 
sheriff of the county. To that gentleman it is accorffingly 
dedicated. He was a man of distinguished piety and beneviK 
lence, and the devoted friend of Baxter. From very moderate 
circumstances, his father, Richard Foley, and he, rose, by meav 
of iron works in the county of Worcester, to the possession of 
an estate of five thousand pounds per annum — an immense sum 
in those days. He necessarily acquired the patronage of seve- 
ral livings on his extensive property, to which he invariably pre- 
sented worthy and useful ministers. Kidderminster fell into 
his hands after Baxter had left it, having been purchased from 
Colonel Bridges, and to which he would gladly have present- 
ed Baxter, had he been capable of accepting it. Baxter's ^De- 
dication' is commendatory, but faithful. It is worthy of 
the grateful friend, but not less of the conscientious servant of 
Christ. Richard Foley, the founder of the family, and the early 
patron of Baxter, died in 1657. He endowed a school at 
Stourbridge, with five hundred pounds per annum. His greit 
grandson was raised to the peerage by Queen Anne, in IJHy^J 
the title of Baron Foley of Kidderminster, from whom the pre- 
sent noble family of that name has descended."" After the 
dedication is a long preface ^ To the Nobility, Gentry, and all 
that have the riches of this World/ in which Baxter addresses 
them with great fidelity respecting their easily-besetting sins, 
warns them of the danger of trusting in their external advantages, 
and endeavours to excite them to the performance of good works.' 

* Works, vol. ix. p. 61. " Works, vol. U. ^ Burke's < Peerage.' art Fokjr. 
' AmoD; bis other recommendations U ooe to landlords, ** to cnpgt tbc^ 



OP RICHABD BAXISR* 517 

' The diflcourse itself, which is founded on Gal, vi. 14, lirings 
$Skft gnmd subject of Christianity, with its inseparable, practical 
asflnenee, powerfully before the reader. While it preserves the 
•^k of address throughout, it is much more of a treatise than 
a sermon, having been greatly enlarged, in every part, after 
ies delivery. He first discusses, negatively, what it is not, and 
then, positively, what it is to have the world crucified to us, 
and to be crucified to the world. He next shows how this is 
efteled by the cross of Christ. He then assigns various 
teasoos, to show that this is so, and why it must be so. In 
ecmefaisicm, he applies the first part of the doctrine of the text, 
hf showing that^ for the reasons assigned, believers must glory 
m the cross of Christ, abhorring the glorying of worldly men. 

While the doctrine of salvation, tlurough the sacrifice of 
Christ, is clearly enough stated in the discourse, it is not the 
prominent or leading topic of it In this respect, it diflen 
widdy from the celebrated sermon of Maclaurin, on the same 
text and subject. In that beautifiil production, the work of the 
Redeemer on the cross, is set forth as the highest manifesta* 
tioa of the love and wisdom of God, with a power of illua* 
tration and a felicity of expression which have never been ex- 
ceeded. In the discourse of Baxter, the effects of this doctrine 
in withdrawing men from the love and enjoyment of the worid, 
and in fixing the heart on the sublimer and holier enjoyments 
of religion, are the grand topics ; and they are treated with the 
hand of a roaster. All the emp^ glare and noisome pollution 
of the world were known to Baxter. Into the dark chambers of 
the human heart he pours the light of day, exhibiting all its 
guiltiness and pollution, and exposing the inadequacy of all 
that the world can supply to satisfy its '' immortal longings." 

How admirably does he expose the vain show of man's 
Irastling life ! '' It is but like children's games, where all is 
doae in jest, and which wise men account not worthy their 
observance. It is but like the acting of a comedy, where great 
persons and actions are personated and counterfeited; and a 
pompous stir there is for a while, to please the foolish spec- 
tators, that themselves may be pleased by their applause, and 
then they come down, and the sport is ended, and they are as 

ttnaiits in their leases to learn a catechism, and read the Scriptures, and be 
Mice a year accountable to their minister for their profiting." His recommen* 
4stioni about the distribution of religious books and tractS| and visiting the 
foorand the sick were more likely to be sttendtd to« 



Hid TMlft LIFB XKb WfttTtHGS 

« 

they were. It is but like a puppet pltiy, whefe there if gif^ 
<loings to little purpose ; or like the busy gadding fit tht Ube^ 
Yious ants, to gather together a little sticks and strawy wUd 
the spurn of man's foot will soon disperse." 

With what beauty does he describe the emptineii of Ae 
world ; and with what earnestness does he expostulate with UNi 
-on the folly of preferring it to the better enjoymenls of Gbdl 
•**What! shall we prefer a molehill before a kingdom} A 
shadow before the substance? An hour before eternity? Ni^ 
thing before all things ? Vanity and vexation before felicity ), 
-^TJie cross of Christ hath set up such a sun as quite darkenelli 
the light of worldly glor)\ Though earth were somethiligi if 
there were no better to be had^ it is nothing when hccieft 
«tandeth by." 

' I know none of the writings of Baxter which contains pamg^ 
'of greater power, or more impressive eloquence^ than this. The 
'solemnity of the circumstances in which the discourse was ddf- 
'vered, appears to have affected him, and increased even Ui 
n&ccustomed earnestness. I cannot make many quotatioii% bst 
Met the reader imagine, if he <:an^ the effect of the follofriflg 
•passage, addressed to the court : 

" Honourable, worshipful, and all well-beloved, it is aweighty 
'employment that occasioneth your meeting here to*day« The 
estates and lives of men are in your hands. But it is anothtr 
kind of judgment which you are all hastening towards: wh«i 
judges and juries, the accusers and accused, must all appesr 
upon equal terms, for the final decision of a far greater cauK. 
The case that is then and there to be determined, is not whether 
you shall have lands or no lands, life or no life (in our natunl 
sense) ; but whether you shall have heaven or hell, salvation or 
' damnation, an endless life of glory with God and the Redeemer, 
and the angels of heaven, or an endless life of torment with 
devils and ungodly men. As sure as you now sit on those seats, 
you shall shortly all appear before the Judge of all the world, 
and there receive an irreversible sentence, to an unchangeable 
' state of happiness or misery. This is the great businees that 
should presently call up your most serious thoughts, and set all 
' the powers of your souls on work for the most effectual prepa- 
ration 5 that if you are men, you may quit yourselves like men, 
for the preventing of that dreadful doom which unprepared sods 
I must there expect. ITie greatest of your secular affairs are biit 
dreams and toys to this. Were you at every assijte to detennine 



OF miCHARD BAXTBlt. 819 

of m> lower valu6 than the crowns and king:d6m8 of the 
inoiMkrchs of the eiEtrth, it were but as children's games to this* 
if mny man of you believe not this, he is worse than the devil 
tiiat tempteth him to unbelief; and let him know that unbelief 
la no prevention, nor will put off the day, or hinder his appeal 

; but ascertain his condemnation at that appearance. 
^ He that knows the law and the fact, may know before your 

(, what will become of every prisoner^ if the proceeding^ 
be all* just, as in our case they will certainly be« Christ Will 
Judge according to his laws ; know therefore whom the law edn-^ 
-demiMh or justifieth, and you may know whom Christ will 
*totidemn or justify. And seeing all this is so, doth it not 
%soiieem us all to make a speedy trial of ourselves in preparation 
to thin final trial ? I shall for your own sakes therefore, take the 
•fctddnese, as the officer of Christ, to eummon Vou to iqppear 
iH^ta yourselves, and keep an assize this day in your own souls, 
tAd answer at the bar of conscience, to what shall be charged 
iqMli you. Fear not the trial ; for it is not conclusive, final, or 
H peremptory irreversible sentence that must now pass. Yet 
llight it- not } for it is a necessary preparative to that which is 
9xai and irrevetsible. Consequentially, it may prove a justifying 
•iKCUsation, an absolving condemnation, aiid if you proceed to 
vxecntion, a saving,- quickening death, which I am now per^ 
auading you to undergo. The whole world is divided into two 
'Wfts of men : one that love God above all, and live (ot him ; 
and the other that love the flesh and world above all, and Hve 
to them. One that seek first the kingdom of God and his 
ffigfateousness ; another that seek first the things of this life. 
One that mind and savour the things of the flesh and of mail ; 
tiMB other that mind and savour most the things of the Spirit and 
•f God. One that account all things dung and dross that they 
rmay win Christ ; another that make light of Christ in com- 
parison of their business, and riches, and pleasures in the world. 
•One that live by sight and sense upon present things, anotlier 
that live by faith upon things invisible. One that have their 
conversation in heaven, and live as strangers upon earth; 
another that mind earthly things, and are strangers to heaven. 
'One that have in resolution forsaken all for Christ, and the 
'hopes of a treasure in heaven ; another that resolve to keep 
•abmcwhat here, though they venture and forsake the heavenly 
reward, and will go away sorrowful that they cannot have both. 
One that being born of the flesh is but flesh ; the ottier that 



520 TUB LIFJfr AND WRITINGS 

being bora of the Spirit is spiriU One that life as withoiit God 
in the world ; the other that live as without the seducing worid 
in God, an4 in and by the subservient world to God» One that 
have ordinances and means of grace, as if they had none; the 
other that have houses, lands, wives, as if they had none. One 
that believe as if they believed not, and love God as if they bwed 
him not, and pray as if they prayed not, as if the finnt of these 
were but a shadow : the other that weep, as if they wept noC^ 
for worldly things, and rejoice as if they rejoiced not» One 
that have Christ as not possessing him, and use him and Ui 
name as but abusing them ; the other that buy as if they pes* 
aessed not, and use the world as not abusing it. One that draw 
near to God with their lips, when their hearts are far firom him; 
the other that corporally converse with the worid, when their 
hearts are far from it* One that serve God who is a Spirit 
with caroal service, and not in spirit and truth; the other thtf 
use the world itself spiritually, and not in a carnal workUy man- 
ner* In a word, one sort are children of this world ; . the other 
are the children of the world to come, and heirs of the heavenfy 
kingdom. One sort have their portion in this life ; and the other 
have God for their portion. One sort have their good things la 
this life-time, and their reward here ; the other have their evil 
things in this life, and live in hope of the everlasting reward/'' 

The next work that occurs in this class, is his ^ Treatise 
on Self-Denial,' which was first published in 1659. ^ Bei^^ 
greatly apprehensive/' he says, ^^of the commonness and 
danger of the sin of selfishness, as the sum and root of all 
positive evil, I preached many sermons against it, and^ at the 
request of some friends, I published them in this treatise, which 
found better acceptance than most of my other books, but yet 
prevented not the ruin of church and state, and millions of souls, 
by that sin/' » 

To understand the allusion in this sentence, the reader most 
remember that the work was published shortly before the Re- 
storation. Prefixed to it, is a long letter addressed to Colonel 
James Berry, one of the council of state/' Of Berry, we have 
had occasion to speak in a former part of this work. He was 
one of the earliest friends of Baxter, in whose religious cha- 
racter he had placed great confidence ; but, of whom, he after* 
. wards greatly altered his opinion. Whedier he was justified 

f Works, vol. ix. pp. 431—433. " Life, part i. p. 1 17. 



OP RICHARD RAXTBR* '521 

{A.dtarbgf Bn. opinkm of Berr]r» belongs not to oar present 
Mdbjeet ; bat in this letter there is some admirable admonition 
oa the danger of worldly greatness^ by which Baxter was afraid 
the colonel had been injured. 

* ' * Self is the strongest and most dangerous enemy that ever 
ymoi fbiqiht against. It is a whole army united ; and the more 
•dngerous, because so near. Many that have fought as valiantly 
ud snocttsfttUy against other enemies as you, have, at last, 
baea conquered and undone by self. Conquer it you catmot, 
'Without a conflict ; and the conflict must endure as long as you 
fife. Combating is not pleasing to the enemy ; and, there- 
tee^ as long as self is the enemy, and self-pleasing is natural to 
cormpted man (that should be wholly addicted to please the 
IiOid)y self-denial will prove a difficult task ; and if somewhat 
ill the advice that would engage you deeper in the conflict 
should seem bitter or ungrateful, I should not wonder. And let 
me freely tell you, that your prosperity and advancement will 
nake the work so exceecUngly difficult, tfiat, since you have been 
a aiajor-general and a lord, and now a counsellor of state, you 
have stood in a more slippery, perilous place, and have need of 
vmeb more grace and vigilancy than when you were but Bax- 
ter's friend. 

^ I sleep inost sweetly when I have travelled in the cold. 
Fkost and snow are friends to the seed, though they are enemies 
to the flower. Adversity, indeed, is contrary to glory ; but it 
befriendeth grace. Plutarch tells us, that, when Caesar passed 
if a smoky, nasty village at the foot of the Alps, some of his 
eommanders merrily asked htm whether there was such a stir 
for commands, and dignities, and honours, among those cottages, 
as there was at Rome. The answer is easy. Do you not think 
that an Anthony, a Mark, a Jerome, or such other of the ancient, 
retired Christians, were wiser and happier men than, a Nero 
•or a Caligula ; yea, or a Julius Caesar ? Is it a desirable thing 
to be a lord, or ruler, before we turn to common earth ; and, as 
Marius, that was made emperor one day, reigned the next, 
andjwas slain by a soldier the next ; so to be worshipped to-day, 
and laid in the dust, if not in hell, to-morrow ? It was the say- 
ing of the Emperor Severus, 'Omnia fui, sed nihil expedit;' 
and of King David, ' I have seen an end of all perfection.* O, 
vahie these things but as they deserve ! Speak impartially ; are 
not those that are striving to get up the ladder, foolish and 
ridiculous^ when those that are at the top have attained but 



'532 THB Lin AKII WAlTfHGS 

danger^ trouble, and enry; md didse thai fidl tiDwa'art M!^ 
counted miserable ? 

* ' Sed pulU acoDita bibimtar 
Fictilibuf •• "• 

RefiBrring to dieir early intimacj, he mentioos^ %itfi giati- 
tude, that Berry had been the instnimeht of introdaciii^ hki i 
the ministry. *^ You brought me into the ministry. I an 
fident you know to what ends, and with what intentionsi I 
desired it. I was then very ignorant, young, and raw | thoagh 
my weakness be yet such as I must lament, I must aay, tm the 
praise of the great Shepherd of the flock, that he hath, mutt 
then, offered me precious opportunities, miich aasiataiiee^ aal 
as much encouragement as to any man that I l^now alive Yea 
know my education and initial weakness were such as, foM 
me to glory in the flesh : but I will not rob God of his glory Is 
avoid the. appearance of ostentation, lest I be proud of aeemi^g 
not to be proud. I doubt not but many thousand aoids will 
thank you when they have read, that you were the man that W 
me into the ministry : and shall I entertain a suspicion that yoa 
will ever hearken to those men that would rob you of the rsv 
ward of many such works, and engage you against the King of 
Saints?" »» 

He concludes his letter with inimitable beauty : '^ But I have 
been too. tedious. I beseech you interpret not any of theK 
words as intended for accusation or unjust suspicipn of yonrselt 
God forbid you should ever fall from that integrity that I 
persaaded you once had. 6ut my eye is on the times 
grief, and on my ancient, dearest friend with love : and, in sa 
age of iniquity and temptation, my conscience and the wodd 
shall never say that I was unfaithful to my friend, and foriMre 
to tell him of the common dangers." ^ 

The treatise is of considerable extent, occupying the greater 
part of one of the volumes of the new edition of his works. 
He divides it into seventy-three chapters, embracing a vast 
.range of topics, more or less connected with his main sub- 
ject. He discusses almost every thing tliat may engage or 
ensnare the mind; in regard to which, therefore, Chrisdans 
must be on their guard. The inveterate and extensive powtir 
• of the principle of selfishness, with its diversified modes of 
operation, has never perhaps been more strikingly exhibite4 
than in this treatise. Sblf is truly and correctly described us 

•Works, vol. xi. p. 16k >» IbicK pp. 4», e4r MbULpp.8S,K. 



or RICHARD. BAXTER. $SS 

tin gitat idA which all unsahctified men worship. It ia that 
for which the rich and the ambitious struggle; for which the 
merchant compasseth sea and land; for which the soldier 
fights, the tradesman deals, the ploughman labours, the tra- 
Teller goes forrh. It is the ruling principle in the world, and 
the source of al( funbition, contention, and love of pre-eminence, 
in the church. 

In dissecting knd illustrating its nature, Baxter is not always 
strictly accurate ; 1>ut he is sufficiently so for all the purposes 
of popular and practical writing. Many things to which he 
Rdverts, belong, perhaps, as properly to some of the other evil 
principles of our nature as to the love of self. It is, however, 
one of the great roots of that many-branching tree, which bears 
no fruit that is good or profitable. What Bernard, as quoted by 
Baxter, says of* pride or ambition, may, with great propriety, be 
applied to this : ^^ Subtile malum secretum virus, pestis occulta, 
doli artifexy mater hypocrisis, livoris parens, vitiorUm origo, 
tinea sanctitatis, excaecatrix cordium, ex remediis morbos ere- 
ans, ex medictna languorem generans.'' Such a root of evil, 
the Gospel, aided by the omnipotence of divine influence, alone 
can extirpate, from the heart of man. 

In 'this able treatise, there are various indications that the 
'spirit of the author was, at the time, discomposed and fretted. 
'Ma^y* things in the state of the times displeased him: the 
conduct of the ruling powers, the multiplication of sects, th^ 
'swarming of errors, the want of uniformity among professors 
of the Gospel, and, of that subordination which Baxter believed 
to'be necessary to a healthy state of religion, with the personal 
treatment which he sometimes experienced, all tended to grieve 
and vex him, and give a strong colouring to some of his repre^ 
sentations. These, however, are but trifling blemishes, and af- 
fect but in a very small degree the valuable practical instruction 
\vith which the work abounds. 

At the end of the treatise, there is a singular poetical dialogue 
lietween the flesh and the Spirit, intended to illustrate some of 
'the hetitimienls previously stated in prose. It is, in fact, an 
animated debate between the two opposing principles in man*« 
'nature, containing more poetry in the thought than in the rhjrme, 
'Vhe following passage, in which the Spirit expostulates with the 
'flesh 6n its reluctance to death, contains a variety of very beaa- 
tiftil and poetical illustrations of death and the resarreolion; 
and if the reader can ini^e some allowance for a little home- 



S24 THS LIVE AND WBimrM 



and an occasional want of hannony, he ynH he jkmi 
with the thoughts :— - 

" So nature breaks and casti away the tbcll^ 
Where the now beauteous siosinf4iiid did dwell* 
Thus roses drop their sweet leaves underfoot ; 
But the Spring shows that life was in tlie root. 
Soulsare the rooU of bodies; Christ the head 
Is root of both^ and will revive the dead* 
Our sun still sbinetb^ when with us 'tb aisht ; 
When he returns we shall shine in hislifbc 
Souls that behold, and praise God with the josty 
Mourn not because their bodies are but dmi* 
Graves are but beds, where flesh tiU aiominf alaepsi 
Or chests where God awhile our i^arments keeps* 
Our folly thinks be spoils them in the keeping ; 
Which canseth our excessive lears and wecplnf t 
But God» that doth our rising day foietet» 
Pities not rotting flesh so much as we. 
The birth of nature was deformed by sin | 
The birth of ^race did our repair bq|^; 
The birth of ^loiy at the resurrection 
Finisheth all^ and brin|^ both to perfection. 
Why should not fruit, when it is mellow, lUl? 
Why should we linger here when God doth call?"^ 

As the virtue of patience is nearly allied to self-denial, I WKJ 
introduce Baxter's treatise on that subject in this place, since 
it is now part of the same volume with the discourse on Self* 
Denial, though it was published many years afterward* It ii 
entitled ^^ Obedient Patience. Its nature in general, and its 
exercise in twenty particular cases ; with helps to obtain and 
use it, and to repress impatience.'' It appeared in 1682* Baxter 
was then the subject of severe afflictions and trials, and wii 
thus called to the special exercise of the Christian grace which 
he recommends to others. The preface both explains hia viewi 
of the doleful state of the times, and his reasons for writing this 
little work: 

^^ I here offer to others the same which I have prepared finr 
myself, and find necessary for my daily use* All men most 
savour that which they find most suitable to them* When I 
was youngs and lay under the sad suspicions of my own heart, 
and the doubts of my sound conversion and justification, I wasfsr 
morepleased with a sermon that opened the nature of saving grace, 
and helped me against such doubts, than with a sermon of afflictioo 
and its use; yea,though I beganto be afflicted* Butnow,thisisthe 
,subjectof my daily necessary thoughts : man's implacable ennutj 

^ Works I voL zL p. 378. 



M BICBARD BAXTBft. SSS* 

ttem somewhat necessary ; but Qod's more immediate 
MwrectioDs on my body, incomparably more* And while every 
day abnost fills my ears with the sad complunts of weak, me- 
buidiolyy afflicted, impoverished, sick, pained, or otherwise- 
distressed persons ; and the weekly news-books tell us of foreign 
warty persecutions, mins^ implacable contentions, malignant com* 
Unations against the church, pursuing conscience and obedience 
to God with diabolical rage to drive them out of the world ; and 
of the successes of bloodthirsty men, and the deluge of atheism^ 
idolatry, Sadduceism, infidelity, Mahometanism, hypocrisy, 
senmality, ambition, worldliness, lying, perjury, malignity, and 
gross ignorance, which have even drowned the earth : while there 
is little but doleful tidings, complaints, and fears from kingdoms, 
churches, cities, families ; and Qod, in judgment, permitteth 
mankind to be worse than serpents, toads, or wolves, if not than 
devik, to one another ; and while wit and learning, reverend 
cmNT and hypocrisy, are every day as hotly at work as any 
amitb in his flaming forge, to blow the coals of bloody malice ; 
and haUng and destroying others, even those whom they pretend 
to love as themselves, seem to multitudes the most honourable 
and necessary work, and the killing of love and of souls and 
bodies, is taken for meritorious of everlasting happiness. I say, 
while all this is so in the world, and while all flesh must look 
Ibr pain, sickness, and death ; and all men are yet worse to 
themselves, and greater burdens than all their enemies are, I 
cannot think a treatise of patience needless or unseasonable/'* 
Under the twenty particular cases which call for the special 
exercise of patience, he includes bodily affliction, the prospect 
of death, loss of property, or actual want; the sickness and 
death of friends; the unfaithfulness of friends; persecution; loss 
of reputation ; the unrighteousness of rulers ; treachery and 
abuse of servants and others ; temptations of Satan ; trouble of 
eonscience ; the loss of the means of grace, &c. &c. All these 
triak, at one time or another, Baxter had endured himself, and 
was thus qualified to sympathise with and instruct those who 
might be suffering from them. Most of his suggestions are 
calculated either to soothe or to reconcile the mind in the time 
of sorrow. He is faithful, yet kind ; firm, but tender. He could 
say, with the apostle, ^^ God hath comforted us in all our tribu- 
lati(Mis, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any 
trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted 

• Worki, voL xi. pp.383| 384« 



SX THB LIFB AND WRItlMS 

of Qod } for, as the BufTerings of Christ have abomidad 1o m^. 
80 our consolation also hath abounded by Christ.^' • 

In I66O5 he published the < Life of Faith^ as it is the m- 
denoe of things unseen/ the substance of a sermon which bir 
preached before the king on the 22d of July/ But as he after- 
wards, in 1670, republished this work, enlarged into a 4to 
volume, it will be proper to notice it in this form. It eoBtabs 
the original sermon enlarged ; instructions for confimnngr be** 
lievers in the Christian faith ; and directions how ta Vm hf 
faith, or how to exercise it on all occasions. In the diieomi 
itself, he discovers much good taste in making no peMmal alia* 
sions to the king himself. Baxter could not flatter, but be codd 
be courteous. A personal address to his majesty, had be at* 
tempted it, could scarcely have failed to be offensive | he there* 
fore entirely avoids it, and delivers only truths which were 
calculated for the peasant as much as for royalty. As a temKm* 
on such an occasion, it contains too much theology, and in aH: 
probability must have been very tiresome to Charles. But if 
Barrow could occupy three hours, Baxter was quite capable of 
securing attention for as long a period, though 1 dare say hit 
discourse did not occupy half that time in its delivery. Towards 
the conclusion, he thus addresses his audience : 

"Princes and nobles live not alwavs; vou are not the rulers 
of the unmoveabie kingdom ; but, of a boat that is in a hasty 
stream, or a ship under sail that will speed both pilot and pas« 
sengers to the shore ! ' Dixi, estis Dii : ut moriemini ut homines/ 
It was not the least or worst of kings that said, ^ 1 am a strangcf 
upon earth 3' ^ Vermis sum, non homo :' You are the greater 
worms, and we the little ones ; but we must all say with Job^ 
*The grave is our house, and we must make our beds in darkness: 
corruption is our father, and the worm our mother and our sister.' 
The inexorable leveller is ready at vour backs to convince vou 
by irresistible argument, that dust you are, and to dust you shall 
return. Heaven should be as desirable and hell as terrible to' 
you as to others. No man will fear you after death ; mueh 
less will Christ be afraid to judge you. As the kingdoms and 
glory of the world were contemned by him in the hour of his 
temptation ; so are they inconsiderable to procure his appro- 
bation. IVust not therefore to uncertain riches ; value then 
but as they will prove at last. As you stand on higher ground 



or aiCBAED BiJITBB« 5S7 

than others, it is meet that you should see further. The greater 
^re your advantages, the wiser and better you should be ; and 
tberefore should better perceive the difference between things 
temporal and eternal. It is always dark where glow-worms 
%\unity and where a rotten post doth seem a fire.^S 

la a very delicate manner he present^ his suit on behalf of 
bis brethren and himself; hard must have been the heart which 
would turn from such a petitioner, and refuse such a prayer.. 
U 1 should have become on the behalf of Christ a petitioner 
to you for protection and encouragement to the heirs of the in^ 
▼is^ble world ; for them that preach, and them that live in this 
life of faith. Not for the honours and riches of the world ; but 
fqr leave and countenance to work in the vineyard, and peace- 
ably to travel through the world as strangers, and live in the 
communion of saints, as they believe. But, though it be for the 
beloved of the Lord, the apple of his eye, the people that are 
sure to prevail and reign with Christ for ever ; whose prayers 
can do more for the greatest princes than you can do for them, 
whose joy is hastened by that which is intended for their sor- 
row ; I shall now lay by any further suit on their behalf." > 

Baxter had less of the common vice of preachers of his 
age, the foolish introduction of Greek and Latin in their 
sermons, than most of them. There is one singular passage 
in this discourse that may be regarded as an exception from 
his general style, and for which the auditors to whom he was 
preaching may be considered as an apology, llie reference to 
the character of the age, is delicate and happy. *' It has lately 
been a controversy, whether this be not the golden age. That it 
is * atas ferrea,' we have felt ; our demonstrations are unde- 
niable, lliat it is ' aetas aurata,' we have sufficient proof : and 
while gold is the god that rules the most, we will not deny it to. 
be * aetas aurea' in the poet's sense : 

* Aurea dudc vere suot sccuU : plurimus auro 
Veuit bonos auro coDciliatur amor.' 

This prevalency of things seen against things unseen, is the 
idolatry of the world ; the subversion of nature ; the perversion 
of our faculties and actions : making the soul a drudge to flesh, 
and God to be used as a servant to the world. It destroyeth 
piety, justice, and charity: it turneth 'jus/ by perversion, into 
^ vis,' or, by reversion, into 'sui.' No wonder, then, if it be the 
rain of societies, when 

f Works, vol. jiii. pp. 51, 52. ^ Ibid. p. W» 



528 THB LIFE ANB WRITINGS 

* Gent sine jitstitiAy sine remige naTif in itadt.* 

It can possess even Demosthenes with a squinancy^ if there be 
but an Harpalus to bring him the infection. It can make t 
judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome, empSif yM^\ 
* impiorum regionem ;' contrary to Cicero's descriptioii of Siil- 
pitius, who was 'magis justitise quam juris consnltusy et ad 
facilitatem aequitatemque omnia contulit; nee maluit litioBi 
actiones constituere, quam controversias tollere.' ** ^ 

The ^ Sermon on Faith ' occupies about fifty pages ; but tiie 
treatise which grew out of it, and which may be considered* as a 
kind of appendix^ extends beyond five hundred pages : so prolilic 
and expansive was the mind of Baxter^ when it had room ttid 
verge enough for the exercise of its power. The work coouitB 
of two parts : instructions for confirming believers in the Chris- 
tian faith ; and directions how to exercise it on all occasions. It 
contains what every thing of Baxter's on practical religion doei| 
much that is excellent ; but it is more tedious than some other 
of his treatises, and contains more repetition than was usual 
with him. In treating on the confirmation of the faith, he in- 
troduces many of the same topics which are to be found in his 
work, *The Reasons of the Christian Religion/ He had ob- 
served that that treatise was neglected by the common class of 
readers, as not sufficiently adapted to their understandings; 
he therefore brings forward the evidences of religion again, 
though in a more popular form. 

His directions for the exercise of faith, are not only nu- 
merous and minute, but very similar to many of his rules or 
principles in his ' Christian Directory,' though the latter work 
was published after the ^ Treatise on Faith/ llie recurrence 
of the same sentiments, and the repetition of the same topics, 
were unavoidable in so voluminous a writer as Baxter; nor 
ought this to be regretted, as he had different objects in laew 
m his several works, which could not perhaps have been effectu- 
ally attained by any other way. He ought, however, to have 
reduced some of his discussions within narrower limits. 

The ^ Life of Faith ' is dedicated to Richard Hampden, esq^ 
the friend of Baxter, the son of the illustrious patriot, and the 
heir of his virtues. Baxter speaks with much respect of the 
piety of this gentleman, and his wife. Lady Letitia, and in* 
timates his fervent, gratitude for the manifold expressions of 
their love. He also intimates his earnest desire for the good of 
their ^' hopeful children." Alas ! the eldest of these childreni 

^ YToiki) N\)U uju \^s 44, 45. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 529 

John Hampden, distinguished no less than his grandfather, for 
talents and public spirit, and far more distinguished for learning, 
eame at last to a Tery melancholy end. Dr. Calamy, in his 
* Own Life,' tells a most affecting story of the progress of his 
mind, and of the dismal termination of his existence.^ 

These olijections to this publication Baxter anticipated, and 
meets them in his preface more snappishly than is quite desir- 
able, either on his own account or that of the reader. The con- 
chision of it contains what is true, but what might have been 
more mildly stated. 

^ If it offend you that the directions are many of them difficult, 
and that the style requireth a slow considerate reader, I answer, 
the nature of the subject requireth it, and without voluminous 
tedknisness, it cannot be avoided. Blame, therefore, your un- 
prepared, ignorant minds ; and that you are yet dull of hearing, 
and thus make things hard to be uttered to your understand- 
ing : because you have still need of milk, and cannot digest 
strong meat, but must again be taught the principles of the 
oracles of God. Think not . to get knowledge without hard 
study and patient learning ; by hearing nothing but what you 
know already, or can understand by one hasty reading over, 
lest you discover a conjunction of slothfiilness with an ignorant 
and unhumbled mind. Or at least, if you must learn at so cheap 
a rate, or else stick still in your milk and your beginnings, be 
not offended if others outgo you, and think knowledge worthy 
of much greater diligence ; and if, leaving the principles, we go 
on towards perfection, as long as we take them along with us, 
and make them the life of all that followeth, while we seem to 
leave them : and this we will do if God permit.'^ 

The last considerable work in this class was published towards 
the close of his life. The title, which 1 shall give at large, as it 
is rather singular, contains a very full view of the subject of 
which it treats, as well as of the apparent feelings of the author 
at the time. ' Knowledge and Love Compared; in two parts. 
L Of fiedsely-pretended knowledge. II. Of true saving know- 
ledge and love. 1. Against hasty judging and false conceits of 
knowledge; and for necessary suspension. 2. The excellency of 
divine love, and the happiness of being known and loved of God. 
Written as greatly needful to the safety and peace of every 
Christian, and of the church : the only certain way to escape 

1 Vol. i. pp. 388<i»39i. 
VOL. I. MM 



330 TUB LIFE AND WRIltNGS 

false religions, heresies, sects, and malignant prejudieeii por^ 
^ecutions, and sinful wars. All caused by falsely-pretended 
knowledge, and hasty judging by proud, ignorant men, who 
know not their ignorance. By Richard Baxter, who, by Ood's 
blessing on long and hard studies, hath learned to know that be. 
knoweth but little, to suspend his judgment of uncert«ntiet| and 
to take great, necessary, certain things for the food of Iub fiutk- 
and comforts, and the measure of his church communion/' ^ 

If a title-page could effect any thing, the above title mmt 
have effected a great deal : yet this is one of the small number 
of Baxter's practical writings, which 1 do not think much calcu- 
lated for usefulness. It was written at several intervals before, 
but was published within two years of his death, when bettda 
his memory, which he acknowledges, it is probable some 
other of his faculties, had begun to fail. Not that it dis- 
plays imbecility; some part of it being written with great 
vigour ; but it evinces a diminished perception of what was cal- 
culated to do good. By far the largest portion of the volume ii 
a laboured effort to show the uncertainties of knowledge, ndtb. 
a view to prove how ignorant man is, and to diminish confi* 
dence in his own judgment. The tendency of this argumentf 
pursued to the length that Baxter carries it, I regard as exceed- 
ingly injurious, it is calculated to destroy due respect, both for 
the means of knowledge wliich God has provided for us, and the 
faculties he has given to us. It is more fitted to gender scepticism, 
and bewilder the mind, than to induce humility. I am well 
aware the author would have deprecated this effect, and that be 
was very far from being conscious that he was doing any thing to 
cause it. This does not, however, alter the character of hii 
book, in fact, Baxter had so occupied himself with the end- 
less and unsatisfying discussions of scholastic and metaphysical 
writers, that he had much difficulty in satisfying himself ou 
many subjects, and greatly injured his own faculty of judging. 
In the following passage of this very treatise, he lays before the 
reader a view of his acquisitions in this kind of learning. It it 
\^uable as part of his history. 

^" I have looked over Hutten, Vives, Erasmus, Scaliger, Sal- 
m. uus, Casaubon, and many other critical grammarians, and 
all Jruter's critical volumes. I have read almost all the physic 
and metaphysics I could hear of : I have wasted much of m 
time among loads of historians, chronologers, and antiquarie 

. ^ Works, vol. »v. 



OF BIOHAAD BAXTHRi SSI 

14ci^iiw noae of thsir leiUniDg: all truth is useAiL Mathe- 
lBftti«y whioh I hAve liiMt of| I find a pretty manlike sport. But 
if I had ilo other kind of knowledge than these^ what Ivere my 
■ndtistanding Worth I what a dreaming dotard should I bd J 
Yea, had I also all the codes and patideots^ all Ciijaeius^ Wesen- 
'tebhiiiti and their tribfe, at my fingers' ends^ and all other voliimes 
/of eiYil^ nationali and canoti laws, with the rest in the £ncyclo»* 
pildiai what a puppet-play wbUld my life be, if I had no more 1 

^^ I have higher thoughts of the schoolmen than Erasmus and 
mat other grltmmarians bad) I much value the method and so* 
briety of Aquinas^ the subtlety of Scotus and Ockam, the plain- 
Mtfs of Durandus^ the solidity of Arinlinensis| the proflindity of 
iBradwafdbei the excellent acuteness of many of their followers ; 
of Aureolus, Capreolus^ BatmeS, Alvareai Zumel| &c« | of Mayro, 
JjychetttSi Trombeta^ Faber, Meurissei Rada^ &c.| of Ruiz, 
PeftmajtUsi Suarez, Vasquez, &c» ; of Hurtado, of Albertinus, of 
Lud. k Dola^ and many others. But how loth should I be to 
take^ such sauce for my food, and such recreations for my 
bositiess 1 The jingling of too much and false philosophy 
hmong tbemi often drowns the noise of Aaron's bells^ I feel 
jnyself much better in ^ Herbert's Temple,' or in a heavenly 
tseatise of faith and love > and though I do not, with Dr. Colet, 
jcUstaste Augustine above the plainer Fathers^ yet I am more 
taken with hi^ Confessions than with his grammatical and scho- 
liitic treatises^ And though I know no man whose genius more 
fMiorreth confusion^ instead of necessary distinction and method; 
yet I loathe impertinent, useless art, and pretended precepts and 
distincTtions, which have not a foundation in the matter/' ^ 

We cannot help regretting that such a man as Baxter had 
not better employed his time than in devouring such masses of 
firavolous and unsatisfying stuff as these writers cont^n. His 
mind required that its metaphysical propensities should be 
counteracted and restrained, instead of encouraged and stimu- 
lated, as it must have been by such a course of reading. He 
professes, it is true, to despise the subtleties of the schools, and 
to be better pleased with ^ Herbert's Temple,' or ^ Augustine's 
Confessions,' than with logical and scholastic debates and dis- 
tinctions* This, I have no doubt, was the case ; and yet he 
deals in this kind of writing more than any man of his age. He 
adverts to this objection against himself in the book, and en* 
4ta¥Oiir8j though unsatisfactorily, to answer it. 

> Works, voir xv. p*. 1^, 16. 

' mm2 



532 THB LIFE AND WRimiOS 

^^ When you have written all this against pretended knoir^ 
ledge, who is more guilty than yourself? Who ao op picswd i 
his reader with distinctions ? Are all your large writings en- 
dent certainties ; even those controversies in which you haie so 
many adversaries ?'' To this he answers^ 

"I. It is one thing to assert uncertaindes, and another fSaSag 
to anatomize, and distinctly and methodically explain, to eertim 
truth. In.all my large writings, if you find that I call any tfakf 
certain which is uncertain ; that is, which I give not ascertainiif 
evidence of, acquaint me with the particulars, and I shall letnd 
them. 

^ 2. I never persuaded any man to write or say no more thn 
all men certainly know already; no, not all learned divnies; for 
then how should we receive edification ? Subjective certaintf 
is as various as men's interests, where no two are of a nae ; and 
objective certainty must be tried by evidence, and not by other 
men's consenting to it/' ^ 

The second part of the work, on the excellency of love and 
its superiority to knowledge, is more in Baxter's best atyle el 
practical writing. He had then got through his uncertainties, and 
was treating on the nature and power of love, the first and great 
principle of religion. No man understood this subject better, 
and few could treat it so well. He shows, most successfully, 
that knowledge is but the means to a higher end ; and this end 
is the production of love to God, and to those who bear Ui 
image. The constant and vigorous exercise of this love ought 
to be the highest aim, as it is the perfection of the Christian. 

To this work is prefixed a very beautiful dedication to his ex- 
cellent friend, Sir Henry Ashurst, and ^' the Lady Diana, his 
wife." *^ Your name," he says, ^^ is not prefixed to this Treatise, 
either as accusing you of the sin herein detected, or as praiiiog 
you for those virtues which good men are more pleased to pos- 
sess and exercise, than to have proclaimed, though they be as 
light that is hardly hid : but it is to vent and exercise that gra- 
titude, which loveth not the concealment of such friendship and 
kindness as you and your lady eminently, and your relatives and 
hers, the children of the Lord Paget, have long obliged me by; 
and it is to posterity that I record your kindness, more than for 
thi^ age, to which it hath publicly notified itself, during loj 
public accusations, reproaches, sentences, imprisonments, and 
before and since : who knoweth you that knoweth not hereof? 

* WockS) voU XT. p. 172. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR, 5SS 

And it 18 to renew the record of that lore and honour ivhich I 
o#ed to your deceased father formerly^ though too slenderly 
recorded, to be the heir and imitator of whose faith, piety, 
charity, patience, humility, meekness, impartiality, sincerity, and 
perseverance, is as great an honour and blessing as I can wish 
you^ next to the conformity to our highest Pattern. And though 
he was averse to worldly pomp and grandeur, and desired that 
Us children should not affect it, yet God, that will honour those 
that honour him, hath advanced his children, I believe, partly 
for his sake ; but I entreat you all (and some other of my friends 
whom God hath raised as a blessing to their pious and charitable 
parents and themselves) to watch carefully, lest the deceitful 
woAd and flesh do turn such blessings into golden fetters ; and 
to be sure to use them, as they would find, at last, on their 
accounU"'' 

Having noticed the principal works of Baxter in this de« 
partment, it remains to introduce a few of his tracts, which 
belong to the same class. Among these must be noticed 
^ God's Goodness Vindicated; for the help of such, especi- 
ally in melancholy, as are tempted to deny it, and think him 
to be cruel, because of the present and future misery of 
mankind; with respect to the doctrine of reprobation and 
damnation/^* This was published in 1674, at the particular 
request of his friend Mr. Corbet, with a view to satisfy a good 
man who had fallen into deep melancholy by dwelling too much 
on the numbers who will be damned, and the difficulty of re- 
conciling it with the divine goodness. G)rbet prefixed an 
epistle to it.P 

The subject is one of a deeply mysterious nature, scarcely 
admitting of being fully understood in our present circum- 
stances. Our faculties are in themselves limited ; we are fur- 
nished only irith partial information respecting the dirine ad- 
ninbtration, and its ultimate objects and designs ; and we are 
aa yet far from the end of the whole moral economy of God, 
To pronounce dogmatically, therefore, on certain points which 
are but dimly seen, would be wrong; and to allow our minds 
to be^distracted respecting what we do know by the things of 
which we are ignorant, must be no less improper. 

^ It is a grossly deluding and subverting way of reasoning,* 
says Baxter, ^^ to begin at dark and doubtful consequents, 

■ Works, vol. XV. p. 8. • lb\d. vo\. n\\\. 

r Life, part in. p.%5. 



iSt THs Lin iMm wtmnfis 

thence to argue agnnst certain, clear, flindanMital prindphi^ 
As if from some doubti abont the position and mo^oa of the 
stars, or of the nature of lights heat^ and motion, men should 
argue that there is no sun, or moon, or stars at all; or as ifj Aom 
the many difficulties in anatomy about the eiroulfition of the 
blood; the oleum nervosum, the lymph and its vessda, the 
passages and the succus of the pancreas and gall ; the transeo* 
lation through the intestines into the venie lactss, the ohjbf- 
glandules, and suqh^like ; one should arise to a conohision that 
there is no blood, no chyle, no veins, no glandules, no head^ no- 
body. Or, from the controversy, whether the heart be a Bsers 
muscle, without any proper parenchymae, one should grow ta. 
conclude that there is no heart. So such persons, firom pdnts 
beyond man's roach, about God's decrees, and intentions, and 
the mysteries of Providence, conclude or doubt against Ood's 
goodness, that is, whether, indeed, there be a God." ** 
-: If it were practicable to persuade men to reason on these ob- 
vious principles, how large a portion of embarrassment, and horn 
many stumbling-blocks would be removed 1 Baxter does not fel« 
low up his principles with all the masterly power and cIostaeH 
of argument which distinguish the Analogy of Butler ; but th» 
germ of Butler's immortal work may be said to be contained ia 
the above passage. There are doubtless difficulties in revels* 
tion, as there are difficulties in every scheme of divine Providence 
which man can adopt ; but there is no proper resting plaee 
between the rejection of the Gospel, on the score of its not 
harmonizing with our notions of the goodness of God, and 
absolute atheism. He who rejects Christianity on this grounc^ 
must, to be consistent, doubt whether the Supreme Being takes 
any interest in the affairs of his creatures ; and this ia all ooe 
with blotting Him out from his own universe. 

Under this head I may also rank all Baxter's sermons preach«« 
ed on particular occasions, and which do not require minute 
consideration. They may be placed either here, or under the 
bead of his writings on Conversion, as they are of a mixed 
character. The following are among these, ^ The Vain Religion 
of the Formal Hypocrite, and the Mischief of an Unbridled 
Tongue, described in several Sermons, preached at the Abbey in 
Westminster, before manv Members of the Honourable House 
of Commons, 1660.' *The Fool's Prosperity the Occasion of 
bis Destruction, a Sermon, preached at Covent Garden.' 'A 
Sermon on Repentance, preached before the House of Com- 

<^ Y^oik^^^^U xili. V..51S. 



f-n 



op iirCHARl> BAXTBB. 535 

Itoooa, on the 30th of April, 1660.' ' One on Right Rejoicing, 
freaehed in St. Pftul's before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen^ 
after his Majesty's return, May 10, 1660/ ' What Light must 
Shine in Our Works/ ^ True Christianity, or Christ's Absolute 
Dominion, and Man's necessary Self-Resignation and Subjec-* 
don/ * Two Assise Sermons/ His * Farewell Sermon,' intended 
for his flock at Kidderminster. All these discourses are now 
printed together in the seventeenth and eighteenth volumes 
of his works. 

• ^TTle Cure of Melancholy by Faith and Physic,* a sermon in- 
tended for the morning exercises, but which was never delhrer- 
cd, is a curious specimen of Baxter's preaching ; abounding 
In medical recipes as well as in grave religious* advice. He 
in quite right, however, in maintaining that physic is necessary^ 
as well as faith, to cure melancholy. 

Baxter appears to have had great experience in dealing with 
melMieholy persons. The following passage in his Life relates 
to the subject of this discourse, and for its practical instruction 
deBenres to be quoted. '* I was troubled this year (1671)/' he 
■ays^ ^ with multitudes of melancholy persons, from several parts 
of the- land, some of high quality, some of low, some very ex- 
qoisftely learned, some unlearned ; as I had been above twenty 
years before. I know not how it came to pass, but if men fel! 
melancholy, I must hear from them or see them, more than any 
physician I know, I mention it for these three uses, to the 
reader, as out of all their cases I have gathered : 1 . That we 
must very much take heed lest we ascribe melancholy phan- 
tasms and passions to God's Spirit : for they are strange appre- 
hensions that melancholy can cause. 2. I would warn all young 
persons to live modestly, and keep at a sufficient distance from 
objects that tempt them to carnal lust. Above all, I warn young 
students and apprentices to avoid the beginning of this sin, as 
they little think what one spark may kindle. 3. 1 advise all 
men to take heed of placing religion too much in fears, and 
tears, and scruples ; or in any other kind of sorrow, but such 
ai tendeth to raise us to a high estimation of Christ, to the 
magnifying of his grace, to a sweeter taste of the love of God^ 
and to the firmer resolution against sin : that tears and grief be 
not commended inordinately for themselves, or as clear signs of 
a converted persons We ought to call men more to look after 
duty than after signs as such. Set self-love to work, and spare 
not ; so will you call them much more to the love ojf God. Let 



S36 THS LIFB ANB WftlTINOi 

them know that this love is their best sign, but that it oofjbx te 
be exercised for a higher reason, than as a sign of our own hopes; 
for that motive alone will not produce true love to God. As the 
Antinomians too much exclude humiliation and signs of giaoe^ 
so many of late have made their religion too much to consist ia 
the seeking of these signs out of their proper time and plaefe^ 
without referring them to that obedience^ love, and joy, in wUeh 
true religion doth principally consist.'' ' 

Tlese very judicious observations show that Baxter was not 
only a most careful observer of the phenomena of human natmc, 
with which he was so largely conversant, but that in dcaliog 
with men he was guided by the soundest principles of philosophy 
and religion. He justly considered many of the mental or 
spiritual diseases respecting which he was consulted, to arise 
from a diseased state of the animal frame, and that the assist- 
ance of the physician and the laboratory was required as wd 
as the divine. He prescribed for the body as well as ibr^ths 
soul, though not always in either case with eflPect. 

His views of the proper method of obtaining Christian oomfor^ 
and arriving at full satbfaction respecting a personal interest ia 
the salvation of Christ, were sound and highly important. He 
did not consider these enjoyments, desirable as they are, as whst 
ought to be directly sought, or pursued for themselves. He 
regarded them as effects or results rather than objects of direct 
pursuit. Neither health nor happiness will generally be secur- 
ed by seeking them for their own sake ; and will seldom fail to 
be enjoyed if sought for in a proper manner. This is no less tme 
respecting the health and happiness of the soul; men can never 
attain them by their being made the grand or exclusive objects 
of attention. 

Baxter produced the right kind of Christian experience, by 
presenting continually before the mind a great object of attrac- 
tion, whose holy influence could not fail to accomplish the most 
delightful and salutary effects, if steadily contemplated. To 
produce love to God, which is the grand design of all true 
religion, and the spring of all purifying joy, he spoke of His lofe 
in all its fulness, and freeness, and splendour. He aimed at pro- 

' Life, part iii. pp. 85, 86. AmoDp the Baxter MSS. preserved in the Red- 
cross-street library, are Dunierous letters addressed to him by persons in dii- 
tress of miod, and copies of letters sent by him in reply. Both while be wis 
at Kidderminster, and after his removal from it, especially about the time of 
bis preparing the above discourse, he seems to have had a f^reat deal to do in 
this way. 



OV UCBAft0 BAXTMR. 587 

dudng an orcrwhelming sense of gratitnde and obligation, by 
thus exhibiting tiie infinite riches of the divine generosity. He 
knew that this would necessarily take the mind off from itself, 
and engage the exercise of all its faculties on an object at 
onee worthy of their most actire and enlarged exercise, and 
capeUe of affinrding the purest and sublimest satisfaction. He 
knew that the principle of love to God, being once sufficiently 
niiised, would exert itself in doing all the will of God, and in that 
very exertion happiness would be experienced. The signs and 
evidences of the Christian character would multiply and abound, 
and thus those doubts and perplexities would be removed that 
haunt the soul which is directed chiefly to itself, for reasons of 
comfort and confidence before God. 

His own experience is a happy illustration of the beneficial 
tendency of these idews, and of the conduct which he pursued 
towards others. From Jiis habit of body, and peculiarities of 
mindy it might be supposed that he would himself be the sub- 
ject of much morbid feeling. But this was not the case. He 
teUa US that he never was the subject of melancholy, or that 
species of mental depression arising from doubts and fears 
rsqiecting the enjoyment of the divine favour, after he was pro- 
perly enlightened by the GospeL He had penetrating views of 
mn, deep and solemn impressions of death and eternity ; but 
they were all founded on his clear perceptions of the character 
of God, and the declarations of his word ; and were always con- 
nected with the enjoyment of calm satisfaction and holy tran- 
quillity of mind. He feared always, but he also loved; he 
trembled, but he also rejoiced. Religion was his life ; its dis- 
coveries both elevated and purified his mind ; and in the dis- 
charge of its duties he found full employment for all his active 
and energetic powers. In the time of suffering, he fled to it for 
relief and repose ; and he never fled in vmn. It was to him a con- 
stant, as he ever found it a welcome and a sure, refuge. When 
in any measure free from personal and outward suffering, and 
capable of labour, his work left him no time for melancholy 
musings, or harassing fears respecting his personal safety. It 
was his meat and his drink to do the will of God, and in doing 
that will he found a continual feast. Let Christianity be but 
thus treated, and it will never fiul to produce the same practical 
efiects^ and to afford the same heavenly joy. 



5S8 rmt J.int and wntrmcs 



CHAPTER V. 



T¥ORKS ON CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 

Introductory Obserrations^Sygtematic Theology-*The Fathen— Scboolma 
—Casuiits— Reformers— -Calvin'i Institutions^Works of Perk ini Arcln 
bishop Usher'g System— Lcigh^g Body of Diviuity— Baxter's ' Cbristiia 
Directory '— Inteudcd as the Second P^rt of his * Methodus '—His own 
Acconnt of it — Remarks on the Arrangement — Opposed to the Politics of 
Hooker— Progress of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience In BaglaBd— 
Character of the ' Directory '— Compared with the ' Duetor Dabttentimi^ 

. of Tayk>r— * The Reformed Pastor'—^ Reasons fbr Ministerial PlalsMa' 
^« Poor Man's FamUy Book '— « The Cataehising of F^mlti«»'-^ IV 
Mother's Catechism'— < Sheeta for the Poor and the Affliolea *•«-< DifftdiaM 
to Justices of the Peace '^< How to do Good ta Many' — ' Q»uMtk to 
Young Men '— ' The Divine Appointment of the Locd't Pay '*-^Cimclndinf 
Remarks. 



If obedience to the will of God be the end and design of all re* 
ligion, it ought to occupy a chief part of our attention in ewtff 
discussion of its nature. However difficult it mav be to teach mett 
some of the doctrines of religion, the most formidable difflcultiet 
really belong to its practice. This arises not from the obscurity 
which attaches to what God requires, but from the backward- 
ness of man to comply with the requisition. His natural in- 
clinations are all enlisted on the side of disobedience, or, at 
least, of aversion to a full conformity of disposition to the mind 
of God. Hence if the vestige of a doubt rests on any divine pre* 
cept, or inhibition, to which it may be felt inconvenient or on- 
desirable to render positive compliance, advantage is sure to 
be taken of that doubt. Every subterfuge or excuse which 
ingenuity can devise, will be resorted to in order to quiet con- 
science, or to justify to others the conduct which is pursued. 

The opportunities and means of practising this species of 
evasion are very considerable. The unavoidable imperfectioB 
and ambiguity of human language, of which even a divine 
revelation in that language is not altogether divested; the 



' Of mie VAraf basctiiu 5S9- . 

iMCfiry cscqitloiit belonging to mtny of the general law* 
of Gody with the great variety of circumstances into which men 
are throu-n, presenting temptations to avail themselves of sup- 
posed exceptions in their favour; these, together with the deceit- 
fiilness of the human heart, are among the things which create 
difficulty to the Christian moralist, and have furnished abundant 
employment to the casuistical divine. 

Were it not for the mistake which extensively prevails among 
mankind, that their interests ancl those of the law of Ood are 
not the same, the difficulty of communicating instruction on 
religion would not be very formidable, lliis fatal error, how- 
ever^ ia mixed up with all our natural reasonings, and gives 
a wrong direction or bias to our every thought and feeling. 
The Creator of the universe is regarded with jealousy and sus- 
picioQ by his own creature. The principles of his moral ad* 
ministration are supposed to concern rather his own glory, 
than the happiness of the universe. His laws are pronounced 
alike arbitrary and severe, if not positively unjust. If the rea- 
son eS some of them is hot fully stated, that concealment is 
regarded as a sufficient apology for neglect or noncompliance ; 
where the reason is stated, it is not always approved ; being 
perhaps regarded aa proceeding from arbitrary power, rather 
than arising from justice and goodness. 

Where such a state of mind prevails, it is at once obvious that 
we have to do, not with the understanding so much as with the 
dispoeition. The darkness of the mind is not mere intellectual 
ignorance ; which an adequate process of instruction could re- 
movov The understanding is indeed dark, but it arises from 
^ao alienation of the life from God." There is ignorance, it is 
true, but it consists in what the Scriptures emphatically call 
^ blindness of heart." Hence the influence which Christ him- 
self aacribee to inclination in the reception of the will of God : 
^< If any man be inclined to do the will of God, he shall know 
of the doctrine whether it be of God ;" and hence arises the 
absolute necessity of that divine teaching which the Scriptures 
invariably represent as lying at the foundation of all enlighten- 
ed and acceptable obedienee to the Most High. 

The inspired writers, accordingly, never confine their instruc- 
tions to the understanding, or regard the reception and in« 
fluence of Christianity as if they merely resulted from an intel- 
lectual process. They do not record their doctrines in creeds, or 
deliver their precepts in formal summaries. They communieate 



540 THE Lin AKD WftimffM 

both chiefly in the form of addreates to the Gonscienee and to 
the hearty or in reasonings which, while they are powerfblly cil* 
culated to enlighten and convince the understanding, are no Im 
fitted to engage the wannest feelings of the soul in fimmr of 
obedience to Him, whose highest moral glory is summed up in 
the attribute of lovb. 

This plan has not been followed by the generality of wiiten 
on systematic theology, llie theory and practice of rdipoa 
have been unwisely separated from each other to the injury sf 
both. Thus, what may be regarded as speculative has beoi 
deprived of its most powerful recommendation; and wfaatii 
practical, has been 'divested of its living principle. Tlie one 
is presented as soul without body, the other as body withont 
spirit. In the former, religion is generalised into abstract pria- 
ciples ; in the latter, it is shrivelled into outward fonn% and 
reduced to a joyless submission. 

It cannot be denied, however, that there are some advanti^ 
connected with the separate discussion of these subjectai, when 
properly conducted. This more especially belonga to the fnm 
than to the pulpit. In the latter, they ought never to be dis- 
joined. It is not the place for abstract, philosophical disqui- 
sition ; but for the evangelical enforcement of the truths and 
duties of Christianity. It is easier to guard against misappre- 
hensions in a written work than in oral discourse : many 
things can be conveniently and appropriately discussed in book^ 
which would be altogether unsuitable as topics for puUTc 
preaching. 

It would be vain to look for much of systematic theology in 
the fathers or early writers of the Christian church. Tliey 
lived too near the period of the Apostles, to feel the necessity 
or importance of this kind of writing. Nor were their circum- 
stances at all favourable to it. Most of them were incapable of 
any thing very profound ; the body of the people were of tlie 
same description ; and both teachers and taught were so much 
conversant with a state of suffering, as to have scarcely either 
time or inclination for any thing but what bore immediately on 
the practice or the consolations of the Gospel. Origen and Cyril 
of Jerusalem were the first among the Greeks who did any thing 
in this way. The former, in his work, vepl afx»y>— or Four Books 
concerning Principles, while he gives some information, astounds 
us with allegories and absurdities ; the latter, in his ^ Cate- 
chetical Discourses/ which were written in his youth, conveys 



or EICHABD BAXTBK. 541 

aome vaefal instruction in a less objectionable manner. Augus- 
tine, in his ^ Enchiridion, or Treatise on Fiudi, Hope, and 
Charity/ presents a kind of system, while, in some of his other 
writings, he discusses many of those questions, which, at a 
Ibture period, were reduced into more r^;ular form, and occa- 
«med interminable disputes. 

It was in the middle ages, that Scholastic Theology, combined 
into tegular system the principles and duties of religion ; but un- 
fart m»te ly it presented the subject in a shape, not only opposed 
to aound philosophy, and repugnant to all correct taste ; but was 
ca lculated to do the most serious injury to religion. The works 
of Abelard, Lombard, Aquinas, and the other angelical, or sera- 
phic, doctors of the dark ages, afford proofs of no inconsiderable 
talent, eqiecially in dialectics ; but unfortunately it was em- 
ployed rather to bewilder the mind than to aid the discovery of 
trutlu The metaphysics of Plato, the logic of Aristotle, and 
tiie corrupt theology of the church of Rome, were amalgamated 
into one crude incoherent mass of unintelligible dogmas, which 
was honoured with the titie of the orthodox faith; and 
the slightest departure from which was deemed a pernicious 
heresy.' 

The Romish Casuists may be considered as succeeding the 
acholastic writers, and distinct from them. They occupied 
themselves not so much with the metaphysics of doctrine as 
with the metaphysics of practice. Conscience was professedly 
the chief object of their ajttention ; and the canon law, with the 
opinions of the fatiiers^ and the decrees of councils and popes, 
was the rule by which they directed it. Auricular confession 
naturally gendered this description of writers. It laid open the 
interior of man to his fellow man to an improper extent ; it 
created a prurient curiosity, and often called forth the utmost 
effort of human ingenuity in solving real or pretended difficulties ; 
in finding consolation for the wounded conscience, or apologies 
fin: the hardened sinner. To assist the junior priesthood in 
trafficking advantageously with the eternal interests of men, and 
to render them skilful in all manner of derices for keeping the 
conscience under subjection to papal authority, were the great 
objects of the Romish Casuists. Their workr are storehouses of 
logical subtleties, and magazines of moral combustibles sufficient 
to distract and destroy the universe. Such are the writings of 
Sanchez, Suarez, Escobar, and others of the same schooU 

• Scs MoreU's < Elemtats/ Ac. p. 295. 



542 THx un AMD wmituros 

This style of writing in the department of ey&teiBfttie mi 
catuistic theology among the Romaniste^ gave place to a tiiii|d* 
and more practical mode of treating Mush subjeets^ dnderthe 
denomination of the ^^ Common Places" and theological oeoDieli 
of the reformers. Disgusted with the metaphysical abeuriBchi 
and logomachy of the schoolmen^ Melancthon, Luther^ and 
others^ produced compendiums, or brief systemsi of religion, in 
which, arranged under various heads, the principal artides cf 
Christian faith and duty were plainly stated* llie ConfessioM 
of the reformed churches necessarily assumed a systematic fisnii 
and expositions, or commentaries on them, brought (he doetrinei 
and duties of religion in regular digests before the people of evei/ 
country in which they were adopted. In most of these pn>^ 
ductions, while both occupy one book, the credemla and the 
agenda, are always treated distinctly* 

In Systematic Theology, the Institutions of Calvin^ though not 
the first in the order of time, carried off the palm from all ils 
predecessors, and has not yet been surpassed by any compe- 
titor. Diversity of opinion may exist respecting some of the 
positions of the Genevese reformer, and even among thoee wIm 
hold his general views of Christian doctrine, there may not be 
an entire concurrence in every sentiment or expression | tmt 
while profound piety, masculine energy of mind, acuteness and 
strength of argument, perspicuity of statement, and purity of 
language, continue to be respected among men, the ' Christiaa 
Institutes ' of John Calvin will secure for their author immor* 
tal honour. 

Our own Reformers did not contribute much in this depart* 
ment, but many of the continental works were translated aod 
introduced into this country soon after their original publica* 
tion. This was the case with the leading works of Lvther, 
Melancthon, Calvin, and the other distinguished men who 
adorned the revival of religion and literature in Europe. Their 
writings spread with the rapidity of light itself, and produced 
all its cheering effects ; dispersing darkness, correcting errorSf 
and diffusing gladness and joy. Their disciples not only em? 
braced their principles, but their spirit; and wherever they 
were found, reflected and multiplied the benefits which they 
received. 

William Perkins is, properly, the first original writer in out 
langu^e on the theory and practice of religion, io a regular 
systematic form. ^ The. Golden Chain^ or jthe Description 



' OF RIGBAAO BAXTBR. * 548 

of Theology ; oontaining the Order of the Causes of Salva* 
tion and Damnation,' was written by him in Latin, but ap- 
peared in English, translated by another. It was followed by 
hia ' Exposition of the Creed, and of the Lord's Prayer ;' and 
by his * Three Books of Cases of Conscience/ Perkins was a 
thorough predestinarian ; and in the works above enumerated, 
though published at dififerent times, he has furnished a toler- 
ably complete body of divinity, on Calvinistic principles. He 
was a man of highly respectable talents and great piety, and 
writes in a style superior to most of his contemporaries. 

What is called Archbishop Usher's ' Body of Divinity,' was 
published Mdthout hia knowledge or consent, in 1645, by Mr* 
Downham, and is a collection from the writings of others^ 
rather than Usher's own.^ Tlie only other work of this de- 
scription deserving of notice, which appeared in English, prior 
to the works of Baxter, is the ' Body of Divinity,' by Edward 
Leigh, which was published in 1662. ^fhe author is known as 
having furnished several useful publications. His Hebrew and 
Greek lexicons show that he was a respectable scholar; and 
hia Annotations on the New Testament, though not elaborate, 
show that he was a man of sound judgment. The system of 
divinity is tolerably well arranged, and discovers very consider- 
able knowledge oJF the Scriptures ; but it is broken down into 
so many divisions and subdivisions, that it appears too much of 
a dry tabular representation of religion. 

The work of Baxter, of which I am about to give some 
account, the reader will observe, is but the half of his system of 
theology. The other half is contained in his ^Methodus,' 
which is properly placed under the head of his doctrinal works. 
The reason for publishing the one in Latin and the other ia 
English, is not very obvious or satisfactory ; but it so pleased 
the author. I have been more part icular in my introductory 
observations on the present volume, because it is not only the 
largest of all Baxter's works, but because I purposely avoided 
saying any thing on tlie points adverted to, when treating of 
the < Methodus.' llie following is the title :— 

*A Christian Directory; or a Sum of Practical Theology, 
and Cases of Conscience : directing Christians how to use their 
Knowledge and Faitli ; how to Improve all Helps and Means, 

* PArr** < Life of Usher/ p. 62. 



S44 TUB Un AKD WftlTINOf 

and to perform all Duties; how to overcome Temptatioiii, and 
to escape or mortify every Sin/* It appeared in a large foliO|iB 
1673, berides occupying one of the Tolnmes in the folio editioa 
of his 'Practical Works/ published in 1707. In ad<fitioa to 
what is said of this book, in connexion with the ^ Metbodni|' 
he says of it — ^^ As Amesius's ^ Cases of Conscience'* are to Ui 
'Medulla,' the second and practical part of theology, so ii 
this to a ' Methodus Tleologie,' which I hare not yet pid>- 
lished.T It was written in 1664 and 1665, except the ecded- 
astical cases of conscience, and a few sheets since added. And 
since the writing of it, some invitations drew me to publish my 
' Reasons of the Christian Religion,' my ' Life of Faith,' and 
' Directions for Weak Christians ;' by wluch the work of the 
two first chapters is more fully done." * 

'' I must do myself the right to notify to the reader, thst 
this treatise was written when I was, for not subscribing, fiir- 
bidden by the law to preach ; and when I had been long sepa- 
rated far from my library, and from all books, saving an incon- 
siderable parcel which wandered with me where I went. By 
which means this book hath two defects. It hath no cases of 
conscience but what my bare memory brought to hand ; snd 
cases are so innumerable that it is far harder, methinks, to 
remember them than to answer them ; whereby it came to pass, 
that some of the ecclesiastical cases are put out of their proper 
place, because I could not seasonably remember them : for I 
had no one casuist but Amesius with me. After about twelve 
years' separation, having received my library, I find that the 
very sight of Sayrus, Fragoso, Roderiquez, Tolet, &c., miglit 
have helped my memory to a greater number. * But periiaps 



• Works, vols, ii., iii., iv., v., vi. The Directory was 
by John Nicholai, and published at Frankfort, in 1693, 4to.—Wakfaii Bik« 
Tbeol. Sel., torn. u. p. 1 106. 

• The work of Amesius, referred to by Ba&ter, is a beautiful and aceaitH 
BnchiridUm* It is entitled, < De Contcientia, et ejus jure, vei caaibat libfi 
Quinque.' My edition was printed at Amsterdani in 1654. Within the eoa* 
pass of a small 12mo volume is comprised a larg^er portion of practical and 
•criptural instruction than in almost any book that I know. He is in gencnl 
remarkably accurate in his definitions, and had a power of oompreasioa ot- 
terly unknown to Baxter. 

J The * Methodus ' was not published tiU the year 1681. 
■ Works, vol. ii. Advertisement, p. i. 

• It is a happy thing that Baxter was absent from bis books while enpigsd 
on this work ; for had he been able to refer .to the Romish casuists, he woold 
have been in danger of spoiling his own performance. It it Urge enough, and 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 545 

these will be enough for those that I intend them for. And from 
the same cause, the margin i.s unfurnished of such citations 
as are accounted an ornament, and in some cases are very 
useful. Tlie scraps inserted out of my few trivial books at 
hand, being so mean, that I am well content (except about 
monarchy, part iv.) that the reader pass them by as not wortiiy 
of his notice. 

'^ Jt is likely that the absence of books, will appear to the 
reader's loss in the materials of the treatise ; but I shall have this 
advantage by it, that he will not accuse me as a plagiary. And 
It may be some little advantage to him, that he hath no tran- 
Bcript of any man's books which he had before ; but the product 
of some experience, with a naked, unbiassed perception of the 
matter or things themselves. 

*' Long have our divines been wishing for some fuller casuisti- 
cal tractate ; Perkins began well ; Bishop Sanderson hath done 
excellently, ^ Dejuramenio ;' Amesius hath exceeded ail, though 
briefly; Mr. David Dickson hath put more of our English cases 
about the state of sanctiiication, into Latin, than ever was done 
before him ; Bishop Jeremy Taylor hath in two folios but 
begun the copious performance of the work. And still men are 
calling for more, which I have attempted ; hoping that others 
will come after and do better than we all.^ 

'^ It is long ago since many foreign divines subscribed a request^ 
that the English would give them in Latin a sum of our prac-* 

minute enough, as it is; had it contained the stuff which these writers would 
have suffered, it would have heeu rendered useless, aod perhaps unftt for 
perusal. 

^ Jeremy Taylor has accounted very justly and ioiceuiously for the scarcity 
of casuistical bookj among the reformed churches in the preface to his * Due-* 
tor Dubitaotium.* He says, <' they were like the children of Israel in the days 
of Saul and Jonathan, forced to go' down to the forge« of the Philistines to 
sharpen every man his sliare and his coulter, his axe and his mattock. Wa 
had swords aud shares of our own, enough for defence, and more than enough 
lor disputation ; but iu this more necessary part, in the conduct of consciences, 
we did receive our answers from abroad, till we found that our old needs were 
tomctimes very ill supplied, aud new necessities did every day arise."—- 
ff^whSf vol. xi. p. 34G. His observations on the character and tendency of 
the Roman casuists, are exceedingly just and important. " We have found," 
he says, '* the merchants to be deceivers, and the wares too often falsified.'* 
The work of Dickson, referred toby Baxter, is the * Therapeutica Sacra, etc., 
or the Method of Healing the Diseases of Conscience, &c.' it was published 
in Latiu in 165G, and iu English in 1695. The author was a Scottish minister, 
professor of divinity successively iu the Universities of Glasf^ow and Edin- 
burgh. He was a highly respectable man both in talents and learning, and 
the author of several valuable expository works. He died in 1662. 

VOL. I. N N 



S46 THX Lin AND WJtITIMGS 

tical theology, which Mr. Dury sent over ; and twdve gmt 
divines of ours wrote to Bishop Usher, as Dr. Bernard teUs m 
in his Life, to draw them up a form or method. But it wm 
never done among them all. And it is said that Bishop Dov» 
name, at last undertaking it, died hi the attempt. Had tUi 
been done, it is like my labour might have been spared. B«t 
being undone, I have thus made this essay. But I have been ne* 
eessitated to leave out much about conversion, mortifieatioo, 
self-denial, self-acquaintance, faith, justification^ judgraeiti 
glory, &c., because I had written of them all before."* 

The reader will probably be amused, as 1 have been, with thi 
following defence of himself for writing many and large books* 
^ As to the numbers and length of my writings, it is my amt 
labour that maketh them so, and my own great trouble, dm 
the world cannot be sufficiently instructed and edified in fewer 
words. But, would not all your sermons set together be at 
long ? And why is not much and long preaching blamable, if 
long writings be ? Are not the works of Augnstine, and 
Ghrysostom, much longer ? Who yet hath reproached Aquinai 
or Suarez, Calvin or Zanchy, &c. for the number and greatncM 
of the volumes they have written? Why do you contradict 
yourselves by affecting great libraries? When did I ever 
persuade any one of you, to buy or read any book of mine } 
What harm will thev do to those that let them alone ? Or what 
harm can it do you for other men to read them ? Let them be 
to you as if they had never been written ; and it will be nothing 
to you how many they are. And if all others take not yon for 
their tutors to choose for them what books they must read, that 
is not my doing but their own. If they err in taking them- 
selves to be fitter judges than you what tendeth moat to their 
own edification, why do you not teach them better ? Either 
It is God's truth or error which I write. If error, why doth do 
one of you show so much charity as by word br writing to iiH 
struct me better, nor evince it to my face, but do all to others 
by backbiting ? If truth, what harm will it do ? If men had not 
leisure to read our writings, the booksellers would silence us, 
and save you the labour; for none would print them. But 
who can please all men ? Whilst a few of you cry out of too 
much, what if twenty or a hundred for one be yet for more ? 
How shall I know whether, you or they be the wiser and the 
better men?'' ^ 

« Works, vol. ii. pp. 7^9. * Aid. pjp. 10, 11. 



OF mtCHAttD BAXTER. 547 

Thte Is cynical enodgh, but retj characteristic. Tfie wortk 
i« arranged by the author under four heads : Christian Bthics, « 
or private Duties } Christian Economics, or Family Duties ; 
Chfistiali Ecclesiastics, or Church Duties ; and Christian Poli^ 
tics, or Duties to Rulers and Neighbours. This plan is not so 
complete or systematic as might have been expected from a man 
who studied order so much as Baxter did, and who attached so 
nfoch importance to it. The arrangement of a moral system 
seems accurately marked by the apostle Paul in the three ex- 
pressive words which he employs: (Titus ii. 12.) " Godliness, 
righteousness, and sobriety.'' All the duties which belong to 
flian are included under the head of what he owes to Qod, what 
is due to himself, and what belongs to others. This arrange^ 
metit has usually been adopted by the modern writers on moral 
solijects. Baxter would seem to omit the first of these heads 
^together; and his three last departments belong all to one 
division — ^the duties which we awe to others. But it must be 
said for him, that he had anticipated himself greatly in some of 
his former writings, by which the regularity of his plan was in* 
jured ; and under the head of private duties, he includes much 
(bi what man owes to Ood, as well as of what is due to his 
own interests. 

}h other respects the plan is at once most comprehensive and 
pvrticular, embracing, beyond any other book with which I am 
acquainted, the largest portion of practical casuistry and in- 
struction. It discovers the amazing extent and minuteness of 
the author's acquaintance with the Scriptures, and with all the 
principles of human nature. Nothing seems to have escaped 
his observation, or appeared too difficult to deter him from, at 
lestot, attempting its solution. That he should^have always suc- 
ceeded^ is too much to expect. The undertaking was too vast 
even for the mind of Baxter, and his manner of conducting it 
sometimes discovers weakness ; while, on the whole, the work 
is a powerful illustration of the strength of his mind, and the 
fertility of his genius. 

What is called moral philosophy in modern times, is any thing 
but the philosophy of morals. Our modern philosophers have 
supposed they should be better employed in discussing mental ope- 
rations and the phenomena of human nature, than the principles 
of obedience to the will of God. And indeed where dirine reve^ 
latton is either left out of the discussion, or ptoced below what is 
called natural religion, it is better that they should amuse them- 

M K 2 



548 THE LIFE AND WaiTINGS 

selves with other subjects than with the duties which mftuowes 
to the Creator. Baxter's work is full of genuine philosophy. 
Man's responsibility is the basis of his system; the revelation of 
Heaven its regulating law ; his own happiness the inseparable 
concomitant of the obedience thus produced^ having the £vioe 
glory for its ultimate end. 

No part of the work is less satisfactory than that which treati 
on politics. This is one of the subjects Baxter least under- 
stood, and on which, -therefore, he never wrote consistently. It 
is very entertaining to find him waging war with Hooker^ whose 
principles he considered too popular and democratic. Who 
would expect to find the author of the ^ Ecclesiastical Polity' a 
whig, and Richard Baxter the Nonconformist a tory ? Yet so it 
is ; the one, inconsistently with his leading principles on church 
government, maintains that the people are the proper source , 
of all power or authority ; the other disputes this, no less in- 
consistently with some of his sentiments, and with the conduct 
which in regard to such matters he had pursued* 

Hooker maintains, with great ability^ the doctrine which he 
lays down in the following passage : 

*^ That which we spake of the power of government, must 
here be applied to the power of making laws whereby to govern; 
which power God hath over all, and by the natural law, 
whereto he hath made all subject, the lawful power of making 
laws to command whole politic societies of men, belongeth so 
properly to the same entire societies, that for any prince or po- 
tentate, of what kind soever upon earth, to exercise the same of 
himself, and not either by express commission immediately and 
personally received from God, or else by authority derived at 
first from their consent, upon whose persons they impose laws, 
it is no better than mere tyranny. Laws they are not, there- 
fore, which public approbation hath not made so." ^ 

The reasoning by which Hooker sustains this enlightened 
constitutional doctrine, it is unnecessary that I should quote. 
Baxter never appears weaker than in his attempt to overthrow 
it ; he thus introduce^ his answer, which is a fair sample of all 
the rest of his argument. The passage shows his respect for 
Hooker, and his want of confidence in himself on this subject, 
while it avows a principle subversive of the most valuable rights 
Ivhich we enjoy. 

<< Because the authority of this famous divine is, with his party, 

• Worki, voL Yi. p. 27. 



OP RICHARD BAXTBR. 549 

•o great, I shall adventure to say something, lest his words do 
the more harm ; but not by confident opposition, but humble 
proposal and submission of my judgment to superior and wiser 
men, as, being conscious of my own inferiority and infirmity, I 
take all this to be an assertion nowhere by him proved, and by 
me elsewhere disproved fully. Laws are the effects and signs of 
the ruler's will and instruments of government. Legislation is 
the first part of government ; and if the whole body are naturally 
governors, the *Pars imperans' and ^Pars subdita' are con- 
founded. If the most absolute monarch can make no laws, then 
'disobeying them were no fault. It is enough that their power 
be derived from God immediately, though the persons be chosen 
by men. ITieir authority is not derived from the people's con- 
aent, but from God, by their consent, as a bare condition, * sine 
<pia non/ What if a community say all to their elected king, 
* We take not ourselves to have any governing power to give 
or use, but we only choose .you or your family to that office 
which God hath instituted, who, in that institution, giveth you 
the power upon our choice : * can any man prove that such a 
kii^ hath no power but as a tyrant, because the people disclaim 
the giving of the power, when, indeed, they do their duty ? 
Remember tiTat, in all this, we speak .not of the government of 
this or that particular kingdom ; but of kingdoms and other 
commonwealths indefinitely." ' 

This passage contains the essence of the doctrine of passive 
obedience as distinctly as was ever contended for by the highest 
churchman of the day. It obviously confounds the divine ap- 
pointment of government, with a particular form of government, 
or with the principles of the governing party. It is monstrous 
to contend that the right to govern, or the authority to execute 
laws, is not derived from the people, but from God. Such a prin- 
ciple is the basis of all arbitrary governments, and was the root 
of all the evils which so long affected the country, and led to 
the repeated subversion of those who considered themselves the 
only legitimate possessors of the right to govern. The doctrine 
contended for is not the doctrine of the Bible ; and the main- 
tenance of it is a singular proof of weakness and inconsistency 
in a man who took such a lead as Baxter, in a body whose very 
existence implies the principle against which he disputes, and 
whose exertions have done more to establish that principle in 
Great Britain than all other things together. 

The ^ Christian Directory' was published at a time when dis- 

' Works, voL vL p^37,2Q. 



6iO T0B Un 4NP WmiTIVGS 

putet on the subject of passive obedienpe and iioii*rMist«Dee 
began to be busily agitated. Baxter, though a Nonconforaiiit 
in fact, was a Churchman rather than a Dissenter in prindplSi 
His jud^Aent was in this way entangled, and hb consistency 
frequently destroyed. Hallam, with his usual candour and dis- 
crimination, accounts for the principles and writings of some 
of the clergy on this subject. As the passage explains, tbongh 
it does not justify, the part which Baxter took, as well as gitci 
a most correct view of the nature and progress of the lUscus- 
sion, I shall give it at large. 

^' It is not my intention to censure, in any strong sense of the 
word, the Anglican clergy, at this time, fpr their assertioq of ab- 
solute non-resistance, so far as it was done without calumny nd 
insolepc towards those of another way of thinking, and withottt 
Sfslf-interested adulation of the ruling power. Their error was 
very dangeroi^s, and had nearly proved destructive of the whole 
constitution ; but it was one which had come down with bigii 
recommendation, and of which they could only, perhaps, be 
undeceived, as men are best undeceived of most orora, by ex* 
perience, that it might hurt themselves. It was the tenet of 
their homilies, their canons, their most distinguished divines and 
casuists. It had the apparent sanction of the l^slature in a 
statute of the present reign. Many excellent men, as was 
shown after the Revolution, who had never made use of this 
doctrine as an engine of faction or private interest, could not 
disentangle their minds from the arguments or the authori^ on 
which it rested. But by too great a number it was eageriy 
brought forward to serve the purposes of aibitrary power, or at 
best to fix the wavering Protestantism of the court, by preces- 
sions of unimpeachable loyalty. To this motive, in fact, we 
may trace a good deal of the vehemence with which the non- 
resisting principle had been originally advanced by the church 
of England under the Tudors, and was continually urged 
under the Stuarts. If we look at the tracts and sermons 
published by both parties after the Restoration, it will ap- 
pear manifest that the Romish and Anglican churches bade^ 
as it were, against each other for the favour of the two 
royal brothers. The one appealed* to its acknowledged prin- 
ciples, while it denounced the pretensions of the holy see to 
release subjects from their allegiance, and the bold theories of 
popular government, which Mariana and some other Jesuits had 
promulgated. The others retaliated on the first movers of the 
Reformation, and exigaliaX^di wx x3^^ vmE^ation of Lady Jane 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 531 

Grey, not to say, Elizabeth, and the republicanism of Knox or 
Calvin. 

'^ From the era of the exclusion bill, especially to the death 
of Charles II., a number of books were published in favour of an 
indefeasible hereditary right of the crown, and of absolute non- 
reidstance. These were, however, of two very different classes. 
The authors of the first, who were perhaps the more numerous, 
did not deny the legal limitations of monarchy. They admitted 
that no one was bound to concur in the execution of unlawful 
commands. Hence, the obedience they deemed indispensable, 
was denominated passive ; an epithet, which, in modern usage, 
is little more than redundant, but at that time made a sensible 
distiuction. If all men should confine themselves to this line f 
duty, and merely refuse to become the instruments of such un-^ 
lawful commands, it was evident that no tyranny could be car-- 
ried into effect. If some should be wicked enough to co-operate 
against the liberties of their country, it would still be the 
bounden obligation of Christians to submit. Of this, which 
may be reckoned the moderate party, the most eminent were 
Hickes, in a treatise called ' Jovian,' and Sherlock, in his Case 
of Resbtance to the Supreme Powers. To this, also, must have 
belonged Archbishop Sancroft, and the great body of non- 
juring clergy, who had refused to read the declaration of in- 
dulgence under James II., and whose conduct in that respect 
would be utterly absurd, except on the supposition that there 
existed some lawful boundaries of the royal authority." ^ 

But I must return to the general character of the Chris- 
tian Directory. It is as a book of casuistry, rather than in any 
other point of view, that it must be contemplated. It is filled 
with a multitude of directions for the regulation of conduct, 
and with innumerable cases of conscience, which the author 
endeavours to solve. For this kind of work, Baxter was 
pre-eminently qualified, both by the constitution of his own 
mind, and by his extensive experience. What he was as a 
metaphysician, has been frequently adverted to. He was trained 
to casuistry by the writings of the scholastic divines, to which 
he had devoted so much attention, and of whose discussions he 
was a profound admirer. 

In addition to this, Baxter, from various causes, had for many 
years been oonsulted in doubtful and difficult cases, probably by 
a greater number of persons than any other man of his age. 

t HallaiD, voL li. pp. 624*^27 « 



552 THB LIP£ AND WRITINGS 

It was an age, too, it should be remembered^ in vrhkh thst 
kind of spiritual consultation and prescription, was earned to 
a great extent. We are told by Bishop Heber, in his Lifie of 
Jeremy Taylor, that during the time that the celebrated Dr^ 
Owen was dean of Christ-church, a regular office for titt 
satisfaction of doubtful consciences was held in Oj^ord, to 
which the students at last ludicrously gave the name of * Scnple 
shop/ ^ His Lordship should not have forgotten to mentioii|ii 
connexion with this, that after the Restoration, there was sa 
office established in London for the sale of dispensations to 
churchmen to eat flesh in the time of Lent* 

Casuistry, in fact, belonged to all the parties of the timob 
The'Ductor Dubitantium' shows how it was understood arid 
practised by churchmen ; as the ^ Christian Directory' illiistntiBi 
the same thing in relation to the NonconformistSk Whether 
the palm in this species of writing ought to belong to T^fkir 0r 
to Baxter, I am not casuist enough myself to take upon me to 
determine. Taylor had more learning and a greater hixartinos 
of imagination than Baxter ; but the latter was more than Ui 
equal in acuteness, in the power of distinguishing^ in Ini 
knowledge of the human heart, and in the correct estimation of 
scriptural principle and practice. Taylor deals more with 
general principles ; Baxter with particular cases. The former is 
frequently extremely happy in his illustrations ; the latter in hit 
expositions of the deceitfulness of the human heart, and the 
secret workings of error and sin. Both may be consulted oc- 
casionally with profit and advantage j but if resorted to as 
oracles, they will frequently be found as unsatisfactory as the 
responses of the Delphic tripod. 

The grand objection to the work of Baxter is, that it attempts 
too much. It substitutes minute instructions instead of the 
general principles and precepts of the word of God. It leaves toe 
little for the spontaneity of the Christian mind, and perpl< 
and bewilders by a useless multiplication of questions and 
He discusses, for instance, thirty tongue sins, and twenty qocs- 
tions for the conviction of drunkards. He proposes eighteea 
necessary qualifications of lawful recreation ; describes eighteea 
sorts that are sinful ; and proposes twelve convincing questioaa 
to those who plead for such pastimes. He answers thirty-six 
questions about contracts : twenty about buying and selling 
sixteen representing theft ; and (me hundred and sevaUif-fntr 
about matters eCc\es\^i\eal I 



OF mCHARD BAXTBB. ^53 

Among other subjects^ he considers, whether a mental promise 
doth oblige ; whether money may be given to a bishop, patron, 
&c., by way of gratitude ; whether we may use many words 
in buying and selling; whether we may buy as cheap as we 
can ; and whether a landlord may raise his r^nts ? He inquires 
whether love of sleep may be a mortal sin ; and gives directions 
against sinful dreams. He discusses whether we may follow the 
fitthions; and whether deformity may be hid by painting or ap- 
parel ; whether a minister may kneel down in the pulpit and 
.use his private prayers when he is in the assembly. 

I am far from thinking that such questions, and many others 
on which Baxter bestowed great labour, are absolutely indif- 
ferent, but the attempt to meet the infinite variety of puzzles 
which may be presented in morals and manners, by writing 
books, is the vainest in which man can engage. Many of 
Baxter's answers are quite unsatisfactory ; they either leave the 
question where it was, express a vain wish that some things 
were different, or actually create doubts and perplexities 
where none existed before. They tend to generate disease 
as well as to cure it. On sensitive and scrupulous . minds, 
they are in danger of operating injuriously, by feeding and 
atrengthening morbid feelings ; while, to minds of a stronger 
texture, which may be disposed to practise evasion, they 
answer little purpose, or suggest means of self-defence and 
jostification. 

While I thus freely express myself respecting the imperfec- 
tions or faults of this extensive work, I entertain a strong 
opinion of the large mass of valuable practical instruction 
which it contains. One feature pervades it — Baxter never errs 
in the way of pleading for evil, or apologizing for its appear- 
ance. If he errs, it is on the side of rigidity, and not of laxity. 
Wherever there is a doubt, he holds that the law of God, ^nd 
not the creature, should have the benefit of that doubt. He 
never teaches men how near they may approach to evil without 
danger ; but invariably inculcates the necessity of keeping at 
the greatest distance from it. Many of the books of Romish 
casuistry, seem to have been constructed for the purpose of jus- 
tifying men in the commission of sin. They are little better 
than traps and snares, whose end is death. Even Taylor 
could go the length of admitting, that private evil may in some 
eases be done by public men, for the public necessity « ¥^>3X 
though varioui of Baxter*^ rules may easWy be e^^x^ai^^Wvi^ 



Hi Tm U9B AM) trftfrmfis 

BQl olMenred any cast io which be altempls to fdaad ior fvl or 
excuse iu 

On the whole^ the best directory for concience it mi ca* 
Kghtened acquaintance with the Scriptures, and the possession tf 
a spiritual state of mind. Where these exist, difficulties it^ 
specting conduct will not be found in any great degree, or ks 
cMf long continuance. God has engaged, to make the path if 
duty plain to him who desires to be found in it, and suck viH 
always experience the divine faithfulness and goodness. - II i| 
impossible to construct nicer balances than those of the saBcUhi 
ary ; or to form better weights and measures for tbsm, thsn 
those which God himself has provided. When truth must bs 
dealt out in drams and scruples, or the state of the consciaBSS 
i^ertained by a theological barometer, the healtli of the soul 
must be in a very crazy or feeble condition, llie cure in siieh 
a case must be found, not in a ^^ scruple shop,'* er in a disfiear 
sation office, but in a resolute and persevering applicatioo to ths 
great Physician, and the proper use of his heavenly renediss. 
Where these foil, or are neglected, neither a Ductor DubitaiH 
tium nor a Christian Directory vrill render essential service.^ 

I purposely began this chapter on Christian ethics, with 
Baxter's ^ Directory/ because, though not the first of his works 
on the great duties of man, as it embraces the whole range it 
was properly entitled to priority of consideration. The woik to 
which I am now about to advert, is less in bulk, but greater in 
value, and has rendered the highest services to the cause of 
Christianity. I refer to his 

'GiLDAs Salvianus: The Reformed Pastor ; showing lbs 
nature of the pastoral work ; especially in private instruetioB 
and catechising : with an open confession of our too open sins. 
Prepared for a day of humiliation, kept at Worcester, Dec. 4tli, 
1655, by the ministers of that county who subscribed the agree- 
ment for catechising, and personal instruction, at their entranos 
upon that work.' j The title which 1 have here quoted, presents 
at once to the reader, the nature and design of this important 
treatise. Baxter was eminently qualified to write on the nature 

* An ' Abridgment of the Christian Directory/ in two volumes 8vo, wa» 
published in 1804, by Dr. Adam Clarke. The only mode of abridging sucb a 
book, is reducing iti bulk, by leaving out large portions of it. Baxter. I ap- 
prehend, would not have smiled at the various attempts which have beta 
made to contract his dimeusions. 

1 Works, Tol. XV* 



OF RlCUiU B4KWt W 

|b4 4Miga pf the niiii#MeriaI office. He bad now Qocvpied it 
fer # Mifficieiit wimber of yean, to enable him to speak from his 
MIBi experience. But independently of this, the manner in which 
h^ bad discharged tlie duties of the office at Kiddef minster, and 
tbe extraordinary success with which it had pleased God to 
bless his labours, pointed him out to his brethren as the proper 
pp|«pn to deliver to them, not an ea: cathedra oration, or a formal 
poi|do adclero9, but a pious, earnest, and solemn homily on the 
pfi^rous duties and responsibilities of the pastoral function. 

The manner in which he fulfilled his duties in the church, of 
which the Holy Ghost had made him overseer, we have already 
i^ea in his own beautiful account of the causes and means of 
l|i« suopess. The volpme now before us unfolds the principles 
bf which he was actuated in the discharge of his ministry, 
md the means by which he endeavoured to male full proof of 
H* He was himself, allowing for human imperfections, the pastof 
wbiph be despribes, the minister whose poftrait he sketches ] 

I ** Wboie own example strengtbeni all his lawi, 
I And it bimielf the f^reat sublime he draws." ^ 

It is therefove no fanciful sketch, or beau ide^ of a character, 
unattainable by mortals, but the representation of a living reality. 
fbiM gives it a force and recomm^qdatiop wh^ch it would 
4lo( otherwise have; and is calculated to meet one of the 
ftrongest objections which naturally occur to the mind of every 
attentive reader. He is disposed at once to ask the question, 
C^n these things be} Can such ardour, such spiritual de- 
?otedness, suf:h untiring labour, such unwearied patience, so 
mifch wisdom, discrimination, faithfulness, and meekness, be at- 
lained ? If all these are required to the due fulfilment of the 
jpastor's weighty charge, who is sufficient for these things ? The 
effect of such considerations on some minds, has been most de- 
pressing and discouraging, inducing doubts as to whether they 
have really been called to the work of tlie ministry, or ought not 
to abandon it. 

Richard Baxter, though possessed of vast natural energy and 
enterprise, was after all but a man of like passions with others. 
•He was sickly, and feeble in body, and had his own peculiarities 
of mind; but the grace of Christ wrought mightily in him, and 
rendered him capable of great things. What he effected wits 
.more by the force of principle, and by the diligent and persever- 
wg use of diviuely-appointed means, than by his extraordinary 



556 TH« LfFB AND WRITiNOS 

natural talents. '^He studied to show himself a woikman im- 
proved of God." He gave himself to reading, to meditatioiiy 
and prayer; and was wholly in these things. Tliis coQtiiiiMd 
and unreserved devotedness is the grand feature in Baxter's 
ministerial character, and that which accounts for much that he 
accomplished at Kidderminster. 

To describe minutely such a work as the ^ Reformed Pastor/ 
cannot be necessary ; and no description could do full justice 
to its merits. Gil das and Salvianus, whose names are placed 
first on his title-page, were two writers of the fifth and siith 
centuries, distinguished for their bold and faithful wamingi. 
Baxter says, ^^ I pretend not to the sapience of GildaSy nor to 
the sanctity of Salvian, as to the degree ; but by their namci 
I offer an excuse for plain dealing, if it was used in a moeh 
greater measure by men so wise and holy as these, why should 
it, in a lower measure, be disallowed in anotlier ? At least, fram 
hence I have this encouragment, that the plain dealing of 
Gildas and Salvian being so much approved by us now they are 
dead, how much soever they might be despised or hated while 
they were living, by them whom they did reprove, at the worst I 
may expect some such success in times to come."'^ 

His expectation has been more than fulfilled ; scarcely any of 
his books having been more extensively read, or more generally 
useful than this. Prefixed to it is an address, of considerable 
length, to his reverend and dearly beloved brethren, the fiuthfiil 
ministers of Christ, in Great Britain and Ireland; full of tender- 
ness and simple fidelity. There is n^xt a short address to the 
lay reader, in which he speaks of an intention to write a second 
part of the work, treating more fully of the duties of the people, 
and their relations to their pastors ; but which, I believe, he 
never executed. The discourse itself is appropriately founded on 
Acts XX. 28. He first opens or expounds the meaning of the text, 
and then enters fully into his great subject ; which he divides 
into seven chapters. In these he enters into a full detail of all 
that is included in the oversight of the flock, the duties necessary 
to be performed, the manner in which they must be discharged, 
the actuating motives productive of obedience, the sins of the 
ministry, the encouragements provided for the faithful, and the 
threatenings addressed to the ignorant, indolent, or ungodly. 

On a few leading points Baxter lays great stress, and where 
they are attended to, much benefit will invariably accrue. 
Awakening preaching, holy example, diligent inspection, with 



OF RICHARD BAXTRtttf 957 

satechising^ and the faithful administration of discipline. On 
tbeae points he dwells and enlarges, and they were all strikingly 
iDuatrated in his own example. There was a cutting edge in 
hm preaching, which could scarcely be withstood. His own 
ebaracter added all the force of example to his expostulations, 
reproofs, and injunctions. He was constantly among the people; 
acquainted with the old and the young; familiar with their 
duracters and circumstances; and prepared to take advantage 
sf every occurrence which might promote their eternal welfare. 
His discipline followed up his warnings and denunciations; and 
fearless of any consequences, he administered it with all iide- 
Bty and impartiality. 

Such a plan and mode of acting could not fail to produce, and 
thi^ did produce, surprising and lasting effects. There is an 
adaptation in them to promote the great ends which 

rist has in view in the institution of the Christian ministry. 
Something must no doubt depend on natural as well as moral 
qualifications^ and on advantageous or disadvantageous circum- 
tUuices. But where there is an ordinary measure of fitness for 
the work, if such measures as these are diligently and persever- 
ingly prosecuted, the effect will most amply repay the labour. 
Christian zeal, fidelity, and tenderness, can never be employed 
in vain. 

There is one effect which such a system as Baxter recom-> 
mends is calculated to produce, and must therefore be watched 
with great attention. It has a direct tendency to produce pro- 
fiession and hypocrisy, if the love of the truth itself does not take 
possession of the soul. Baxter, though he could not be satisfied 
with the mere adoption of the form of religion, yet laid con- 
ttderable stress on it ; and felt as if he had gained a step, 
when men were induced to comply with certain external or- 
dinances, though they were not converted. The observance 
of the Sabbath, of family worship, of the Lord*s-supper, are all 
highly important in themselves ; yet men may be persuaded to 
do all these things, who are strangers to the life and power of 
godliness. When religion comes to be generally respected in a 
place, or when it is powerfully recommended by certain adven- 
titious circumstances, many will assume the profession, and mis- 
take outward conformity for inward and genuine piety. 

The system of Baxter could also be more fully acted upon, 
while he was minister of the parish of Kidderminster, as circum- 
atances then were, than it could afterwards have been, had he rer 
mained in the established church } or than be could have ado^t^d 



SS9 TUB Lin A19D WRfTINGS 

aA the niiniflter of a separate congregation, had he taken itdli 
dharge. While in Kidderminster, he enjoyed ail the adt autag ti 
both of the church and dissent. He was the mmister of a volnotirf 
congregation^ and of a separated Christian society, meeting in Ihi 
parochial edifice, and supported by the funds of the estdihrih' 
inent« He had all the consequence and influence of a eleigy* 
man, with all the privileges and independence of b difltentio| 
minister. No clergyman dare now act in the same mnnCP 
with Baxter ; and no dissenting minister can do aH that be Hit 
much more, however^ might perhaps be done by botli, dian U 
generally attempted. He concludes his book ^th the foHowiiqt 
very beautiful appeal to his brethren, and reference Uf thegriii 
Author of all good for his blessing. 

*^ I hare done my advice, and leave you to the ptwcMi 
Though the proud may receive it with scorn, and the selfish mi 
slofhfol with some distaste and indignation, I donbt not butGdd 
will use it, in despite of the oppositions of sin and Satan, to M 
awakening of many of his servants to their duty, and proaMttfOf 
the work of a right reformation : and that his nmch grtalir 
blessing shall accompany the present undertaking for the wttmg 
of many a soul, the peace of you that undertake and perform ity 
the exciting of his servants through the nation to second ytn^ 
and to increase purity and the unity of his churches. ** ' 

A very good abridgment of * ^Fhe Reformed Pastor* was este- 
^trted many years ago by the late Rev. Samuel Palmer, of Hack-* 
ney; the circulation of it has been very extensive. A nnieh 
improved revision and abridgment of the work, by the Rev. Dr. 
Brown, of Edinburgh, with an admirable introductory essay by 
the Rev. Daniel Wilson, has been recently published by Collins, 
of Glasgow. Both the abridgment and the essay are in all re« 
spects worthy of Baxter, and deserving of the widest diffusion. 

When he published the treatise, he expressed his c on fi d ence 
that the divine blessing would attend it. Long before he died, 
he said, with great satisfaction respecting the book, but with 
great sorrow in reference to the times, " I have very great 
cause to be thankful to God for the success of that book, as 
hoping many thousand souls are the better for it, in that it pre- 
vailed with many ministers to set upon that work which I there 
exhort them to : even from beyond the seas, I have had letters 
of request, to direct them how they might bring on that work 
according as that book had convinced them that it was their 
duty. If God would but reform the ministryi and set them on 



0W RIOHAKD BAXTBB*: M9. 

tiMlir dmieil f ealoQsIy and faithfolly, the people woidd certainly 
be reformed : all charcbes either rise or fall, as the ministrjr 
doth rise or fall ; not in riches and worldly grandeurj but in 
knoiwledge^ aseal, «k1 ability for the work. But since bishopa 
were restored, this book is useless, and that work not meddled 
With/'- 

I shall conclude my account of this invaluable book, by te« 
^pKSting the attention of my brethren in the ministry, who may 
happen to glance at these pages, to the following testimony of 
Jh. Doddridge : ' The Reformed Pastor' is a most extraordinary 
perfontiance, and should be read by every young minister before 
he tidccs fl people under his stated ^wtt ; and, I think, the prae* 
fical parted it reviewed every three or four years. For nothing 
Wdiild have a greater tendency to awaken the spirit of a minis-' 
ter to dial Bcal in his work, for want of which, many good men 
aira but shadows of what, by the blessing of Ged th^ might be> 
if the maxims and measures laid down in this incomparable trea^ 
tise were strenuously pursued.'''' 

With 'The Reformed Pastor' may be connected, with greitt 
fNPopriety, one of Baxter's tracts, though it was published in 1676^ 
' Reasons for Ministers using the greatest plainness and serious^ 
oess possible in all their applications to their people/® It 
Occupies only a few pages; but is full of the most solemn and 
serious statements, appealing at once to ministers and people4 
To the former to induce fidelity, and to the latter to encourage 
to its exercise. 



The mind of Baxter could embrace the most sublime and ^ 
Inost abstruse subjects ; it could also descend and accommodate 
Hself to the simplest and rudest elements of knowledge. Like 
Watts,^ he could reason with philosophers, and become the 
instructor of children. Families were the object of his great at- 
tention and solicitude while he ministered atKidderminster ; and 
the poorest as well as the richest enjoyed his labours. In no 
capacity does he appear to more advantage than as the author 
of ' The Poor Man's Family Book.' p This is, in fact, acompen-' 
dium of divinity and religion, communicated in a familiar con- 
feienee between a teacher and a hearer, extending over eight 
days, and comprehending a form of exhortation to the sick ; 

"Lif«, parti, p. 115. 

* Doddrid^e'i * Lectures on Preaching and the Vutoni CastC' 

• Workig roLxr, • * Wifkft| To\% liu 



560 THB LIPB AND WB1TIN6S 

two catechisms ; a profession of Christianity ; fonns of prtjer 
for various occasions, and psalms and hymns for the lord's day. 
He states the design of the book ; and appeals so affectingly to 
the rich, to assist him in circulating it among the poor, that 1 
cannot do better than allow him to speak for himself. 

^^ lliis book was intended for the use of poor families, which bate 
neither money to buy many books, nor time to read them : I much 
desired, therefore, to have made it shorter ; but I could not do 
it without leaving out that which I think they cannot well spue. 
That which is spoken accurately, and in few words, the ignorant 
understand not: and that which is large, they have neither 
money, leisure, nor memory, to make their own. Being un- 
avoidably in this strait, the first remedy lieth in your hands ; I 
humbly propose it to you, for the souls of men, and the comfort 
of your own, and the common good on the behalf of Christ the 
Saviour of your souls and theirs, that you will bestow one book 
(either this or some fitter) upon as many poor families as yoa 
well can. If every landlord would give one to every poor tenant 
that he hath, once in his life, out of one year's rent, it would be 
no great charge in comparison of the benefit which may be hoped 
for, and in comparison of what prodigality consumeth. The 
price of one ordinary dish of meat will buy a book : and to 
abate, for every tenant, but one dish in your lives, is no great 
self-denial. If you, indeed, lay out all that you have better, I 
have done. If not, grudge not this little to the poor and to 
yourselves : it will be more comfortable to your review, when 
the reckoning cometh, than that which is spent on pomp and 
ceremony, and superfluities, and fleshly pleasures. And if land* 
lords (whose power with their tenants is usually great) would 
also require them seriously to read it, (at least on the Lord's 
day,) it may further the success. And 1 hope rich citizens, and 
ladies and rich women, who cannot themselves go to talk to poor 
fiimiiies, will send them such a messenger as this, or some fitter 
book to instruct them, seeing no preacher can be got at so cheap 
a rate. The Father of spirits, and the Redeemer of souls, per- 
suade and assist us all to work while it is day, and serve his 
love and grace for our own, and other men's salvation." p 

The whole work is conducted in the form of a dialogue, which 
is maintained with great vigour by the various inter locutors. 
The style is familiar and easy, but not vulgar. While every 
sentiment is made as intelligible as possible to the poor, there is 

9 Works, voL six. pt 295« 



OF RICHARD BAXTER* 561 

naeh to please, and scarcely any thing to offend a person of the 
most delicate taste. Baxter could distinguish^ which is not always 
done^ between plainness and hoioe dealing, and what is low and 
vnlgar. He made it his object to elevate the minds of the poor^ 
without degrading the ministry, or injuring the pure and sublime 
doctrines of the cross. In this book we have of course no learned 
quotations, but few of his nice distinctions^ and none of his tech- 
nical words and phrases. It is pure good English writing. The 
prayer at the end of the book, of a dying believer, is exquisitely 
beautifuL It may be poured out in a cottage ; it might be 
littered in a palace. It is the breathing of heaven, and the 
earnest of its enjoyment. 

This little work met with great acceptance when it was first 
published. It appears to have been given away in great num- 
bers by the author himself, as well as by benevolent individuals 
who approved of this method of promoting religion. The ef- 
fects produced by such means are rarely known in this world. 
The extent to which the poor and the afflicted are relieved by 
books and tracts, will only be ascertained when the world, the 
scene of their dispersion, has passed away. The following 
anecdote of the origin of the dissenting congregation at Da- 
ventry will perhaps interest the reader^ in connexion with the 
* Poor Man's Family Book : * 

Nonconformity took early root in this parish. After the 
Bartholomew Act, in 1662, secret meetings for worship were 
frequently held late at night, and conducted only occasionally 
by ministers, at a house in the hamlet of Drayton, in which was 
a back-door opening into the fields, to facilitate retreat in case 
of detection— ^no unnecessary precaution in those days of per- 
secution. 

The immediate rise of the present congregation is thus re- 
lated by Dr. Ashworth, as communicated to him about the year 
1747, by Mr. Thomas Porter, one of the memben, then upwards 
of eighty years of age : *^ An aged minister, who lived some 
considerable distance beyond Daventry, in his way to London, 
lay at the Swan Inn (formerly the principal inn) in this town, 
where he was taken ill. and confined for a week or longer. Mr. 
Lindsay, who kept the house, and all his family, behaved to him 
with much kindness 5 and it appears to have been a remarkably 
regular house, llie minister, on the evening before he departed, 
desired the family to come into his room, where he particularly 

VOL. I. 00 



562 THB LIVE AND WHITINGS 

thanked Mr. Lindsay, and each pf his family, for their civility t0 
him, and expressed much satisfaction in the good order of the 
house; hut, said he, something leads me to think that there is not 
the fear of God in this house. It grieves me to see such honesty, 
civility, economy, and decency, and yet religion is wanting, 
which is the one thing needful. On this, he entered into a close 
conversation with them on the nature and importance of real 
and inward religion, which he closed with telling them-, he had 
with him a little book, lately printed, which he would give theoit 
and wished them to read it carefully. On which he gave thesi 
Baxter's * Poor Man's Family Book.* This fixes the date to 
] 672, or later, the year in which that book was printed. It is 
not certain who the minister iVas, or that Mr. Lindsay ever saw 
him again, or knew his name ; but it was suspected that it was 
Baxter himself. Mr. Lindsay read the book with pleasure, sent 
for others of Mr. Baxter's books, and he and some of his children 
became excellent characters. Upon this he grew weary of the 
inn, and being in plentiful circumstances, retired to a house in 
the middle of the High Street, which had a small close behind 
it ; at the extremity of which, upon the back lane (opposite 
the inlands), there stood some outbuildings, which he converted 
into a meeting-hovise. ITiis was probably after the Revolution. 
He always intended, and often promised, to settle it in form ; 
but, dying suddenly, it never was done." ^ 

Encouraged by the reception and success of his Poor Man's 
Book, Baxter published, ii; 1682, what he considered a second 
part of it, * The Catechising of Families,' in which he proposes 
to instruct householders liow to teach their households ; and also 
to afford assistance to schoolmasters and teachers of vouth: 
" expounding," he says, '' First, The law of nature; Secondly, 
The evidence of the Gospel ; Thirdly, The Creed; Fourthly, The 
Lord's Prayer: Fifthly, The Commandments; Sixthly, Tlie 
Ministry; Seventhly, Baptism; Eighthly, The Lord's Supper. 
It is suited to those that are past the common little catechism ; 
and I think these two family books to be of the greatest common 
use of any that 1 have published. If households would but 
do their parts in reading good books to their households, it 
might be a great supply where the ministry is defective : and no 

<i Baker's ' NortbampUmsbire^! quote«l in the ^ Eclectic Review ' for Sep- 
tember, 1828. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 563 

ministry will serve sufficiently without men's own endeavours for 
themselves and families'' ' 

In his estimate of this and his former work, he was by no 
means mistaken. They are both admirably adapted for useful* 
ness among the class of persons for which they were chiefly 
designed. They contain a large portion of theological instruc- 
tion^ conveyed with much simplicity, and often in a very 
impressive manner. In informing the understanding, Baxter 
never loses sight of the heart«- He is constantly preparing or 
directing some arrow, whichj by the blessing of God, may he 
lodged in some breast, thus causing conviction of sin, and leading 
to the righteousness which is by faith. • Both the Family Book 
and the Catechism are fitted for other families beside the poor. 
Here is little to offend any class of society, and much that 
might instruct and profit the young, even in the highest walks 
of life. 

Baxter was the author of another catechism still. It appeared 
after his death; being edited by Sylvester in 1701, with the 
humble title of ^* The Mother's Catechism ; or a familiar way 
of catechising children in the knowledge of God, themselves, 
and the Holy Scriptures." * Though it is called a catechism, it 
is rather a familiar didogue between a mother and a child, be- 
ginning with the first principles or elements of knowledge, and 
proceeding to some of its more advanced stages. A considerable 
part of it, is very good, but is beyond the capacity of a very 
young child, for which it was principally intended as a pre- 
paration for the next catechism. It shows, however, that 
Baxter could cease to be metaphysical, and that he could ac- 
commodate himself to the simplest understanding when he set 
himself to that kind of work. It is only to be regretted that 
he sometimes forgot " men are but children of a larger growth," 
and consequently adopted a style of instructing them too arti- 
ficial, and more calculated to show the powers of the teacher^ 
than to promote the benefit of the taught. 

With these publications, intended chiefly for the good of the 
poor, may with propriety be connected the sheets or tracts which 
he published for their benefit, though they have now entirely 
disappeared. He printed and circulated, in the year 1665, two 
sheets for the instruction of poor families, and one of instructi<m 
for the sick in the time of the plague. It is very evident, both 
firom what he wrote, and from the practice which he pursued, 
r Life, p«rl iii. p. 191. • Works, vol. xvui. 

oo2 



564. THB LIPE AND WRITINGS 

that he was a great advocate for the circulation of religiotts- 
tracts. He spent a considerable portion of the profits of his own 
works in this way. The following account of these tracts will 
show how little there is of novelty in modern plans of usefulness.' 

*' When the grievous plague began at London, I printed a half 
sheet to stick on a wall^ for the use of the igtiorant and on-' 
godly, who were sick, or in danger of the sickness ; for the 
godly I thought had less need, and would read those larger books' 
which are plentiful among us. And I the rather did it becanse- 
many well-minded people who are about the sick, that are ig- 
norant and unprepared, and know not what to say to them, may 
not only read so short a paper to them, but see there in what' 
method such persons are to be dealt with, in such a case of 
extremity, that they may themselves enlarge as they see cause. 

^' At that time, Mr. Nathaniel Lane wrote to me to intreat me 
to write one sheet or two for the use of poor families, which wiU 
not buy or read any bigger books. Though I knew that brevity 
would unavoidably cause me to leave out much necessary matter, 
or else to write in a style so concise and close as will be little 
moving to any but close judicious readers, yet I yielded to his 
persuasions, and thought it might be better than nothing, and 
might be read by many that would read no larger, and so I wrote 
two sheets for poor families : the first containing the method 
and motives for the conversion of the ungodly ; the second con- 
taining the description or character of a true Christian, or the 
necessary parts of Christian duty, for the direction of beginners 
in a godly life. These three last sheets were printed by the 
favour of the archbishop's chaplain, when the Bishop of London's 
chaplain had put me out of hope of printing any more." ^ 

From catechising children, we must follow Baxter, in this 
department of his ministry, to other classes of persons. He 
published a sheet in 1657, of ^Directions to Justices of the 
Peace, especially in Corporations, for the Discharge of their 
Duty to God.' " lliis tract will not be supposed of the same 
nature with a legal directory. In fact, it does not meddle with 
the law at all, but contains some very good general rules, cal- 
culated to assist in the administration of justice, or to suggest 
to the persons occupying this place important means of doing 
good. It was written at the request of Mr. William Mount- 
ford, bailiff of Kidderminster, " who requested me," he says, 

• Life, part i. pp. 121, 122. • Works, vol. xr. * 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. ' 56$ 

^ to write him down a few brief instructions for the due execu- 
tion of his office of magistracy ; which having done, consider- 
ing how many mayors, and bailiffs, and country justices, needed 
it as well as he, I printed it upon an open sheet, to stick upon 
a wall/'* The tract shows the different state of things which 
must then have obtained in the country from any with which 
we are acquainted now. Baxter assumes that the justices begin 
with hearing the word of God, and fasting and prayer ; and 
that they are resolved to do the will of God. Would that such 
were the condition of society at present, that we might take it for 
granted religious principles influenced generally the magistracy 
of the land ! He found it necessary even then, however, to re- 
commend the discouragement or suppression of unnecessary 
ale-houses, the punishment of drunkards and swearers, &c. As 
a tract, these directions might still be circulated^ perhaps, to 
8ome advantage. 

Another class of persons engaged the attention of the inde- 
fatigable servant of Christ — the merchants and citizens of 
London. He published, in 1682, * How to do Good to Many; 
or, the Public Good the Christian's Life : with Directions and 
Motives to it/ ^ In a dedication to the * Truly Christian Mer- 
chants and Citizens of London,' he refers to the circumstances 
in which this sermon, or rather treatise, was prepared, and ad- 
dresses them with great affection. 

" What doctrine it was that I last prepared for you, I 
thought meet to desire the press thus to tell you: not to vin- 
dicate myself, nor to characterize them who think that it 
deserves six months' imprisonment, but to be in your hands a 
provocation and direction for that great work of a Christian 
life, which sincerely done, will prepare you for that safety, joy, 
and glory, which London, England, or earth, will not afford, 
and which men or devils cannot take from you : when, through 
the meritorious righteousness of Christ, your holy love and good 
works to him, in his brethren, shall make you the joyful objects 
of that sentence, ' Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom,' &c. 
This is the life that needeth not to be repented of, as spent in vain. 
Dear friends, in this farewell I return you my most hearty thanks 
for your extraordinary love and kindness to myself,much more for 
your love to Christ, and to his servants, who have more needed 

' Life, part i. p. 117. I apprehend our Tract Society has not yet thoughl 
of adapting its single sheets to this class of persons. 
y Works, vol. xvii. 



566 THS LIFA AND WRITINGS 

your relief, God is not unjust to forget your work and labour cf 
love. You have visited those that others imprisoned^ and fed thoM 
that others brouglit into want ; and when some ceased not to 
preach for our afi)iction, it quenched not your impartial charity. 
It has been an unspeakable mercy unto me, almost all my dajn 
(when I received nothing from them), to have known so great 
a number as 1 have done, of serious, humble, holy, charitable 
Christians, in whom I saw that Christ hath an elect, peculiar 
people, quite different from the brutish, proud, hypocritical 
malignant, unbelieving world. O how swe^t hath the fami* 
iiaiity of such been to mc whom the ignorant world hath 
hated! Most of them are gone to Christ: I am following. 
We leave you here to longer trial. It is like you have a bitter 
cup to drink, but be faitliful to the death, and Christ will give 
you the crown of life. The word of God is not bound, and 
the Jerusalem above is free, where is the general assembly of 
the first-born, an innumerable company of angels, the spirits 
of the just made perfect, with Christ their glorified head. Tht 
Lord guide, bless, and preserve you."* 

The great object of the discourse is to point out a variety of 
methods of doing good, which may be adopted by persons of 
affluence. It is full of sound practical wisdom, and shows that 
Baxter's mind could, even under all the depressing circum- 
stances of the country, take an enlarged and enlightened view 
of that benevolence which ought to be a leading feature in the 
chanicter of every Christian. The publication of books aod 
tracts, the printing and circulation of the Scriptures, the send- 
ing forth of missionaries, were among the plans of useful- 
ness which he proposed. The following short paragraph will 
show tliat the germs of Bible, missionary, and tract societies 
were all in the mind of this most energetic and enlightened 
man. 

^^ Is it not possible, at least, to help the poor ignorant Arme- 
niansj Greeks, Muscovites, and other Christians, who have no 
printing among them, nor much preaching and knowledge; and, 
for want of printing, have very few Bibles, even for their churches 
or ministers ? Could nothing be done to get some Bibles, cate- 
chisms, and practical books, printed in their own tongues, and 
given among them ? I know there is difficulty in the way ; but 
money, and willingness, and diligence, might do something. 

' Works, vol. xvii. pp. 289, 2^0. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR* 567 

Might not something be done in other plantations as well as in 
New England^ towards the conversion of the natives there ? 
Might not some skilful, zealous preachers be sent thither, who 
would promote serious piety among those of the English that 
have too little of it, and might invite the Americans to learn 
the Gospel, and teach our planters how to behave themselves 
christianly towards them, to win them to Christ."* 

A third class of persons occupied his attention, and engaged 
his exertions. He published, in the same year with the pre* 
ceding, ' Compassionate Counsel to all Young Men ; especially 
London Apprentices ; Students of Divinity, Physic, and Law ; 
and the Sons of Magistrates and Rich Men.' ^ This little work 
is distinguished by the great affection and faithfulness which are 
combined in its pages. It contains the most affectionate coun- 
sels and warnings to youth, in whom he was so deeply interested. 
Hia success in Kidderminster, and his experience afterwards, led 
him to this work.^ 

*^ In the place," he says, " where God most blessed . my la- 
bours, at Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, my first and great- 
est success was upon the youth ; and, which was a marvellous 
way of divine mercy, when God had touched the hearts of young 
men and girls with a love of goodness, and delightful obedience 
to the truth, the parents and grandfathers, who had grown old 
in an ignorant, worldly state, did many of them fall into a liking 
and love of piety, induced by the love of their children, whom 
they perceived to be made by ic much wiser, and better, and 
more dutiful to them. God, by his unexpected, disposing 
providence, having now for twenty years placed mc in and near 
London, where, in a variety of places and conditions (some- 
times under restraint by men, and sometimes at more liberty), 
I have preached but as to strangers, in other men's pulpits, 
as I could, and not to any special flock of mine; I have 
been less capable of judging of my success ; but, by much ex« 
perience, I have been made more sensible of the necessity of 
warning and instructing youth than I was before. The sad 
reports of fame have taught it to me ; the sad complaints of 
mournful parents have taught it me ; the sad observation of the 
wilful impenitence of some of my acquaintance tells it me ; the 
many scores, if not hundreds, of bills that have been publicly put 

• WTorks, vol. xvii. p. 330. ^ Ibid. vol. xv. 

< He tells us in his Life, that Sir Robert Atkias contributed to the expense 
of printing it ; and that he gave away in the city and country fifteen hundred 
co*pies> beside what were sold by the booksellers. — Part iii. p. 190. 



S68 THB LIVE AND WRITINGS 

up to me to pray for wicked and obstinate children, have told 
it me; and, by the grace of God, the penitent confeMioM, 
lamentations, and restitutions of many converts, have more pir^ 
ticularly acquainted me with their case ; which moved me, on 
my Thursday's lecture, awhile to design, the first of every 
month, to spealc to youth, and those that educate them." ^ 

The last work which comes properly under the present head 
is, * The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day Proved, as a 
Separated Day for Holy Worship ; especially in the Church 
Assemblies ; and, consequeutiv, the cessation of the Seventh-i 
Day Sabbath/ 8vo. 1671.* 

The subject discussed in this volume is one of vital import- 
ance to the interests of morality, and of practical religion. The 
manner in which the Sabbath is observed may justly be coiH> 
sidered as the pulse or index of religion, which shows whether it 
is in a healthy or diseased state, either in communities or indi- 
viduals. It will be found to consist with general experience 
that, as the duties and privileges of this sacred day are con- 
scientiously or carelessly regarded, true religion will prosper or 
decline. On these accounts, not only theological, but moral 
writers, have considered the subject of the Sabbath one of the 
very first importance, in treatises embracing the duties of 
religion. 

A considerable diversity of opinion, however, has prevailed 
respecting the grounds on which the entire consecration of the 
first day of the week to holy purposes properly rests. Little is 
directly said on this subject in the New Testament, much there- 
fore depends on inferential reasoning. The references to the 
subject in the early Christian writers, are far from satisfactory. 
It appears clearly enough, that Christians met on that day for 
public worship ; but not so clearly that they consecrated the 
whole day to God. Few, if any of the Reformers, British or 
Continental, held the divine obligation of the first day of the 
week. Calvin and Cranmer, Luther and Meiancthon, all agreed 
in regarding it as the appointment or free choice of the church, 
rather than the positive appointment of God.' The English 
Puritans at an early period endeavoured to place its obligation 

* Works, vol. XV. pp. 299, 300. • Ibid. vol. xlii. 

' The reader may consult, uu this subject, the ' Au<pistan ConressicA,' 
sect. 16, ' Helvetian Confession,' cap. 24, ' Calvin. Institut/ lib. ii. cap. 8. sect. 
34. The vyorks of Frith, Tiudal, Barnes, and Cranaier, show that the Ed; lish 
Reformers were of the same optoioa— that the Sabbath was a Miciajf ap- 
poiuted bj the church. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 569 

on the high ground of divine appointment ; and from that period 
to the present time, a controversy on the subject has been more 
or less continually agitated. 

While the first day of the week was thus matter of debate, 
another question was introduced by some, whether the obliga- 
tion of the seventh day had really ceased ; and that it had not, 
a few persons contended with considerable zeal, and some show 
of argument. This view of the subject appears to have arisen 
chiefly from two causes : many of the opposers of infant baptism, 
having been led to maintain that all positive institutions of re- 
ligion, must have for their foundation a positive divine command ; 
and finding such a command to observe the seventh, but no such 
command respecting the first day of the week, to be consistent, 
they gave up the Christian Sabbath, as they had given up infant 
baptism. I believe the Sabbatarians, as they have since been 
called, have generally been Baptists. But this was not the only 
source of the sentiment now adverted to. Many of the Puritans, 
in discussing the subject of the Lord's Day, resting the strength 
of their argument on the moral obligation of the fourth com- 
mandment, contended in fact for the observance of the first day 
of the week on the principles of Judaism. This drove some 
men, such as Milton, to maintain that the Sabbath had entirely 
ceased. 

Froni the operation of these and other causes, there had been 
a great deal of controversy respecting the Sabbath, before Bax- 
ter wrote this treatise. His object in it is twofold ; to correct 
those who regarded the Lord's Day as a kind of Jewish sabbath ; 
and to confute those again who either maintained the abrogation 
of a day of sacred rest altogether, or contended for the continued 
obligation of the Jewish sabbath. He had therefore to meet 
the high-church men, who looked on the Sabbath merely as a 
holiday ; such as White, Heylin, and Ironside ; and those of the 
Puritans who confounded it with the Mosaic system, such as 
Bound, Cawdry, and Palmer ; with those who were for setting 
aside the first day of the week entirely. 

I consider this one of the most judicious of Baxter's works. 
It judiciously combines controversial and practical discussion, 
both of which are managed with great fairness, and display 
great accuracy of scriptural knowledge. Tlie ground he takes 
is stated in the following series of propositions, which he after- 
wards proceeds to establish and illustrate. 

The first proposition is, 'That Christ commissioned his 
apoeties as his principal chiurcb ministers^ to teach the churches 



570 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

all his doctrine, and deliver them all his commands and orden, 
and so to settle and guide the first churches/ The seeoai 
proposition is^ ^That Christ promised his Spirit accordiogljr 
to his apostles, to enable them to do what he had commissioned 
them to do, by leading them into all truth, and bringing his 
words and deeds to their remembrance, and by guiding them ss 
his church's guides/ The third proposition is, ^ lliat Chri&t 
performed this promise, and gave his Spirit accordingly to hii 
apostles, to enable them to do all their commissioned woiL 
The fourth proposition is, ^ That the apostles did actually septr 
rate or appoint the first day of the week for holy worship, espe* 
cialiy in church assemblies/ The fifth proposition is, ^ That 
this act of theirs was done by the guidance or inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, which was given then).' 

*^ When I have distinctly proved these five things, no soberji 
understanding Christian can expect that I should do any mon^ 
towards the proof of the question in hand, whether the first 
day of the week be separated by God's institution for holy 
worship, cspecialiy in church assemblies.*' ^ 

I am fully satisfied, that the ground here taken is the only 
scriptural and satisfactory ground of the divine obligation cl 
this sacred day. It places it correctly on the footing of a New- 
Testament ordinance ; while it does not deprive it of all that 
support from the analogy of the original appointment of a day of 
rest, and of the Mosaical institution, which it may properly have. 
Unless we reason from the recorded example of the apostles aad 
primitive Christians, and regard that exampla as not less bind- 
ing than apostolic precept, we shall find very little authority 
for most of rhe ordinances of Christianity. 

" I much pity and wonder," says Baxter, ^^ at those godly men 
who are so much for stretching the words of Scripture to a sense 
that other men cannot find in them ; as that in the word graven 
images^ in the second commandment, they can find all set forms 
of prayer, all composed studied sermons, and all things about 
worship of man's invention, to be images or idolatry; and yet 
they cannot find the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath in the 
express words of Col. ii. 16, nor the other texts which 1 have 
cited; nor can they find the institution of the Lord's Day in all 
the texts and evidences produced for it." ^ 

' Works, vol. xiii. p. 371. There is only another writer of the same period 
with Baxter known to roe, who takes the saiue view of the subject, and al- 
most the same errouiid — * Warren's Jew's Sabbath Antiquated, and the Lord*f 
Day Instituted by Diviu6 Authority.' 1659. 4to. It it a rery able treatise. 

^ ibid. p. 367. 



OF E|C9A^ B4^TEH# ^71 

In the eoune of thU treatise, Baxter gives a singular* acoount 
af the way in which the observance of the Sabbath was attended 
to in his early days. It is an admirable illustration of the Book 
of Sports, the production of the far-famed wisdom of James I., 
md sanctioned by his son Charles. 

'' I cannot forget," he says, " that in my youth, in those late 
times, when we lost the labours of some of our conformable 
godly teachers for not reading publicly the book of sports and 
dancing on the Lord's Day, one of my father's own tenants was 
the town piper, hired by the year (for many years together], and 
the place of the dancing assembly was not an hundred yards 
from our doon We could not, on the Lord's Day, either read 
ft chapter, or pray, or sing a psalm, or catechise or instruct a 
aervant, but with the noise of the pipe and tabor, and the shout- 
ings in the street continually in our ^ars. Even among a 
tractiible people we were the cpmmon scorn of all the rabble 
in the streets, and called puritans, precisians, and hypocrites, 
because we rather choose to read the Scriptures, than to do as 
they did ; though there was no savour of nonconformity in our 
family. And when the people by the book were allowed to play 
and dance out of public service time, they could so hardly break 
off their sports, that many a time the readei* was fain to stay 
till the piper and players would give over. Sometimes the 
morris-dancers would come into the church in all their linen, 
and scarfs, and antic-dresses, with morris-bells jingling at their 
ItgB ; and as soon as common prayer was read, did haste out 
presently to their play again."** 

Greatly as. the Sabbath is still neglected or profaned among 
us, it ought to afford sincere satisfaction that such scenes as the 
above could not now be transacted in any part of England. Much 
however, still remains to be done before the divine obligation 
of the Lord's Day will be generally acknowledged and respected 
in this Christian country. Had the views of the reformers on 
this subject been more correct, greater progress would doubtless 
have been made, as their sentiments would have had an influ- 
ence on some of the legal enactments of the country* Little 
can now be done, except by the operation of Christian principle 
and example on the public habits and manners of the people. 
As. genuine Christians increase, and their power comes to be 
more exerted, many evils, and among these the profanation of 
the Sabbath, will be gradually abated, and ultimately abolished. 

^ Works, vol. xiii. p. 444. 



S72 THB UFB AND WRITINGS 

We have now gone over the various ethical writings of 
Baxter. How extensively he entered into this department, and 
how ably he treated it, must be apparent even from this im- 
perfect review. No class of persons, no description of dutr, 
escaped the vigilance of his attention. Unfettered by any pe- 
culiarities of his theological system, he made it his business to 
stir up all men to a sense of their duty to Grod and others. 
Whatever the Law -maker enjoined, he considered himself bound 
to enforce, regardless of all the excuses which men plead, and 
the apologies which they offer for any act of disobedience. 
He never thought of allowing moral impotence, that is, indis* 
position to do the will of God, as a reason for noncompltaoee. 
On the contrary, he made use of this very indisposition as a 
reason why men should repent, and seek for strength where 
alone it is to be found. If evangelical motives do not alwap 
occupy a conspicuous place in this class of his writings, it it 
not because he wished to keep them out of view, but because 
he either took it for granted that they were understood, or 
considered it important to give prominence to certain other 
topics, which preachers of the Gospel are sometimes in dauger 
of overlooking. Take his writings of this class as a whole, they 
are exceedingly valuable, and furnish a most complete answer 
to all who would charge those who preach the truth, as it b in 
Jesus, with indifference, or inattention to the claims of morality. 
No man contended more strenuously than Baxter for the preach- 
ing of Jesus, as a Saviour ; and no man more zealously preached 
him as Christ, the Lord. 



or RICHARD BAXTER* 573 



CHAPTER VI. 



WORKS ON CATHOLIC COMMUNION. 

Usitj of the Early Chrutiant— Caotet of Separaiion— Means of Re-Union— 
Seatinenti of Hall on this Subject— Baxter* the OrigiDator* in Modem 
Times, of the true Principle of Catholic Communion — His various La- 
boars to promote it — * Christian Concord * — Church Communion at Kid* 
dcnninster— * Agreement of Ministers in Worcestershire ' — * Disputationi 
of Right to the SacramenU '— Sir William Morice— ' Confirmation and 
Rcttaoration' — 'Disputations on Church Government' — Dedicated to 
Richard Cromwell — ' Judgment concemiog Mr. Durj '—Some Account 
of Durjr — ' Universal Concord '—Baxter's Efforts in promoting Union re- 
tarded by the Restoration—' Catholic Unity'— 'True Catholic and Catho- 
lic Church—' Cure of €liurch Divisions ' — Controversy with Bagshaw— 
' Defence of the Principles of Love ' — * Second Admonition to Bag- 
shaw' — 'Church tuld of Bagshaw's Scandal' — Further Account of 
Bagshaw — ' True and only Way of Concord ' — ' Catholic Communion 
Defended/ in Five Parts— ' Judgment of Sir Matthew Hale'—' Baxter's, 
Sense of the Subscribed Articles'—' Church Concord '—' Of National 
Churches ' — ' Moral Prognostication ' — Summary View of Baxter's Senti- 
ments on Catholic Communion and Church Government. 

Whbn the kingdom of heaven was first set up among men^ 
there was only one name hy which its subjects were designated^ 
but one authority to which they all bowed, and one fellou'ship 
to which they all belonged. A primitive Christian could have 
formed no idea of the character of a person, or the kind of 
treatment to which he was entitled, whom he was called to re- 
cognise as a believer, but with whom he must not have com- 
munion in the most sacred ordinance of the Gospel. There 
were differences of opinion and practice then as well as now, 
but such a thing as I have adverted to could neither have 
been understood nor practised. Had Christianity been left 
to maintain and extend itself in the world by its own un- 
aided power, and its own scriptural means, it is probable 
that this state of things would have continued. But when 
it was thought necessary to define it more accurately than 



574 THE UFB AND WRITINGS 

than God himself had done ; to require men to submit to 
human expositions of the faith^ rather than to the faith itself; 
and to employ coercive measures to preserve and enforce uni- 
formity of opinion and practice^ the glorious unity of the 
church of Christ was invaded and destroydd by the very means 
devised to preserve it. 

The wretched state of division which still subsists in the 
Christian church, is chiefly owing to the continuance of these 
causes. Terms of communion, entirely of huftian framing, con- 
tinue to enclose and hedge up the several parties into vrhidi 
the Christian world is divided, ahd to keep them separate from 
one another. God is not sufficiently trusted to tiake care of his 
own cause, and to preserve his kingdom from ruin. Man must 
devise his schemes of preservation and enlargement^ must inter- 
pose the use of his power and the dictum of his authority to 
maintain unity and peace. In the mean time, all is weakness 
alienation, and anarchy. 

It can scarcely be doubted, that if Christians acted more ac- 
cording to their own feelings, and less under the influence of 
authority, custom, or interest, a different state of things would 
soon appear. Did they consult the Scriptures hibre, and human 
opinion less ; were it their sole object to ascertain facts and 
principles as the groundwork of their own obedience, instead 
of looking for the confirmation of hypotheses, or for arguments 
to justify received systems ; and did they, in connexion with 
this conduct, determine to hold fellowship with all whom they 
could regard as holding the same Head, substantial unity in the 
church of Christ would soon be again restored. But if men 
will give up nothing that they have been taught by tradition or 
authority to receive ; if a difference of opinion on some of the 
five points is deemed incompatible with the acknowledgment of 
the Christian character ; if the ministry of a servant of Christ ii 
considered invalid, unless he has received it from episcopal or 
presbyterian hands ; if Christian communion is made dependent 
on submission to a particular form of baptism, or a parti- 
cular mode of observing the Lord's supper; if all churches 
must be regarded as sectarian and scliismatical which are not 
established by human laws ; then, while these things are thot 
viewed and maintained, it would be absurd to look for love and 
union among the followers of Christ. 

" If we consult the Scriptures," says an eloquent writer, 
^ we shall be at no loss to perceive that the unity of ths 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 575 

chnrch is not merely a doctrine most clearly revealed, but 
that its practical exemplification is one of the principal designs 
of the Christian dispensation. We are expressly told that our 
Saviour purposed by his death, to ' gather together in one the 
ehildren of God that were scattered abroad/ and for the accom- 
plishment of this design, he interceded during his last moments, 
in language which instructs us to consider it as the grand 
Bwans of the conversion of tlie world. His prophetic antici- 
pations were not disappointed ; for while a visible unanimity pre- 
vailed amongst his followers, his cause everywhere triumphed ; 
Ae concentrated zeal, the ardent co-operation of a comparative 
fcwy impelled by one spirit and directed to one object, were 
nore than a match for hostile myriads. No sooner was the 
Mod of unity broken by the prevalence of intestine quarrels 
and dissentions, than the interests of truth languished, until 
Mahometanism in the east, and Popery in the west, com- 
pleted the work of deterioration, which the loss of primitive 
aimplicity and love, combined with the spirit of intolerance, 
fint commenced. 

** If the religion of Christ ever resumes her ancient lustre, 
i&d we are assured by the highest authority she will, it must be 
hy retracing our steps, by reverting to the original principles on 
which, considered as a social institution, it was founded. We 
must go back to the simplicity of the first ages — we must learn 
to quit a subtle and disputatious theology for a religion of love, 
emanating from a few divinely energetic principles which per- 
vade almost every page of inspiration, and demand nothing for 
their cordial reception and belief, besides an humble and con- 
trite heart. Reserving to ourselves the utmost freedom of 
thought in the interpretation of the sacred oracles, and pushing 
our inquiries, as far as our opportunities admit, into every 
department of revealed truth, we shall not dream of obtruding 
precarious conclusions on others as articles of faith, but shall 
receive, with open arms, all who appear to love our Lord Jesus 
Christ in sincerity, and find a sufficient bond of union, a suffi- 
cient scope for all our sympathies in the doctrine of the cross. 
If the Saviour appears to be loved, obeyed, and adored ; if his 
blood is sprinkled on the conscience, and his Spirit resides in 
tiie heart, why should we be dissatisfied ? We, who profess to 
be actuated by no other motive, to live to no other purpose,' 
than the promotion of his interest,''^ 

1 HaU'i * Reply to Kioshoro/ p. 250-^252. The work of the Rev. Robert 



576 TUB LIFE AND WRITlNGfl 

Concurring most cordially in the justice and importance 
of the sentiments thus admirably expressed, it is with greit 
pleasure I bring before the reader the opinions of Baxter, 
on the subject of Catholic communion. Here he was greatly 
in advance of the age to which he belonged : for it will 
be found that his views did not altogether accord with those 
of any party during his own time ; although there were a few 
persons who then held similar opinions. Rigid Episcopa- 
lians, Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, all objected to 
some of his principles of religious fellowship, and to the great 
object of his efforts ; yet a few of all these classes agreed with 
him on the main subject. That subject will probably be found 
to confer on Baxter, one of his most distinguished honours; thst 
he was among the first of our countrymen, who advocated the 
broad and important principle, that the only term of com- 
munion in the Christian church ought to be a profession of the 
faith of Christ, worthy of credit ; tliat we are bound to recdie 
all whom God has received ; to exclude those only whom he 
appears not to have approved ; and that though there be con- 
siderable diversity of opinion, and even of practice, among soch 
as expect to meet in heaven at last, they ought to acknowledge 
one another as Christians on earth, and to hold fellowship in 
all things in which they are agreed, and can walk together. 

To produce this visible union among all true Christians was 
the great object to which Baxter may be said to have devoted 
his life. Most of his controversies arose out of his solicitude to 
accomplish this most desirable consummation ; and he never 
failed more to his own mortification, than when he lost his 
labour on this object, or stirred up further strife. He studied 
it profoundly, he entered into the prosecution of it with the 

Hall, A.M. from which the above quutation is made, as do his other publicatiooi 
in this controversy, well deserves to be consulted ; for tboug^h they all chiefly 
refer to the subject of Baptism, his general principles admit of a much more 
extended application. Tlie volume uf Dr. Mason, formerly of New York,oa 
the same subject, is also worthy of perusal. It is singular, that while PreU)y- 
terians, Baptists, and Independents, have thus been g;radually approximating 
to each other, and are likely to amalgamate finally into one IkxIv, Episcopacy 
does not appear to have advanced one step, or, in the slightest degree, tu hive 
loncred its tone or its pretensions. It is as lufty and unyielding at the pre- 
sent moment as it was in the days of Baxter. 'J'he ultimate effect of this oo 
itself, and the other communities, it is not for me to predict ; but should a 
general and cordial union of the other denominations eventually take place, 
and Episcopacy still refuse to acknowledge them as brethren, the questioo, 
who are the schismatics, will no longer be of difficult solution, and the issue 
of the coDte«t will soon be decided. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 57!^ 

Utmost ardour J and from the first moment of his public life to 
the last he never lost sight of it. 

The religious disorders and dissensions in the kingdom during 
die time of the civil wars, greatly affected him. In the army he 
spent several years of his ministry, endeavouring to subdue the 
qpirit of division which he there witnessed. When he' settled 
a second time at Kidderminster, he exerted himself to reconcile 
and harmonize all parties in the place ; and succeeded. He cor- 
responded privately with Grataker, Vines, Bishop Brownrig, 
Owen, Hammond, and other eminent men, on the terms and 
means of union. He then made some attempts with the minis- 
ters of his Immediate neighbourhood, and at last extended the 
attempt to the county of Worcester at large ; and was success- 
fill beyond his expectations. He aimed at nothing iess than 
uniting, without requiring a compromise of principle, Episco- 
paUans and Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists, in one 
eonunon fellowship, throughout the kingdom. To accomplish 
this object, he generalized the principles of communion, pla- 
cing them on the simple ground of the sincere profession of 
onr common Christianity ; he inculcated strongly the doctrines 
of Christian liberty and forbearance ; and endeavoured to lessen 
the confidence of the several parties in the divine right of their 
respective systems. He diligently sought out the things in which 
all Christians agree, and dwelt on their importance; he painted 
in the brightest colours the comparatively trivial nature of the 
things in which they differ ; and represented in the strongest 
terms, the guilt, the folly, and the danger of maintaining divi- 
sive courses, or of living in alienation from Christian brethren. 

The first work which he published on this highly interesting 
and important subject is one, in the authorship of which he 
had only a part, though that was a principal one, 'Christian 
Concord; or, the Agreement of the Associated Pastors and 
Churches of Worcestershire : with Richard Baxter's Explica- 
tion and Defence of it, and his Exhortation to Unity.' 1653. 4 to. 
It contains the propositions and rules adopted by the associated 
ministers, the profession of faith in which they agreed, and 
Baxter's explanations of some passages in th*e propositions 
and confession chiefly intended for the satisfaction of the peo- 
ple of Kidderminster. 

This agreement resulted from a voluntary association of 
the ministers of the county of Worcester, formed chiefly by 
the exertions of Baxter, and among whom he acted as a sort of 

VOL. I. P P 



578 THB UFB AKD WRITIli«8 

moderator^ or president, during most of the time which ht 
spent at Kidderminster. The object of it was to promote mi- 
nisterial intercourse and improvement ; to assist each other in 
promoting the interests of religion and morality^ and in main- 
taining discipline and order in their respective congregations. 
It was not strictly Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Independeat. 
It was not Episcopal; for it acknowledged no superiority, 
among the ministers. It was not Presbyterian, for it disclaimed 
the exercise of authority on the part of the associated minis* 
ters, and acknowledged the right of the people ''to try and 
discern'' the proceedings of the ministers. It was not Inde- 
pendent, because it recognised the right of ministers to act 
separately from the people, acknowledged the common parochial 
boundaries, and the magistrates' aid in certain cases. Yet docs 
the whole constitution of this associated body, and its rules fiir 
the regulation of particular churches, correspond more with the 
voluntary character of Congregational churches than with any 
other system. This remark will apply generally to Baxter's 
sentimc.ts on the subject of church-government and commu- 
nion. He objected to being considered an Independent, as he 
objected to all party distinctions ; but his writings and condoct 
were more in support of. modified Independency than of any 
other system. 

In confirmation and illustration of this point, I shall here 
give, from himself, an account of the system he pursued while 
at Kidderminster, though written long after he had left it. It 
presents before us the whole apparatus which he employed, and 
explains his general views of church-fellowship and ecclesias- 
tical discipline. It shows that Baxter was the minister of a 
voluntary congregation, and pastor of a separate church, whose 
discipline was neither aided nor restrained by the civil powen, 
though Baxter was supported by the funds which belonged to 
the Establishment. 

'' When I undertook a, parish charge myself, I kept with me 
two ministers, to assist me at one parish church and a small 
chapel. I had three godly justices of peace in the pariah, who^ 
to countenance our discipline, kept their monthly meeting at the 
same time and place. I had four ancient godly men that per- 
formed the office of deacons. I had above twenty of the seniorsof 
the laity, who, without pretence of any office, met with us, to be 
witnesses that we did the church and sinners no wrong, and U> 
awe the o£fenders by their presence. These met once a month 



OF RICHARD BikXTER. 579 

together. We had almost all the worthy nuniaters cf the 
county agreeing and associated to do the like in their several 
parishes, as far as they were able, that unity might the more 
convince the offenders. We had, in the same town, the next 
day after our monthly town meeting, an assembly of a dozen or 
twenty such ministers, to edify each other, and that those might 
be tried by them and before them, whether we could persuade 
them to repentance, who would not be prevailed with by ourselves. 
And, what was our ease incomparably beyond all thb, neither 
the times nor our judgment allowing us to use discipline upon 
any but such as consented to our office and relation to them, 
we told them that we had all agreed only to exercise so much 
of discipline, as Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Independent, 
had no controversy about (some of the Episcopal joining us) ; 
and that we would exercise it in all our flocks, but we could be 
pastors to none against their wills. Whereupon, of about three 
thousand persons, one thousand eight hundred or more of 
which were at age to be communicants, all refused to do any 
more than hear me preach, for fear of discipline, except about 
six hundred, or a few more. These six hundred were the most 
understanding, religious part of the parish : all the grossly 
ignorant, and the common swearers, and all the drunkards and 
scandalous persons, were among the refusers, except about five 
or six young men that had got such a love to tippling that they 
could not leave it. These hid their sin awhile, but could 
not long: yet the trouble and work that these five or six 
men made us, sometimes by drunkenness, sometimes by fight- 
ing, sometimes by slandering their neighbours, or such-like, 
were more than it is easy for an unexperienced person to believe. 
So hard was it to bring them to a confession of their sins, or to 
ask their forgiveness whom they grossly wronged, that when we 
endeavoured, with all our skill, to convince them, and used 
gentle exhortation, and also opened to them the terrors of the 
Lord ; when we prayed before them that God would give them 
repentance ; when their own parents and relations joined with 
us; all would not make them confess their sin, but we were 
forced to cast them out of our communion, for the most part 
of them. Among all the rest, there were some that some- 
times would need admonition and reconciliation with one an- 
other, which found us some work. But if we had been troubled 
with all the other thousand or twelve hundred of the parish, 
and so with all the other swearers, railers, common drunkards, 

pp2 



580 THB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

some infidels, &c., what work should we have had ! .80 
as I dare confidently say that, without being half so strict al 
troublesome as the ancient canons were^ we could not fomUf 
have done more in the work of discipline than govern 
parish. Nor could we have done so much^ but with sadi 
sions as nothing but disability would have quieted our 
ences under." ^ 

This extract presents a very clear and succinct view of Al 
system Baxter acted oiv while minister of Kiddenmnila^ 
and it may be regarded as embodying the principles of eooH 
munion which he advocated to the close of his life. Hii 
church, it is evident, was a voluntary association, distinct tnm 
the people of the parish, and from the general congregatioi. 
To this select body he dispensed the ordinances of the Gos- 
pel, and on its members alone he exercised the discipline sf 
the kingdom of heaven. At the same time, he was regarded 
in some sense, as the parochial clergyman, and was counls* 
nanced in various ways by the magistrates. His brethren in tiie 
ministry, and himself, formed also a voluntary association for 
mutual counsel and aid in their general work ; and to enfant, 
by their combined influence, such measures as, individuallyy 
they might have found it difficult to carry. The state of the 
times, as has been remarked in another place, enabled Baxter 
and his brethren to pursue a line of conduct, which, either ts 
ministers of a regular establishment, or as dissenters from it, 
they could not have done. 

Of the publication of his 'Christian Concord,' he says^ 
*' When we set on foot our association in Worcestershire,^ I 
was desired to print our agreement, with an explication of the 
several articles, which I did in a small book, in which I haie 
given the reasons why the Episcopal, Presbyterians, and Inde* 
pendents, might and should unite, on such terms, without any 
change of any of their principles ; but I confess that the new 
Episcopal party, that follow Grotius too far, and deny the veiy 
being of all the ministers and churches that have not diocesan 
bishops, are not capable of union with the rest upon such tenns. 
And hereby I gave notice to the gentry and others of the roy- 
alists in England, of the great danger they were in of changing 

■» * Treatise of Episcopacy/ pp. 1R5, 186. 

* Iq the Appeudix to his Life there is inserted a lon^ paper of replj to 
some exceptions af^aiiist the ' Worcestershire A^rcctneot/ aod * Christitf 
Concord,* writtcD by a nameless author, and sent by Dr. Warmstrye. Tht 
author 1 suppose to have been Warmstrye himself. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR« 88 1 

ecclesiastical cause, by following new leaders that were for 
fiboCianisin. But this admonition did greatly offend the guilty^ 
mbo toow began to get the reins, though the old Episcopal 
SboCestants confessed it all to be true. There is nothing bring- 
fdi greater hatred and sufferings on a man than to foreknow 
the imschief that men in power are doing and intend, and to 
JMrn the world of it : for while they are resolutely going on 
iritli it, they will proclaim him a slanderer that revealeth it, 
jBid ttse him accordingly; and never be ashamed when they have 
done it, and thereby declare all which he foretold to be true." ™ 
•-■ 

: \ He published in 1656, ' The Agreement of divers Ministers 
,ift the county of Worcester, and some adjacent parts, for 
wiechising or personal instructing all in their several parishes 
tfuit will consent thereunto.' 12mo. This is a small production 
«iitir^y practical in its nature, containing the articles of their 
4^preement, an exhortation to the people to submit to the neces* 
fmry work of catechising, and the profession of faith and cate- 
tfhhni, which they were expected to make and learn. In 
consequence of Baxter's influence and example, the ministers 
who signed this agreement, and many others, adopted the prac- 
ftiee of catechising their congregations, which it was the chief 
object of the Agreement to promote. Speaking on this subject^ 
in.reference to himself, he says, 

^* Of all the works that ever I attempted, this yielded roe 
^most comfort in the practice of it. All men thought that the 
people, especially the ancienter sort, would never have sub- 
mitted to this course, and so that it would have come to no- 
thing : but God gave me a tractable, willing people, and gave me 
also interest in them ; and when I had begun, and my people 
Iiad given a good example to other parishes, and especially the 
ministers so unanimously concurring, that none gainsayed us, 
it prevailed with the parishes about. I set two days a week 
•Rpart for this employment ; my faithful, unwearied assistant and 
myself, took fourteen families every week ; those in the town 
came ta us to our houses ; those in the parish my assistant went 
to, to their houses, besides what a curate did at a chapelry. 
Krst they recited the catechism to us, a family only being pre- 
sent at a time, and no stranger admitted: after that, 1 first 
helped them to understand it, and next inquired modestly into 
the state of their souls, and lastly endeavoured to set all home 
to the convincing, awakening, and resolving, of their hearts a^- 

•^ Life, port L pp» I12y Its. 



582 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

cording to their aereral conditions ; bestowing about an how 
and the labour of a sermon with erery family. I found kss 
effectual, through the blessing of God, that few went awqr widi* 
out some seeming humiliation, conviction, and purpose^ md 
promise for a holy life. Except half a dozen or thereaboott 
of die most ignorant and senseless, all the families in die tosm 
came to me; and though the first time, they came with fear sal 
backwardness; after that, they longed for their turn to ceOK 
again. So that I hope God did good to many by it : and yet 
this was not all the comfort I had in it.'" ® 

The practice referred to was one of the most important 
means of Baxter's usefulness while in Kidderminater. It 
brought him into contact with every family and individwd in fail 
parish, which, with the fidelity of his addresses to them, wai 
productive of the most salutary results. His connexion with the 
Worcestershire Union, and the little publication of whidi nt 
have just spoken, led to his being appointed to deliver an ad- 
dress to his ministerial brethren, which afterwards appeared in 
the shape of ^ The Reformed Pastor,' one of the moat valnabk 
of all his publications. 

His next work, in this class, is a considerable quarto volume, 
entitled, ^ Certain Disputations of Right to Sacraments, and the 
True Nature of Visible Christianity, &c.' 1656, The nature 
and object of this book I shall leave himself to explain. The 
following passage will show that Baxter held sentiments respect^ 
ing the purity of Christian fellowship, which were not consisT- 
ent with the practice of the church of England. 

^^ Mr. Blake having replied to some things in my Apology, 
especially about right to the sacraments, or the just subjects of 
baptism and the Lord*s-supper, i wrote five disputations on thoie 
points, proving that it is not the reality of a dogmatical or justify- 
ing faith, nor yet the profession of bare assent, called a dogma- 
t Kal faith by many ; but only the profession of a saving faith, 
which is the condition of men's title to church communion 
coram ecclesia; and that hypocrites are but analogically or 
equivocally called Christians, believers, and saints, &c. with 
much more to decide the most troublesome controversy of 
that time, which was about the necessary qualification and title 
of church members and communicants. Many men have been 
perplexed about that point and that book. Some think it 
cometh too near the Indq^endents, and some^ that it is too 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 588 

far from them ; and many think it very hard that a credible 
profeMion of true faith and repentance should be made the 
stated qualification : because they think it incredible that all the 
Jewish members were such. But I have sifted this point more 
exactly and diligently, in my thoughts, than any other contro* 
versy whatsoever; and fain I would have found some other quali* 
fication to take up with : Either the profession of some lower 
faith than that which hath the promise of salvation. Or, at 
least such a profession of saving faith as needeth not to be credi- 
ble at all. But the evidence of truth hath forced me from all 
other ways, and suffered me to re/st no where but here. That pro* 
fession should be made necessary Vidthout any respect at all to 
credibility, and consequently to the verity of the faith professed^ 
is incredible, and a contradiction, and the very word profes- 
sion signifieth more. I was forced to observe that those who 
in charity would believe another profession to be the tide to 
church communion do greatly cross their own design of charity. 
While they would not be bound to believe men to be what 
they profess, for fear of excluding many whom they cannot be* 
lieve, they do leave themselves and all others as not obliged to 
love any church member as such, with the love which is due to a 
true Christian, but only with such a love as they owe to the mem« 
bers of the devil ; and so deny them the kernel of charity, by 
giving the shell to a few more than they should do. Whereof, 
tqfon my deepest search^ I am scUirfied that a credible profeM^ 
sion of true Christianity is it that denominateth the adult visible 
Christian." V 

There may be some theoretical difference of opinion among 
Christians about what is included in, or essential to, a credible 
profession, but, generally speaking, religious persons commonly 
agree in their opinion of those who are entitled to be regarded as 
Christians. Now if this kind of profession is held to be neces* 
sary to Christian communion, it is at once obvious that the prin*- 
ciples of the church of England make no suitable provision for 
their operation. There is not in that establishment any line of de** 
marcation between the openly profane or worldly, and the people 
of God. The evidence of the possession of true religion is not 
in it, the condition of enjoying even the most sacred ordinances. 
On this point therefore, Baxter approached nearer to the Inde- 
petidents than he seemed willing to avow ; and his practice 
while at Kidderminster appears to have corresponded with his 
theoretical views on this subject. In a parish consisting of seve* 

V Life, part i. pp. 113, 114. 



684 THB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

ral thousands^ with a regular congregation of about ei^iteen 
hundred persons, there were only about six hundred whom ke 
regarded as church members, to whom he administered the ordi- 
nances of the Gospel ; and such was his regard to character^ that 
he declared there were not a dozen of those persons in whose 
piety he had not great confidence. 

llie discussions of this volume, therefore, are of great ibh 
portance; and, on the several points of which it treat^ dtt 
reader who is desirous of knowing Baxter's senttmentSy or of 
forming his own, may consult it to advantage. The fc^mriqg 
are the leading topics : '^ Whether ministers may admit peraoai 
into the church of Christ by baptism, upon the bare, verbsi 
profession of the true Christian, saving faith, without staying fior^ 
or requiring any further evidences of, sincerity ? '' This be de- 
termines in the affirmative. '^ Wliether ministers must or may 
baptize the children of those that profess not saving faith^ npoa 
the profession of any other faith that copies short of it ? " This 
he resolves in the negative. '* Whether the infants of noC«H 
riously ungodly baptized parents have right to be baptized? 
Whether any besides regenerate believers and their seed have a 
right to the sacraments, given them by God, and may thereupon 
require them and receive them ? " Both these questions he 
answers negatively. ^^ Whether hypocrites, and other unre- 
^enerate persons, be called church members. Christians, be- 
lievers, saints, adopted, justified, &c.; univocally, analogically, 
or equivocally ? " 

Into all these subjects he enters very fully, but in his cha- 
racteristic manner ; dividing, distinguishing, and explaining, till 
he leaves it sometimes doubtful how he is to be understood, 
unless we advert to his own practice. What is dubious in his 
theoretical discussions, may thus be easily explained. Bax- 
ter did not regard differences of opinion on various doctrinal 
questions, or respecting church government of much impor- 
tance, while he could regard the parties as real Christians, and 
disposed to live in peace with others. To these two points be 
considered all other things subordinate. Christian fellowship, 
with him, was not the fellowshij) of Calvinists or Arminians, of 
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, or Baptists 5 it was 
the fellowship of Christians, holding the one faith and hope of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, in unity of spirit, and righteousness of 
life. This is the onlv Catholic communion which is worth 
contending for ; and which, it cannot be doubted, will, in due 
time, absorb all other party distinctions aud disputes. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER^ 585 

■ ' The only book which discusses the principles of this work of 
Baxt^s, known to me, is the ^Coena quasi Koine; or^ the 
New Closures broken down, and the Lord's Supper laid forth 
in common for all Church Members having a Dogmatical Faith/ 
By William Morice, esq. of Werrington. 1657* 4to. It is not a 
professed answer to Baxter, but takes up the ground with a vast 
pfofiisapn of miscellaneous learning. The author was quite an 
Brastiaiiy on the subject of church government, and contended 
lor principles which are utterly destructive of all discipline, ex* 
cept as administered by the civil magistrate. He was knighted 
by Charles II. at his Fanding, and occupied the important post 
erf Secretary of State for seven years after the Restoration. The 
work above-mentioned is a great curiosity for the display of 
daasical reading which it affords. Every page is stuck full of 
learned quotation, evincing the knowledge of the author^ but 
aflbrding small evidence of his judgment. He bestows a la- 
boured panegyric on Baxter, which, if it were not too long, I 
would introduce, both as an illustration of the character of the 
book, and of the admiration in which Baxter was held by him* 
In the preface to the second edition of his ^ Five Disputa- 
tioiM,' Baxter refers to this work of Mr. Morice. '^ When I 
saw this book,'' he says, '^ made up of so much reading, and 
expressing so much industry and learning, I much rejoiced that 
England had such a gentleman ; and I look on the book as a 
shaming reprehension of the idleness and ignorance of the 
multitude of the gentry who spend that time in hawking, and 
bunting, and complimenting, which, if better spent, might make 
them a blessing, and not a burden, to the land. But out of that 
learned volume, I am not able to find any clear discovery of 
what the author means by a dogmatical faith." Baxter thinks 
that Morice did not differ widely from himself; and Morice 
was exceedingly averse to being considered as an adversary to 
Baxter. The principles contended for by the two writers could 
not fail to be productive of very different results in practice. 
Baxter could only approve of select communion ; Morice main- 
tained open and promiscuous.^ 

4 Beside tbe main questions discussed in this work of Baxter's, there is a 
great deal of wran^ling^ debate ivith Dr. Owen and others ; particularly at tbe 
end, where be assigns reasons for making no answer to Mr. Robertson, or a 
more particular reply to Mr. Blake, or Dr. Owen. It would only distract tbe 
attention of tbe reader from the main subject of the chapter to refer to 
these personal debates, and therefore I have not adverted to them in th« 
text. 



586 TttB Lira AND WRITtNGS 

The next work in this class which claims our attentiiNii is 
* Confirmation and Restauratidn the necessary, means of Be* 
formation and Reconciliation/' The work, with this TaAer 
singular and alliteral title, appeared in 12mOy in 1658. Its 
connexion with Baxter's Tiews of Catholic communion is atones 
obvious from the scope of the book, and from his own aeoomit 
of it. *^ Having in divers writings/' he says, ^ moved for the 
restitution of a solemn transition of all that pass from an infiuil 
state of church-membership into the number of the adnlt^ and 
are admitted to their privileges ; and the associated ministers ef 
this county having made it an article of their agreement^ st 
last came forth an excellent exercitation on confirmation, written 
by Mr. Jonathan Hanmer, very learnedly and piously endeavuiir- 
ing the restoration of this practice." Being very glad of so 
good a work, upon an invitation, I prefixed an epistle before it, 
which hath occasioned this following disputation. For when 
the book was read, the design was generally approved, as iar ai 
I can learn, and very acceptable to good men of aU parties. 
But many of them called to me to try whether some more 
Scripture proofs might not be brought for it, that the preceptive, 
as well as the mediate necessity, might appear. At the desire 
of some reverend, godly brethren, I hastily drew up this, which 
IS here offered you, partly to satisfy them in the point of Scrip- 
ture evidence, but principally to satisfy my own earnest desirei 
after the reformation and healing of the churches, to which I 
do very confidently apprehend this excellent work to have a 
singular tendency. Here is a medicine so effectual to heaf our 
breaches, and set our disordered societies in joint, being owned 
in whole by the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, and 
Erastian, and in half by the Anabaptists. Thus, nothing but oar 
own self. coneeitedness,perverseness, laziness, or wilful enmity to 
the peace of the churches, is able to deprive us of a blessed success. 
But, alas, our minds are the subjects of disease, and are so 
alienated, exulccrated, and so selfishly partial and uncharitable, 
that when the plaster is offered us, and peace brought to oar 
doors, I must needs expect that many should peevishly cast it 
away, and others betray it by a lazy commendation, and so dis- 

' Works, vol. xiv. 

■ The book of Hanmer, adverted to by Baxter, is ' An Exercitation upoa 
ConfirtnatioD, the ancient way of completing Church Mem ben.* 1658. Sro. 
The author was minister of Bishop's Tawton, in Devonshire, from which be 
was ejected in 1662. He was an Bpiscopalian, though a Nonconformist, tn^ 
a man of very good learning. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 587 

able the few that would be fiEuthfuI, practical, and induBtrioua^ 
from that general success which is so necessary and desirable/'^ 

The title of this work might lead the reader to suppose that 
it was a defence of the episcopal rite of confirmation, whereas 
it is, in fact, nothing more than a laboured effort to prove that all 
who are baptized in infancy ought to make a personal and 
public profession of religion when they come to the years of 
maturity ; and that unless this profession is satisfactory to the 
minister of the congregation to which the party propose to be- 
long, they ought not to enjoy the Lord*s-supper, or be consider* 
ed members of the church. His fifth proposition may be said 
to embrace the whole subject: '^ As a personal faith is the con- 
dition before God, of title to the privileges of the adult ; so the 
profession of this faith is the condition of his right before the 
church; and without this profession, he is not to be taken as an 
adult member, nor admitted to the privileges of such." ^ 

As Episcopalians consider confirmation an ordinance of Chris- 
tianity, Baxter endeavours to show that this is the only scriptural 
notion of confirmation. He docs not object to the laying on of 
hands, provided the persons themselves agreed to it, or thought 
it necessary, but does not regard it as essential. And so far 
from thinking that only diocesan bishops have a right to con- 
firm,' he shows, that it belongs to all ministers or pastors of 
the church, and that in fact they alone can properly exercise it, 
•8 they alone can know who deserve to be thus treated. As 
Piresbyterians require a personal profession, and Independents a 

« Works, vol. &iv. pp. 403, 404. - Ibid. p. 414. 

* So far from having^ great respect for episcopal confirmation, he tells the 
following story of bis own confirmation ; — " When I was a school-boy, about 
ftlteen years of age, the bishop coming into the county, many went to him to 
be confirmed ; we that were boys ran out to see the bishop among the resty 
not knowing any thing of the meaning of the business. When we came 
thither we met about thirty or forty in all, of our own stature and temper, that 
bad come to be hikfpedt as then it was called. The bishop examined us» 
not at all in one article of faith, but in a church-yard ; in haste we were set in 
a rank, aud he passed hastily over us, laying his hands on our heads, and say- 
ing a few words, which neither f , nor any that I spoke with, understood, so 
bsstily were they uttered, and a very short prayer recited, and there was am 
end. But whether we were Christiaus, or infidels, or knew so much as that 
there was a God, the bishop little knew nor inquired. And yet he was 
esteemed one of the best bishops in England. And though the canons require 
that the curate or minister send a certificate that the children have learned 
the catechism, there was no such thing done, but we ran of our own accord to 
see the bishop only, and almost all the rest of the county had not this much ; 
this was the old careless practice of this excellent duty pf confirmatioiu"-* 
^orks, vol. xiv. pp. 481, 482. 



588 THB UFB AND WRITINGS 

ptill more particular profession of personal religioii iH order to 
church membership ; he endeavours to show that all the pardes, 
not excluding Baptists, might easily harmonize on this subgeet, 
and that thus a line of demarcation between the world would 
be clearly and beneficially established. The object he had 
in view is certainly of great importance, but until the parties 
whom he wished to unite be agreed on some other important 
points than those which his discusuon directly embraces, they 
are not likely to be united by agreement on such a rite or serviee 
as that in question. It may be the effect of reibrmationy but k 
Bot likely to be the cause or the means of it^ 

Closely connected with the treatises on Right to Sacrament^ 
and Confirmation, is the next work of Baxter in this department^ 
^ Five Dissertations of Church Government and Worship.' 4t0f 
1659. The design of this, as of all Baxter's works in thb clasi, 
was to promote union and reconciliation among all parties. 
This object, however desirable in itself, has not yet been attuned 
in the Christian church ; nor were the means employed bjr 
Baxter always most wisely adapted to promote it, though most 
sincerely intended on his part. '* In the first of these Disputa- 
tions," he says, " I proved that the English diocesan prelacy 
is intolerable, which none hath answered. In the second, I have 
proved the validity of the ordination then exercised without 
diocesans in England, which no man hath answered, though 
many have urged men to be re -ordained. In the third, I have 
proved that there are (fivers sorts of episcopacy lawful and de- 
sirable. In the fourth and fifth, I show the lawfulness of some 
ceremonies, and of a liturgy, and what is unlawful here. 

" This book being published when bishops, liturgy, and cere- 
monies, were most decried and opposed, was of good use to 
declare my judgment when the king came in ; for if I had said 
as much then, I had been judged but a temporizer. But as it 
was effectual to settle many in a moderation, so it made abun- 
dance of Conformists afterwards, or was pretended at least to 
give them satisfaction. Though it never meddled with the 
greatest parts of conformity, renouncing vows, assent and con- 
sent to all things in three books, &c. ; and though it unanswer- 
ably confuted our prelacy and re-ordination, and consequently 

y Thi« book Cal^roy says is highly commended by Dr. Patrick, the bishop 
of Ely, iQ bis work, iotitled « Aqua Geoitalis.'— CiDfteWi j^bridgmatt, vol. i. 
p. il3. 



OF miCHARD BAXTJKB. 589 

the renunciadon of the vow against prelacy ; and opposed the 
erosB in baptism. But, sic vitant siuUi vitiaj as my Aphorisms 
made some Arminians ; if you discover an error to an injudi- 
eions man, he reeleth into the contrary error, and it is hard to 
stop him in the middle verity/' ' 

This statement, by himself, of the subject and design of the 
irork, is su£Scient to explain its nature. Could Baxter have suc- 
ceeded in getting Episcopalians to give up all that is pecu- 
liar in Episcopacy 3 and Presbyterians all that is peculiar to 
F^byterianism; and Independents all that is distinctive in 
Independency, he would have succeeded in producing some 
agreement in a simple and practical system of church order 
and government. This consummation, however, is yet to come. 
If only pious persons were concerned in such matters ; if 
there were no secular obstacles and interests in the way ; if the 
doctrine of authority, and the influence of *this world, were 
withdrawn, the church of Christ would probably soon assume 
a very different appearance from what it has yet done. Bax- 
ter's grand objection to many of those things, about which 
men then differed, was, their unqualified and uuscriptural 
enforcement. He puts the case very admirably, and with some 
humour, in the following passage. 

'^ I confess it is lawful for me to wear a helmet on my head 
in preaching ; but it were not well if you would institute the 
wearing of a helmet, to signify our spiritual militia, and then 
resolve that all shall be silenced and imprisoned during life that 
will not wear it. It is lawful for me to use spectacles, or to go 
on crutches ; but will you therefore ordain that all men shall 
read with spectacles, to signify our want of spiritual sight, and 
that no man shall go to church but on crutches, to signify our 
disability to come to God of ourselves. So, in circumstantials, 
it is lawful for me to wear a feather in my hat, and a hay- 
rope for a girdle, and a hair-cloth for a cloak : but if you 
should ordain that if any man serve God in any other habit, 
he shall be banished, or perpetually imprisoned, or hanged ; in 
my opinion, you did not well : especially, if you add that he 
that disobeyeth you must also incur everlasting damnation. It 
is in itself lawful to kneel when we hear the Scriptures read, 
or when we sing psalms ; but yet it is not lawful to drive all 
from hearing and singing, and lay them in prison that do it not 
kneeling. And why men should have no communion in the 

* Life^ part i. pp. 117,118. 



5S0 THB LIPB AND WEITIMOS 

Lord's-supper that receive it not kneeling, or in any one oom- 
manded posture, and why men should be forbidden to preach 
the Gospel that wear not a linen surplice, I cannot imagine any 
such reason as will hold weight at the bar of God."* 

This work is dedicated to his ^^ Highness, Richard, Lord Pro- 
tector.'' A few sentences from this document will show the 
feelings of Baxter towards Richard Cromwell, and what, accord* 
ing to him, were the feelings of the country* 

*^ These papers are ambitious of accompanying those against 
Popery into your highness's presence, for the tender of their 
service, and that upon the same account. The controverms 
here decided are those that have had a hand in most of the 
great transactions that, of late years, have here passed, and 
that still have a hand in the differences that hinder our desired 
peace. I observe that the nation, generally, rejoiceth in your 
peaceable entrance upon the government; and are affected 
with indignation if they hear but any rumours that troublesome 
persons would disturb their hopes. And many are persuaded 
that you have been strangely kept from participating in any 
of our late bloody contentions, that God might make you the . 
healer of our breaches, and employ you in that temple work, 
which David himself might not be honoured with, though it 
was in his mind, because he had shed blood abundantly and 
made great wars." ^ 

While this passage shows the good feeling towards Richard 
Cromwell by which Baxter was influenced, and that he could 
readily submit to his government, it also shows, in connexion 
with what follows of the dedication, and with many parts of 
the book, his anxiety to get the magistrate to interfere, to put 
an end to religious differences, and to establish something like a 
uniform system. His leaning to this kind of interference ohea 
led him to write inconsistently with his better and more scrip- 
tural views. He would have been content with a very mode- 
rate system of state administration ; but even the most mode- 
rate, according to his views, would have produced effects, of 
which he would have been the first to complain. Till magis- 
trates are left to manage the affairs of this world, and the 
church left to manage its own affairs, and to provide for its own 
interests, under the direction of Scripture and the influence of 
Christ's authority and Spirit^ it is vain to expect any thing 
like general agreement or harmony among the subjects of the 

• Works, \o\. Tt\v. v^. Aa^, \^\• ^ Voivd, ^v- 1» 2. 



OV BIGBABO BAXTBB. 59| 

kingdom* The interference of worldly men with the 
obnrch of Chrbt mu8t, of necessity, be injurious to it; while 
the parties who admit this interference on the one hand, and 
thoee who decline it on the other, are placed on an unequal 
footing, and contend on unequal terms. 

Baxter was not the only labourer in the cause of peace and 
of catholic communion. One other individual at least entered 
fiilly and cordially into his views, and devoted much time and 
labour to promote them, not in England only, but throughout 
Pkrotestant Europe. The following Tract of Baxter's is con- 
nected with his exertions in this cause : ' The Judgment and 
Adviceof the AssociatedMinisters of Worcestershire, concerning 
Mr. John Dury'sEndeavours after Ecclesiastical Peace/ 1 658. 4to« 
The account given by the author of this small publication, is as 
follows :-— '^ Mr. John Dury having spent thirty years in endea- 
TOUfs to reconcile the Lutherans and Calvinists, was now going 
over sea again in that work, and desired the judgment of our 
association, how it should be successfully expedited ; which at 
their desire I drew up more largely in Latin, and more briefly in 
English. The English letter he printed, as my letter to Mr. 
Dury for pacification.''^ 

Of the respectable individual who spent so many years in the 
interesting work of reconciliation, it is impracticable to give any 
satisfactory account. He appears to have been a native of Scot- 
land, but resided many 'years in Germany. In the year 1628, 
he was minister to the English Company of Merchants at EUb- 
ing, in Prussia, and was then led, through the influence of 
the learned and excellent Dr. Godeman, a privy counseller to 
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, to engage along with him in an 
attempt to unite the Lutheran and Calvitiistic churches. They 
held conferences on this subject with the Chancellor Oxenstiem, 
who encouraged them in their attempt. Dury petitioned Gus- 
tavus to lend his aid. Sir Thomas Bi>e, ambassador from Great 
Britain to Sweden and Poland, was consulted, and interested 
himself in the affair ; and having promised to engage the Eng- 
lish bishops to consider the subject, Mr. Dury left Elbing in 
1630 for England. Sir Thomas Roe recommended the business 
to the king, who referred it to the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
the Bishop of London, requiring them to hear Dury's proposals. 
They heard him accordingly, professed to be friends to his project, 
and seemed to adopt some of his recommendalioti'^. To ^t^- 

*Li/c, part i. p. 117. 



592 THB LIFB AMD WMTIKOS 

pare the way for future treaties, it was proposed that themagii" 
trates on both sides should prohibit railing disputes in the ptdpit) 
should put down all party names, as far as they could, and nol 
suffer any debates about ceremonies or forms of public wvnrdnp. 
The good man, flattered by these attentions, prosecuted fait 
enterprise with great vigour. He returned to the Continent, 
and addressed the confederated ambassadors of the Protestant 
states, assembled at Frankfort, entreating their aid and coonte* 
nance. They promised fair, but did nothing. He Tnited 
Holland on his errand of peace ; and in 1633 returned to Eng« 
land, wher^ he found Laud in the place of Abbot, to whom he 
presented his letters from foreign churches and dirines. Land 
did not appear to oppose, but gave no hearty encouragement 
He met with more active assistance from Bishops Hall and 
Davenant, and Archbishop Usher. Again, he went to Germany, 
and met the Protestant ambassadors itt Frankfort in 1634, by 
whom his object seemed to be patronized. He returned to 
England the following year, and was graciously received by the 
king; after which, he went back to Holland, and visited the 
different synods ; and proceeded thence to Sweden, in which ht 
laboured and travelled a great deal. Having again visited Ger- 
many, he went to Denmark ; and after many other sojournings, 
returned to England once more in 1641. He was one of the 
extra number added to the Westminster Assembly, whose labours 
he assisted, being rather inclined to the side of the Independents. 
He lived till after the Restoration, but failed in the accomplish- 
ment of the grand object so dear to his heart; though he seems to 
have been useful in softening prejudices which he could not alto- 
gether subdue. In some respects, he appears to have resembled 
Baxter himself. He was a powerful advocate for ecclesiasticA 
peace — a man of schemes and projects— of pure intentions, 
but of more zeal than judgment — who thought he could ac- 
complish a great deal by meetings of ecclesiastics, and deter- 
minations of governments in matters of religion. As the friend 
of Baxter and Boyle, Usher and Hall, and many other good 
men, he deserved some notice in this place. He published a 
variety of small treatises, most of which related to his main 
undertaking.* 

^ The principal part of the above account of Dury is taken from a scarce 
tract published by Hartlib, the friend of Milton, entitled • A Briefe Relation 
of that which hath been lately attempted to procure Ecclesiastical Peace 
amuu^ Protestants/ London. 1(>41. 4to. At the end of it is a copy of the 
petition presented to Gustavus Adolpbus by Dury.^See also Brocket's 
0/the Puritans y vo\. ui. ^.^ft^. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 593 

The order of time requires that I should notice the next small 
treatise of Baxter, in this place. His ' Universal Concord/ which 
waspuUished in 12mO; in 1658, '* Having been desired/' hesays, 
'* in the time of our associations, to draw up those terms which 
all Christian churches may hold communion upon, I published 
them, though too late for any such use (till God give men better 
minds), that the world might see what our religion and our 
terms of communion were ; and that, if after-ages prove more 
peaceable, they may have some light from those that went be- 
ibre them. It consisteth of three parts. 

'* The first containeth the Christian religion, which all are 
positively to profess ; that is, either to subscribe the Scriptures 
in general, and the ancient creeds in particular, or, at most, the 
confession or articles annexed : e. ^., I do believe all the sacred^ 
canonical Scripture, which all Christian churches do receive ; 
and^ particularly, I believe in Qod the Father Almighty, &c« 
The second part, instead of books of unnecessary canons, con- 
taineth seven or eight points of practice for church order, which, 
to it be practised, it is no great matter whether it be subscribed 
or not. And here it must be understood, that these are written 
for times of liberty, in which agreement, rather than force, doth 
procure unity and communion. The third part containeth the 
larger description of the office of the ministry, and, consequently, 
of all the ordinances of worship, which need not be subscribed, 
but none should preach against it, nor omit the practice, except 
peace require that the point of infant baptism be left free. 

*' This small book is called by the name of Universal Con- 
cord, which, when I wrote, I thought to have published a second 
part, viz., a large volume, containing the particular terms of 
con6ord between all parties capable of concord ; but the change 
fif the times hath necessarily changed that purpose/' * 

Though Baxter did not publish formally a second part of 
this work, every thing he had to communicate on the subject, 
must have been presented in one or other of the numerous books 
which he subsequently published on the subject of communion, 
or of nonconformity. It is really not matter of regret that 
he did not publish more, but that he published so much on these 
topics, as the very quantity which he wrote may be said to have 
buried his sentiments, and materially contributed to defeat his 
own purpose and anxious desire. Any one of his principal 

•Life, paiti. pp. 119, 120. 
VOL, h Q Q 



594 TBS Lira AND WRITINGS 

treatiflefl might have exhausted the subject, had it been judi- 
ciously managed ; but it is now vain to express qur regrets* 

The works we have noticed, include all that Baxter pub- 
lished on the subject of catholic communion, previously to the 
Restoration. In his own Life, a variety of papers and letteii 
are inserted, relating to the topic. They contain his propiH 
sals to several parties, or to eminent individuals among thum^ 
adapted to the peculiar sentiments and circumstances of eachi 
He did not always succeed^ but was always heard respects 
fully, and seldom failed to make some impression in favour of 
peace. From the progress made by his system in various quar- 
ters, it is hard to say what might have been the final result^ had 
the political state of the country not undergone a complets 
change by the overthrow of the dynasty of the Cromwells, and 
the return of Charles. On the diocesan Episcopalians, Baxter 
had found the greatest difficulty in making a favourable impres- 
sion, even while the fortunes of their church were in the lowest 
state. Their principles seemed not to admit of union and co- 
operation with others. Many of tlie Baptists and Independents 
he found it difficult to convince that his way was preferable to 
theirs | but still his success among them was enough to encou- 
rage him to go on. The church party, however, offered hiia 
little hope before, and, after the Restoration, none at all. 

That event did not terminate the labours of Baxter to promote 
Vnity, but for awhile they were necessarily diverted into a new 
channel. The comprehension of the Nonconformists in the 
church, by the modification of its terms, became the great object 
of his zealous endeavours for many years. What he did to 
accomplish it, and to prevent an entire and permanent seces- 
sion from the church, with the causes of his failure, we have 
elsewhere recorded. If Baxter had not had to struggle with 
secular power and interests, but only to maintain the conflict 
with those who had as little civil connexion with the state 
as himself, the probability is that some such system as be 
himself acted upon in Kidderminster, would have been very 
generally adopted over England. Without professing to approve 
of all its parts, its substance is so radically Christian, and its 
effects were so excellent, that the individual who could not have 
lived in such a communion, must have had a very obtuse under- 
standing, or an unenviable state of moral feeling. The prevalence 
of such a system, would have converted England into a spiritual 



OP EICHilRD BAXTER* 695 

INmidia^ and caused its most barren deserts to flourish aa the 
garden of the Lord. 

The mortification which such a man as Baxter must have 
csperienced from the failure and ruin of all his labours and 
hopes, may be better conceived than expressed. Though not 
easily or soon discouraged, he found, after the Restoration, and 
cepecially after the Bartholomew ejection, that he was left to 
eootend with men of a totally di£ferent spirit from himself,* men 
of secular views and feelings, who regarded the church but as a 
tbeitfre of ambition, or in subservience to their earthly interests. 
He became one of a small but noble band of sufferers, who 
always appear to advantage, except when they attempt to iden- 
tify themselves with a body so entirely worldfy as was the 
•httreh of England while Charles II. was its head, and Sheldon 
the chief minister of its spiritual affairs. 

About the time of the Restoration, Baxter brought out two 
amall practical works on hb favourite subject. The titles might 
lead us to suppose that he had a special reference to Popery in 
tliem ; but this is not the case any further than he regarded it as 
otte of the sects, and that the most dangerous and dogmatical^ 
which divided the church. The first of these is, ^ The true Catho- 
lic, and Catholic Church described ; and the vanity of the Pa^ts, 
and all Schismatics that confine the Catholic Church to their sect, 
discovered and shamed.' 1660. 12mo. — ^l^he second is, ^Catholic 
Unity, or the only way to bring us all to be of one religion.* 
1660. 12mo.^ These are plain practical discourses, the sub- 
atance of which had been preached in London and Worcester, 
containing much that is calculated to be useful to Christians 
of all professions. He tells us that their object is, 

*^ For Catholicism against all sectSy to show the sin, and folly, 
and mischief, of all sects that would appropriate the church to 
themselves, and trouble the world with the question. Which of 
all these parties is the church ? as if they knew not that the 
catliolic church is that whole which containeth all the parts, 
though some are more pure, and some less. Especially, it is 
suited against the Romish claim, which damneth all Christians 
besides themselves, and it jdetecteth and confuteth dividing prin- 
ciples. For I apprehend it is a matter of great necessity to 
imprint true Catholicism on the minds of Christians | it beiug a 
most lamentable thing to observe how few Christians in the 

< Wtfrks, vd. xrU 

aa2 



596 THB LfPB AND WRITINGS 

world there be, that fall not into one sect or other, and wrong 
not the common interest of Christianity for the promoting of 
the interest of their sect. How lamentably love is thereby 
destroyed, so that most men think not that they are bound to 
love those as the members of Christ, who ' are against their 
party. The leaders of most sects do not stick to persecute 
those that differ from them, and think the blood of those who 
hinder their opinions, and parties, to be an acceptable sacrifice 
unto God. And if they can but get to be of a sect which thef 
think the holiest^ (as the Anabaptists and Separatists,) or which 
is the largest, (as the Greeks and Papists,) they think, then, 
that they are sufficiently warranted to deny others to be God's 
church, or at least to deny them Christian love and commonioD. 
^^ To this small book I annexed a postscript against a ridiculoiis 
pamphlet of one Malpas, an old scandalous neighbour minister, 
who was permitted to stay in by the Parliament, (so far were 
they from T)eing over-striqt in their reformation of the clergy,) 
and now is a considerable man among them.^' ' 

A long interval elapsed before any thing further on this 
subject proceeded from Baxter's prolific pen. At length, in 1669, 
he published in octavo, his ^ Cure for Church Divisions.' " 1 first 
published," he says, " some old notes, written eleven or twcl?e 
years ago, called ^ Directions for Weak Christians,' and annexed 
to them * The Character of a Sound Christian.' For both which I 
wrote what was as like to have exasperated the impatient as 
this book is, and yet I heard of no complaints. Afterwards I 
wrote this, and sent it to the licenser, who, upon perusal, refused 
to license it^ and so it lay by, and I purposed to meddle with it 
no more. But leaving it in the bookseller's hands, who had 
offered it to be licensed, after a long time he got it done, and 
thus unexpectedly it revived. 

*' The reasons of my writing it were no fewer than all these fol- 
lowing, which I now submit to the judgment of all men truly 
peaceable and impartial, who value the interests of Christianity, 
and of the universal church, above their own. To make my 
foregoing * Directions to Weak Christians' more complete, 
having directed them about the private matters of their souls, 1 
intended this as another part to direct them, in order to the 
church's peace. Many good people of tender consciences and 
weak judgments, desiring my advice about communion in the 

< Life, part i, p. 113. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 597 

poUic assemblies, I foiind it meetest to publish this general 
advice for* all, to save me the labour of speaking to particular 
persons, and to serve those that lived farther off. I saw 
tliDse principles growing up apace in this time of provocation, 
which will certainly increase or continue our divisions, if they 
continue and increase. I am sure that our wounds are made by 
wounding principles of doctrine, and it must be healing doctrines 
that must heal us ; and I know that we cannot be healed till 
doctrinal principles be healed. To give way to the prevalency 
of dividing opinions, is to give up our hopes of future unity and 
peace ; and to give up our hopes of unity and peace, is to de- 
spair of all true reformation and happiness of the church on earth. 
If ever the church be reduced to that concord, strength, and 
Ifeanty, which all true Christians do desire, I am past doubt 
that it must be by such principles as I have laid down. 

**But my grand reason was, that I might serve the church of 
Christ in the reviving and preservation of Christian love. As 
it was an extraordinary measure of the Spirit which Christ made 
his witness in the gospel church, so it is as extraordinary a 
measure of love which he maketh the new commandment and 
the mark of all his true disciples. Whether afflicting on one 
elde and unmerciful and unjust censures on the other side, one 
driving away, and the other flying away, be either a sign or 
means of love ; and whether taking others to be intolerable in 
the church, and unworthy of our communion, and separating 
from or avoiding the worship where they are present, be likely 
to kindle love or kill it, let any man judge that hath himself the 
exercise of reason and unfeigned love. 

^Another reason why I set upon this work was, because I saw 
few others would -do it. If it must be done, and others will not, 
then I must take it for my duty. And, indeed, I knew but few 
whom I was willing to thrust upon it so forwardly as myself, for 
fear of being the author of their sufferings. Many may be abler, 
who are not in other respects so fit. Some ministers are young 
"men, and likely to live longer to serve God in his church, and their 
reputation is needful to their success ; if they be vilified, it may 
hinder their labours. And experience telleth us, that the divid- 
ing spirit is very powerful and victorious in censorious vilifying 
of dissenters. But I am almost miles emeritus^ Bt the end of my 
,work, and can reasonably expect to do but little more in the 
world^ and therefore have not tl>eir impediment; and for popu- 



598 TUB LITE AM]> MrKITIlIGS 

lar applause, I have tried its ranity ; I have had ao arach eli^ 
till I am brought to a contempt if not a loathinfp of it. 

^^ Some of my brethren have great congregations to teachynUck 
are so ineUned to this dividing way, that they cannot bear their 
information. And I will add one reason more of the publishiigi 
though not of the writing, of my book. When it bad been Umg 
cast by, I found in the * Debater,' and ^ Ecclesiastical PoliticisB,' 
that the Nonconformists are made ridiculous and odious, ai 
men of erroneous, uncharitable, and ungovernable principles and 
spirits, though they subscribe to all the doctrine of the church af 
England. And I thought that the publication of this book, 
would leave a testimony to the generations to come^ by which 
they might know whether we were truly accused, and whether 
our principles were not as much for love and peace as th»r% 
and as consistent with order and government." ^ 

Such are the chief of ttvetUy-'SeveH reasons, which Batter 
assigns for writing his Cure. Tliat Cure piescribea nsfy direc- 
tions to the people, and twenty^two additional ones to their 
pastors. It is full of excellent advice and admoniUon ; but is 
both too general and too minute, it oiFended both parties, u 
the author anticipated ; for he speaks too much as a dissenter 
for churchmen, and too much as a churchman for dissenters. 
He had an extensive knowledge of the evils and errors aS all 
parties, on which he dwelt too largely; while he failed in 
adapting his remedies to the disease of which he so bitterly com- 
plains. ^ 

Baxter met with an opponent of this work in a person whom 
he little, expected to encounter. His former friend, Edward 
Bagshaw, published a reply to it with the following title : ^ An 
Antidote against Mr. Baxter's palliated cure of church divisions; 
or an account of several weighty and just exceptions against 
that book.' 1670. 4 to. Bagshaw was the son of an attorney 
at Broughton, and educated for the ministry, at Christ- church, 
Oxford. His fine talents, and extensive learning, qualified 
him to become second master of Westminster school, whea 

^ * Defence of the Principles of Love,* pp. 42 — 64. 

^ AinoDg^ other attacks made on this work, was the followiof^: — "A 
Pair of Spectacles, very uaefull and needful! for all those that read Mr. Bai- 
ter's Catholick Charity, in his book called * The Cure of Church Divisions,' 
that so they may see and understand the better what they read, and not be led 
away with error instead of truth. Written by a Lover of Truth and Peace, aad 
of all the People of Peace." 1670. AUk 



OF RICHAAJ> BAXTBR. 599 

Dr« Boaby wm head master. He occupied the parUh of 
Ambroeden, in Oxfordshire, till the Bartholomew Act turned 
him out of the church, and left him to find a sphere of usefulnese 
with the means of living among the Nonconformists. Bagahaw 
appears to have been an Independent in his principles ; and was - 
% man of great mental ardour and decision of character, which 
occauoned his being represented as hot->headed, turbulent, and 
fimatical. He suffered greatly for his principles, but nobly 
refused to sacrifice them to his interests or amUtion. 

He considered Baxter's ^ Cure * as reflecting deeply on the 
disaentera ; as calculated to aggravate their sufferings, and to 
justify their enemies in the severity they were inflicting on 
them. Though nothing was farther from Baxter's thoughts 
than this, Bagshaw had too much ground for alleging the in* 
jurious tendeaoy of the book, on which he animadverted. He 
uses great freedom and plainness of speech with Baxter, and 
endeavour to show that his hard words and biting censures had 
exasperated the evil, instead of curing it. 

Baxter lost no time in replying, which he did in his ^ Defence 
of the Principles of Love, which are necessary to the unity 
md concord of Christians, and are delivered in a book called 
The Cure of Church Divisions, By Richard Baxter, one of 
the Mourners for a Self*dividing and Self«afflicting Land/ 
1671. 8vo. 

This volume is divided into two parts. After a long preface, 
comes ^^ The general part, or Introduction to the Defence of 
the Cure of Church Divisions : being a narrative of those late 
actions which have occasioned the offence of men on boU) ex- 
tremes } with the true reasons of them, and of these writings, 
which some count unseasonable $ with the true stating of the 
case of that separation, which the opposed treatise meddleth 
with ; and an answer to several great objections." Then, 
oomes the second part, or his ^ Answer to the untrue and un^ 
just exceptions of the Antidote.' 

Bagshaw had taken forty-one exceptions to Baxter's ^Curej* 
who accordingly replies to them seriatim. He addresses Bag* 
shaw as his dear brother ; but makes it his business to convict, 
him ^^ not of ndstakes,'* lest the reader should not understand 
'^ whether it be mistakes of reason or fact ;" nor will ^^ he call 
them lieSf because it is a provoking word ; therefore untruths 
must be the middle term." He endeavours to show that, in what 



600 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

he himself had written, he had been solely influenced by kk de* 
sire of peace, and his utter aversion to all needless sqparatioBi; 
and that fiagshaw had done injustice both to his principles snd 
his dispositions, as well as to his writings. Speaking of hii 
* Cure,' and of Bagshaw's Answer to it, he says, 

*^ When my ^ Cure of Church Divisions ' came out| the sober 
party of ministers were reconciled to it, especially the aneienter 
sort, and those that had seen the evils of separation ; but some 
of the London ministers, who had kept up public aasembUsii 
diought it should have been less sharp; and some thoughti 
because they were under the bishops' severities, that it wis 
unseasonable : for the truth is, most men judge by sense, and 
take that to be good or bad which they feel to do them good or 
hurt at the present. And because the people's alienation from 
the prelates, liturgy, and parish churches, did seem to make 
against the prelates, and to make for the Nonconformists' inte- 
rest, they thought it not prudent to gratify the prelates so fsr 
as to gainsay it. So they eonsidered not from whence dind* 
ing principles come, to what they tend, what a disgrace they are 
to our cause | how one of our own errors will hurt and disparage 
us more than all the cruelty of our adversaries, or that sinfol 
means is seldom blessed to do good. 

** When the book came out, the separating party, who hsd 
received before an odious character of it, did, part of them, read 
and interpret it by the spectacles and commentary of their pss- 
sions and fore-conceits : and the most of them would not read 
it at all ; but took all that they heard for granted. The hottest 
that was against it, was, Mr. Edward Bagshaw, a young man who 
had written formerly against monarchy, and afterwards virritten 
for me agiunst Bishop Morley ; and being of a resolute Roman 
spirit, was sent first to the Tower, and then laid in a horrid 
dungeon. He wrote against me a pamphlet so full of untruths 
and spleen, and so little pertinent to the cause, that I never 
met with a man who called for an answer to it; but yet the ill 
principles of it made me think that it needed an answer, which 
I wrote. But I found that party grown so tender, expecting 
little but to be applauded for their godliness, and to be flattered, 
while they expected that others should be most sharply dealt 
with; and, indeed, to be so utterly impatient of that language in 
a confutation which had any suitableness to the desert of their 
writings, that I purposed to give over all controversial writings 



OP RICHARD BAXTBR. 601 

wkh tfieih^ or any other, without great necessity ; and the rather, 
beeause my own style is apt to be guilty of too much freedom 
and sharpness in disputings/* ^ 

In answer to Baxter's ^Defence of the Principles of Love/ 
Bagshaw published ^A Defence of the Antidote/ 1671* 4to. 
Tins pamphlet I have not been able to procure ; but the object 
of it seems to have been to retaliate on Baxter, to expose some 
of his inconsistencies, and to show that he who would prevent sin 
in others, must beware of casting stumbling-blocks before them^ 
This produced from Baxter ^ A second Admonition to Mr. 
Bagshaw, written to call him to repentance for many false doc- 
tripes^ crimes, and especially fourscore palpable untruths in mat- 
tars of fact, published by him in two small libels/ 167I. 4to. 
The controversy was now become warm and personal. Baxter 
•aysy ^ Mr. Qagshaw wrote a second book against my Defence^ 
fiill of untruths, which the furious temerarious man did utter, 
out of the rashness of his mind, which made him so little heed 
what he had read, and answered, as that one would scarce think 
he bad ever read my book. I replied to him in an Admonition^ 
telling him of his mistakes." ^ 

Bagshaw met the second admonition by 'A Review ; or all Mr. 
Baxter's Calumnies confuted ;' to which Baxter finally rejoined 
in ' The Church told of Mr. Edward Bagshaw's Scandal, and 
warned of the dangerous snares of Satan now laid for them 
in his love-killing principles.* 1672. Unfortunately, both the 
church and the world had been told too much of this contro- 
versy already. Hard names and harsh censures are freely used 
by both parties, in a way which reflects no credit on either of 
them. . In referring to his last publication on this controversy, 
Baxter mentions the death of his opponent, and expresses the 
pain which he then felt. ^^ Mr. Bagshaw, in his rash and ignorant 
zeal, thinking it a sin to hear a Conformist, and that the way to 
deal with the persecutors, was, to draw all tlie people as far from 
them as he could, and not to hold any communion with any 
that did conform, having printed his third reviling libel against 
me, called for my third reply. But being printed without 
license, L'Estrange, the searcher, surprised part of it in the press, 
there being lately greater penalties laid on them that print with- 
out license than ever before. And about the day that it came 
out, Mr. Bagshaw died, a prisoner, though not in prison, which 
made it grievous to me to think that I mus( seem to write 

k Ldfe, part iii. pp. 72, 73. > Ibid. p. 85. 



003 TfUK LUTB ANP WRITI|f€S 

against the dead. While we wraogle here in the dailtf vi 
are dyiog and passing to the world that will decide all ow 
controversies. And the safest passage thither U by peaee^ 
able holiness/''' 

I cannot take lea^e of Bagshaw, notwithstanding Ihia m- 
lovely debate with Baxter, without giving from Baxter hiiosdf 
a little more of his history. ^^ After his ejection by the Act of 
Uniformity, he went over into Ireland with the Garl of Ang)ei(|» 
whose household chaplain he was, and having preached there 
sometime, and returning back, was apprehended and aent pri- 
soner to the Tower; where he continued long, till bk means wsve 
all spent ; and how he afterwarda procured breads I know i^U 
When he had been prisoner about a year, it seems ho beouN 
acquainted with Mr. Davis, who was also a prisoner in theTowsTt 
This Mr. Davis having been very serviceable in the reatoratioa 
of the king, and having laid out mueh of his estate for his sfr* 
vice, tliought he might be the bolder with his tongue and pen; 
and being of a spirit which some call undaunted, but others 
furious or indiscreet at best, did give an unmannerly liberty to 
his tongue, to accuse the court of such crimes, with such aggra* 
vations, as being a subject 1 think it not meet to name. At 
last, he talked so freely in the Tower also, that he was shipped 
away prisoner to Tangier in Africa. Mr. Bagshaw, being 6ur« 
prised by L'Estrange, and his chaml>er searched, there wss 
found with him a paper, called Mr. Davis's case. Whereupon 
he was brought out to speak to the king, who examined him of 
whom he had that paper ; but he refused to confess, and spake 
so boldly to the king, as much offended him : whereupon he wss 
sent back to the Tower, and laid in a deep, dark, dreadful dun- 
geon. When he had lain there three or four days and nights, 
without candle, fire, bed, or straw, he fell into a terrible lit, 
which the physicians thought did save his life ; for the pain was 
so vehement, that it kept him in a sweat, which cast out the 
infection of the damp. At last, by the solicitation of his bro* 
ther, who was a Conformist, and dearly loved him, he was taken 
up, and after that was sent away to Southsea Castle, an un« 
wholesome place in the sea by Portsmouth; where, if he be alive, 
he remaineth close prisoner to this day, with Vavasour Powel, a 
preacher in North Wales, and others ; speeding worse than Mr. 
Crofton, who was at last released."" 
The suflferings of Bagshaw did not terminate here. He 
- Life, part ill. p. 89. » Life, part U. pp. 378, 379. 



OV RICHARD RAXTRR. 603 

VRS ideased from thU imprisonment, which appeara to have 
boen very long ; but after returning to London, according to 
Wood, ** be fell to his old trade of conventicling and raising 
sedition^ for which, being ever and anon troubled, he had at 
length the oaths of allegiance and supremacy tendered to bim ; 
hut he, boggling at them at first, and afterwards denying to take 
them, was committed prisoner to Newgate, where he continued 
twenty- two weeks before his death." ^ This event took place 
on the 2Sth of December, 167 1 • He was buried in Bunhili-fields ; 
and, as a proof of the estimation in which he was held, his 
funeral was attended by nearly a thousand Protestant dissent** 
eis. The inscription on his monument, written by Dr. Owen, 
expresses the high opinion which he entertained of his faith, 
courage, and patience ; and the unmerited suflferings which lie 
had endured from Uhe reproaches of pretended /rUnds^* as well 
R8 the persecutions of professed adversaries.^^ I liave thought it 
right to be thus particular respecting a man who possessed no 
ordinary merit as a scholar, who was a great sufferer for con- 
acience' sake, and who ought to be known in a more advan« 
tageous character than as the controversial opponent of Richard 
Baxter. « 

* Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 944. p Nodcod. Mem. vol. iiL p. 113. 

4 lo that singular b6ok, Walter Pope's * Life of Bishop Ward/ there are 
some curious auecdotes of Ba^shaw. When Pope was proctor of tbe.Uui- 
▼ersity of Oxford» <' The godly party/' as he calU them, ** resolved to abolish 
the statute, ei^Joiaiog the wearing of caps and hoods, cryinf^ out ajpaiust them 
ai relics of Popery, aud rags of the scarlet whore. To effect this tbeir design, 
they seut an envoy to roe, to engage me to comply with them, well knowing, 
that without my concurrence, their design would prove abortive. The person 
whom they employed, was a school-fellow and intimate friend of mine, who, 
although the son of a royalist, upon some disappointment, especially a great 
ope that happened to him at Westminster, by the means of Mr. Busby, of which 
perhaps more hereafter. 1 say, upon this and other misfortunes, he became 
a Presbyterian and Commonwealth's man ; if this addition be not superfluous, 
be was a man of learning, and knew it, and very hot and zealous in his way. 
He, 1 say, came to my chamber, and told me his message, < Well,' said I 
to him, ' what have you to say against caps and hoods ?' He made a long 
(Uicourse, which I heard with patience ; and when 1 peiceived he was silent, 
< Ned,' said I to him, ' prithee go back to thy chamber, and put in writing 
•II that thou hast said, and bring it to me.' * And what will you do with it 
then ?' said he, * I will,' I replied, ' blot out the word?, caps and hoods, and 
in their places insert gowns ; will not your arguments be every whit as strong 
agaiust them as against formalities ?' ' 1 confess they will,' he answered, 
* but we are not come thither yet.' J replied, * I'd make it my endeavour 
to keep you where you are, and so we parted.' 

Pope gives a humorous account of the quarrel between Busby and Bag- 
thaw, which seems to have been as hot as that with Baxter. After the rupture, 
be says, ** He turns with a vengeance, goes over to the GeatilaS| and that h« 



6(H THB LfFB AND WRITINGS 

From this unpleasant personal controveny with Bagshaw^we 
proceed to notice Baxter's next publication, ^ Hie Tme and 
Only Way of Concord of all Christian Churches ; the Deain- 
bteness of it, and the Detection of false, dividing Terms.' 
1680. 8vo. To this volume is prefixed a prefatory letter to 
Dr. Morley, bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Gunning, bishop 
of Ely, the only Episcopal survivors with whom he had mun- 
tained the chief debates at the Savoy conference. Hie object 
of this preface, and, indeed, of the work, which was called 
forth by his controversy with Dodwell, is to state and defend 
the moderate proposals for peace and union which- ^^ere then 
made. The volume is divided into three parts. In the first, he 
assigns reasons for the desirableness and necessity of unity ; in 
the second, he discusses the terms of concord; and, in the 
third, he treats of schism. 

There are many very excellent things, in the form both of 
principle and advice, scattered over this treatise ; but there is 

might be revenged upon Mr. Busby, sacrifices to Moloch, wonhipt and adont 
the worst of men, even the judges of King Charles the First. But Mr. Basbf, 
who ploughed with the same heifers, had too much compliance, cuDDiDg,aiid 
money, to be hurt by him. Upon this, he returns to his student's place at 
Christ-church, makes me a visit, and rails so bitterly against Mr. Busby, 
that even I was forced to take his part. He remained at Oxford, propagating 
his commonwealth principlts; and when he was censor, which office in other 
colleges is called the dean, whose business it is to moderate at disputatioos, 
and give the scholars questions, he gave some in politics, and ordered the 
respondents to maintain them against monarchy and episcopacy. l*here be 
continued till the king was restored ; then some considerable friends of his, 
whom 1 knew, advised him to go into the country, and there to live peaceably 
' and conformably for the space of one year, at the end of which, they assured 
him they would procure him some considerable preferment in the church. 
Accordingly, he went and tried, but not being able to hold out so long, in a 
short time he repaired to LfOndon, seven times more embittered against eccle- 
siastical and kingly government than when he went into the country. And 
now he sides luoth and nail with the fanatics, and makes a great figure 
amongst them, exceeding most, if not all of them, in natural aud acquired 
parts. King Charles sent for him, designing to work some good upon him, 
and do him a kindness ; but he found him so obstinate and refractory, that 
he was forced to leave him to his own imaginations. He afterwards married 
a blind woman, who fell in luve with him for his preaching; after which, I 
met hint in Covent Garden, and accosted him freely. After the usual compli- 
ments passed, ' Ned,' said I to him jocularly, ' I hear thou hast married a 
blind woman, dost thou intend to beg with her ?' Upon this'I perceived hit 
countenance change, and he returned me this answer : < What's that to you; 
may I not marry whom I please ?* * Nay,' said I, * if you are pleased, I 
have no reason to be offended,' and so we parted, and I never saw him after; 
but I understood since, that he died a prisoner in a house near Newgate, 
whither he was committed for his violent opposition to the government."— 
Lif% of Seih fVard^ pp. 3«— 40, 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. '605 

a vast deal of extraneous matter, which so clouds and oppresses 
the argument, that much of its strength is destroyed. He 
defines schism to be *^ an unlawful separation from one or 
many churches; or making parties and divisions in them.'* He 
represents it as ^^ usually caused by unskilful, proud, church 
tyrants and dogmatists ; or by erroneous, proud, self-conceited 
persons/' The necessary means of unity and church concord 
he represents as these : *^ That every catechised, understanding 
person, professing repentance, belief, and consent to the bap- 
tismal covenant, |md the children of such dedicated by them to 
Christ, be baptized. And the baptized, accounted Christians, 
have right to Christian communion till their profession be 
validly disproved by an inconsistent profession or conversation ; 
that is, by some doctrine against the essence of Christianity, or 
some scandalous, wilful sin, with impenitence, after sufficient 
admonition. That no man be excommunicated that is not 
proved thus far to ^excommunicate himself: and that the cate- 
chised or examined person be put upon no other profession of 
belief, consent, and practice, as interpreting the sacramental 
covenant, but of the articles of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
and Decalogue xinderstood ; and the general belief of, consent 
to, and practice of, all that he discerneth to be the Word of 
God."' He recommends that " the magistrate have the only 
public judgment whom he shall countenance and maintain, or 
tolerate, and whom he shall punish, or not tolerate or maintain ; 
and that he never be the executioner of the clergy's sentence, 
without or against his own conscience and judgment."' In 
connexion with this, he recommends *^ the Christian magistrate 
to make three sorts of laws ; one for the approved and main- 
tained churches and pastors ; another for the tolerated ; and a 
third for the intolerable." ^ On the subject of subscription, his 
recommendation is as follows : " That the approved and main- 
tained ministers be put to subscribe their belief of, consent to, 
and resolved practice or obedience of, all the sacred canonical 
Scriptures, so far as by diligent study they are able to under- 
stand them ; and, more particularly, of the Christian religion 
summarily contained in the sacramental covenant, and in the 
ancient creeds received by the universal church, the Lord's 
Prayer and the Decalogue, as it is the law of Christ, and ex- 
pounded by him in the Holy Scriptures ; and that they will be 
faithful to the king and kingdom, and, as ministers, will faith- 

' Baxter's * Concord/ pp. 139, 140.. • Part iii.p. 140. * Ibid. 



606 THS UFB AV1> WEITIMGS 

fully guide the flocks ip holy doctrine, worship, dtactpBiie, iiii 
example of life, labouring to promote truth, bolineie, kft^ 
peace, and justice, for the salvation of men's souls, the edifiet* 
tion of the church, and the glorifying and pleasing of God um 
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. And that the said main- 
tained ministers be tried by the regulating laws which deler- 
mine only such circumstance as in genere are necessary lo h 
agreed on for uniformity and common harmony : as of tiiM| 
place, parish bounds, what translation ^f Scripture to use, wkH 
version of Psalms, what decent habit, &c., not put to profctt 
approbation of all these ) but required to use them, and tea* 
Bured if they do not." " 

Such is the substance of Baxter's views on the principal 
points. Considering what his sentiments were l e ap e cti ng 
church and state, they must be regarded as, on the wiiole^ 
enlightened and liberal* His ideas of subscription and coch 
formity were by no means rigid ; and had only auch a dcgt c e 
of liberty been allowed by the church of England, a substantiil 
uniformity would have been secured, and the best part of hsr 
clergy prevented from separating from her communion. Soeh 
a degree of laxity some would consider very dangerous to the 
church ; but they should remember that the uniformity required 
and enforced has only produced outward or nominal agreement, 
leaving the parties still widely different from each other, and in 
regard to the principles subscribed, as wide as the utmost la- 
titude of freedom could have produced. 

The next work of Baxter's isconnected with along controversy 
on the subject of this chapter, in which Dr. Owen and some of 
his brethren were implicated. It appeared in several separate 
pamphlets, published under various titles, and at last with the 
following general title : ^ Catholic Communion defended against 
both extremes ; and unnecessary Division confuted by Reasons 
against both the active and passive ways of Separation.' 4 to. 1684« 
This work is divided into five parts, consisting of ^ The dan* 
gerous Schismatic clearly detected and fully confuted ;' in which 
Dr. Owen and Independency are the chief objects of animad* 
version. The second part is ^ Against schism, and a book re- 
ported to be Mr. Raphson's,' in which the lawfulness of holding 
communion with the parish churches, is advocated by Baxter. 
The third is a * Survey of the unreasonable defence of Dr. Sdl* 

• Ba&ter'f * Concord/ pp. 141, 142. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 607 

IiQgfleet for separation, pretending to oppose it ;' in which Bax« 
ter defends himself and Mr. Humphreys against the charge of 
ioconaistency, preferred by Dr. Sherlock and his party. They 
naintained that according to Baxter's principles, *^ if it be lawful 
to hear and communicate with the church once, it is lawful to 
do it constantly ; and that if it be lawful to communicate with 
the church of England, it is unlawful to communicate with the 
Nonconformists.'^ The fourth and fifth parts include his ^ Ca* 
tbolic Communion defended and doubly defended,* as tliey had 
before been published, or ^ Reaisons of the Author's censured 
Communion with the Parish Churches ; and Reasons why Dr» 
John Owen's Twelve Arguments chaise not Richard Baxter's 
Judgment.' Another part of the same discussion he also pub'-^ 
liabed in 1684: ^Catholic Communion once more defended | 
or whether Parish Churches be true Christian Churches." 

Hu own account of this controversy is as follows : '^ Seeing 
so many in prison for this error, to the dishonour of God, and 
ao many more likely to be ruined by it, and the separating party, 
hf the temptation of suffering, had so far prevailed with the. 
most strict and zealous Christians, that a great number were of 
their mind; and the nonconformable ministers, whose judgment 
was against this separation, durst not publish their dislike of it, 
partly because of sharp and bitter censures of the Separatists, 
and partly for fear of losing all opportunity of teaching them ) 
and some that had no hope of any other friends or maintenance, 
or auditors, thought they might be silent. On all these accounts, 
I that had no gathered church, nor lived on the contribution of 
any such, and was going out of the world in pain and languor, 
did think that I was fittest to bear men's censures, and to take 
that reproach on myself, which my brethren were less fit to bear, 
who might live for further service. So at the importunity of 
the bookseller, I consented to publish the reasons of my com* 
municating in the parish churches, and against separation. 
Which, when it was coming out, a manuscript of Dr. Owen's,* 
who was lately dead, containing twelve arguments against such 
joining with the liturgy and public churches, was sent me, as 
that which had satisfied multitudes : I thought, that if this were 
mianswered, my labour would be much lost, because that party 

* Tbe title of Owen'i tract, here referred to, is ' An Answer to T\iro Ques- 
tlon»» with Twelve Arj^uments against any Conformity to Worship, not of Di- 
rine Institution.' It appeam to have been writteti by Owen ftr tbe use of 
tome friend, and by him to have been printed. 



608 THB LirB AND WRITINGS 

would still say, Dr. Owen's twelve ailments confuted all: 
whereupon, I hastily answered them, but found after, that it hid 
been more prudent to have omitted his name. For, on that 
account, a swarm of revilers in the city poured out their keenest 
censures, and three or four wrote against me, whom I answered. 
I will not name the men that are known, and two of them aie 
yet unknown ; but they went on several principles, some charged 
all communion with the liturgy, with idolatry, anti-Christiaiiity, 
perjury, and backsliding. One concealed his judgment^ and 
quarrelled at my words. Ahother turned my treatise of Episco- 
pucy against me, and said it fully proved the duty of separation. 
I was glad that I was hereby called to explain that treatise, 
lest it should do hurt to mistakers when I am dead ; and 
that as in it I had said much against one extreme, I might leave 
my testimony against the other. I called all these writings to- 
gether, ^ A Defence of Catholic Communion/ And that I might 
be impartial, 1 adjoined two pieces against Dr. Sherlock, who ran 
quite into the contrary extremes, unchurching all Christians as 
schismatics. I confess I wrote so sharply against him^ as roust 
needs be liable to blame, with those that know not the man, and 
his former and latter virulent and ignorant writings." ^ 

This is tlie most entangled of all the controversies in which 
Baxter engaged; as the titles of the same pamphlets vary in a 
way that makes it difficult to represent them correctly. To 
follow out the discussion, or to give a succinct account of it, 
would be useless and impracticable. The fact is simply this: 
Baxter was completely entangled between the church and 
the Independents, and the consistency of his principles and 
conduct was attacked by both parties. This he had himself 
provoked by various of his publications. He had, therefore, to 
defend his defences of the church, and his own separation from 
it; and to vindicate his defences of nonconformity, with the feet 
of his personal and stated conformity. His arguments often 
proved too much, if they proved any thing, and hence he 
became involved in 'difficulties from which, with all his acuteness 
and subtlety, it was impossible to extricate himself. It was 
thus, to adopt his own expressive language, " he made a wedge of 
his bare hand, by putting it into the cleft, and both sides closing 
upon it to his pain." " I have turned both parties," he says, 
" which I endeavoured to part in the fray, against mpelf. WTicn 
each side had but one adversary, I had two."' 

r Life, part iii. pp. 198, 199. • Cure of Church Dir. p. HI. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 609 

I 

While this unprofitable controversy went on, Dr. Owen, who 
had some share in it, or rather had been dragged into it, took 
his departure for a better world, where all is love and unity. 
In an appendix to his * Reasons why Owen's Twelve Arguments * 
do not satisfy him, Baxter speaks of his character and talents in 
the most honourable terms, and supposes that if Owen had been 
permitted to address the disputers from his heavenly rest, it 
would be to this purpose : — 

" Though all believers must be holy, and avoid all known 
wilful sin, they must not avoid one another, or their communion 
in good, because of adherent faults and imperfections ; for Christ, 
who is most holy, receiveth persons and worship that are faulty, 
else none of us should be received. There is greatest goodness 
where there is greatest love and unity of spirit, maintained in 
the bond of peace. O call not to God to deny you mercy, by 
being unmerciful ; nor to cast you all out by casting off one 
another. O separate not from all Christ's church on earth, lest 
you separate from him, or displease him. God hath bid you 
pray, but not told you whether it shall be oft in the same words, 
or in other; with a book or without a book. Make not super- 
stitiously a religion by pretending that God hath determined 
such circumstances. O do not preach and write down love and 
communion of saints, on pretence that your little modes and 
ways only are good, and theirs idolatrous or intolerable ; and do 
not slander and excommunicate all, or almost all, Christ's body, 
and then wrong God by fathering this upon him. You pray, 
* Thy will be done on earth as it .is done in heaven ; ' why, 
here is no strife, division, disunion, animosity, sects, or factions, 
nor separating from, or excommunicating, one another. Learn 
of Christ,' and separate from none further than they separate 
from him, and receive all that he receiveth. While you blame 
canonical dividers and unjust excommunicators, do not you 
renounce communion with tenfold more than they. I was, in 
this, of too narrow, mistaken principles ; and, in the time of 
temptation I did not foresee to what church confusion and 
desolation, hatred and ruin, the dividing practices of some 
did tend ; but the glorious unity, in heavenly perfection of love 
to God and one another, bids me beseech you to avoid all that 
is against it, and to make use of no mistakes of mine to cherish 
any such offences, or to oppose the motions of love, unity, and 
peace." 

VOL. I. u R 



610 THB LIY£ AND WRITINGS 

Owen's * Twelve Arguments/ which Baxter took up so warmly^ 
even after his death, do not appear to have been intended br 
the press hy him. They were handed about in manuscript, and 
printed by some one when Owen was no longer capable of ex- 
plaining or defending himself. The defence of the doctor wii 
taken up very warmly by some of his friends. One writeri b 
the character of a vindicator, brought out two pamphlets : the 
former entitled * A Vindication of the late Dr. Owen/ to wWd 
Baxter replies in his ^ Catholic Communion Doubly Defended.' 
To this the writer rejoined in his ^ Vindiciae Revindicate ; 
being an answer to Mr. Baxter's Book ; and Mr. Baxter's no- 
tions of the Saint's Repentance and Displeasure in Hei?eB 
considered.' 1684. 4to. Tlie titles of several other of the 
pamphlets written in defence of Owen, I have given in the note 
below.* 

^ 

About this same time, and evidently to sid him in the same 
cause, Baxter published, * The Judgment of Sir Matthew Hale: ^ 
of the Nature of true Religion, the Causes of its ComiptioOy 
and the Church's Calamity, by Men's Additions and Violence, 
with the Desired Cure.' 1684. 4to. The manuscript of the 
three discourses contained in this publication, had been given by 
Judge Hale to Baxter, who, after entertaining some doubts as 
to the propriety of publishing them, was at last, by the advice of 
his friends, induced to bring them out. They are not long, and 
hence do not enter very deeply into the important subjects of 
which they treat ; but they afford a fine illustration of the wis- 
dom and moderation of their author, and show that, were all 
religious men like Sir Matthew Hale, there would be no oppres- 

* ' A Theological Dialogue, containing the Defence and Juitification of Dr. 
J. Owen from Foity-two Errors, charged upon him by Mr. Richard Baxter, ia 
a certain MS. about Communion in Liturgical Worship.' 1684. 4to, — * The 
Second Part of the Theological Dialogue ; being a Reply to Mr. Ricbaid 
Baxter.' 1684. 4to. Both the above are ascribed to John Faldo,— < Bellar- 
minus Junior Euervatus ; or, the InsufTicieocy of Mr. Richard Baxter's An- 
swer to Dr. Owen's Twelve Arguments about Divine Worship detected,' Ac 
1684. 4to. This is inscribed to Mr. Stephen Lobb.— * The Winding-Sheet for 
Mr. Baxter's Dead, &c. ; with Twelve Queries concerning Separation, whereia 
the Reverend and Learned Dr. Owen is further Vindicated.' This is ascribed 
to Mr. Morgan Lloyd, of Wrexham. — * Vindication of Dr. Owen, by a Friendly 
Scrutiny into the manner of Mr. Baxter's Opposition to Twelve Arguments 
concerning Worship by the Liturgy.' 1684. 4to. * Insufficiency of Mr* Bai* 
ter's Answer to Dr. Owen's Twelve Arguments,' &c. 1684. 4to. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER* 611 

Am on the one part, or unnecessary quarrels on the other ; so 
that peace and love would prevail. 

Baxter's ^ sense of the subscribed articles of the church of 
En^and/ has already, in the last chapter of the first part of 
this work, been fully brought before the reader. I have also 
adverted to the union or agreement formed jbetween the Pres- 
byterians and Independents in 1691 ; and to the satisfaction 
which it appears to have afforded Baxter. Though then in 
the last stage of his mortal career, he published, with reference 
to it, 'Church Concord: containing a dissuasive from unne- 
cessary divisions and separations ; the real concord of the mo- 
derate Independents with the Presbyterians instanced in ten 
aeeming differences; with the terms necessary for concord 
among all true churches and Christians.' 1691. 4to. 

Among the last of Baxter's writings, there yet remains an- 
other treatise which belongs to the subject of this chapter. 
'Of National Churches ; their description, institution, use, pre- 
•ervation, danger, maladies, and cure.' 1691. 4to. In this 
pamphlet he endeavours to prove that national churches are 
of Christ's institution ; but when he comes to explain him- 
aelf, the national church which he approves, is such as the 
world has never yet seen, nor is likely soon to see, unless more 
extraordinary changes take place than have yet occurred in the 
histcMry of our planet. What will be the duty of Christians, 
when kings and rulers, with their subjects, shall in general be 
influenced by Christian principles,' and under the direction of 
scriptural laws, it will be time enough to discuss when these 
things shall take place. 

Baxter continued to look forward to some such mighty and 
glorious change ; which induces me to place here, though not 
in the order in which the book occurred, his * Moral Prognosti- 
cation : First, Wliat shall befall the Churches on Earth, till their 
Concord, by the Restitution of their Primitive Purity, Simplicity, 
and Charity. Secondly, How that Restitution is likely to be 
made, if ever, and what shall befall them thenceforth unto the 
end, in that golden age of love.' ^ 

This tract was written in 1661, but not published till 1680. 
Had it been produced immediately before his death, it might 
have been regarded as insinuating something of a claim to pro-. 

* WorkSy voL xv. 

rr2 



612 THB LIFB AND WAITINGS 

phctic foresight. Baxter, however, professed to be no prophet; 
but reasoning on certain principles, he considerfed hiouelf jttrti- 
fied in anticipating specific results. He professes great confi- 
dence, that God would in due time raise up some wise and 
spiritual king, who should discern the best method of promotiiig 
peace and union among all parties, and who should be emmendy 
instrumental in advancing the interests of religion among mn. 
It is not for us to say what will be ; but jud^ng from the put 
course of the divine proceedings, and the genius of Christianityi 
it is not likely that die kings of the earth are ever destined to be 
the great means of promoting and establishing the spiritnal 
glory of the kingdom of Christ. 

Having concluded the historical account of the numeroiB 
writings of our author, on the subject of catholic communion, it 
may now be necessary to state in a few words, what his senti- 
ments on church government and communion, divested of all 
controversy, really were. As nearly as I can ascertain^ I should 
judge they were as follows : 

He held the necessity of muntaining social and church fdlow^ 
ship with all, who, in the judgment of charity, ought to be re- 
garded as real Christians; but disapproved of holding com- 
munion with those who ought not to be so considered. He ap- 
proved of a civil establishment of Christianity, and of the mainte- 
nance of the ministers by national funds ; but it was only such 
an establishment as should leave the ministers unfettered and 
unembarrassed in their work ; and which should neither too 
severely enforce the payment of tithes, nor much restrfun any 
who dissented from it. He was opposed to tests and covenants 
of human framing, unless of the most general nature. He did 
not object to a moderate kind of episcopacy, which amounted, 
in fact, rather to a voluntary submission of the ministers 
of a district, to a constant but limited presidency^ on the 
part of some one individual, on account of his age or some 
superior qualifications. While he contended for ministerial 
authority, he recognised the rights of a Christian congrega- 
tion to choose its own pastor, and also to a certain share in the 
discipline of the church. He did not object to a liturgy, but to 
many parts of that used in the church. He also objected to 
the enforcement of it on any, and to strict adherence to it on 
all occasions. In short, he considered a Christian church to be 
an association of spiritual persons for their own good and the 



OP aiCHARD BAXTER. 613 

good of others ; which ought to be aided and countenanced by 
the civil magistracy professing Christianity ; but which should 
not be deprived of its own inherent and independent right to 
, manage its own affairs, and to adapt its proceedings to its pecu- 
liar case and circumstances. Various. other things were either 
contended for or objected to by him ; but these positions may 
be considered as enibracing the substance of the sentiments he 
advocated in his numerous writings for peace and love. 

It is not my business to point out the defects or inconsis- 
tencies of his system or his practice, but to call the attention 
of the reader to what it really was. He lived during a period 
when much warmth and keenness were manifested on all the 
points, which we have brought under review. He had to 
feel, or rather to iight his way on every point. There were 
few to assist bim in the peculiar course he had marked out for 
himself, and, therefore, all due allowance must be made for the 
mistakes into which he fell. 

With all his faults and imperfections, he was a man of a truly 
catholic spirit, who laboured hard to heal the wounds that 
had been inflicted on the church by various means, and for 
which there seemed to be no cure. He acted as a pioneer, 
preparing the way for clearer statements than his own, and for 
a more correct system than has yet been generally adopted. 
His catholic principle of fellowship with all genuine Christians, 
is better understood than it was ; though even yet, alas ! but 
partially adopted as a principle, and still more imperfectly 
exemplified in practice. It implies not indifference to truth, 
but devoted attachment to it. It involves union without com- 
promise, and co-operation without sacrifice of consistency. It 
recognises the exclusive claims of divine authority in religion, 
and the unquestionable rights of cpnscience ; securing for each 
individual the power of acting according to his own convictions, 
while it requires him to concede no less to others. It will ulti- 
mately effect what acts of uniformity have hitherto failed to 
produce, and which will never be brought about either by com- 
pulsory measures of state, or stormy controversies in the church. 
A greater portion of the spirit of Christ, and a brighter mani- 
festation of his holy image, will do more to unite all his disciples, 
than the most perfect theory of church government that has 
yet been recommended, or forced on the world. When this 
blessed period of love and union shall arrive, the services of 
Baxter as the indefatigable advocate of catholic communion 
will not be forgotten. 



614 THV LIFB AND WRITINGS 



CHAPTER VH. 



WORKS ON NONCONFORMITY, 

lutroductory Observations on the History of Nonconformity—' The Noncon- 
formist Papers'— Never answered—* Sacrilegious Desertion uf the Ministry* 
— <The Judgment of Nonconformists of the Office of Reason in Matters of 
Religion '— ' Of the Difference between Grace and Morality ' — * AbootThmgs 
J uditferent *—* About things Sinful *— * What Mere Nonconformity U not '— 
•Nonconformisfs Plea for Peace*— Second Part of Ditto— Defence of Ditto- 
Correspondence with TilloUon— < Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet'--^< Second De- 
fence of the Mere Nonconformist' — * Search for the English Schismatic'— 
« Treatise of Episcopacy'— * Third Defence of the Cause of Peace •— * Apology 
for the Nonconformists' Ministry' — < English Nonconformity' — Conclusiom 

The distinction which I have made between the works of Bax- 
ter on Catholic Communion and Church Government, and those 
on the Nonconformist controversy, may appear to some merely 
a refinement, and that the publications thus distinguished, belong 
all to one class. Attention to the nature of many of these works, 
however, will show that this is not correct, The subjects, it is 
true, do frequently shade into each other ; but they are sub- 
stantially distinct. Many of the publications on church go- 
vernment might have been written, though the question of non- 
conformity had never been agitated ; while that question, on 
the other hand, involved many points, which are altogether 
independent of particular views of church polity. The distinc- 
tion will, at all events, be convenient, as it enables us to separate 
the voluminous writings of our author on subjects very closely 
connected, but which, if treated under one head, would have 
been tiresome both to the writer and to the reader. 

Nonconformity is a relative term. It supposes some pre- 
viously existing system of observances, established either by 
political authority, or general consent ; and denotes a practical 
secession on grouwd^ eoxv^^Vs^d ^ the parties to require and 



oy RICHAA0 BAXTBH. 6 IS 

Jttttify it. Like the term Protestantism, it is general and com- 
prehensiire. It applies to various grounds of secession from the 
national religion^ and includes different systems of ecclesiastical 
polity. No wise man would choose to differ from those around 
him, in reference to matters either civil or religious, unless in 
his own estimation he had good reasons for that difference ; 
and in such cases it is the obvious dictate of duty. to investigate 
the questions at issue, with calmness and deliberation ; that 
conviction and not caprice^ principle and not passion^ may 
regulate the inquiry, and form the decision*^ 

The Nonconformist controversy is a very unattractive subject 
to many persons. They regard it as a debate about words, and 
names, and questions, which gender strife, rather than godly 
edifying. Assuming either that there is no authority or stand* 
ard in such matters, or that the authority of certain ecclesias* 
tical superiors ought to be' submitted to without murmuring or 
disputing, they pronounce their disapprobation on all discussions 
of such subjects, and on the parties who engage in them. High 
churchmen are offended that the doctrine of conformity should 
be called in question at all. Tliose who profess high spiri- 
tuality, look on the subject as unworthy of their regard, and 
as only fit for such as mind the carnal things of the kingdom 
of God. Dissenters, as well as others, frequently talk of it as 
being among nonessential matters, and scarcely deseiVing of pro- 
found consideration, and while they luxuriate in the privileges 
which their forefathers purchased for them at so dear a rate, 
almost pity and condemn the measures which procured them. 

Without professing that the highest consideration attaches to 
the Nonconformist controversy, or approving of all the views 
or conduct of the early Nonconformists, I can by no means 
regard the subject as one of small importance. In a life of 
Baxter, it is necessarily a prominent subject, and no apology 
can be requisite for treating it fully in an account of one who 
was the most moderate of all the Nonconformists, while he 
wrote in defence of his brethren and their cause, more than they 
all. But, independently of its connexion with Baxter, the sub- 
ject has strong claims to dispassionate and careful examination. 

It is impossible for any one to form a correct view of English 
history for nearly three hundred years, without an acquaintance 
with this controversy, and with the characters and principles of 

' See a very able Sermon on Nonconform ity, by the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, 



616 THB LIFB AND WRITIMm 

the men who engaged in it. It is almost co»eval with the 
English Reformation; and the great questioiiB then started 
cannot be considered as yet finally determined. The Pttritans 
under the Tudors, became Nonconformists under the Stiiait% 
and Dissenters under the family of Hanover. They have beet 
men of the same principles substantially throughout. In main- 
taining the rights of conscience^ they have contributed man 
than any other class of persons to set limits to the power of the 
crown, to define the rights of subjects, and to secure the libentieB 
of Britain. They have wrested a rod of iron from the hand of 
despotism, and substituted in its place a sceptre of ri^teMSoeH 
and mercy. They have converted the divine right of Ungs 
into the principles of a constitutional government^ in which 
the privileges of the subject are secured by the same charter 
which guards the throne. The history of the principles of sach 
a body ought not, therefore, to be regarded as unimportant by 
any friends of British freedom. 

The Nonconformist controversy contributed greatly to as* 
certain the distinct provinces of divine and human legislatioD; 
to establish the paramount and exclusive authority of God, and 
of the revelation of his will, over the conscience of man ; and 
to define the undoubted claims of civil government to the 
obedience of its subjects in all matters purely civil. It is 
not alleged that all, or even the majority of the Noncon- 
formists, clearly understood the doctrine of religious liberty. 
But they, and the Puritans who preceded them, were men of 
conscience themselves, who could not submit to human dictatioo 
when it interfered with what they believed God required ; so 
that, though they did not perceive the full bearings of their 
own principles, and sometimes acted and wrote inconsistently 
with them, they remonstrated, resisted, and suffered, when 
kings and bishops commanded them to fall down and worship 
the idols which they had set up. From this contest and 
struggle truth derived great advantage. The untenable and 
unrighteous exactions of authority were exposed, the supreme 
authority of the Scriptures maintained, and the rights of con- 
science at last established. The mist and darkness which had 
so long covered one of the first and greatest principles of 
legislation, were gradually cleared away, and in due rime that 
principle stood forth before the world, as no longer to be dis- 
puted — that man is accountable to God only, for all that he 
believes as truth, for all that he offers as worship^ and for all 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 617 

that he practises as religion, lliis is the doctrine of the Bible, 
the dictate of enlightened reason ; and lies at the foundation of 
all correct and acceptable obedience to God. 
« To the same controversy we are indebted for the origin 
of the correct and scriptural sentiments which are now ex- 
tensively entertained respecting the unsecular nature of the 
kingdom of Christ. The intermixture of heavenly and earthly 
things does indeed still prevail, and its pernicious tendency 
18 yet imperfectly estimated by many ; but considerable pro* 
gress has been made towards the full discovery of the entire 
spirituality of Messiah's kingdom. Its independence of secular 
support and defence, its resources both of propagation and main- 
tenance, its uncongeniality with the principles, spirit, and 
practices of earth-born men, are now much more generally ad- 
mitted than they once were. In fact, the ablest defenders of 
ecclesiastico-civil establishments, have now entirely abandoned 
the doctrine of divine right, and boldly avow that they are no 
part of Christianity, but only a human expedient for its propa- 
gation. Many of the Nonconformists, and Baxter in particular, 
were sticklers for an establishment. They did not clearly under- 
stand what was involved in their own principles ; but in main- ■ 
,taining a warfare against the introduction of ungodly men 
into the ministry, and the neglect of ecclesiastical discipline ; 
and in contending for the rights of the church, independently of 
the will of the civil magistrate, they prepared the way fqr better 
and clearer views than those which they themselves maintained. 
^ With this controversy too, there was often incorporated the 
defence or the assertion of some of the most important doc- 
trines of the Gospel. 'These the adversaries of the Noncon- 
formists in general very imperfectly understood^ Indeed, 
enmity to salvation by grace, to justification by faith, election, 
perseverance, with their collateral truths, was often at the root 
of the opposition and persecution which had to be endured. 
There were doctrinal Puritans and Nonconformists, who would 
not have scrupled at most of the forms of the church, but who 
regarded its leaders as among the most deadly enemies to those 
great essential truths which intimately belong to the salvation 
of men. 

ITiere have been High Church and Low Church, which are 
only different expressions for Puritan and Anti-Puritan, Con- 
formist and Nonconformist, ever since the Reformation. In 
the reign of Edward, Cranmer and Ridley headed the one class. 



618 Till Lira AM WfttTtttU 

Rogers and Hooper the other. Thouith ftll ftHir died It Ol 
stake for the comniioti faith, the two last had attflhrM mtuAj 
from the two former, on account of thetr oppoaitim Id tfMlil 
imposed rites and ceremonies. In the dajrs of Marj^ hslk 
parties fled into foreign countries for security. Bat| ftVea wisa 
in exile, the former stiffly adhered to the ceremonies which thqr 
had endeavoured to impose when at home, while the ktttfk 
availing themselves of the privilege of strangers^ as Msolilttif 
refused to submit to them. This created no small dlsseniina 
between the parties while abroad. On their return, after dH 
advancement of Elizabeth to the throne, each hoped to <Miy 
their point. Those who were zealous for rites atid iM^ 
however, gained the queen's favour; their views beitig itiore ia 
unison with her arbitrary disposition, and her love of pomp» ia 
religious as well as ia civil matters. But although the cither paT^ 
were disappointed, they were not entirely thrown out. As thsie 
was a great deficiency of properly qualified persons to occupy 
the pulpits and principal places in the establishment, many eif 
those who vrere known to be opposed to some of its ritual, Wilt 
allowed to oiBciate in the churches, and their noncomplianci^ 
with parts of the rubric, was connived at. Some of them wete 
also raised to dignified offices. In the course of her reigd, 
however, the bonds were gradually drawn tighter and tighter, 
and very^ severe sufferings came to be inflicted on a body of 
excellent and conscientious men. 

What is staid of the Israelites in Egypt, may be said with jus^ 
tice of the Puritans,-^the more they were afflicted, the mem 
they multiplied and grew, llie severities they experienced only 
, increased their resolution to submit to no human impositions ia 
religion, to resist encroachments on conscience, and added to 
their influence among those who respected men suffering for 
conscience' sake. Nothing but the energy and vigilance of 
Elizabeth's government prevented very serious disturbances ia 
the countrv from these causes. Parliament would more than 
once have given relief, but was prevented from doing so, bf 
the archbishop, and his influence over the queen. In her last 
days, when the nation was beginning to worship the rishig 
sun, some abatement took place ; but still the conflict went oa. 

A vigorous attempt was made by the Puritans, at the begin- 
ning of James's reign, to accomplish a further reformation of 
the church, and to secure libertv for those who conscientiomlv 
scrupled to observe some of its rites, though they wished still lo 



OF RICHARD BAXTSR. 619 

fcnudii wtthin its pale. James's hatred of Presbyterianistn, 
which he transported across the Tweed, defeated this project. 
The canons formed by the convocation, under his direction, 
increased instead of mitigating the evils under which the Puri- 
tans groaned ; and during the whole of his reign, and that of 
his unfortunate son and successor, matters gradually grew worse 
and worse, till they linally came to a grand crisis. 

The pontificate of Laud was a great means of accelerating 
that conflict, in which he lost his head. ITic conforming Pu- 
ritans were in his time severely dealt with. If they did not 
bow to the altar, would not read the book of sports, or were 
guilty of the crime of holding lecturer, or of preaching twice on 
the Lord's-day, it was enough to bring them before the high- 
commission court, and subject them to all its oppressive and 
iniquitous censures. The consequences were, that multitudes 
of the ablest ministers, and of the best of the people, left their 
native country, and fled for an asylum to the wilds and deserts of 
America. At last, oppression brought the country to desperation, 
and in the struggle which ensued, both the church and the mon- 
archy were wrecked. 

There was religious peace, but not general satisfaction, dur* 
ing the Protectorate. The friends of the fallen church were 
still numerous ; the lovers of form and ceremony in religion 
were not few, though they were silent and sullen. The opponents 
of the hierarchy were divided among themselves ; the largest 
fragment, the Presbyterian, opposed themselves to all the secta- 
ries, were enamoured with an established church, and not as a 
body inimical to a certain species of episcopal government. 

When Charles II. was restored, the episcopal establishment, 
as a matter of course, was reinstated in all its rights and privi- 
leges ; and the body of the ministers who were attached to a 
•impler, and what they regarded a more scriptural form of 
religion, were driven away. The vast majority of these persons 
did not decidedly object to a modified episcopacy — to a litur- 
gical form of worship, and to the use of various rites, provided 
they were not absolutely imposed on their consciences as mat- 
ters of faith and scriptural practice. They were mostly believers 
in the lawfulness of a civil establishment of Christianity, and 
consequently were not dissenters from the church ; they only 
objected to certain things belonging to, or imposed by it. 

These observations, with the history of the events of Baxter's 
life, in the former part of this work, w\\\ eu^A^W \.Vi^ \^^^&t \.^ 



620 THfi LIFE ^ND WBITING8 

.understand the nature of his writings on- the subject of Nob- 
conformity. Their great objects were^ to state the evils of 
which he and his friends complained, as belonging to the epis- 
copal system established in this country ; to assign the grounds 
of their conscientious objections to that system; to explain 
what alterations would satisfy them, and the reasonableness of 
demanding those alterations ; and to defend himself and brethren 
from many charges falsely or ignorantly preferred against them. 
It would be an almost endless, and certainly a useless task, to 
analyse all these works, or minutely to enter into their diversified 
contents ; but I shall endeavour to convey to the reader some 
idea of their nature, and of the controversies which they in- 
volved, or of which they formed, a part. 

The first of these works, which deserves our attention, though 
not entirely Baxter*s production, nor bearing his name, is the col- 
lection of papers which passed between the commissioners at 
the Savoy, in 1661. Of that debate, a full account has been 
given in the former part of this work. We have now to do 
only with the publication, and with the part which Baxter had 
in it. 

It appeared in 1661, with the following title : ^ An account 
of all the proceedings of the commissioners of both persuasions, 
appointed by his sacred majesty, according to letters patent for 
the review of the Book of Common Prayer,' &c. 4to. 

On the first appearance of this volume, which had no name 
attached to it, it was at once imputed to Baxter, though he was 
then a hundred miles oiF, and knew nothing at all about it 
It contained only some of the documents, and these very inac- 
curately printed. The rest followed afterwards. Baxter sup- 
posed they were published by a poor' man, whom he paid for 
writing a copy of the papers. The complete collection consists 
of the following documents : I. Two papers of proposals con- 
cerning the discipline and ceremonies of the church of England, 
presented to King Charles II. by the Presbyterian ministers. 
2. Their petition for peace to the bishops. 3. llieir reforma- 
tion of the liturgy. 4. An account of the proceedings of the 
commissioners on both sides for reviewing the Book of Common 
Prayer; with the king's commission prefixed. 5. The excep- 
tions of the Presbyterians against the liturgy. 6. The papers 
which passed between the commissioners, in which the matter 
is argued pro aud con* 1 . k Xxxxfc ^ioyj qH x3ci^ dv&^utation at 



OF. RitHARD BAXTER. 621 

the Savoy, as managed by the episcopal divines, to prove that 
there is nothing sinful in the liturgy. 8. An account of the 
debate and petition to the king, by the Presbyterian ministers 
who were appointed commissioners. 9. Archbishop Usher's 
redaction of episcopacy to the form of synodical government, 
and another paper. ^x Of these documents, Baxter was the 
exclusive author of Nos. 2 and 3, besides having a principal 
hand in most of the others. In his own Life, the greater num- 
ber of these documents are published, with a very full account 
of all that took place at the conference. Those who would be 
masters of the Nonconformist controversy, must study these 
papers, especially keeping in eye Usher's model, to which the 
moderate Presbyterians constantly referred as that which would 
satisfy them. 

" Their publication,'' says Baxter,-" had various effects; it 
increased the burning indignation which before was kindled 
against me on one side, and it somewhat mitigated the censures 
that were taken up against me on the other side* For the 
ehief of the Congregational or Independent party, took it ill 
that we took not them with us in our treaty, and so did a few 
of the Presbyterian divines, all whom we so far passed by as 
not to invite them to our councils ; partly because we knew that 
it would be but a hinderance to us ; partly because their per- 
sons were unacceptable ; and partly because it might have de- 
layed the work. Most of the Independents, and some few Pres- 
byterians, raised it as a common censure against us, that if we 
had not been so forward to meet the bishops with the offers of so 
much at first, and to enter into a treaty with them without just 
cause, we had all had better terms, and that standing off would 
have done more good : so that though my person and intentions 
had a more favourable censure from them than some others, yet 
for the action, I was commonly censured by them, as one that 
had granted them too much, and wronged my brethren by 
entering into this treaty, out of too earnest a desire of concord 
with them. Thus were men on both extremes offended with 
me ; and I found what enmity, charity, and peace, are likely to 
meet with in the world. But when these papers were printed, 
the Independents confessed that we had dealt faithfully and sa- 
tisfactorily : and indifferent men said that reason had over- 

* Theie documents were all printed together in an 8 vo volume, in 1701. 
The title is — < The History of Nonconforpiiity, as it was argued and stated by 
CommissioDers on both sides, in 1G()1.' 



THB uw% AND trmiTiifa 

whelmed the cause of the dioeeiaiiei and that we hadaAni 
them so much as left them utteriy without eoKUse. Thi 
moderate episcopal men said the same ; but the cqgaged IVs- 
latists were vehemently displnsedy that these papen dmii 
thus come abroad." * 

The Episcopalians threatened, on the ap p e al an cc of Iks 
papers, to answer them ; but no regular or fonnal anawcr citr 
appeared. Roger UEstrange often sneered at theos. Aa sea- 
nymous writer, suppoeed to be Bishop Womack, nfernd to 
one of the papers ; and Sir Hemy Yelverloii, in aaotWr aaouy* 
mous pamphlet, written in defence of Bishop Moiiej, alMsi 
to them. These, howerer, deserve not to be regarded as «h 
swers. If the church had been in a state ot saflieriiig afiier dN 
Savoy conference, replies would have been produced in ahoK 
dance ; but as die was in full possession of power, ikwaatbaoght 
the wisest course to reply to the NonconfiinDiats in arts ef 
parliament, rather than in pamphlets. 

The times did not admit of Baxtet puUishiog any thing after 
the Savoy conference, on the subject of Nonconformity, di 
1672, when he brought out a small 12mo volume, entitled *Sa- 
crilegious Desertion of the Holy Ministry Rebuked, and To- 
lerated Preaching of the Crospel Vindicated*' This work ap- 
peared anonymously, and was intended as an answer to a book 
entitled ^ Toleration not to be Abused,' which also was wichoot 
a name, but is ascribed by Bsxter to Dr. Fullwood ; who appcsis 
to have grudged the temporary liberty which his brethren tka 
enjoyed, or to have been gteatly afraid of the abuse of liberCyi 
Baxter argues very justly, that as the Nonconformists had been 
ordained to the ministry, if Uiey could not obtain a legii right 
or establishment, it was their duty to preach when they west 
merely tolerated, and that desertion of the work would be bodi 
pusillanimous and sinful. '^ Dr. Fullwood,*' he tells us, *^ wroDr 
a jocular, deriding answer to this treatise ; and also printed sa 
assize sermon against separating from the parish ministers^ 
Divers called on me to reply to the first; but I told them I had 
better work to do than to answer every script against me; and 
while I demurred, Dr. Fullwood sent me an extraordinary kmd 

• Life, pan ii. pp. 378, 380. The most complete collection of the pepenb 
to be foond io Baxter's own Life, as none had copies of several of tbeoi thiit 
published but himself As documents, tl^ysfibrdimportsntiUuatralioasflhi 
principles sod temper of both partiu. 



« 

OF RICHARD BAXTIR. 62S 

letter, offering to do his best to the Pariiament for our union 
imd restoration, which ended my thoughts of that ; but I know 
not anything to the purpose done."' 

At the end of this little work there is a chapter containing an 
humble petition to the Conformists, in which Baxter expostulates 
with them in the most affectionate and solemn mi^finer; implor- 
ing them not to take offence, because their brethren who se- 
ceded from the church, could not entirely agree with them ; 
dStclaiming all hostility, and only entreating for himself and 
others, liberty to act according to their consciences, in doing 
what they regarded as the will of God. 

An answer was published to this book, somewhat correspond- 
iiig to the character given of FuUwood's performance, entitled 
^Speculum Baxterianum, or Baxter against Baxter; being 
Beflections on a Treatise,' &c. ; but as it did not appear till 
1680, I suppose it is not the pamphlet to which Baxter here 
tefers. It consists chiefly of quotations from the numerous 
publicadons of Baxter, in which he appears, or is made, to con* 
tradict himself. Nothing could be easier than this. '^Who 
the author of the ' Speculum ' is,'' says Baxter, *^ I know not, 
the subject calleth me to no particular answer. He mistook 
the question, as if it had been what the world should think of 
me. In which I leave them to their liberty without much con- 
tradiction." s 

III 1676, he printed a pamphlet on the * Judgment of Non« 
conformists, concerning the part or office of reason in religion,' 
which, he says, had good acceptance, having been published 
with the consent of many ministers. Encouraged by this, in 
the same year, he printed together four treatises, * The Judg- 
ment of the Nonconformists about the difference between grace 
and morality;' ^ Their Judgment of things indifferent com- 
manded by authority ;' ^ Their Judgment of things sinful by ac- 
cident;' and ^What Mere Nonconformity is not.' Some of 
these treatises were written in 1668, and some of them shortly 
after ; but his prudent friends persi^aded him to lay them aside 
as unsuitable to the state and temper of the times. The first 
of them is intended to obviate some objections raised against 
the Nonconformists, as if they differed from others, not merely 
on the subject of Conformity, but on that of religion generally, 

' Life, partiii. p. 102. f Prdac« to th« < Third Deisnct of Psact.* 



624 TH£ LIFE AND tlTRITINGS 

and held some strange notions about grace and morality. The 
second relates to the question which was started at the Ssnj 
conference, and which led to so much debating afterwBidi: 
^ Whether things antecedently lawful, do therefore become vh 
lawful, because commanded by lawful authority/ This it 
was maintained the Nonconformists affirmed, but which Baxtn 
denies. It is easy to perceive, that it is a very ensnaring qoei- 
tion viewed abstractly, and that much must depend on the 
use which the parties would be disposed to make of the ansvicr, 
whether in the affirmative or the negative. Tlie third treaOM^ 
* Of things sinful by accident,' arose out of the same tonfcr- 
ence; and is designed to show, that things in themseWa 
la^vful, may become sinful by the accidental circumstances to 
which they happen sometimes to be related. For exampki 
there may be nothing sinful in the Book of Common Prayer; 
but if men are required to use it as an act of submismi 
to hufnan authority, and for improper reasons assigned bf 
it; and if the use of it is understood to be an acknow- 
ledgment of that authority, or of the justice of the reasons 
which it assigns, it becomes then absolutely unlawful to eroy 
man, who conscientiously objects to the authority enjoining it 
Much of the Nonconformist controversy hangs on this question; 
which, would not seem to be of very difficult solution. 

The last treatise on what * Mere Nonconformity is not,' was 
designed to strip the question of many of those adjuncts which 
were regarded as more or less inseparable from it. It is not 
difficult to define mere Nonconformity ; but very difficult to say 
who were the mere Nonconformists for whom Baxter wrote. 
Those who left the church of England, or who were driven from 
it, were influenced in their conduct by a vast variety of con- 
siderations. Baxter could not always satisfy others by the 
exposition of his own sentiments, still less would he be likely to 
satisfy them in his account of the sentiments of his brethren. 
Some objected that he went too far ; others, that he did not go 
far enough ; so that what mere Nonconformity is, must be as- 
certained by other means than this pamphlet. 

When these tre<itises were printed, some of his political 
friends in parliament and elsewhere, were against their publica- 
tion ; conceiving they would increase, rather than mitigate the 
suffi?rings of the Nonconformists, by exasperating the church, 
and offending the other sects ; he therefore suppressed them, 



OV RICHARD RAXTBR. 625 

r after they had cost him twenty-three pounds.^ They afterwards 
appeared along with the second part of his ' Nonconformists' 
Ilea for Peace.' 

In 1679, he published * The Nonconformists' Plea for Peace ; 

' ' QTf an Account of their Judgment, in certain things in which 
they are misunderstood.' 8vo. The act restraining the press 
being expired, he says, ^^ I published a book that lay by me, to 
open the case of Nonconformity, which greatly offended many 
Conformists ; though I ventured no further, but to name the 

' things that we durst not conform to. Even the same men that 
had long called out to us, to tell them what we desired ; and 
who .said we had nothing to say, could not bear it. The bishop 
ef ESy, Dr. Gunning, told me, he would petition authority to 

* eommand us to give the reasons of our nonconformity, and not 
thus keep up schism, a^d give no reason for it. The bishop of 
liondon. Dr. Compton, told me, that the king took us to be not 
sincere for not giving the reasons of our dissent. I told them 

• both, it was a strange expectation from men that had so fully 
given their reasons against the old conformity in their reply, and 
confil get no answer ; and when their own laws would excom- 
mmiicate, imprison, and ruin us for doing any such thing as they 
demanded. But I would beg it on my knees, and return them 
moat hearty thanks, if they would but procure us leave to do it* 
Yet when it was but half done, it greatly provoked them ; and 
they wrote and said, that without the least provocation I had 
assaulted them ; whereas, I only named what we stuck at, pro- 
fessing to accuse none of them ; and they thought seventeen 
years' silencing, persecuting, imprisoning, accusations of parlia- 
ment-men, prelates, priests, and people, and all their calls, 
(what would you have ? why do you not tell us what you 
stick at?) to be no provocation. Yea, bishops and doctors 
had long told great men, that I myself had said it was only 
things inconvenient, and not things sinful, which I refused to 
conform to ; whereas, I had given them in the description of 
eight particular things in the old conformity which I undertook 
to prove sinful. At the Savoy we began with one of them, and 
in the petition for peace, wc offered our oaths, that we would re- 
fuse conformity to nothing but what we took to be sin. And 
now when 1 told them what the sins were, O ! what a common 
storm did it raise among them ; when heathens would have fit 

Lii9, partiii. p. 85. 
Vot. I. SB 



626 TUB UVK AND WRITUIGS 

men speak for themselves before they are condemnedy k ii 
criminal in us to do it seventeen years ayfter/' ^ 

Before the publication of this volume, the NQnconfermkts 
had been assailed, reproached, and challenged, in a multitude 
of books. Baxter tells us that he had read the publications of 
'^ Bishop Morley, Messrs. Stileman, FuHwDod^ Durel, FowU^ 
Falkener, Nanfen^ Boreman, Parker, Tompkins, Ashton^ Hol- 
lingworth. Good, Hinkley, L' Estrange, Long, the ^Friendlf 
Debate,' the ' Counterminer,' and many more/' In these per* 
formances they were accused of beuig adversaries of pesce, 
lovers of contentions, guilty, of schism, sedition, and all michaii- 
tableness. The ' Plea for Peace' was intended to meet all these 
charges, and to lay the true grounds of Nonconformity befioie 
the world. It is therefore both a defensive and an offensive 
work. He argues strenuously against conformity on the ground 
of the matters imposed, particularly on the ministers; the ab- 
sent, consent, approbation, and canonical subscription reqnired 
from them. Re-ordination, the oath requiring them never to sedi 
any alteration of church government, and many other thiog% 
furnish him with arguments in support of his NonconiiMinity, 
which no Conformist had ever satisfactorily met ; and wftich 
most dissenters believe have never yet been answered. There is 
much historical matter mixed up with the argum^t of this 
book, tracing the progress of Nonconformity from the banning, 
to the period at which it was written. 

It seems from his own account, however, as if he had been 
obliged to write this book, in consequence of the conduct of 
mistaken friends, as much as the provocation of avowed 
enemies. " Two old friends," he says, '^ whom I had a hand 
in turning from anabaptistry and separation, Mr. Thomas 
Lamb and Mr. William Allen, who had followed John Goodwin, 
and became pastors of an Anabaptist church; though but 
tradesmen, fell on writing against separation, more strongly than 
any of the conformable clergy. In consequence of their old 
error, they now ran into the other extreme, especially Mr. Lamb. 
They wrote against our gathering assemblies, and preaching 
when we were silenced ; against whose mistakes I wrote ^ The 
Nonconformists' Plea for Peace.'"'' 

It is somewhat amusing to find Baxter employing himself with 
all his energy, to make Separatists churchmen, and churchmeo 
separatists ; and then finding that he could not manage them 
^ Life, part ixu p. 187. ^ ibid. p. 180. 



Of RICHARD BAXTSm. 627 

upon hit own principles. Allen and Lamb, and his wife Barbara, 
appear to have been among the most troublesome and volumi- 
nous of his correspondents. Sylvester has swelled out his folio 
volume by printing some of the letters that passed between 
them. He might have added many more of the same descrip- 
tion. It is wonderful Baxter, great as his patience was, should 
have been capable of reading and answering the letters with 
vrfiich they plagued him. It is probable that he at last wrote this 
book, if possible, to get rid of them.^ 

A reply to this work was published by a clergyman of the 
name of Cheney, under the affected and ridiculous title of ^The 
Conforming-Nonconformist, and the Nonconforming-Conform- 
ist.' Whether this was intended to describe one person or two, 
seems doubtful ; but the ambiguity of the title is removed by the 
work, which is a weak attempt to show how men may subscribe 
and swear without believing any thing in the sense of the im« 
posers; like the device of the Roman slave, ^' Jurari linguft, 
mente jurari nihil/' Cheney ^^ was afraid some one would write 
against liaxter, and neither convince the Nonconformists, nor 
do justice to Conformity ;" and therefore he wrote a book which 
did neither. Cheney and Baxter were acquainted. Baxter con- 
•idered him an honest, weak man, who had attempted what 
was beyond his powers ; but seemed intended only as a precursor 
of some mightier wight who was to follow. 

The second part of ^ The Nonconformists' Plea for Peace,* 
ap|ieared in a 4to volume early in 1680. It contains, beside the 
fbur treatises formerly mentioned as printed in 1676, an account 
of the principles of the Nonconformists, in regard to civil and 
ecclesiastical authority and obedience; and a vindication of 
them from the charges of rebellion, killing the king, and creat- 
ing anarchy in the nation, and schism in the church. It is 
rather a strange but tedious melange of politics and theology ; 
the former not always very consistent with just views of British 
constitutional liberty. Though Baxter should have held what may 
be called the popular view of the constitution, to justify his own 
conduct,this was not altogether the case ; and yetheexpresessfaim- 
self in this performance in a way that could not be acceptable to 

> Lif«, App. No. iii. Baxter M8S. Tbete persont, after having been Bap- 
tUts, and iBeinbers, for many years, of John Goodwin's church, afterwards 
btcame high Conformists. Allen appears to have been a man of talents ; lie 
wrote several pieces on doctrinal and practical theology, which were collected 
in a folio voUitne, pMblished in 1S^07, with a prtAce by the Bishop of CUiches* 
ter, and a sermon on the death of tha aafehor by Bishop Kidder. 

ss 2 



'628 TBB Un AMD'WBmKm 

the friends of arbitrary power. ' In this^ aa in tome oilier Aiapi 
he endeavoured to steer a middle course, in cooieqiienee cf 
which, he gave offence to both parties, vriihont sneeeeAng ia 
accomplishing his own object. In avoiding Seylla,^ he Mi inlD 
Charybdis, the invariable fate of those who engage in partf A- 
cussions, and vainly imagine that a selection of soine tlnag^ 
which are held by both sides, and the rejection of othen, is dtt 
golden medium of truth and peace. 

To prevent Cheney's book from* doing mischief, tfaoogh it 
was not deserving of attention on account of its own merits 
Baxter published ^ The Defence of the Nonconformists' Plea fiw 
Peace/ 8vo. 1680. No employment can well be more dnll mi 
uninteresting than that of answering a man who » incapahk^ 
from want of sense, or want of honesty d stating oonectly the 
matter in dispute. Cheney may have been very honest in Us 
intentions ; but he must have been prodigiously stapid; as a gresi 
part of Baxter's employment in answering him consists in cor- 
recting his mis-statements of matter of fiict, or palpaUe misre- 
presentations of the whole question at isime between the Qrarch 
and the Nonconformists. 

An adversary of a higher order, both in talents and in die 
church, shortly afterwards appeared in the person of Dr. Stilling^ 
fleet, then dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards bishop of Wor- 
cester. He had formerly written an Jrentctfm, to reconcile die 
contending parties, by an attempt to show that no form of 
church government is to be found in the New Testament."* On 
the second of May, 1680, he preached a sermon before the lord 
mayor, which he afterwards published by request, with the tide 
of the ' Mischief of Separation.' This discourse was Uke ths 
firing of a signal gun at the commencement of a genoal 
engagement. Both parties had been preparing for battle fer 
some time. The Church was becoming increasingly indignant 
that neither time nor persecution had destroyed the secxden 
from her pale ; while the Nonconformists, vmm out with long- 
continued sufifering, and wearied .with restraining, were glad of 

» The ' Irenicum' was first published in 1659, when the cbnrch was in • 
state of depression and suffering, and her wounds required to be healed hf 
the salve of concession and moderation. Stillingfleet afterwards repented of 
writing this boolt. " There are many thiqgs in it," he says, ** which, if be 
were to write again, he would not say ; some which show his youth, sad 
want of due consideration ; others, which he yielded loo far» In hqpasof {lU* 
ing the disicuUng pactlet to ths chucch of llashuut**. 



OF RICHARD BAXTRR. . 629 

an opportunity to give vent to their feelings in the vindication of 
their cause. 

Stillingfleet's sermon imputes most unjustly to the Noncon- 
formists all the blame of separation from the church, and the 
mischiefs which had arisen from it. He makes no proper al- 
lowance for their conscientious objections to the exercise of an 
imposing power, and to the unscriptural nature of the things 
imposed ; for the harshness and severity of the treatment which 
they had experienced ; or for the exasperating effects of their 
unmerited sufferings. He was no longer ^' Rector of Sutton," 
but the ^* Dean of St. Paul's ;" and had now laid aside his 
^ weapon salve for the church's wounds,'' to employ another 
weapon to irritate and increase them. It is too generally for- 
gotten on the side of the church, that the sin of separation 
may belong to those who are in, as much as to those who are 
out; by the former imposing a yoke which neither free men nor 
Christians ought to be called to wear ; and, therefore, the mis- 
ehieis, how many, or how great soever they may be, belong not 
all to one side. 

Of the Stillingfleet controversy I have given a particular ac- 
count, in the * Memoirs of Dr. Owen ;' to which I must refer 
the reader who wishes for information respecting the several 
parties who engaged in it. I shall now confine myself, in a great 
measure, to the publications of Baxter, who laboured more 
abundantly than all the others. 

The Dean's sermon appears to have produced a strong im- 
pression on Baxter's mind. Dr. Hicks mentions that a friend 
of his calling shortly after its publication on Dr. Cox, ^ there 
found Mr. Baxter vehemently inveighing against it ; which led 
the gentleman to ask him, why he was so severe upon that sermon 
and its author, and took no notice of another, then newly come 
out, which had given the men of his party as much offence. 
What sermon is that? said Baxter. Dr. Tillotson's (the dean 
of Canterbury's) court sermon ; in which he tells you '* that 
you must not affront the established religion, nor openly draw 
m^n off from the profession of it" ^' Oh," replied Mr. Baxter, 
*^ he gave us great offence indeed ; but he hath cried peccaviy and 

■ Dr. Cox was the husband of Mrs. Mary Cox, for whom Baxter preached 
a funeral sermon. — See fforks, vol. xvii. p. 91. He was the particular friend 
of Baxter, as appears from his interferences on his behalf on various occa- 
sions. He rose to the head of hisprofession, being president of the College of 
Physicians tiU 1683| when he was deprived of the office for being wbiggishly 
inclined. 



630 THB Ure AND WftlTlNOS 

made us satiBfactton. But your other dean, fa m proud, hangfatj 
man, and will retract nothing." 

Dr. Birch doubts the fiwt of TUlotson's ctying peccam to the 
dissenters* It is very clear, howcYer, from ddamy's life of 
Howe, that he was exceedingly sorry for having preached and 
published that sermon ; the main argument of which is sab- 
versive of Protestantism, and indeed of Christianity itself. Oa 
its publication, Baxter drew up a treatise on the subject, and 
Hent it in manuscript to the dean* It produced die fbllowhg 
letter from him in answer ; which illustrates the amiable cha- 
racter of Tillotson ; shows the esteem in which he heM Baxter, 
and saved the latter from a public controversy with him* It 
shows, also, the probable ground on which Baxter spoke of Til* 
lotson's confession. 

" Reverend Sir, ^»»« *^, l6S(k 

^* I received your letter, and the papers inclosed, which 
having perused, 1 do tiow return* I cannot think myself to 
be really much concerned in them, because they grant all along 
that the obligation of duty ceaseth^ where there is no probability 
of success : and this principle is the true ground and bottom of 
my assertioi). So that, unless upon the same principle oppo- 
site conclusions can be built, there must be some mistake in the 
reasoning of one side. But whether I be really concerned in it 
or not, I have great reason to think that it will generally be be- 
lieved that this discourse is particularly designed against me, 
and that the same malice, which raised so groundless a clanrour 
against my late sermon, will be very glad to find me strudc at 
in the odious company of Spinosa and Mr, Hobbes, as of 
the same atheistical principles with them $ a blow which I least 
expected, and for that reason should be very much surprised to 
receive from your hand. I would be glad to meet with that kind* 
ncss and candour which I have ever used towards others ; bat 
if that may not be, I must content myself with the conscience 
of having endeavoured to deserve well of all men, and of the 
truth itself. 1 am. Sir, with great sincerity, as I have ahvayi 
been, 

" Your affectionate Friend and Servant, 

John Tillotson."® 

The first thing Baxter published in this controversv^ was 

» Birch's Life of Tifiotson, p. 419. 



OF miCHARJ> BAXTSR. 631 

fab ' Aniwer to Dr. Edward Stillingfleet's Chargie of Sq>anH 
turn/ 1680, 4to. In this pamphlet he publishes a correspond* 
enoe which took place between Stiliingfleet and himself, occa* 
stoned by the dean's sermon. He inserts some queries mdiicfa he 
proposed to the dean, to elicit a more explicit acooont of tho 
affrnsation ; a reply to the letter which Stiliingfleet wrote him, 
declniii^ to answer diese queriesr and an answer to the printed 
eemoD. There is one ptasage in this reply to Stiliingfleet, in 
idiich Bascter poses him with the doctrine oi his farmer worit' 
in a way tiiat he must have found- very unpalatable. It is an 
unanswerabk reply to all who give up the jut divimmi, and yet 
found a charge of schism or separation on those who dissent 
from thenu 

'^ I remember, your Irenicum learnedly maintaineth, that 
God hath instituted no one form of church government as ne- 
oessary. And if so, then not a national church form. And 
is it not a complete church if it be without a form, which not 
God, but man, is the author of? Then God made or insti- 
tuted no such thing as a complete churclu Then is it a human 
creation ? Then why may not man make yet many forms, and 
mukiply, and make, and unmake, as he seeth cause; and 
sevctal countries have several forms ? And forma dot nomtn et 
eBBCs And if God made not any complete church, we should 
be acquunted who they be that had power to make a first 
church form ; and who hath the power ever since ; and how 
it is proved, and how it cometh to be any great matter to sepa- 
rate from a church form which God never made ; and wbedier 
human church forms be not essential and constitutive causes of 
the churches. Whether every commanded oath, subscription, 
declaration, office, or ceremony, be an essential part of this 
church form. Whether there be as many church forms and 
species, as there be orders, liturgies, and ceremonies. And 
vriiether all these difierenees in the same kii^dom, constitute so 
many schisms and separations." 

Stiliingfleet took up Baxter and his other antagonists in his 
^ Unreasonableness of Separation;' a large quarto volume pub« 
lished in 1681. In this work, he professes to give an historic^ 
account of the separation from the church of Edigland, and of 
the various pleas advanced in support of that separation by the 
several parties, with such answers as he considered satisfactory, 
or which exposed, as he conceived, the inconsistency of his 
leading opponents. Stiliingfleet was a man of profound learn* 



683 THB um AND winnrw 



ingi aiid dktiiigoidied abilitiet. He qMued fio piiiii.'lB Hfr 
diaeumon to establish his nuun pontioiiy*-t-that tlie' 
had very unreasonably separated from . the chnnsk of 
He succeeds chiefly in exposing the inconaisteiicy^of aoBeef' 
their arguments with their other principles and tome . parts rf 
their conduct. But, in this, he had no particular: leaioa^ts. 
triumphy as his own consistency was very far fram perfeeC;^ 
The rector of Sutton, who wrote the Irenicum udien liie chnch' 
of England was but a sect among other seels, was a vsry.dif-' 
ferent person from the dean of St. Paul's, exposing, dtt nana- 
sonableness of separation from an apostolic chnrdi in all ill 
glory. The one publication breathes a spirit of moderatioB^ 
and uses the language of entreaty; the other is stei% sfuCf 
and uncompromising. 



While Baxter was preparing to meet Stillingfleet, he 
assailed by several other adversaries, in reply to wbom-he pnH 
duced, ^ A Third Defence of the Cause. of Peao^ proviikg the 
Need of Concord and the Impossibility of it on the Terms of lbs 
Present Impositions.' 8vo. 1681. litis volume contains, fint: 
a reply to John Hinckley, D.D., rector of Northfield, Woroestet^ 
shire, and prebendary of Wolverhampton. He had published, 
in 1680, * Fa9ciculu8 LUerarium; or. Letters on several occa* 
sions, betwixt Mr. Baxter and the Author of the Persuasive to 
Conformity.' This volume contains four letters of Hinckley's, 
and four from Baxter in reply, on the subject of Nonconformity, 
which had been written several years before. It is to the last of 
Hinckley's letters in this book, that Baxter replies in his ^ De* 
fence.' The controversy between them is a very sharp one; 
there is a large portion of history in Baxter's answer. 

The second thing in the ^ Defence,' is an answer to another 
silly production of Cheney's, 'A Fardel of Dotage and shame* 
less Lies ;' which was not therefore deserving of the attention 
Baxter bestowed on it. 

The third thing in the > Defence,' is < Truth Pleading for 
Peace, against the many Falsehoods of an unnamed Impleaded 
who pretendeth to answer several writings of Richard Baxter.' 
This nameless impleader was Long, of Exeter, the sworn foe of 
Baxter. ^ The Nonconformists' Plea for Peace impleaded,' is 
in the character of all his other publications against Bax- 
ter and his* brethren, and was accordingly treated by him as 
it deserved* There is also a short note on a book against the 



OF SICHARD BAXTBR* 633 

ditteDten, by a penon of the name of Varney ; and a few re* 
marks on the ^ Speculum/ and the ^ CaAuist Uncased/ of Roger 
L'Efltrange. '^ Mr. yfistrange/' he says, *^ quite mistakes the 
Nonconformist quesUon, as the Reflector does; as if hissing 
and stinging were disputing. He seemeth to make the question 
to be. Whether I be not a giddy, mutable fool and knave. Let 
him in that believe what pleases himself. Our question is, 
whether silencing, fining, imprisoning the Nonconformists, be 
the way of peace, and of the desired concord of Protestants ? 
Yea, if^ether concord be possible on those terms, and whether 
they will ever end our divisions V* 

In reply to the elaborate performance of Stillingfleet, Baxter 
published * A Second True Defence of the Mere Nonconform- 
ists, against the untrue accusations, reasonings, and history of 
Dr. Edward Stillingfleet.' 1681. 4to. In this volume, he en- 
deavours to prove that it is ^' not a sin but a duty not wilfully 
to commit the many sins of conformity ; not sacrilegiously to 
abandon the preaching of the Gospel, or the public worship of 
God, though men forbid it, and call it schism.'' He shows suc- 
cessfully that Stillingfleet, in his controversy with the Roman 
Catholics, had maintained the same principles which he now 
impugned in the Nonconformists, and that he does great injus- 
tice to the latter in many of his historical statements. One 
passage, in reference to himself, deserves to be extracted : 

^^ 1 perceive Dr. Stillingfleet marvelleth, that my own ex- 
pectations of approaching death do not hinder me from writing 
what I do for the Nonconformists; whereas, the truth is, had not 
pain and weakness kept me from my youth as in the continual 
prospect of the grave and the next life, I had never been like to 
have been so much against conformity, and the present disci- 
pline of this church (that is, its want of discipline), as I have 
been. For the world might have more flattered me, and bi- 
assed my judgment, and my conscience might have been bolder 
and less fearful of sin. And though I love not to displease, I 
must say this great truth, that I had never been like to have 
lived in so convincing, sensible experience of the great differ- 
ence of the main body of the Conformists, from most of the 
Nonconformists, as to the seriousness of their Christian faith, 
and hope, and practice, their victory over the flesh and the 
world; I mean both of the clergy and laity of mine ac- 
quaintance. O ! how great a difference have I found from my 



•S4 THB tin Awn WUTIlrtlS 

ymifi to this -dny. Though I ^olibt notlmli^fy «HMy^^ 
jMMNive eoBfonnable rnmist^rs (to say nothmig t>f the inpMHi) 
have been and are worthy pioin men, and sneh aa- ^mvUmI 
pemiade their hearers that the iVesidts fitit htp ught in s|Miil 
prayer. And I had the greal blessing of my «d«esiiQB mr 
four such, in three or fenr neigfibenr paiWieB/' 

Tlie cMidom of this confession greatly pitpuuaussiis vt la 
favour of the writer^ and is ahmost a pledge of thefsonMftnsstf 
his other statements. Stillii^lleet had made many penoMl l^ 
flections on Baxter in his book, ftom which he vHifUeafees Uusstif 
very successfully. He had referred to die ease of KMdu'sdMlBi^ 
which leads Baxter to give an interesting account of his condaet 
while there towards the episoopal Confomists^ vAto were not 
then legally tolerated ; he not only did not interfero wMi Ihnm. 
or soKdt the interfei>enGe of the magistrites, but gave them il 
tiie countenance in his power. The a ttem pt s which ham 
frequently been made to show that the E p is co palians wsm 
persecuted daring the Co u wno nw eiJth, have vnffermly iiHfd 
It was not the rei^fiom9, hut the poStkai BpiaenpaEaiis nha 
were the objects of Oromweirs jealoasy ; mid tbnropposhion ta 
his government was the sole cause of any interferance wUdi^ 
they ever experienced. 

Stillingfleet himself did not answer Baxter's second Defaies^ 
but it was taken up by some others who were exceedingly aealam 
in his cause, and in that of the church ; thongh Bot very ja* 
dicious in the measures which they adopted. Dr. Shcriock 
published anonymously, first a thick 8vo volume, entitled, ' A 
Discourse about Church Unity ; being a Defence «tf Dr« Slii- 
lingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation, in answer to se v ei i l 
late Pamphlets, but principally to Dr. Owen and Mr. Basctsr.' 
1681. And in the following year, in another volume, * A Ooo* 
tinuation and Vindication of the Defence of Dr. 8dllii^;flesl| 
in answer to Mr. Baxter, Mr. Lob, and others/ He boMly 
affirms that *' Whoever separates himself from the -chnrdi ef 
England cuts himself off from the Catholic church, and pots hiah 
self out of a state of salvation. Separation from the chvdi ef 
England is a schism, and schism is as damning a sin asidolatiy, 
drunkenness, or adultety/'P This is being ^ery plam, but it b 
a pitiful bruiumjvhnen, 

Mr. Long also appeared as the second of Dr« StiHifq;fleet, ii 
'The Unreasonableness of Separation, the Second Part; or, a 

* V ContlntiatloD, p^ 389* 



OP RICHARD BAXT£R« 635 

farther Impartial Account of the History, Nature, and Pleas, 
of the present Separation from the Church of England : with 
Bpecfial RemaTks on the Life and Actions of Richard Baxter/ 
1682. Svo. This is, perhaps, the vilest and most malictons of 
all the attacks made upon Baxter. In reference to it, he says, 
^ Long, of Exeter, wrote so fierce a book to prove me, out of 
my own writings, one of the worst men living on earth, that 
f never saw any thing like it. And being overwhelmed with 
work, and weakness, and pains ; and having least zeal to de- 
fend a person so bad as I know myself to be, I never answered 
him, it being none of the matters in controversy, whether I be 
good or bad. Qod be merciful to me a sinner 1 " ^ 

A third writer who appeared with his name in this con- 
troversy, was Richard Hooke, D. D., vicar of Halifax. He 
published the ^ Nonconformist Champion ; his Challenge Ac- 
cepted ; or, an Answer to Mr. Baxter's Petition for Peace : 
frith Remarks on his Holy Commonwealth, his Sermon to the 
HoiBse of Commons, his Nonconformists' Plea, and his Answer 
to Dr. Stillingfleet*' 1682. Svo. There is a vast deal of vaunt- 
ing, and vapouring in this little book ; but it is one thing to 
accept of a challenge, and another to come off with the vic- 
tory. Baxter did not take up Dr. Hooke 's glove, which probably 
mortified him in no small degree. Tlie most curious of the 
poblications that appeared about this time agunst Baxter, and 
certainly the wittiest of all L'Estrange's productions, was ' The 
Casuist Uncased, in a Dialogue betwixt Richard and Baxter, 
with a A'loderator between them for quietness' sake.' 4 to. It is a 
witty pamphlet, but wickedly intended; yet the writings of 
Baxter furnished ample means for such a production, and it 
catmot be denied that Sir Roger makes a very dexterous use 
of them. The dialogue is often very humorous ; so that it is 
impossible not to smile at the joke, while we regret tiie object 
for which it is famished. Baxter took it all very coolly. ^' I 
have never had the schooling of L'Estrange," he says, " and so 
never taught him to understand my writings, and therefore un- 
dertake not, that things congruous shall not seem contradic- 
tions to him."' 

In connexion with this same controversy, Baxter pu'blished 
^ A Search for the English Schismatic ; by the case and cha- 
racter, 1. Of the Diocesan Canoneers ; 2. Of the present Mere 
Nonconformists. Not as an accusation of the former, but a 

^ Life, part iii. p. 188. ' Tliird Dtttnce, part ii. p. 151. 



THB Un AMD WftlTUlM 

iieo6Mury,iigfatee of the lotf far, so &r as Aqr oe wmigMif 
aocwed and penesuted by them/ 4to. 168U Of iiie 4iiipi 
and deugn of this performance, he gives the foUowing Meoaaftt 
^ Because the accusation of schism is it that makeCh all the 
noise against the Nonconformists, in the mouths of their pei^ 
sectttors, I wrote a few sheets, caUed, ^ A Search for die Ei^^kk 
Schismatic,' comparing the principles and practioea .of .iiodi 
parties, and leaving it to the reader to judge who ia the seUi- 
matic; showing that the.Prelatists have, in their canons^ fMS 
ftuto excommunicated all the . nobiUty, gentry, deigy,. and 
people, who do but affirm, that. there is any thing Mofid in their 
liturgy, ceremonies, or church-govemmen^ even the kmert 
officer* Their laws cast us out of the ministry faito gaol% 
and then they call us schismatics, for not coming ,to their 
churches ; yea, though we come to them constantly, as.I haie 
done, if we will not give over . preaching ourselves, when the 
parishes I lived in had, one fifty thousand, the other twenty thou- 
sand souls in it, more than could come within the chmch- 
doors. This book also, and my * Prognostication,' and, iriiat I 
valued most, my 'True and Only Wayof Univenal Cooooid,' 
were ruled at, but never answered that I know of." * 

Having finished our account of the Stiliingfleet controversy, 
we must now advert to some other publications of Baxter od 
Nonconformity about this time. The most important is his 
'Treatise of Episcopacy; confuting by Scripture, reascm, and 
the church's testimony, that sort of diocesan churches,, prdacy, 
and government, which casteth out the primitive church specieSy 
episcopacy, ministry, and discipline; and confoundeth the Qiris* 
tian world by corruption, usurpation, schism, and persecution.' 
1681. 4to. His own account of this volume presents a very ac- 
curate view of its nature and object. '' Upon Mr. Henry Dodwell's 
provocation, I published a treatise of epicopacy, that had lain 
long by me ; which fully openeth our judgment upon the dif- 
ference between the old episcopacy and our new diocesans, and 
answereth almost all the chief writers which have vmtten for 
such prelacy, especially Bishop Downame, Dr. Hammond, 
Saravia, Spalatensis, &c. I think I may freely say it is elabo- 
rate; and had it not done somewhat effectually in the un- 
dertaken cause, some one or other would have answered it fstt 
now. It makes me admire that my ' Catholic Theology,' our 

• Life, psrt iiii pp. 188, 189., 



toy MCHABB BAXItt. 637 

^Refomied Uturgy/ my ^ Second Plea for Peace/ (that I say 
not the first also,) and this ^ TVeatise of Episcopacy/ could never ' 
]m>cure an answer from any of these fierce accusing men; where- 
at the subjects of these four books are the controversies of the 
age^ and which are by these men so much insisted on. But I 
have since found some explication about the English diocesans 
necessary ; which the Separatists forced me to publish by mis- 
imderstanding me." ^ 

This is one of the most elaborate and valuable of Baxter's 
works on the Nonconformist controversy, and shows how very 
fully he entered into the whole subject. It is divided into 
two parts, in which, in a succession of chapters, he treats at 
great length of the primitive episcopacy, ministry, and disci- 
pline, of the early churches ; the origin and progress of dio- 
cesan churches and episcopacy, and the corruption that crept 
into them, with the various consequences which have arisen 
from these ciianges. There is a large portion of sound learning 
and accurate reasoning in the work, so that it is not surprising 
Baxter felt disappointed at no attempt being made to answer 
it. He successfully shows that *^ the episcopal churches of 
the Holy Ghost's institution, in the New Testament, were but 
single congregations, consisting of volunteers ;" and that the 
bishops recognised by the apostles, were persons who had merely 
the spiritual oversight of such congregations. Hence he contends, 
that nothing but a return to this state of things, will ever eifect- 
nally cure the evils of the church. Whether this work is con- 
sidered as a piece of ecclesiastical history, or in connexion with 
the controversy respecting church government, it deserves to be 
consulted, and will contribute more to satisfy the mind than all 
the other books of Baxter together. 

~ His next publication was, ^ An Apology for the Nonconfor- 
mists' Ministry ; containing the Reasons of their Preaching,' &c. 
4 to. 1681. Tlie greater part of this book was written in 1668 
and 1669, and at last published as an addition to the Defence 
of the Nonconformists, against Dr. Stil|ingfleet. He dedicates 
it to Compton, bishop of London, Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, 
Crofts, bishop of Hereford, Rainbow, bishop of Carlisle, 
Thomas, bishop of St. David's, and Lloyd, bishop of Peter- 
borough, of whom he speaks as good men, and lovers of mode- 
ration. In the work itself, he meets the statements and mb- 

^ Life, |>art UL p. 188. 



638 TUA UFB AND WBITIMGS 

repreaentations of Bishop Morley, Dr. Saywell, Mr. Dmd, a 
nameless Ecclesiastical Politician and Debate Maker^ tht 
Countertniuer, Fowlis, Good^ and many others, lliere are soae 
very touching and eloquent passages in thb work. The cob* 
eluding address to the bishops is very powerful. He teUs them 
plainly^ that the blame of most of the sufferings which w«re en* 
dured by himself and his brethren, properly belonged to them. 
They either caused or occasioned the severe enactmenta whieh 
were made against the Nonconformists, or by their inflneoce 
might have prevented them. He beseeches them to consider the 
awful responsibility of preventing the preaching of the Gotpelby 
so many faithful men, whose places were so inadequately auppliodi 
and warns them of the guilt which they thus contracted. 

" I am not so foolish," he says, *^ as not to know that all this 
talk is grievous to you, and not the way to my ease, or honour 
with you, nor to procure favour in your eyes. But if in such a 
day, and in such a case, we should all be silent, and none so 
much as call you to repentance, nor plead the cause of an in* 
jured Saviour and deserted souls, we should partake of the crimes 
which we are lamenting; and not only Gildas and Salvianus, and 
such- like, but all the prophets and apostles would condemn us. 

'^ And if all that is here said have no other effect than to 
increase your indignation and our sufferings ; judge, O posterity I 
judge all disinterested impartial men, between these reverend 
lords and us ; whether the petitions here presented to them, be 
selfish, or unreasonable, or such as should be rejected at so dear 
a rate as our lamentable divisions and church distractions come 
to 1 Yea, Christ, whose cause and interest we plead, will cer- 
tainly and shortly judge; before whom their worldly grandeur 
and dignities will be insignificant; wrathful reproaches will not 
prove the innocent criminal, nor justify them that condemn 
the just, or that will not understand the will and interest of their 
Lord. Even so, come Lord Jesus, come quickly 1 Amen/' ° 

The last publication in this department which remains to be 
noticed, is ^ The English Nonconformity, as under King Charles 
II. and King James If.; truly stated and argued.' 4 to. This 
is a considerable volume, containing sixty-two chapters, in 

" Life, part iii. pp. 235, 23(>. It was about this time, thouj^b I do not 
kuow that it was io answer to this book, that a pamphlet, with the foUowiu^ 
titlt, appeared, ' KiddermiDster-Stuff ; or, a Remnant of Mr. Baxter's Frmadf< 
unravelled.' 4to. 1681. 1 have not seen it. 



whickthe whole Nonconformist controversy is arguedin a series 
of dialogues between a minister and a lawyer. As it was pub- 
Ksbed not long before the death of Baxter^ it may fairly be 
considered as containing his last sentiments on those points 
wbieh had for so many years occupied a great portion of his 
attention. It was all written a coosideraUe time before tiie 
Ref?olution, though published shortly after it, and while the final 
settlement of the government was still future. No one of the 
numerous works of Baxter furnishes so full, clear, and satisfac- 
tory a view of nonconformity as this volume. It contains le^ 
of personal reference and debate, and is more restricted to prin- 
cij^es, than any of the others ; so that those who wish to ascer- 
tain with the least trouble the sentiments of Baxter, will consult 
this work to advantage. ' 

Having brought our account of Baxter's works on Noncon* 
formity to a termination, it may be proper to offer a few con* 
eluding observations. To many it will appear strange and 
improper that he should have employed so much time on this 
subject. They will be ready to ask with surprise and indigna- 
^n, To what purpose was this waste ? Such persons overlook 
the state of the times, and the peculiar situation of Baxter. The 
spirit of oppression and persecution then raged in the most vio- 
lent manner. Many of the persecutors were men respectable in 
point of moral character, and a. large portion professed a great 
regard for the interests of religion. Baxter suffered consider- 
ably himself, but he felt more for the sufferings of his brethren, 
than on his own account. Many of them had been driven from 
situations of important, usefulness, separated from their families, 
condemned to exile and imprisonment, and suffered the loss of 
$dl things. It would have been unchristian and unmanly to 
remain silent while these things went on, if, by expostulation, 
fipology, or vindication^ any impression could be made. 

Baxter might be considered as at the head of a large 
portion at least of his suffering brethren ; all of whom re- 
spected his character, and admired his [intrepidity. He was 
more independent in his circumstances than most of them. Hp 
was well known at court, and had considerable influence with 
some of the nobility. His disinterestedness was beyond sus- 

s A kiii|i of answer was published to this work in a pamphlet, entitled, 
« Reflectiont on Mr* Baxter's Last Book, called English Nonconformity^' ftc 
4to. 1689. 



640 THX Un AND WftlTIKOS 

picion^ and he was uttek'ly regardless of all personal conseqneiiea 
to himself. On every emergency he was looked up to for 
advice ; and in time of danger^ his wisdom and prowess were 
trusted to lead on the attack, or to cover a retreat. 

If he erred in appearing too often^ and sometimes on occa« 
sions which scarcely required him to expose himself or his canse, 
it was an error of judgment only. It was the excess of zeal for 
the good of others^ not the gratification of any selfish or sordid 
passion. He was often singled out as an object of attad^ by 
petty scribblers, whose motive was to excite attention to them* 
selves, rather than a desire to do good, or the hope that they 
would make an impression on the champion of Nonconformity* 
The silent disregard of such a man was more provoking than his 
severest animadversion. To the notice which he took of many 
of them, their names are now indebted for existence ; they aie 
known, not as the writers of any thing which any body reads, 
but as the adversaries of Richard Baxter. 

In the state of the country from the time of the Restoradon 
till the Revolution, it was of great importance that the Nonooo* 
formist controversy should be kept alive. It tended to support 
the spirits of the sufferers, to preserve the flame of liberty from 
being altogether smothered, to keep in check those arbitrary 
and oppressive measures which would have proved as ruinous to 
the constitution of the country, as to the liberties of the Non- 
conformists. Nothing but a great deal of writing, and writing 
with force and severity, could have answered the purpose. It 
was necessary to speak of persecution and oppression by their 
proper names, and to expose them in their own colours. As 
there was no moderation in the measures by which the con- 
sciences of men were invaded, and their dearest rights infringed, 
it would be absurd to expect nothing but calmness and modera- 
tion in the writings of those who suffered and resisted ; yet in 
general the Nonconformists wrote like Christians; and in meek- 
ness acquitted themselves. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 641 



CHAPTER VIII. 



WORKS ON POPERY. 

Introductory ObMrvations--* The Safe ReligiuD'— < Windingf^Sheet for Popery* 
— 'Grotian Reli^on'— Controversy with Peirce, Womack, Heylio, and 
Bramhall-' Key for Catholics'—' Successive Visibility of the Church'— 
Controversy with Johnson— ' Fair Warning '—* Diflference between the 
Power of Church Pastors and the Roman Kingdom'— * Certainty of 
Christianity without Popery '—* Full and Easy Satisfaction, which is the 
True Religion'— Dedicated to Lauderdale—' Christ, not the Pope, the 
Head of the Church'*-' Roman Tradition Examined '—< Naked Popery* 
. — Controversy with Hutchinson— ' Which is the True Church '—• Answer 
to Dodwell '—' Dissent from Sherlock '—' Answer to Dodwell's Letter 
calling for more Answers' — < Against Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction' '-* 
* Protestant Religion truly stated'— Conclusion. 

» 

Thb doctrities and the friends of Popery had too much in^* 
fluence in England during the life of Baxter^ not to engage his 
attention on a subject which had employed the pens of the ablest 
men from the period of the Reformation. In point of argument, 
everything necessary to expose the absurd and wicked pretensions 
of the see of Rome, had been said long before the time of 
Baxter. But the interests involved in the Popish controversy 
were too ^eat, and the parties engaged in supporting them too 
subtle, to allow the subject to sleep, or even to slumber. The 
well-known leanings of the Stuart family to a system more fa- 
vourable than any other to their besetting sin, — the love of 
arbitrary power ; their family alliances with its sworn defenders, 
their patronage of those who were considered favourable to the 
principles or the spirit of Popery, with many other circum- 
stances, — kept alive the hopes of the Roman Catholics that Eng- 
land, one of the fairest gems in the tiara, would yet be brought 
back to its allegiance, and be numbered among the jewels of 
the Papal See. 

VOL. I. T T 



642 THB LIfB ANB WRITINGS 

Even the civil wars and their results did not altogether extin- 
guish these hopes. The emissaries of Rome were active through- 
out their entire duration, and were considered as sometimes 
having a hand in the events which took place. ^Fhough Baxter 
certainly was credulous, we can scarcely conceive that he had no 
authority for asserting what he often did— that Romish priests 
assumed the guise of sectaries, appeared zealous in sowing dissen- 
sions, and propagating wild and extravagant opinions. Hisnotions 
of the extent to which this prevailed, were probably exaggerated; 
but it was quite to the purpose of the Catholics to act in this 
manner : as the more furious the fanaticism of Protestants, the 
more would the necessity for an infallible head appear, and the 
sooner would the country be likely to become Ured of its apos- 
tacy.* However this may have been, Baxter felt it to be his 
duty, both as a Christian and a Protestant, to oppose stre- 
nuously a system which he regarded as most ungodly in its 
pretensions, and most injurious in its influence to the inteiests 
of liberty, of sound morality^ and of religion* To take thb 
ground, and to appear in the front rank of the advocates of 
Protestantism, and of the adversaries of the Romish faith. Were 
with Baxter one act. 

He accordingly published, in 1657, ' The Safe Religion, or 
Three Disputations for the Reformed Catholic Religion against 
Popery^' in which he endeavours to prove that Popery is 
against the Holy Scriptures, against the unity of the catholic 

■ The opiniou that Catholic priests were employed at dfsipttiMd Pafftaofi 
or sowers uf division, is not peculiar to Baxter. Sir W. BoswelU in a letter 
to Archbishop Laud, dated from the Hag^ue, in the year 1640, iofomii him 
that above sixty Romish cler^rymen had gone, ii»ithin two years, from France, 
to preach the Scotch covenant and the rules of that kirk, and to spread the 
same a)x)ut the northern coasts of Eof^laod ; and that their g^oal object wal 
to effect the ruin of English Episcopacy. — Usher*t Life, Appendix, p. 27. 
Hramhall, bishop of Derry, in 1654, assures Archbishop Usher that, in the 
year 1646, by order from Rome, above a hundred of the Romish clergy weif 
sent into England, consisting of English, Scotch, and Irish, who bad beca 
educated in Frauce, Italy, Germany, and Spain* These, be says, were 
mostly soldiers in the army of the Parliament. Even in 1654, he aiBrms 
that there were many priests at Paris preparing to be sent orrr^ who held 
meetings twice a week, in which they opposed one another, tonie pieteodiag 
to be for Presbytery, others for Independency, and others fur Anabaptisa. 
That their qualificatious for the work in which they were to engage, were 
judged of by the learned superiors of some of the convents ; that the parties 
were entered in the registers of their respective orders, but with different 
names, which they were to use and change as circumstances might require; 
and that they kept Up a regular correspondence with their fraternities abrowL 
— (/»7»«r, p. 611. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 643 

churchy the consent of the ancient doctors, the plahiest reason^ 
and the common judgment of sense itself. The object of the 
first dissertation is, to prove that the religion of Protestants ia 
safe ; of the second, that Popery is unsafe 5 and of the third, 
that the manner in which Popery is sustained in argument by a 
claim to infallibility, is subversive of the faith. It is dedicated 
to the " Literate Romanists," and is on the whole an able ex- 
jlosure and refutation of the system of Popery, to which I am 
not aware that any ansvt^r was ever made. 

As that viras a considerable volume, and better adapted to the 
learned than to the unlearned, he published in the same year, 
' A Winding-sheet for Popery,' comprising, within a few pages, 
the most appropriate arguments against the whole system. This 
was well fitted for popular reading and general circuladon} 
which also remained unanswered. 

His next wor)c, though small, and but little of it on the subject 
of Popery, forms part of a very angry controversy, in which he 
because involved, with several persons of considerable note. In 
his work on * Universal Concord,' published in the early part of 
1658^ he had thought it his duty to warn some who appeared to 
be prosecuting the design of Grotius and Cassander, to re- 
concile the Protestant churches to the see of Rome^ on certain 
abatiements being made by that see to the principles or preju- 
dices of Protestants. The insinuation that Grotius was a con- 
cealed Papist, and that others were engaged in a similar plan, 
excited very strong emotions in the breasts of Dr. Sanderson 
and Dr. Thomas Peirce. The latter, in a work entitled * The 
Self-revenger exemplified/ directed against Mr. Barlee^ demand- 
ed from Baxter a plainer account of Grotius, and his followers. 
This Baxter was not unwilling to give him. But we must hear 
his own account of this controversy. 

** Peirce's principal business,*' he says, " was to defend 
Grotius. In answer to which I wrote a little treatise, called 
*The Grotian Religion discovered/ in which I cited his own 
words^ especially out of his * Discussio Apologetici Rivetiani/ 
where he opcRcth his terms of reconciliation with Rome, viz., 
that it be acknowledged the mistress churchy and the Pope havd 
his supreme government ; not arbitrary, but only according to 
the canons. To which end he defendeth the Council of Trent 
itself, Pope Pius's oath, and all the councils ; which is no othef 
than the French sort of Popery. I had not theu h^^xd. ol >Xx^ 

T T 2 



644 THB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

booik written in France called ^ Grotius Papizans/ nor of * Sar- 
ravius's Epistles/ in which he witnesseth it from his own 
mouth. But the very words which I eited^ contain an open 
profession of Popery. 

^' In a preface before this book, I vindicated the Synod of 
Dort from the abusive, virulent accusations of one that called 
himself Tilenus, junior. Thereupon, Peirce wrote a much more 
railing, malicious volume than the former ; the liveliest imprai 
of Satan's image, malignity, bloody malice, and falsehood, cth 
vered in handsome, railing rhetoric, that ever I have seen from 
any that called himself a Protestant. The preface was an- 
swered just in the same manner, by one who styled himself 
Philo-Tilenus. Three such men as this Tilenus, junior^ Pcirc^ 
and Gunning, I have not heard of besides in England : of the 
Jesuits' opinion in doctrinals, and of the old Dominican com- 
plexity, yet the ablest men that their party hath in all the land; 
of great diligence in study and reading ; of excellent oratorv, 
especially Tilenus, junior, and Peirce ; and of temperate lives. 
But all their parts are so sharpened with a furious, persecuUng 
^al against those that dislike Arminianism, high prelacy, or frd 
conformity, that they are like the briars and thorns^ which are 
not to be touched, but by a fenced hand' They breathe out 
threatenings against God's servants, better than themselves, 
xuid seem unsatisfied with blood and ruin, but still cry, * Give, 
give ;' bidding as loud defiance -to Christian charity, as ever 
Arius, or any heretic, did to faith. 

** This book of mine, of the Grotian religion, greatly offended 
many others, but none of them could speak any sense against 
it ; the citations, for matter of fact, being unanswerable. And 
it was only the matter of fact which I undertook to prove, viz., 
that Grotius professed himself a moderate Papist ; but for his 
fault in so doing, 1 little meddled with it." ^ 

Such is Baxter's own account of this controversy, which 
related as much in it) progress to Arminianism, as to Grotiui 
and Popery. The religion of Grotius must have been of a 
very equivocal kind, for as many sects seem to have contended 
for him, as cities about the birth of Homer. The fact is, ne 
mixed too much in the political world not to be seriously 
injured by it. He speculated about union, and falsely imagined 
that it might be practicable to effect some agreement between 
the Catholics and Protestants, on principles in which neither 

^LVt^t^^Qivti. p. 113. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 645 

party would ag;ree. He was not a Papist in the technical sense 
of the term, but he endeavoured to give an orthodox interpre- 
tation to some of the doctrines of Popery, and objected to some 
of the charges preferred by Protestants^ against the church of 
Rome ; which, with his disposition to compromise, led the Pro- 
testants to look at him with great jealousy. ^ 

Baxter's opinion of Grotius, notwithstanding these views of 
bis sentiments, which were probably more influenced by political 
than religious considerations, stood very high. He was in every 
respect a distinguished man — his learning, his talents, his love 
of liberty, his amiable dispositions, must make his memory dear 
to all who are capable of estimating his virtues and acquire- 
ments. 

Ulenus, junior, was a fictitious name, assumed by Bishop 
Womack, in his attacks upon Calvinism and the Puritans.* 
' The Examination of Tilenus before the Triers, in order to his 
intended settlement in the office of a public Preacher in the Com- 
monwealth of Utopia,' is a keen sarcastic pamphlet which ap- 
peared in 1658,« intended to expose the conduct of the Triers, 
and the sentiments which they held. It describes a trial of this 
•aid 'nienus, before a jury consisting of Messrs. Absolute, Fa- 
tality, Pretention, Fryable, Damman, Narrow-Grace, oKas 
Stint-Grace, Efficax, Indefectible, Confidence, Dubious, Mean- 
well, Simulans, Take-o-trust, Know-little, and Impertinent. 

• 

« Lord Lauderdale says, in one of bis letters to Baxter, ** I have read your 
reply to Peirce, in which you fuUy satisfy me that Grotius was a PapisL I 
was acquainted with Grotius at Paris. He was theu ambassador for Sweden, 
In the year 1637 ; aud though I was then very youu^, some visits passed be- 
tween us. My discourse with him was only on humanity ; but I remember 
weU he was then esteemed such a Papist as you call a Cassaudrian, and so 
• •••did esteem him, who was a priest— the owuer of that great library now 
printed in his name. AVitb him I was also acquainted. He was a great ad« 
mirer of Grotius, aud esteemed among his principal friends."— BatI^ MSSm 

^ Daniel Tileuus was professor of divinity at Sedan, and, in the early part 
of bit life, a Calviuist. He afterwards adopted the sentiments of the Remon* 
strantii, and took part, both in their oppositiou to Calvinism, and in their suf- 
ferings on account of it. Amoug other things, he wrote ' Canuues Synodi 
Dardraceuae, cum notis et animadversiouibus/ &c. A tract of his appeared 
ip English, under the )itle of * The Doctrine of the Synods of Dort and Ales 
brought to the Proof uf Practice,' &c. 1629. On this foundation Wonipcli: 
appears to have adopted his dc'si*rnatiou of Tilenus, junior, and to havec6B« 
gtructed his pamphlet, *■ The Rxamiiiation of Tilenus.' Womack was a very 
decided Arminian, and thoroughly acquainted with the writers of the Dutch 
ecbool. He died bishop of St. David's, in 1()S5^ 

• This pamphlet is republished by Mr. Nichols in his ' Calvinism and Ar» 
ninianism Compared.' 



646 THB LIFE AND WRITINGr 

The leading characters of the day are siud to have been intro- 
duced under these fictitious names; Narrow-Grace beingsuppoaed 
to be designed for Philip Nye, and Dr. Dubious for Richard 
Baxter. There is a good deal of severe humour^ as might be 
expected, in the book, besides a vast portion of misrepres e nta t ion 
and caricature. 

' The Grotian Religion' brought forward Womack a second 
time in his ' Arcana Doginatum Anti-remonstrantium; or, the 
Calvinist's Cabinet unlocked, in an apology for Tilenus^ against a 
pretended vindication of the Synod of Dort, at the provocatioQ 
of Mr. Richard Baxter, held forth in the Preface to his Grotian 
Religion.' 1659. 8vo. This is a grand attack on the doctrines 
of the synod of Dort, and on Baxter, as holding substantially those 
doctrines, from which it is very evident that the author never 
supposed Baxter would be suspected of Arminianism. TIleniH 
is one of the stoutest and acutest adversaries with whom Baxter 
had to contend. He was well acquainted with the whole range 
of the Arminian controversy, and had examined every syllable 
of Baxter's writings ; from which he did not fail .to extract pas- 
sages, the explaining or reconciling of which must have tried even 
the metaphysical acuteness of Baxter. It does not appear from 
any thing which Baxter wrote, that he knew Bishop Womack 
to be the author of these performances. 

Peirce's reply, of which Baxter speaks so severely, was * The 
New Discoverer discovered; by way of Answer to Baxter's 
pretended Discovery of the Grotian Religion, with the several 
subjects contained therein.* 1658. 4 to. The quarrel between 
them was kept up to a very distant period ; and the personal 
feelings of Peirce were discovered in a manner not the most cre- 
ditable to himself. Indeed, the high-church Arminian clergy 
generally appear to have been greatly annoyed by this trifling 
tract of Baxter's. An expression in the preface where he refers 
to Peter Heylin's mode of describing the Puritans, led to a 
lengthened correspondence with that bigoted and intemperate 
polemic. This correspondence Heylin published with a very 
characteristic title : ' The Letter Combat managed by Peter 
Heylin, D.D., with Mr, Baxter of Kidderminster, Dr. Bernard 
of Gray's Inn, Mr. Hickman of Mag, Col. Ox. &c.' 16i9. 8?o. 
That the party to which Baxter was opposed, were justly re- 
garded by him as leaning to Popery, is evident from a single 
sentence in Heylin's last letter : ^^ So far, I assure you, I am 
of the religion of Hugh Grotias, that I wish as heartily as be 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 647 

did^ that the breaches in the walls of Jerusalem were well 
cloaed up; that the Puritans, submitting to the church of 
England, and the church of England being reconciled with the 
church of Rome, we might unite and centre in those sacred 
truths^ those undeniable principles and established doctrines^ 
which have b^en universally received in the church of Christy 
and in which all parties do agree.'' This is only one among 
many proofs of the strong feeling which prevailed among the 
high-church clergy towards the church of Rome. ' 

Many years afterwards, a posthumous work was published, 
•ntitled, ^ Bishop Bramhall's Vindication of himself and the 
Episcopal Clergy from the Presbyterian charge of Popery^ as it 
is managed by Mr. Baxter in his Treatise of the Orotiau Reli* 
gicHi/ 1672. 12mo. Bramhall and his coadjutors had so much 
of the Popery of Protestantism about them, as to be justly liable 
to the charge which Baxter and others preferred against themt 
Of this book, Baxter says : 

^ He passeth over the express words of Grotius, which I had 
dted, which undoubtedly prove what I said ; yea, though I had 
•ince largely Englished them, and recited them in the second 
part of my ' Key for Catholics,' with a full confirmation of my 
prooft* And he feigneth me to make him a Orotian, and con- 
federate in his design ; whereas I not only had no such word, 
but had expressly excepted him by name, as imputing no 
such thing to him. Before the book was a long preface of Mr. 
Parker's, most vehement against Dr. Owen^ and somewhat 
against myself. To which Andrew Marvel, a parliament man, 
burgess for Hull, did publish an answer so exceeding jocu- 
lar, as thereby procured abundance of readers, and pardon to 
the author. Because I perceived that the design of Bishop 
Bramhall's book was for the uniting of Christendom under the 
old patriarchs of the Roman imperial church, and so under the 
Pope, as the Western Patriarch, and Princ^num Umtatiij I 
had thought the design, and thb publication, looked danger- 
ously, and therefore began to write an answer to it. But Mr. 
Simmons, my bookseller, came to me, and told me, that Roger 

* * A Review of the Certameo Epistolare betwixt Dr. Heylin and Mr. Hick- 
man' was published in a small volume io 1659, under the fictitious name of 
Tbeophilus ChurchmaD. It is called by the writer himself tLJoco-seria review 
of the counter-scuffle ; the object of which is chiefly to vindicate the English 
reformers from being Arminians, which Heylin had wished to make them. 
1% ii cleverly written, and gives some hard blows to Dr. Heylin. 



648 THJB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

L'Estrange, the overseer of the printers, had sent forhimiandtoU 
him, that he heard f was answering Bishop Bramhall, and swore 
to him most vehemently, that if I did it, he would ruin him and 
me, and perhaps my life should be brought in question. I per- 
ceived the bookseller durst not print it ; and so I was fain to 
cast it by, which I the easier did, because the main scope (rfiH 
the book was fully answered long before, in the foresaid second 
part of my * Key for Catholics/ " « 

We must now return from thisGrotian digression to the con* 
troversy. Baxter's next work in this department, is the * Key 
for Catholics/ 1659. 4to. The object, of this work was to ex- 
pose the juggling of the Jesuits; to satisfy those who were 
willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or the 
Reformed churches is of God : and to leave the reader utterly 
inexcusable who should afterwards continue a Papist. The 
first part of it contains an exposure of forty frauds or decepUoni 
practised by the Popish party ; the second part is an attempt 
to show that the Catholic church is not a political body, beaded 
by an earthly sovereign ; and that such a unity as this would 
imply, is not to be desired. Here he again encounters Grotius 
and Peirce, on both of whom he makes some sharp remarks. 
The following is his account of this work and its reception : 

^Mn this treatise, proving that the blood of the king is not 
by Papists to be charged upon Protestants, I plainly hazarded 
my life against the powers that then were, and grievously in- 
censed Sir H. Vane. Yet Mr. J. N. was so tender of the Papists' 
interest, that having before been offended with me for a petition 
against Popery, he spake against it on the bench : and his displea- 
Mirc being increased by this book, he took occasion, after the king 
came in, to write against nie for those very passages which con- 
demned the king-killers. Because, comparing the case with the 
doctrine and practice of the Papists, I showed that the Sectarians 
.ind Croniwellians had of the two a more plausible pretence, he 
confuted these pretences of theirs, as if they had been my own; 
thereby making the world believe that I wrote for the king's 
cieath, in the very pages where, to the hazard of my life, I wrote 
against it; while he himself took the engagement against the 
king and the House of Jjords, was a justice under Oliver, and 
more than this, signed orders for the sequestering of others of 
tlie king's party. Bat the great indignation against this book and 

t Lile, part iii. p. 102. 



OF RICHARD BAXTBB. 649 

• 

the former, is, that they were, by epistles, directed to Richard 
Cromwell, as lord protector, which I did only to provoke him that 
had power, to use it well, when the Parliament had sworn fidelity 
to him; and that without any word of approbation of his title." ^ 

The next work by Baxter on this controversy, the * Succes- 
sive Visibility of the Church,* 1660, 12mo, came out under very 
peculiar circumstances ; for an account of which I again avail 
myself of his own statement : " When 1 was at Kidderminster, 
in 1659, one Mr. Langhorn, a furrier, in Walbrook, sent me a 
sheet of paper, subscribed by William Johnson, containing aii 
argument against our church, for want of perpetual visibility ; 
or, that none but the church of Rome, and those in communion 
vnth it, had been successively visible ; casting all on his op- 
ponent, to provcTour church's constant visibility. He that sent 
this paper desired me to answer it, as for some friends of his 
who were unsatisfied. I sent him an answer the next day after 
I received it. To this, some weeks after, I received a reply. 
This reply cited- many fathers and councils, and, as the custom 
is, brought the controversy into the wood of church history. 
To this I drew up a large rejoinder, and sent it by the carrier. 
Though I was not rich enough to keep an amanuensis, and had 
not leisure myself to transcribe it; yet, as it well happened, I 
had got a friend to write me a copy of my rejoinder : for it fell 
out that the carrier lost the copy which I gave him to carry to 
London, and professed that he never knew what became of it. 
And no wonder, when I after learned that my antagonist lived 
within five or six miles of me, whom I supposed to have lived 
one hundred and fifty miles off. When I expected an answer, 
I received, a month after, an insulting challenge of a speedy 
answer, and this seconded with another ; all calling for haste. 
I suppose he thought I had kept no copy ; but as soon as I 
could get it transcribed I sent it him : and i heard no more of 
Mr. Johnson for a twelvemonth. When I was in London, I 
went to Mr. Langhorn, and desired him to procure me an 
answer to my papers from Mr. Johnson, or that 1 might know 
that I should have none. At last, he told me that Mr. Johnson 

^ Life, part i. p. 118. Baxter omitted the dedication to Richard Cromwell, 
in his second edition of the ' Key/ and substituted in its place one to the 
Duke of Lauderdale ; not perha|»s the happiest choice wliich he might have 
made of a patron. He declares, in the dedication to Lauderdale, that he 
never saw the face of Richard, nor ever had a word from him ; and that his 
iole motive in addressing him was to stir him up to do good. 



650 THB LIFS AND WRITINGS 

would come aiid speak with ine himself^ which he did^ and 
would have put off all the business with a few words, but 
would promise me no answer. At last, by Mr* TillotBon,^ 1 
was informed that his true name was Terret; that he lived in 
the house of a certain nobleman, near our parts ; that, being 
much in London, he was there the chief hector^ or great 
disputer, for the Papists; and that he was the chief of the two 
men who had held and printed the dispute with Dr. Pearson 
and Dr. Gunning. When I saw what advantage be had got 
by printing that dispute, I resolved that he should not do so by . 
me, and so I printed all our papers. But before I printed 
them, I urged him to some further conference; and at our 
next meeting I told him how necessary it was that we should 
agree first on the meaning of our terms. So I wrote down 
some few, as church, pope, council, bishop,* heresy, schism, 
which I desired him to explain to me under his -hand, pro* 
mising him the like whenever he desired it ; which, when I had 
got from him, I gave him some animadversions on it, showiif 
their implications ; to which he answered, and to that I re* 
plied. When he came no more to me, nor gave me any 
answer, I printed all together ;' which made him think it neces- 
sary, at last, to write a confutation ; whereto I have since pub- 
lished a full rejoinder, to which I can procure no answer.*'^ 

The volume accordingly contains the first papers which 
passed between Johnson and Baxter ; an appendix, in which he 
gives an account to Johnson, how far heretics are, or are not, in 
the church ; Johnson's explanation of the most usual terms in 
the controversy, with Baxter's animadversions ; a paper on suc- 
cessive ordination ; and some letters which; passed between 
Baxter and Thomas Smith, a Papist, with a narrative of the 
success. 

This Johnson appears to have perverted from the truth 
Lady Anne Lindsey, daughter of the countess of Balcarraa, 
who employed Baxter to endeavour to reclaim her. He tried 
it accordingly, but without effect. She made her escape from 
her mother, and went to France, where she died in a nunnery, 
a few years afterwards.* 

In 1663, a pamphlet appeared with Baxter's name, called 
* Fair Warning; or Twenty-five Reasons against Toleration and 

» Afterwards Archbishop TiUotson. ^ Life, part ii. pp. 218, 219. 

» Ibid. pp. 219—228. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 651 

Indulgence of Popery/ For my knowledge of this tract I am 
indebted to the invaluable work of Hallam on the British 
Constitution^ never having seen any copy of it myself* He 
saysy it is a pleasant specimen of the arffumentum ab pifemo. 
^ Seeing there is but one safe way to ssJvation, do you think 
that the Protestant way is that way, or is it not ? If it be not, 
why do you live in it ? If it be, how can you find in your heart 
to give your subjects liberty to go another way ? Can you, in 
your conscience, give them leave to go on in thatucourse, in which 
in your conscience you think you could not be saved ?" Hallam 
adds, after making this quotation, ^^ Baxter does not mention 
this little book in his Life ; nor does he there speak violently 
about the toleration of Romanists/' " 

His next work in this controversy is, ^The Difference between 
the Power of Magistrates and Church Pastors, and the Roman 
Kingdom and Magistracy, under the name of a Church and 
Church Government usurped by the Pope, or. liberally given him 
by Popish Princes/ 1671- 4to. This pamphlet consists of two 
letters addressed to Lewis Moliusus, M. D., the author of several 
books on the Romish controversy:' and wliich had drawn Baxter's 
attention to the subject. His account of this book is curious. 

'^ Ludovicus Molineus was so vehemently set upon the crying 
down of the papal and prelatical government, that he thought 
it was the work he was sent into the world for, to convince 
princes that all government was in themselves, and that no proper 
government, but only persuasion, belonged to the churches. To 
this end he wrote his ^ Paraenesis cqntra iEdificatiores Imperii 
in Imperio,' his 'Papa Ultrajectinus,' and other tractates; 
which he thrust on me, to make me of his mind. At last he 
wrote his * Jugulum Causae,' with no less than seventy epistles 
before it, directed to princes, and men of interest, among whom 
he was pleased to put one to me. llie good man meant rightly 
in the main, but had not a head sufficiently accurate for such a 
controversy, and so could not perceive that any thing could be 
called properly government, that was no way coactive by eor- 
poral penalties. To turn him from the Erasiian extreme, and 
end that controversy by a reconciliation, I published an hun- 
dred propositions conciliatory, and of the difference between the 
magistrate's power and the pastor's.' 



"n 



He published, in 1672, * The Certainty of Christianity with- 
in HaUam's Constitutioiial HUt., vol. ii, p. 476. » Ufej part Ui. ^ 85, 



652 the' lifr and writikgs 

out Popery J or, whether the Catholic-Protestant or the Papiat 
have the surer faith/ Svo. This pamphlet, he teils us, was 
designed to meet the repeated challenges of the Papists, and 
to direct the unskilful how to defend their faith against them 
and against infidels also. To both descriptions of persons, be 
informs us in his Life, the work proved useful. The connexion 
between Popery and infidelity, or the tendency of the former to 
produce the latter, is closer than many persons suppose. To be* 
lieve too much, tnay prove as dangerous as to believe too little. 
Faith without evidence, is credulity ; a state of nnind not more 
congenial to the influence of genuine religion, than unbelief itself. 
A system which wages war with the established principles of moral 
evidence, by requiring man to prostrate his understanding to the 
dictation of uninspired authority, and to act in opposition to tbe 
conviction of his senses, prepares him for believing any thing, 
however monstrous, and for rejecting any thing, however evident 
and true. In this way, Popery lays the foundation of infidelity; 
and enables us to account for the extraordinary fact, that in 
the countries where it has been longest and most firmly es- 
tablished, the greatest numbers of unbelievers have been found. 
The abetters of the system have been fond of maintaining that 
the overthrow of Popery must be the ruin of Christianity; whidi 
is all one with holding, that the subversion of a system of lying 
and imposition, must necessarily prove the ruin of tnith^and 
moral honesty. 

* Pull and Easv Satisfaction, which is the True and Safe Re- 
ligion,' appeared in l()74,-8vo, along with the second edition of 
his ' Key for Catholics/ It is a dialogue between a doubter, a 
Papist, and a reformed Catholic Christian ; and consists of foar 
parts, in which he treats of the nature of the difference between 
the parties, justifies tbe Protestant, enumerates charges agains^ 
the Roman Catholic, and insists particularly on the wickedness 
and absurditv of the doctrine of transubstantiation. It is de- 
dicated to his grace the Duke of Lauderdale, his majesty's 
commissioner, and principal secretary for the kingdom of Scot- 
land. Of this circumstance, and of the duke himself, he fur- 
nishes us with the following account. 

" In the preface to the first impression, I had mentioned with 
praise the Earl of Lauderdale, as then prisoner by Cromwell in 
Windsor Castle, from whom I had many pious and learned 
letters, and \v\\o \\av\ ?»o vwvx^ \^\\.^i w^\ ^V\. \i\v books, that 
he remembereA lYiem \^\X^i, ^ VxiwaN^^gox^ x^x'mjw \ ^\ ^k^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 6fi3 

Had I now left out that mention of him, it would have seemed 
an injurious recantation of my kindness ; lUid to mention him 
now a duke, as then a prisoner, was unmeet* The king used 
him as his special counsellor and favourite. The parliament 
had set themselves against him. He still professed great kind- 
ness to me, and I had reason to believe it was without dis- 
. sembling. Because he was accounted by all to be rather a too 
rough adversary, than a flatterer of one so low as I ; and be- 
cause he spake the same for me behind my back, that he did to 
my face. I had then a new piece against transubstantiation 
to add to my book, and, being desirous it should be read, I 
thought best to join it with the other, and prefix before both an 
qristle to the duke ; in which I said not a word of him but the 
^nth : and I did it the rather, that his name might cause some 
great ones to read, at least that epistle, if not the short additional 
tractate, in which I thought I said enough to open the shame 
of Popery. But the indignation ,men had against the duke, 
made some blame me, as keeping up the reputation of one whom 
multitudes thought very ill of; whereas I named none of his 
faults, and did nothing I could well avoid, for the aforesaid rea- 
•one. Long after this, he professed his kindness to me, and told 
me I should never want while he was able, and humbly en- 
treated me to accept twenty guineas from him, which I did/'® 
The correspondence with Lauderdale, to which Baxter here 
refers, still exists, and is certainly very honourable to the cha- 
racter and talents of Lauderdale. His attachment, which he 
expresses in the warmest terms, to Baxter, appears to have been 
very sincere, as he not only translated passages from books for 
the use of Baxter, while he was a prisoner, and otherwise 
evinced hb friendship for him, but when his fortunes afterwards 
changed, and he rose to eminence in the state, he continued to 
remember and befriend him. Yet it is impossible to think of 
the character of Lauderdale with respect. Like many other 
men, he shone in adversity, but was corrupted by prosperity. 

In the ^ Morning Exercises against Popery,' preached by the 

• lAfe, p«rt iii. p. 180. Baxter, in bis dedication, speaks of the duke's ex- 
tetniTe acquaintance with bis writings, and of the reliance which he placed 
on his Judgment. He was not the only man of learning who treated Lauder- 
dale in this manner. S|>anheim dedicates to him and Usher the third part of 
bis * Dubia Evangelica/ and speaks, though Lauderdale was then very 
young, of bis '' Judicium supra »tatem maturum, verum omnium cognitiont 
siabacUiin pectus." 



654 THB LIFB AND WRITIKGS 

leading Nonconformist ministers about London, in the yetr 
11675, Baxter delivered a discourse on * Christ, not the Ptope^ 
the Universal Head of the Church/ These sermons were defi- 
vered in Southwark ; and when it is mentioned that among the 
preachers were such men as Poole, Jenkjus, Vincent, Cltrkson, 
Annesley, and Baxter, the ability with which the various subjcds 
is discussed will at once be understood. The volume, conttiii- 
ing the ^ Discourses against Pbpery,* embraces the leading poiiiti 
in controversy between Catholics and Protestants, and abomA 
with learning and information. Considering the characierrf 
these discourses, and the state of the times when they wtie 
delivered, they afford strong proof of the decision and bold- 
ness by which the preachers were distinguished. 

In the same year, 1675, he published * Select Argmnenti 
against Popery,' which I have not seen, and cannot Acrefiirt 
judge whether they are original, or only a selection, in the ftinn 
of a tract, of some of his reasonings in his other publicadom. 
I suspect they are the latter. 

The appearance of a book, called, * A Rational Discourse of 

Transubstantiation, in a Letter to a Person of Honour from a 
Master of Arts of the University of Cambridge,' led him to 
produce, in 1676, * Roman Tradition examined, in the point of 
Transubstantiation.' 4to. The author of the work, to which 
this is an answer, was understood to be Mr. W. Hutchinson, of 
Lincolnshire, who wrote also ' Catholic Naked Truth, or the 
Puritan Convert to Apostolical Christianity;' in answer to 
which, Baxter wrote his ^ Naked Popery ; or, the Naked False- 
hood of a book called the Catholic Naked Truth ;'p whkh 
appeared in the same volume with his Roman Tradidon, in 
1677. Hutchinson was the son of pious Protestant parents^ 
but forsook the faith in which he had been nurtured. In one 

p The title of Hutcbiuson's, cUiat Berry's, bouk, which led to the cor^ 
responding title of Baxter's reply, appears to have been sugg^ested by a work 
of Bishop Croft's, which was published shortly' before that 'time, and occa- 
sioned a considerable sensation — < The Naked Truth ; or, the I'ma Stati of 
the Primitive Church.* 1675. 4to. It is a moderate book, intended to heal the 
divisions which then prevailed in the kingdom, and to recondle the Chnrch 
and the Nonconformists to each other. It was acceptable to the latter, but 
not to the high-church party. Dr. Turner attacked it in * AnimadTerrioiu <m 
Naked Truth,' which led to a defence of it from the pen of Andrew MarveH, 
under the title of * Mr. Smirke; or, the Divine in Mode.* • LezTalionU; 
or, the Author of Naked Tnith stripped Naked,' was the production of Phib'p 
Fellj one of the fellows of Eton College. < A modest Survey of Um aioiteoi* 



OV BICHARD BAXTER. 655 

of the above works, he defends the reasonableness of transub- 
•tantiation, the most unreasonable of all impositions ; and in the 
other^ his object is to prove, that the Conformists were men of 
Ho conscience or religion ; but that all sincere religion was with 
the Papists and Puritans : thus endeavouring to flatter the latter, 
as if the two parties were equally influenced by conscientious 
principles. Baxter effectually exposed both his productions; 
but though he did this, and afterwards became acquainted with 
the author, he never could get him to reply. 

In 1679, he published a treatise, which may be regarded as 
the continuation of his controversy with Johnson, ' Which is 
the True Church, the whole Christian World as headed by 
Christ, or the Pope and his subjects?' 4to. This he consi- 
dered a full answer to his antagonist, who wisely allowed the 
controversy to drop. 

Among the high-church party, whom Baxter considered in- 
dioed to Popery, were Mr. Henry Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock. 
With the former he had entered into a very long personal cor- 
fttpondenoe ; and from the latter, as has been stated in another 
place, he received very shameful treatment. Dodwell was a 
learned and amiable man, who held principles so nearly allied 
to Popery about the sacraments, ministry, and several other 
points of religion, as to require very nice discernment to per- 
ceive any important difference between him and moderate 
Roman Catholics. He held that there is no true minlstrv, 
church, sacraments, or covenant right to pardon and salvation, 
bat through a ministry ordained by bishops, in regular and un- 
interrupted succession from the apostles. In his large book, 
entitled ' Separation of Churches from the Episcopal Govern- 
ment, as practised by the present Nonconformists, proved 
Schismatical,' 1679, 4to, he endeavours to establish these senti- 
ments, and td fix the guilt of schism, and hence, on his principles, 
exclusion from salvation^ upon the Nonconformists, and by im- 
plication on the reformed churches. He was greatly indignant 

ridenble Things in Naked Truth,' was ascribed to Bishop Burnet. * A Second 
Part of Naked Truth' was published in 1681, in folio, by Edmund Hickeriag- 
hill,of Colchester, a sort of imitation of the first. A third and fourth parts were 
written by other pens. These led to * The Catholic Naked Truth ' of Hutchin- 
son ; to < The Naked Popery ' of Baxter ; and to < Naked Truth needs no 
Sbifk,' by William Penn, the Quaker. So much for the influeuce of a title 
iA producing imitation on a subject to which all parties lay claim, and which 
it Is to easy to accommodate to the purpose of all ! A more modest title, how- 
•vir, Migbl hmw been found by grave btahopsj aod leti greedily imitated by 
sokma Qoakert and stem Presby tefiasi. 



656 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

at Baxter's insinuations of his Popish leanings^ in the third put 
of his book on ^ Universal Concord/ where Baxter commenti 
severely on his views of schism. ^^ There is lately/' he njii 
^^ come out of Ireland, a young ordained student of Trinitr 
College, Dublin, to propagate this and such-like doctrines is 
London. To which end he hath lately written a lai^ aad 
wordy volume, as if it were only against the Nonconfonnisti; 
which being new, and the most audacious and confident at- 
tempt that ever I knew made against the reformed choidMs 
by one that saith himself he is no Papist, and being the moit 
elaborate enforcement of the Papists' grand argameo^ m 
which of late they build their cause, I think it needful not to 
pass it by." ^ 

Dodwell's offence at being thus classed with Papists, induced 
Baxter, at last, to publish a correspondence which had formerlj 
taken place between them, in* An Answer to Mr. Dodwell, confut- 
ing an Universal Human Church Supremacy, Aristocratical and 
Monarchical, as Church Tyranny and Popery/ 16S1.4to. With 
this he conjoined, * An Account of his Dissent from Dr. Sherlock, 
his Doctrine, Accusations, and Argumentation.' With, this he 
also unites his dissent from the French, from Bishop Gunning, 
and his chaplain. Dr. Saywell, Mr. Thomdike, Bishop Bram- 
hall. Bishop Sparrow, &c. 

Dodwell replied to Baxter's * Pretended Confutation of hb 
former work ; with Three Letters formerly written to him, by 
Mr. Baxter, in 1673, concerning the Possibility of Discipline 
under a Diocesan Government.' 1681. To which Baxter re- 
joined, in his * Answer to Mr. Dodwell's Letter, calling for more 
Answers.' 1682. 4to. He calls Dodwell's system," Leviathan; 
or. Absolute Destructive Prelacy, the son of Abaddon^ ApollyoD, 
and not of Jesus Christ." 

To enter minutely into the subject of these volumes now, would 
answer no valuable purpose. It is partly personal, partly re* 
lating to the Nonconformist controversy, and partly to those 

< * Universal Coucord/ partiii. p. 74. Archbishop Tillotson said of Dod- 
ytell and Baxter, ** that they were much alike io their tempers and opinioQS 
io one respect, though they were widely opposed to each other in their tenets; 
both of them loved to abouud in iheir own sense; could by no' roeaus bt 
brought off their own apprehensious and thoughts, but would have them tube 
the rule and standard lor ail other men." — liirch^s Life of IVloison, p. 401. 
The Life of Dodwell, by Brokesby, gives some account of his controversy with 
Baxter, and affords a singular illustration of the extent to which a man may 
possess leaniing without judgment, and piety without discernment. He bid 
the literature of a Scaliger in the head of a cbUd. He protested, bowcvtr, 
li{;ainst belns cous\dQK«*\ ^ U'\«\x^v>^^'^v(^« 



OF RICHAaB BAXTER. 657 



I 



popish views which were held by the class of persons referred 
to. There is no proper halting place between high- church 
principles and those of Rome. A* system identifying man's 
authority with God's, laying claim to apostolic authority, and 
connecting God's salvation with the ministry of man, modified 
in whatever way, is essentially popish and anti-Christian in its 
chanlcter and claims. The parties holding it may be more or 
less entitled to respect as men of learning or of piety, but 
resistance of their doctrines is binding on all who value the 
principles of our common Protestantism and our common 
Christianity. ' 

Of a similar nature to the works just mentioned, is another 
production of our indefatigable Author, ^ Against Revolt to a 
Foreign Jurisdiction, which would be to England its Perjury, 
Church ruin, and Slavery.' 1691. 8vo. lliis work, though much 
6f it had been written long before, was not published, as ap- 
pears from its date, till near the end of his life. He dedicates it to 
Ills 'reverend and desired friend,' Dr. John Tillotson, then dean 
of St. Paul's, whom he earnestly entreats to present it to the next 
convocation, to induce it, if possible, to make a public renun- 
ciation of a foreign jurisdiction, and to discountenance the 
books which were written in its favour. It is not probable that 
milotson complied with this request. Some of the historical 
information contained in the work, of the attempts which had 
been made, at various times, to bring England under the juris- 
diction of Rome, is curious, and clearly shows that the fears and 
jealousies of Baxter and his friends, were not without cause. 
It may be considered as Baxter's final answer to Peirce, Heylin, 
Bramhall, Hammond, Sparrow, Parker, Dodwell, Thorndike^ 
Sherlock, &c., and furnishes a key to many of the differences, 
both civil and religious, which had occurred in the kingdom. 
There is one chapter where he gives a summary view of the 
attempts to introduce, at least, a species of episcopal Popery 
and arbitrary government into this country, from the time of 
Elizabeth, of the successful resistance it experienced, and of the 
final result ; which I should have been glad to quote, had my 
limits permitted. It begins at page 332. 

•The Protestant Religion Truly Stated and Justified,' is a 

' Much of the correspondence between Dodwell and Baxter was friendly, 
and a great deal still remains unpublished. There is one letter from Dodwell 
to Baxter still preserved among the MSS. of the latter^ in twenty closely-writ- 
ten folio pftges, full of the learuing for which DodweU was distinguished. 

VOL. I. U U 



658 THB LIFB AND WBITIV68 

posthumous publication, which appeared shortly aft^ hb death, 
with a prefoce by Dr. Williams and Mr. Sylvester, though the 
work had been given to the printer by Baxter himself finishec^ 
before they saw it. This may be regarded as Baxter's l^acy 
on the subject of Popery. It is a small 12mo Tolume; but 
contains, in fifty- two short sections, a summary of the wbok 
controversy, in answer to a work which had appeared a short 
time before his death, entitled 'The Touchstone of the Re- 
formed Gospel.' At the conclusion there is a singular pra|cri 
which I quote, as probably the last Baxter wrote for the pnwii 
''From the serpent's seed, and his deceiving aubtle liei| 
from Cain and his successors, and the malignant^ blood-thirsty 
enemies of Abel's faithful acceptable worship; from such a 
worldly-and-fieshly'sacred generation as take g^in for godlinei^ 
make their worldly carnal interest the standard of their ie» 
ligion, and their proud domination to pass for the kingdoqi of 
Christ; from an usurping vice-Christ, whoae ambition bjM> 
boundless, as to extend to the prophetical, prieaUyj and kingly 
headship, over all the earth, even to the antipodes, aqd tp tint 
which is proper to God himself, and our Redeemer j from a 
leprous sect, which condemneth the far greatest part of ail 
Christ's church on earth, and separateth from them, calling 
itself the whole and only church; from that church which 
decreeth destruction, all that renounce not all human seate, 
by believing that bread is not bread, nor that wine is wine, but 
Christ's very flesh and blood, who now hath properly no flesh 
and blood, but a spiritual body — that decreeth the excom- 
munication, deposition, and damnation, of all princes who will 
not exterminate all such, and absolveth their subjects from 
their oaths of allegiance; from that beast whose mark is/tfr, 
perjury f perMiousue^s, and persecution, and that thinketh it 
doeth God acceptable service, by killing his servants, or tor- 
menting them ; from that religion which feedeth on Christ's 
flesh, by sacrificing those that he calleth his flesh and bones; 
from the infernal dragon, the father of lies, malice, and murder, 
and all his ministers and kingdom of darkness — ^Good Lord 
make haste to deliver thy flock, confirm their faith, hope, pa- 
tience ; and their jqyfui desire of the great, true, final, glorieus 
deliverance. Amen, Amen, Amen ! " 

I have compressed within as narrow limits as possible the 
account of Baxter's writings on the Popish con^versy j yet the 



O? RICHAAD BAXTBR. 659 

reader will perceive even from this imperfect review, how deeply 
he entered into the subject. He left no one point in the exten- 
^sive field it embraces untouched; and has supplied among his 
various works a complete library on Popery. Much extraneous 
matter is indeed to be found, and many topics are laboured with 
tiresome prolixity ; but this would not be felt at the time they 
were written so much as now. The subject was then deeply 
interesting ; the fates of religion and of the kingdom trembled on 
the success or failure of the opposition to the Roman faith ; so 
that all who felt for the happiness of men, and the liberty of 
their country, would read with avidity whatever was written in 
their defence. 

It required no small measure of courage to occupy a promi- 
nent place on the Protestant side of this controversy, especially 
during the latter years of Charles II. and the reign of James. 
The prinqiples of the court, and the leanings of the high-church 
clergy, were all in favour of Rome ; so that every man who 
opposed it» was marked as an enemy, and would certainly have 
been selected as a victim on the re-establishment of papal 
authority m England. Such a foe as Baxter, however, was 
not tD be deterred by the apprehefiiion of future dan|;er« Hi, 
had fully counted the cost when he entered the field ; and should, 
he have fallen in it while fighting in his Master's cause, he 
would have regarded it as a distinguished honour. 

The writings of Baxter alone, show how unjust is the reproach- 
that has sometimes been thrown on Protestiant ditsentemi' 
that when the interests of Protestantism were exposed to im-- 
minent danger, they stood aloof, allowing the champions of 
the church of England to fight all its battles. The leading 
Nonconformists all took part in this Controversy with Rome, as 
fax as could be expected from men in their circumstances. Blit 
it would be unreasonable to look for the same efforts from* 
persons deprived of their means of livingi often separated from, 
books, destitute of the means of procuring them, as from persohs . 
who were in possession of the dignified leisure and profusion of' 
assistance, afforded by a wealthy establishment. But even under : 
all these disadvantages, none of the dignified clergy wrote so 
voluminously, and few of them wrote so well on this subject^ as 
Richard Baxter. 



U u 2 



660 TUB L1F£ AND WRITINGS 



CHAPTER IX- 



WORKS ON ANTINOMIANISM. 

The Nature of Antioomianism— lU Appearance at the Refonnatioii— Origi- 
nated in Popery— Ori^n in England— The SentimenU of Cri^— Baittf^ 
early Hostility to it— The chief Subject of his * Confession of Faith*— Dr. 
Fowler — Baxter's 'Holiness, the Desig:n of Christiani^'— ' Appeal ts 
the Light '— < Treatise of Justifying Righteousneu'— Publication of Criipl's 
Works— Controversy which ensued— Baxter's * Scripture Gospel Defended' 
—The Influence of his Writings and Preaching on AntinomSanisniF-Leid- 
ing Errors of the System. 

An inspired apostle, speaking of the law of God, declares 
that ^^ it is holy, just, and good/' It is a manifestation of the 
moral purity of the divine character, a statement of the relations 
which subsist between God and his creatures, with a view of the 
equitable claims to homage and obedience which those relations 
imply. While its every requirement breathes the . perfect be- 
nevolence of its Author, the whole tends to promote the hap- 
piness of those who obey it. 

Antinomianism is enmity to this law; hatred of its purity, op- 
position to its justice, or stispicion of its benevolence. In this 
naked form of the matter, it is scarcely probable that there is 
under the profession of religion, a single Antinomian in the 
world. The sanity of that individual would be justly question- 
able who should maintain principles so incompatible with the 
common sense of mankind, and obviously subversive of the moral 
order of the universe. 

The fact, however, is undoubted, that many persons have 
adopted views of the religion of Christ which virtually imply 
a renunciation of regard to the divine law, and tend to the 
entire subversion of its authority. If in their own practice 
there is not a violation of its precepts, they are careful it should 
be understood that their conduct is not indebted to the law for 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 661 

regulation or purity^ and that they deny its claims to any au- 
thority over them. They assert the freedom of believers in 
Christy from the canon as well as fr6m the curse of the law ; 
and that if they do what is required, it is not because it is there 
enjoined^ or because there is any longer danger of its penalty, 
but because grace secures provision for holiness^ and makes the 
believer complete in Christ. 

These views are alleged to be essenUal to the glory of the 
dospel, to exalt the grace of Christ, and to be essentially ne- 
cessary to Christian peace and comfort. Other sentiments 
are proscribed as legal, or anti-evangelical, expressive of low 
views of the Saviour, indicative of a state of bondage and 
servility of spirit, and inconsistent with Christian confidence 
and liberty. The parties are thus at issue on first prin- 
ciples. They occupy no common ground. The Scriptures 
are in vain appealed to, a large portion of them being vir* 
tually abrogated, and a system of interpretation adopted set* 
ting at defiance all rules, and destructive of all enlightened 
deductions. 

It is worthy ^{ attention that sentiments of the above descrip-' 
tion virere associated at an early period with the Protestant 
Reformation. Agricola, one of the friends and coadjutors of 
Lmther, publicly avowed opinions respecting the law, which 
Luther found it necessary to resist and expose. He perceived 
the tendency of such views, not only to bring reproach on the 
principles of the Reformation, but to open the flood-gates of 
impiety, and subvert the grace of Christ itself; which his vain^ 
unsteady, and ill- taught associate, pretended greatly to honour. 
The zeal and enlightened efforts of Luther, however, though 
they counteracted, could not altogether eradicate the evil prin- 
ciples which were then disseminated, and in some quarters 
carried to the utmost excess of riot and profligacy. 

To account for this, it is not sufiicient to refer to the de- 
pravity of human nature, and a tendency to abuse the best 
things. Reference to the doctrines of the papal church', and to 
the prodigious revolution that took place in the minds of men, 
on the most important subjects, when the light of truth first 
burst in upon them, will enable us to solve in a satisfactory 
manner an apparently difficult problem, and to throw the dis- 
grace of Antinomianism, — the opprobrium of Protestantism^ on 
Popery itself. 



1562 THS LIFX AND WBITIKGS 

Under that horrid system of delusion and unrighteoutaen, 
salvation is regarded as almost exclusively a human, transaction, 
in which the Deity has a remote concern^ but which must be, ia 
a great measure, effected by man for himself, or in eo-<iperatiaB 
with his fellow mortals. The docjtrines of the ment of good 
•works, of the efficacy of penance, of the sacrifice of th« nuMi 
offered by priestly* hands, of the interceadon of sabita, and <if the 
purification of purgatory, all tended to create Ihe idea that re- 
.demption from sin and from wrath, with the cure of all the evik 
.of our nature,' belongs to man himself, and that the Almighty 
interferes in it only as he is acted upon by hia creaturea. Oa 
God's part no room is left for the exercise of grace ; all ia ob* 
•tained as matter of rightful claim, or extorted by a syatem of 
barter and importunity. On the part of man, while the ay stem 
seems to bring salvation within his own powers it really de* 
prives him of every satisfactory hope of obtaining it. It either 
puffs him up with pride and self-conceit, derived from erio* 
neous notions of his own virtues, or depresses him with* despair 
of accomplishing his object by his own feeble and unaided 
efforts. The law (but the law degraded, obscured, and per- 
verted) is the only part of religion recognised by Popery. 

The German Reformer discovered at an early period of hb 
career this grand flaw, the origo maU, of the whole system, or 
mystery of iniquity. It had put God out of his own place ia 
the administration of the world ; had seated a usurper on hb 
throne, and made man himself that usurper. In the economy of 
^ademption, Luther discovered that God, and not the creature, ii 
Jhe main worker ; that grace, not equity,' is the great principle of 
the divine conduct towards fallen creatures ; that by the deeds 
of the law, no flesh can be justified before God : and hence, that 
aalvation by faith, not by works, is the grand subject of CSiris- 
tianity. The doctrine of gratuitous justification, he, therefore^ 
contended for as the leading truth of the Gospel. As the 
ground of hope, he opposed it to every system of self-righteoes* 
ness, to all supposed conformity to God's own law, and to every 
accommodation of that law to human imperfection. He regarded 
salvation as that which could not be purchased by human merit, 
or secured as the reward of any service or suffering of man* 

So much importance did Luther attach to this doctrine, that 
he not only viewed it as the articulus stantia et cadenlis ee^ 
clesuB; he V\\inse\i \ook^d. ^t. the law with something like 



OF RIGHABD BAXTBtt. 663 

atispicion of its being unfriendly to the grace of Christ. Jea- 
lousy for the honour of the main principle of his system^ led 
him frequently to employ language about the law,^ unguarded 
and dangerous in its tendency ; and to speak both of James 
and his epistle, as if he considered them inimical to his senti-^ 
ments. Notwithstanding this, the general views of Luther 
wera too enlightened and scriptural to consist with any im«« 
portant or practical error. He took care to obviate the in«* 
ferences men might draw from some of his statements, by ex« 
planations, or caveats, that sufficiently mark the limits withiti 
which they must be understood. 

; Considering the number who adopted the Protestant doctrine 
of justification by faith, it would have been strange had they all 
made a judicious use of it. Unfortunately, ^ome of those who 
received it with it))parent joy, could see no other doctrine in the 
fiible. Convinced of the hopelessness of justification by the 
law; delivered from its bondage andterror^ as well as from 
the bondage of the superinduced yoke of ceremonies, under 
which they had long groaned ; they could think of nothing 
but of grace, liberty, and confidence. From a system which 
had almost excluded God from any connexion with man's sal^^ 
▼ation, they passed to one which seemed to leave nothing for 
man but to contemplate and admire. Beholding a perfect 
righteousness by which freedom from guilt is secured to the 
believer, entirely independent of himself, they forgot that there 
is a righteousness of a personal character indispensable to the 
enjoyment of God, which cannot be performed by proxy^ or 
obtained by substitution. From hearing only the voice of 
m task master, who goaded them on by the terror of punish- 
menty they contracted a dislike to the very language of pre- 
cept, and experienced a feeling of horror at the idea of punish* 
ment, or its threatening. From considering salvation as what 
must 1)e accomplished entirely by man and in him, they adopted 
a view of it which divests it of all connexion with his personal 
character and feelings. In their minds, it became the solution 
of a moral problem, rather than a moral cure ; a sentiment to 
delight the understanding, more than a medicine to relieve the 
heart. 

' St^ch appears to me to have been the process of the early 
Protestant Antinomianism. In proportion to the strength 
€»f passion, and the weakness of understanding, belonging to 
those who received the reformed faith^ these imperfect and 



664 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

erroneous views were found to prevail ; till^ in many cases^ the 
worst abominations of Popery were grafted on a Protestant 
creed. 

To the operation of causes somewhat similar, the Antinomian- 
ism of modern times may frequently be ascribed. It is often the 
revulsion from a previous state of self -righteousness and forma* 
lity to such a professed admiration of grace, as makes the par^ 
either seem to be indifferent to the obligations and claims of mo- 
rality, or to teach what tends to their utter subversion. Dr.Crispi 
the founder of English Antinomianism, is an illustration of this* 
He was originally a low Arminian, who held the merit of good 
works, and looked for salvation more from his own doings, than 
from the work and grace of a Redeemer. Having been led to see 
the evil and folly of these sentiments, and being a man of a weak 
and confused mind, he not only abandoned the errors of his for- 
mer course, but at once passed to the opposite extreme of that 
course, and taught the grossest errors in the very grossest fomit 
Yet the man was neither licentious himself, nor disposed to 
promote licentiousness in others. His professed object was to 
exalt the Saviour, even when he employed language most de- 
grading to his character. 

What can be more injurious to all right conceptions of God's 
moral administration, and of what is due to the adorable Re- 
deemer, than the following representation ? though after all it is 
nothing more than a mistaken mode of representing the doctrine 
of imputation. Crisp confounds a transfer of consequences with 
a commutation of persons, and is thus guilty of the absurdity of 
converting Christ into a sinner. " It is iniquity itself," he says, 
^^ as well as the punishment of iniquity, that the Lord laid upon 
Christ ; he bare the sins of men, as well as he was wounded for 
their sins. The Lord hath laid this iniquity on him ; he makes 
a real transaction ; Christ stands as very a sinner in God's eyes 
as the reprobate, though not as the actor of these transgressions; 
yet as he was the surety, the debt became as really his as it was 
the principals' before it became the surety's." ' 

On the same absurd plan he reasons respecting God's views 
of the sins of his people before they believe, confounding all 
our notions of good and evil. " The Lord hath no more to lay 
to the charge of an elect person, yet in the height of iniquity, 
and in the excess of riot, and committing all the abominations 
tliat can be committed — 1 say even then, when an elect person 

• Works, vol. ii. pp. 261, 263. 



OV RICHARD BAXTBR. 665 

nmsfmch a couree, the Lord hath no more to lay to that per- 
son's cnarge, than God hath to lay to the charge of a believer; 
nay^ God hath no more to lay to the charge of such a person, 
than he hath to lay to the charge of a saint triumphant in glory/'^ 

By the same effectual process he gets rid of all their sins 
after they do believe. '^ Give me a believer that hath set his 
footing truly in Christ; and he blasphemes Christ, that dares 
aerve a writ of damnation upon that person. Suppose a be- 
liever overtaken in a gross sin, it is a desperate thing in any 
man so much as to serve a writ of damnation upon this believer ; 
it is absolutely to frustrate and make void the Mediatorship and 
Saviourship of Christ, to say any believer, though he be fallen 
by infirmity, is in the estate of damnation. And I say unto 
thee thyself, whoever thou art, thou that art ready to charge 
damnation upon thyself, when thou art overtaken, thou dost the 
greatest injury to the Lord Jesus Christ that can be, for in it 
thou directly overthrowest the fulness of the grace of Christ, and 
the fulness of the satisfaction of Christ to the Father/'H 

He maintains that the law has nothing to do with the trans- 
gressions of such persons, even of the grossest kind, and thus 
prepares an opiate for the utmost profligacy, under the Christian 
name. '^ Suppose a member of Christ, a freeman of Christ, 
should happen to fall, not only by a failing or slip, but also by 
a gross failing, a heavy failing, nay, a scandalous fedling into 
sin ; Christ making a person free, doth disannul, frustrate, and 
make void, every curse and sentence that is in the law, against 
such a transgressor ; that this member of Christ is no more 
under the curse when he hath transgressed, than he was before 
he transgressed. This I say, Christ hath conveyed him beyond 
the reach of the curse ; it concerns him no more than if he had 
not transgressed. Therefore, let me tell you in a word, if ye.be 
free men of Christ, you may esteem all the curses of the law^ 
as no more concerning you, than the laws of England do con- 
cern Spain, or the laws of Turkey an Englishman, with whom 
they have nothing to do. I do not say the law is absolutely 
abolished, but it is abolished in respect of the curse of it ; to 
every person that is a freeman of Christ. So, though such a 
man do sin, the law hath no more to say to him, than if he 
had not sinned." ' 

In consistency with these principles, he maintains that sane- 
tification, though connected with justification, is no part of the 

< Works, vol. iU p. 272. » Ibid. vol. i. p. 36. < Ibid. p. 20—245. 



669 THB LIB AMD .wirrimis 

Miever*8 way to heaven; and that Inherent qualificatioifk er te 
aCate of the character^ are doabtful eridenoeajof the CSuMiin's 
hope. In shorty he confounds the divine eternal pwpose of 
meicy with its actual application ; compassioQ for thie sine rf 
men, with complacency in the sinner himself | the fennncistlDa 
•f the law as the principle of justification^ with ita aboBtiM ai 
an eternal rule of righteousness; Christ with the believei^ 9td 
the bclierer with Christ. All this is dona with a gftu shovsf 
piety, and high«-8ounding pretensions to sKtrtardinary eeelfsr 
ihe honour of the Saviour* 

. His writings abound with the ultraism of grace, and a Inscioii 
aesi in speaking about it, which is oftm ludicrous and diqjat^ 
log. Of which let the following serve as a specimen : ^ QvM 
is a way as the cellars of wine are unto drunkards, that era 
never better than when they are at their cups; and thereiMreBa 
place like the cellar, where is fulness Jot wine, always to ha 
. tippling and drinking : I say, Christ is such a way, and letaH 
not be oflfenrive to say so^ for the church qpeaks io the ssaw 
language (Canticles ii. 4, 5), * He brought me (aaith she) iato 
hia wipe cellar : stay me with flagons, comfort roe with qppis% 
far I am sick of love/ Beloved, Christ hath such ▼ariety of 
delicates served in continually, and such sweetness in tUs 
variety, that the soul is no longer satisfied than it is with Christ. 
Here is not staying with cups, much less with half cups, bat 
staying ^th whole flagons; there is a kind of inebriatii^ 
whereby Christ doth, in a spiritual sense, make the believers thst 
keep him company spiritu^ly drunk, he overcomes them with 
his wine/'' 

IVuly, the whole of this monstrous representation seems more 
like the sportings of a reveller than ^he production of Chrb- 
tian intelligence and sobriety. I have entered into this detsil, 
tp enable the reader to understand the kind of Antinonrianisai 
against which Baxter waged determined war. Dr. Crisp died 
in 1643. He published nothing during his lifetime ; but shortly 
after his death three vohimes of sermons, from which the 
above extracts are taken, were published by some of his ad- 
mirers. He appears to have had a number of followers : seve* 
ral persons in the ministry also imbibed and taught his senti* 
ments ; and the excitement of the civil wars matured and ea* 
panded every form of heresy and extravagance which luqp- 
pened to fall or be thrown on the fertile soil of England. 

. . T Vol. i. pp. 103, 104. . 



. Of BICHARD BAXTER. 667 

, f' In iny Confession/' says Baxter, ''I opened the whole doc* 
trine of Antinomianism which I opposed ; and I brought the 
testtmonies of abundance of our divines, who gare as much to 
other acts, besides faith in justification, as !• I opened the 
weakness of Dr. Owen's reasonings for justification before 
frith) in his former answer to me. To which he wrote an an-> 
•fper^ annexing it to his confutation of Biddle and the Craco« 
vian catechism, t6 intimate that I belonged to that party, so 
that I thought it unfit to make any reply to it. 

*^ But for all the writings and wrath of men which were pro«* 
v{>ked against me, I must here record my thanks to God for the 
access of my controversial writings against the Antinomians* 
When I was in the army, it was the predominant infection. 
The books of Dr. Crisp, Pftul Hobson, Saltmarsh, Cradock, 
jand abundance such -like, were the writings most applauded ; 
asd he was tliought no spiritual Christian, but a legalist, that 
•anroured not of Antinomianism, which was sugared with the 
title of free grace. Others were thought to preach the law^ 
and not to preach Christ : and I confess the darkness of many 
preachers, in the mysteries of the Gospel, and our common 
lieglect of studying and preaching grace, and gratitude, and 
love, did give occasion to the prevalency of this sect, which 
€bd, no doubt, permitted for our good to renew our apprehen- 
aion of those evangelical graces and duties which we barelji 
acknowledged, and in our practice almost overlooked. But this 
aect that then so much prevailed, became so suddenly almost ex- 
tinct, that now they little appear, and make no noise at all, nor 
have done these many years. In which effect, those ungrateful 
controversial writings of my ovm have had so much hand, as 
obligeth.me to very much thankfulness to God."* 

I have already noticed Baxter's ^Aphorisms,' ^Apology,' 
and 'Confession of Faith,' in treating of his doctrinal writ* 
ings; but as they have all, especially the last, connexion 
with the Antinomian controversy, it is necessary to advert 
to some of them again. In his 'Confession,' he goes most 
fully into the subject, and shows that he had studied it most 
profoundly. His reference to Owen, in the passage of his 
Life just quoted, is painful, as are all his references to that 
eminent man. Owen was not always correct in his phraseology 
on doctrinal subjects; but it is quite unnecessary to say he was 
neither an Antinomian, nor a high Calvinist in the modem 

* LUe, part i. p. 3. 



TBI un AKD wunvm 

aenie of that expreMion. Baxter was prejadioed at hk mBUt, 
and therefore looked at all his writinga with jealouqr and &• 
like. The other penons to whom he refers were ai differaH 
classes. Saltmarsh was a mystic and a fimatie^ who sfMMtMl 
the wildest and most incoherent rhapsodies." Hdbson was a 
military captain^ and a Baptist preacher. Cradock, and Vafanr 
Powell^ whom idso Baxter elsewhere rep rese nt a aa an AnliBa^ 
mian, were both, I believe^ very excellent and laborioiia preadh 
ers in Wales, who had nothing beyond m tinctnre of Ugh CUk 
▼inism in their sentiments. 

After noticing what he considered the tendency ai the cfi* 
nions he opposes^ and what he knew of thar actual cflbeti^ 
he presents, in the following admirable passage^ m Tiew ef lb 
own feelings and resolutions, in reference to the conlw if cisy. 

^ These reasons having excited my aeal against thb sNt| 
above many others, I have accordingly judged it my doty m 
bend myself against them in all my writings, especially whsa I 
saw how greedily multitades of poor soak did take the bstti 
and how exceedingly the writings and preachings of SahmaMh 
and many of his fellows did take with them. Upon tkiS| I 
perceive the men that, in any measure, go that way, are engaged 
against me ; and how to appease them I know not. I woidd 
as willingly know the truth as some of them, if I could* Saie 
I am I have as much reason. My soul should be as predoos la 
me. Christ should be as much valued ; grace should be as 
much magnified ; self should be as much denied. I am as 
deeply beholden to Christ and free grace as most poor raincfs 
in the world: and should I vilify or wrong the form anopi* 
nion, or I know not what! Every man that is drawn from 
Christ is drawn by some contrary prevailing interest. What 
interest should draw me to think meanly of my Saviour or his 
free grace ? For free remission alone, without any conditioOy 
or an eternal justification, I do not perceive but that my very 
carnal part would fain have it to be true. I have flesh as wdl 

" Of Saltmarsb, Crandon, who supported his principles, and attacked Bax- 
ter, says, ** 1 have been told by some of his godly acqnainta&ce, thai A* 
man had a natural impotency, or craziness in his brain. And the whirlwind 
of imaginations wherewith he was carried to a hasty taidng up of opinioaSf 
and no less hurling away of them again ; the much of the top, and the Kttk 
of the bottom, of wit ; the flashes of nimbleness, a'nd the wantof solidify aad 
depth in his writings ; his inconsistency with himself, with c»tben, with ths 
Scriptures ; his extreme mutability, and wandering from tropic to tro|»c, with* 
out settledness anywhere, in great measure prove the report to be tnie."-* 
QroHdon agamtt Baxter's Aphorumst p. 138. 



OF lUCHARD BAXTER. 669 

at they; and if I am able to discern the pleadings or inclinations 
of that fleshy it runs their way, in contradiction to the spirit. 
The Lord knows I have as little reason to extol my own righ- 
teousness, or place my confidence in works and merits, as 
oAer men have. I must truly say, the Lord holdeth my sins 
much more before mine eyes, than my good works. The one 
are mountains to me, the other I can scarce tell whether I may 
owiij in propriety, without many cautions and limitations. I 
ha;?e therefore no carnal interests of my own that I can possi- 
bly discover, to lead me against the way of these men, or engage 
me to contend against them. Yet I am not able to forbear. 
I confess I am an irreconcilable enemy to their doctrines, and 
so let them take me. I had as lief tell them so as hide it. 
The more I pray God to illuminate me in these things, the 
more I am animated against them. The more I search after 
the truth in my studies, the more I dislike them ; the more I 
read their own books, the more do I see the vanity of their 
conceits : but, above all, when I do but open the Bible, I can 
seldom meet with a leaf that is not against them.'' * 

The most valuable part of the Confession is the statement in 
parallel columns, of the doctrines of Antinomianism and of Po- 
pery, in the two extremes, with what Baxter regarded as the truth 
placed between them. It is drawn up with great care, and is 
only necessary to be perused to satisfy the reader on which side 
the truth really lies. Not that I approve of all his own repre- 
sentations, they are generally too verbose, often too technical^ 
and sometimes erroneous. But, on the whole, they contain a 
valuable statement of important truth, and clearly prove that 
Baxter was not only orthodox, but strictly evangelical. He is 
chiefly objectionable when he speaks of the interest of repent- 
ance and good works in our justification, as well as faith. His 
phraseology is unscriptural, and calculated to mislead; but 
when he comes to explain it, it means nothing more than that 
men cannot come to the kingdom of heaven without repent- 
ance and obedience, which are always the accompaniments of 
genuine faith. 

The next performance of Baxter, that has reference to this 
controversy, is a small tract, which I shall introduce to the 
leader by the following extract from his Life. 

^ Dr. Edward Fowler, a very ingenious, sober Conformist, 

* Confestioii, pp» 3, 4, 



670 THE J.IFB AND WRITINGS 

wrote two books, one, ^ An Apology for the Latitiidi n a rian H,* as 
they were then called ; the other entitled, ^ Holiness the Design 
of Christianity/ in which he sometimes put in the word only 
which gave offence, and the book seemed to some to have a acan^ 
dalouR design to obscure the glory of free justification, under pre^ 
tence of extolling holiness as the only design of man's redemptioiu 
This occasioned a few sheets of mine on the said book and 
question, for reconciliation, and clearing up of the point ; whieii^ 
when Mr. Fowler saw, he wrote to tell me that he was of mf 
judgment, only he had delivered that more generally Which 
I opened more particularly ; and that the word was only hypers 
bolically spoken*, as I had said. But he spake feelingly agaiml 
those quarrelsome men that are readier to censure than to mn 
derstand. I returned him some advice, to take heed lestth^ 
weakness and censoriousness should make him too angry and 
impatient with religious people, as the prelates are | and so to 
run into greater sin than theirs, by favouring a looser party 
because they are less censorious. To which he returned tne m^ 
ingenuous and hearty thanks, for as great kindness as ever wia 
^owed him } which told me that free and frietidly counsel Id 
wise and good men is not lost." ^ 

The treatise of Dr. Fowler, who was afterward bishop ci 
Gloucester, is on an important subject, and it is managed, on 
the whole, with considerable ability. The full title of it is, ^ The 
Design of Christianity ; or, a plain demonstration and improve- 
ment of this proposition, That the enduing men with inward, 
real righteousness, or true holiness, was the ultimate end of our 
Saviour's coming into the world, and is the great intendmenl 
of the blessed Gospel.' 1671. 8vo. 

The work of Fowler had no intentional reference to the An* 
tinomian controversy, though the subject belongs to the very 
essence of it ; and the treatise contains much that could be 
turned to profitable account in that discussion. Baxter's tract 
was not designed as an answer to, but rather as a corroborations 
of Fowler's book ; and to point out its bearing in this cou*. 
troversy. It is entitled, ^ How far Holiness is the Design of 
Christianity; where the nature of holiness and morality is 
opened, and the doctrine of justification, imputation of sin, ahd 
righteousness, partly cleared, and vindicated from abuse. In» 
certain propositions returned to an unknown person, referring 
to Mr, Fowler's treatise on this subject.' 1671. 4to. There is 

^ Life, part uL p. 8i». 



OF RICHARD BAXTSR. 671 

^ Aothitig in the body of the pamphlet which requires particular 
notice I but the conclusion of it is worthy of being quoted. 

^^ Undoubtedly, holiness is the life and beauty of the soul. The 
qiirit of holiness is Christ's agent to do his work in us, and our 
pledge, and earnest, and first fruit of heaven ; it is Christ's work, 
and subordinately comes to cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh 
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of Ood. Christ, the 
Spirit, the Word, the ministry, mercies, afflictions, and all 
things, are to bring home our hearts to God, and to work to^ 
gether for our good, by making us partakers of his holiness* 
Our holiness is our love of God, who is most holy ; and our 
knre of God, and reception of his love, are our heaven and ever- 
laating happiness | where, having no more sin to be forgiven^ 
but being presented without spot or wrinkle to God, we shall 
for ever both magnify the Lamb that hath redeemed us and 
washed us from all our sins in his blood, and made us kings and 
priests to God ; and shall also, with all the holy society, sing. 
Holy, holy, holy, to the blessed Jehovah, who is, and was, and 
is to oome, to whom all the heavenly host shall give thb special 
part of praise for ever/' ^ 

A lermon preached by Baxter at the Rnner's Hall Tuesday 
morning lecture, contained some remarks on the Antinomians, 
or those whom he considered such, which gave great offence* 
This was rather frequently the case with regard to him while 
preaching in London. His dislike to the Independents, whom 
he was fond of representing as Antinomians, led him to use 
Ifingiuage that was considered to convey personal reflections 
on some of their most approved ministers, which, as might have 
been expected, was resented by their friends. The consequence' 
of this kind of bickering was the separation of the two parties 
in that joint lecture. In the foUomng paragraph of his Life, 
speaking of the transactions of the year 1674, he says : 

*^ Having preached at Pinner's Hall for love and peace, divers 
false reports went current among the Separatists, and from them 
to other Nonconformists, that I preached against the imputation 
of Christ's righteousness, and for justification by our own rights 
eousness, and that the Papists and Protestants differ but in 
words, &c« So that I was constrained to publish the truth of 
the case in a sheet of paper, called ^ An Appeal to the Light,' 
which, though it evinced the falsehoods of their reports, and no 
one man did ever after justify them that ever 1 could hear of, 

• * Holiness, the Oesigi^ of ClurisUuuty ,' pp. 21 , 22« 



672 THB UFB AND WBITINGS 

yet did they persevere in their general accusation, and I had 
letters from several counties stating that the London accusers had 
written to them, that 1 had, both in the sermon and in that paper 
called ^ An Appeal to the Light,' done more to strengthen 
Popery, than ever was done by any Papists. This was the reward 
of all my labours, from the separating Independents.'' ^ 

Whether by an Independent or not, I cannot tell, but tills 
appeal of Baxter's was answered immediately in a very smart 
and brief pamphlet : ' Animadversions on a sheet of Mr« 
Baxter's, entitled, ^ An Appeal to the Light ;' for the further 
Caution of his Credulous Readers/ Oxford* 1675. 4to. The 
author of this tract shows that Baxter had roundly charged 
persons with Antinomianism, to whom it did not belong; and 
that his own explanations of the subject of justification, were by 
no means satisfactory. Both these positions, it must be acknow- 
ledged, are correct. Many of those of whom he spoke, were 
decided Calvinists, high rather than moderate ; but who were 
grossly misrepresented when classed among Antinomians. Soeh 
men as Owen, Tully, Bagshaw, Bunyan, ought not to have been 
ranked with Saltmarsh, Hobson, and others of that stamp. 
Baxter often injured his own cause by his injudicious manner of 
advocating it. Though sometimes he states the doctrine of jus- 
tification very well, in general he beclouds it with his distinctions 
and definitions ; so that no one who understands it will prefer 
his explanations of this doctrine to those of the writers whom he 
opposes. 

In the collection of pieces which Baxter published in 1676j 
under the general titie of * A Treatise of Justifying Right- 
eousness,' to which reference has already been made in the 
chapter on his doctrinal works, Antinomianism is the chief 
object of his attention. The first book, which treats of im- 
puted righteousness, and the reply to Dr. Tully's letter, enter 
very fully into the history and merits of the controversy. To 
the discussion with Tully, or the debate in which that writer 
had long engaged with Bull, it is unnecessary further to advert 
in this place. Those who wish to enter largely into the subject 
must consult Nelson's * Life of Bishop Bull,' where it is stated 
with great fairness and candour. In Baxter's treatise, the 
chief things of importance are his historical view of the pro- 
gress of tlie Antinoinian controversy, with the account of his 
own connexion with it ; and a few passages, in which he very 



OP RICRARP BAXTER. 673 

accurately explains the nature of that connexion which sub- 
sists between Christ and his people, in virtue of which they 
enjoy the benefits of his redemption. In some of these para- 
graphs he states the doctrine of imputation in such a way as 
must commend itself to every enlightened mind, and so as com- 
pletely exposes the absurdity of imputed sanctification. With 
no less propriety he states the moral or analogical sense, in which 
the Scriptures speak of Christ's righteousness as the property of 
his people. Had he and others always spoken in the intel- 
ligible and scriptural manner, on this important subject, which is 
done in some parts of this volume, how much good might have 
been effected, and what a quantity of useless debate and alterca- 
tion would have been prevented ! The unnatural strain and con- 
struction which have been put on the language of Scripture, 
on several points in this controversy, have created great con- 
fusion, and have been attended with many injurious conse- 
quences. The ignorance and weakness of some occasion 
misconceptions of Scripture phraseology, which the technical 
lafiguage and wire-drawn distinctions of men of superior minds 
often tend to increase rather than to remove. 

Almost at the very close of his life, and after he judged An- 
tinomianism in a great measure to have been destroyed, Baxter 
was roused to the re-consider^tion of the subject, in conse- 
quence of the re-publication of Dr. Crisp's works, by his son, 
Samuel Crisp. To this edition was prefixed a document, sub- 
scribed with twelve names of London dissenting ministers, 
among whom were Messrs. Howe, Griffiths, Cockain, Chauncy, 
Alsop, and .Mather. Considering the nature of Crisp's sen- 
timents, and the outrageous language which he employs in 
his sermons, it is deeply to be regretted that such men had any 
thing to do with the publication. They do not, however, re- 
commend or approve the sentiments, but declare their belief 
that the discourses as published, with additions, by his son^ 
really were Dr. Crisp's. 

This publication very nearly occasioned a controversy between 
Baxter and Howe, who was one of the subscribers of the attesta- 
tion. Baxter wak exceedingly displeased that the doctrines of 
Crisp should appear, even in the slightest degree, to be counte- 
nanced by such persons. He drew up a paper, therefore, with 
some warmth, against a practice which he thought had a very 

VOL, !• XX. 



674 THE LIFB AN0 WRITINGS 

pernicious tendency. Mr. Howe^ wai^ng on him, praviikd 
with him to stop it before it was published and dispersed, upon 
his promising to prefix a declaration, with reference to ths 
names before Dr. Crisp's sermons, (which declaration, alsciii 
should have several names to it,) to a book of Mr* Flavel'i^ 
then going to press, entitled, 'A Blow at the Rootj or, the 
Causes and Cure of Mental Errors,' This was ucemUnfjij 
done ; yet many remained dissatisfied. * 

Though this prevented a personal discussion with Howe, it 
did not keep Baxter from engaging in the general cootiavmif* 
In the preface by Samuel Crisp, the editor, Baxter ccmsidered 
himself attacked, though he was not named, and therefore felt 
that he was called once more to contend for the fiuth deliraed 
to the saints. He was thus led to publish ^ The Scripture Gospel 
Defended, and Christ, Grace, and Free Justification Vindicatedi 
against the Libertines/ 1690. 8vo. This work is divided into 
two books. The first is, ^A Breviate of Fifty Controversies 
about Justification.' The second is, ^ A Dialogue between sa 
Orthodox Zealot and Reconciling Monitor, vmtten on the Re- 
viving of the Errors, and the Reprinting and Reception, of Dr« 
Crisp's Writings,' &c. In this second book, he describes a 
hundred of their errors. He then endeavours to moderate 
men's censure of their persons: and, thirdly, assigns reasons 
for not replying to them more at large. 

Baxter saw only the commencement of the controversy re- 
specting Crisp's sentiments, which agitated and consumed the 
dissenters for more than seven years after he had gone to his 
rest. He was succeeded by his friend Dr. Williams, who took 
the lead in the discussion in support of the doctrines of what 
may be called moderate Calvinism ; and who, after incredible 
exertion, and no small portion of suffering, finally succeeded in 
clearing the ground of the Antinomians : scarcely any of them 
being left among the reputed dissenting ministers of the metro- 
polis at the beginning of the last century. The best account 
of this controversy, both as carried on in the church and 
among the dissenters, for it was not confined to one party, is 
given by Nelson, in his ^ Life of Bishop Bull,' to which f b^ to 

• Calamy's Own Life, vol. i. pp. 322, 323. Tht paper prefixed to Flavd*! 
Treatise is subscribed by seveu out of the twelve who had prefixed their 
names to the former attestation. Jn this paper Ihey entirely disclaim any io- 
tention to approve of Crisp's doctrine, and declare they were merely caUe4 
to attest the sou's iate^rity as the publisher of hit fatber*i niaauscripti* 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 67S 

refer the reader who feels interested in its further details. I 
confine myself to a few additional observations on Baxter's 
connexion with it 

I do not regard his controversial writings, as having ren- 
dered any very essential service in this discussion. He has, in- 
deed, stated himself to be of a different opinion ; and it waa 
natural he should think so, considering how much he wrote oi| 
the subject. But two things which he did in this controversy 
greatly impaired his influence. He placed individuals and opi- 
nions under the charge of Antinomianism that ought not to 
have been thus treated. By this means he divided the true 
friends of that very cause which he espoused, and created addi- 
tional labour to himself; besides exciting those feelings of per- 
sonal irritation of which he so frequently complains. 

In the next place, his own system of doctrine, in which he 
spoke so much of terms and conditions, and of the interest of 
repentance and good works in justification, was not well calcu-' 
lated to soften down the prejudices of the libertines whom ho 
opposed. Many of them had good views of the freeness of 
grace, so far as that one position goes, and were not to be 
satisfied with a mode of treating the subject more objection- 
able than even the stricter Calvinism, to which they objected as 
not sufficiently high for them. If they mystified justification 
and imputation in one way, Baxter did it in another ; so that 
die scriptural scholar will probably object to the explanations 
of both parties ; though he will feel convinced that Baxter's 
views, when stripped of the 'verbiage with which they are 
clothed, were much nearer the truth than those of his oppo- 
nents, and much less calculated to injure the souls of men. 

But though his controversial writings effected little, his prac- 
tical works and preaching effected a great deal in this con- 
troversy. In these, without directly entering the lists with 
Antinomians, and probably without thinking of them, he as- 
sailed the strong holds of their system, and demolished them to 
the ground. A better remedy for any one attached to their mis* 
taken views could not, perhaps, be prescribed than a course of 
Baxterian reading. If the influence of Baxter's spirit should 
be imbibed, the cure would be certain. 

One of the great evils of the system consists in grossly in- 
correct notions of the nature of the law of God." From these 
arise imperfect ideas of human responsibility, with which are 

xx2 



676 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

necessarily connected inadequate impressions of guilt, and of the 
evil nature of sin. On all these subjects Baxter's views woe 
most enlightened ; and they were expressed with a power of do- 
quence scarcely equalled in human writings. He always speaks 
of the law of God like a man who well understood its spiritaal 
character and its unquestionable claims. He pronounces on its 
authority, not as a matter mbjudicey or which admitted of dis- 
pute ; but which had its evidence in itself, and its answer in every 
man's conscience. Sin was, in his view, not a thing of speculation, 
which men required to be convinced of by argument, but mat^ 
ter of fact, not to be denied or explained away by the sinner. 
He arraigns him before the bar of God; he drags. him to Sind; 
be pours upon his ear the denunciation of offended Heaven : 
leaving him no plea to urge, no ground to stand on, without 
repairing to Calvary and the cross. 

If the forte of some preachers and writers be the comforting 
of the broken-hearted, and that of others the building up of 
believers, the strength of Baxter lay in convincing men of sin. 
Man's responsibility for the powers and privileges which he 
enjoys, is urged by no writer with such fulness and force as 
it is by him. He had the deepest sense of this responsibility 
himself, and was thus, as well as by other considerations, in- 
duced to place it in the most powerful manner before others. 
High Calvinism, or Antinomianism, absolutely withers and de- 
stroys the consciousness of responsibility. It confounds moral 
with natural impotency, forgetting that the former is a crime, 
the latter but a misfortune ; and thus treats the man dead in 
trespasses and sins, as if he were already in his grave. It pro- 
phesies smooth things to the sinner going on in his transgres- 
sions, and soothes to slumber and the repose of death the souls 
of such as are at ease in Zion. It assumes that, because men 
can neither believe, repent, nor pray acceptably, unless aided 
by the grace of God, it is useless to call upon them to do 
80. It maintains that the Gospel is only intended for elect 
sinners, and therefore it ought to be preached to none but such. 
In defiance, therefore, of the command of God, it refuses to 
preach the glad tidings of mercy to every sinner. In opposition 
to Scripture and to every rational consideration, it contends that 
it is not man's duty to believe the truth of God ; justifying the 
obvious inference, that it is not a sin to reject it. In short, its 
whole tendency is to produce an impression on the sinner's 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 677 

mind, that if he 18 not saved, it is not his fault, but God's ; that 
if he is condemned, it is more for the glory of the divine sove- 
reignty, than as the punishment of his guilt. 

I am not acquainted with any direct process of argument by 
which such persons are likely to be cured. Their judgments are 
commonly as weak, as their understandings are perverted and ob- 
stinate. They reason in a circle, which it is a vain endeavour 
to break. They dwell on the figurative language of Scripture, 
which they apply in the most literal sense ; refusing to be subject 
to any laws or canons of interpretation. In such cases, the best 
mode of proceeding is, perhaps, that which Baxter pursued in his 
general preaching — to treat such men as sinners labouring under 
the influence of that deceitful depravity, which assumes this 
with a thousand other forms, for the destruction of its subject. 
Baxter contributed greatly to introduce this awakening and 
powerful style of preaching; and thus did more to prevent and 
counteract Antinomianism, than by all his controversial writings. 

Another fatal error of this system, respects the great design of 
the Gospel itself. That this should be mistaken, considering 
the clearness of the discovery to us, and the importance of our 
understanding that discovery, may appear surprising ; but the 
fact is undoubted. The grand object of the Gospel is the re- 
demption of sinners. That redemption necessarily includes all 
that belongs to the condition of the lost and ruined party. It 
finds man guilty, and provides for him pardon : it finds him de- 
praved, or morally diseased, and it provides a cure. It is de- 
signed to comprehend his body, soul, and spirit, and to secure 
their interests for ever. The blood of Christ, the great sacri- 
fice for sin, is made the basis of the proclamation of Heaven's 
forgiveness to all that believe; and the application of the same 
blood by which the pardon is secured, by the power of the 
divine Spirit, is made to cleanse the soul from all its impurity. 
The grand loss which man has sustained by sin, is the moral 
image of the Creator. His nature has thus been robbed of its 
highest glory, and deprived of its chief enjoyment. Mere for- 
giveness might save from punishment, but could not render 
the sinner like God, or capable of beholding his resplendent 
face in righteousness. In order to this, the divine nature must 
be again restored ; God must once more breathe into his nostrils 
the breath of life, and form him again .according to his own 
likeness in knowledge and in true holiness. 

It may be said, therefore, with the greatest propriety, that 



678 THB ura AND wjuTiiras 

men are forgiven that they maybe aanetiSed} they are. {iv* 
doned that they may be renewed. ^ HoUneaa^" aays Baatetp 
*' doubtless is that higher blessing which ftffgiTeneia teodeCh tDgi 
as a means to the end : even that God may have hk own agriiif 
which was lost, and man may again be nearer and liker to 6od| 
litter to knowt love, and honour him, and be hap|iy tbaicint'* 
This conformity to God, is the end of the dhine predeatinatkNit' 
the end of the divine election;' the grand end of the death of 
Christ ;^ the object of all the iigimctiona of the word of QcAf 
and the leading design of all the disciidine of hb Providencei^ 

Antinomianism, so far from regarding the moral eme of 
human nature as the great object and design of the Gospel^ doss 
not take it in at all, but as it exists in Christ, and becomes oor^s 
by a figure of speech. It regards the grace and the pardon as 
every thing, the spiritual design or effect as nothing. Hence its 
opposition to progressive^and its zeal for imputed aanctifieation; 
the former is intelligible and tangible, but the latter is a %• 
nent of the imagination. Hence its delight in expatiating on 
the eternity of the ditdne decrees, which it does not understmd^ 
but which serve to amuse and to deceive ; and its dislike to all 
the sober realities of God's present dealings and commands. It 
exults in the contemplation of a Christ who is a kind of con- 
cretion of all the moral attributes of his people, to the over- 
looking of that Christ who is the Head of all that in heaven 
and on earth bear his likeness ; and while unconscious of pos- 
sessing it. It boasts in the doctrine of the perseverance of 
the saints, while it believes in no saint but one, that is, Jesus, 
and neglects to persevere. '^ The dreamer must feel that sin is 
a substantial ill, in which himself is £ata)iy implicated, not a 
mere abstraction to be discoursed of; he must learn that the 
righteous God deals with mankind on terms perfectly adapted 
to the intellectual and moral conformation of human nature, of 
which He is the author ; and he must know that salvation is a 
deliverance in which man h an agent, not less than a recipient."' 

The whole object and aim of Baxter's preaching and prac- 
tical writings, were to promote holiness as the grand end of re-> 
ligion, and he who proposes another or inferior end of his mi- 
nistry, aims at something different from the main design of the 
Gospel of Christ. Baxter sometimes mistook the means of 

' Rom. viii. 29. « Ephes. i 4. ^ Ibid. v. 25—27. 

> Heb. xii. 10. k i peter i. 15, 16. 

} * Natursl Hiilory oT Enthusisini/ p. 89. 



OP KICHARD BAXTER. 679 

accomplishing his object, and employed measures which not only 
failed to convince his opponents, and correct the evils of which 
he complained, but actually exasperated them. But we inva- 
riably perceive, both in his controversial and practical writings^ 
the subject which was uppermost in his thoughts and desires. 
His definitions are sometimes incorrect^ his distinctions are 
often injudicious, and his language frequently captious and 
provoking ; but his own life was blameless and harmless, his 
character was formed on the ground of Gospel holiness, and his 
great and increasing anxiety was, to produce in others the ^- 
joyment of the same salvation which he had himself received, and 
the purifying influence of its glorious hope«°^ 

"* The Ittte Rev. Andrew Poller was one of fhe ablest antsgonlstt of Aatiao- 
BMNiiMilsai in modern timee. In < The Gospel worthy of nil AccepUtiDli,' 
Mid the Defence of it, and a poethumoue treatise on Antmomianlf m poblfehed 
in hie works, beside eeveral other of his pieces, there are some fidmirable 
▼lews of the subject. In bis Life, by Dr. Ryland, there is a i^ood deal of 
inlerestini; information respectini^ the state and profpress of Hi|^h Calnnism 
durinf the last century. A rery able and important review of Puller's writinf^ 
OB tMi» nndy indeed^ aU the subjects which engaged his pen, is giren in 
Morris's * Memoirs of Fuller/ which I recommend to the reader't attenlton 
who wishes to examine this topic at length. 



680 THE UFB AND WRITINGS 



CHAPTER X- 



WORKS ON BAPTISM, QUAKERISM, AND MILLENARIANISM. 

lotroductory Remarks — Cootroveray with Tombes — ^ Plain Proof of fnfifflt 
Baptism ' — Answered by Tombes — * More Proofs of Infant Church Mem- 
bership' — Controversy with Dan vers — 'Review of the Slate of Cbristiaa 
Infants' — Controversy with the Quakers— Early Behaviour of the Quakers 
^* Worcestershire Petition to Parliament'—* Petition Defended'— * Qua- 
ker's Catechism * — * Single Sheets ' relating to the Quakers— Controversy 
with Beverley on the Millenium — ^Account of Beverley — * The Glorioui 
Kingdom of Christ described '—Answered by Beverley — Baxter's ' Reply '*" 
Conclusion. 

Considering the variety of subjects which form strictly, or by 
implication, the divine revelation of the sacred Scriptures, and 
the diversity which characterises the modes of thinking and 
circumstances of men, by which they are more or less influenced 
in forming their opinions of the will of God, it is not surprising 
that religious controversies have in every age of tlie Christian 
churcTi been very numerous. Sometimes they relate to matters 
of great importance, and then require to be viewed with that 
seriousness and care, which are always becoming when such 
subjects are discussed. At other times they relate to subjects 
of inferior magnitude, respecting which men of equal integrity 
and decision of Christian character mav differ, without anv im- 
peachment of their principles or sincerity. It has often hap- 
pened, however, that these inferior points have been discussed 
with a warmth and violence altogether unsuitable, and which 
have tended to exasperate and to wound, instead of producing 
reconciliation and healing. Asperity, crimination, and provok- 
ing language, have been the bane of religious controversy, and 
have excited the most powerful prejudices against it on the part 
of many who might otherwise have been greatly benefited by a 
calm and enlightened disoussion of subjects, respecting which 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 681 

t 

they are imperfectly informed. Truth, however, has sometimes 
derived advantage, while the disputers about it have been in* 
jured. Light has been extracted by the friction and collision of 
contending bodies ; and after the noise and the smoke have 
passed way, the conflict has appeared to be not altogether in 
vain. 

The period during which Baxter lived, was distinguished for 
the intense earnestness with which every religious subject, great 
and little, was investigated and debated. While the great in* 
terests of truth and godliness were not neglected, all that was 
minute was looked at with microscopic attention, and often 
magnified beyond its due dimensions and importance. This 
may, perhaps, be thought applicable to the subjects to which 
the present chapter is devoted ; though some of the topics will 
be found of considerable interest. They will, at least, enable 
lis to form a more adequate estimate of the times of Baxter^ 
atid present us with some of the active and bustling men of 
the period. 

The controversy respecting the subjects and mode of baptism, 
is one of long standing in the church, and is sUll, seemingly, as 
far from being settled as ever. It is not my object at present 
to enter into the nature of the controversy, or to pronounce on 
which side the strength of the argument lies, but to give a view 
of Baxter's writings and efforts in relation to it. His chief an* 
tagonist in this debate, was John Tombcs, B. D., minister of 
Bewdley, a man of considerable learning and talents, and one 
of the most voluminous writers on baptismal controvexsy which 
that fruitful subject has furnished. Of the origin of the war 
between him and Baxter, the latter has left the following ac- 
count : " Mr. Tombes, who was my neighbour, within two 
miles, denying infant baptism, and having wrote a book or two 
against it, was not a little desirous of the propagation of his 
opinion, and the success of his writings. He thought that I 
was the chief hinderer, though I never meddled with the point. 
Whereupon he came constantly to my weekly lecture, waiting 
for an opportunity to fall upon that controversy in his conference 
with me ; but I studiously avoided it, so that he knew not how 
to begin. He had so high a conceit of his writings, that he 
thought them unanswerable, and that none could deal with them 
in that way. At last, somcliovv he urged me to give my judg- 
ment of them ; when I let him know that they did not satisfy 
me to be of his mind, but went no further with him. Upon 



682 TH« LIFB AND WRITINGS 

this he ferebore coining any more to our leeturt | bat he w^ 
avoidably contrived to bring me into the contf o v ewy , wfaidi I 
shunned. For there came unto me five or six of his chief pio* 
selytes, as if they were yet unresolved, and desired me to gbe 
them in writing the arguments which satisfied me for faital 
baptism. I asked them whether they came not by Mr. Tomhof 
direction ; and they confessed that they did. I asked fktm 
whether they had read the books of Mr. Cobbet, Mr. Maishili 
Mr. Church, Mr. Blake, for infant baptism ; and they fold ns^ 
no. I desired them to read what is written already, before they 
called for more, and then come to me, and tell me what tfasy 
had to say against them. But this they would by no means do^ 
they must have my writings. I told them, that now they plafady 
confessed that they came upon a design to promote their partf 
by contentious writings, and not in sincere desire to be a* 
formed as they pretended. To be short, they had no moie 
modesty than to insist on their demands, and to tell me, thst ff 
they turned against infant baptism, and I denied to give them 
my arguments in writings they must lay it upon me. I asked 
them, whether they would continue unresolved till Mr. Tombes 
and I had done our writings, seeing it was some years since Mr. 
Blake and he began, and had not ended yet. But no reason- 
ing served the turn with them, they still called for my written 
arguments. When I saw their factious design and immodesty, 
I bade them tell Mr. Tombes, that he should neither thus com- 
mand me to lose a year's time in my weakness in quarrellii^ 
urith him, nor should have his end in insulting over me, as if I 
fled from the light of truth. I therefore offered him, if we mart 
needs contend, that we might do it the shortest and most satis- 
factory way, by spending one day in a dispute at his own church, 
where I should attend him, that his people might not remam 
unsatisfied, till they saw which of us would have the last word ; 
and after that we would consider of writing. 

^^ So Mr. Tombes and I agreed to meet at his church on the 
first day of January, 1649. And in great weakness thither I came^ 
and from nine of the clock in the morning till five at night, in 
a crowded congregation, we continued our dispute ; which was 
all spent in managing one argument, from infants' right to 
church-membership to their right to baptism 5 of which he often 
complained, as if I assaulted him in a new way, which he had 
not considered of before. But this was not the first time that I 
had dealt with Anabaptists, few having so much to do with them 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 68S 

in the army rb I had. In a word, this dispute satisfied all my own 
people^ and the country that .came in, and Mr. Tombes' own 
townsmen, except about twenty whom he had perverted, who 
gathered into his church; which never increased to above 
twenty-two, that I could learn." ^ 

So much for ^Baxter's account of this personal rencounter* 
Wood, who was no friend to either party, says, ** 1^ verily thought 
that Tombes was put upon the project of going to Bewdley 
purposely to tame Baxter and his party, who then carried all 
the country before them. They preached against one another'a 
doctrines, and published books against each other. Tombes 
was the Coryphaeus of the Anabaptists, and Baxter of the Pres- 
byterians. Both had a very great company of auditors, who 
eame many miles on foot round about to admire them. Once, 
I think oftener, they disputed £ace to face ; and their followers 
were like two armies : and at last it came to pass, that they fell 
together by the ears, whereby hurt was done, and the civil 
magistrate had much ado to quiet them. All scholars, there 
and present, who knew the way of disputing and managing 
arguments, did conclude that Tombes got the better of Baxter 
bjr far." • 

The verbal dispute, as might be expected, soon assumed a 
more tangible form, and appeared in print. Baxter, having in 
the dedication to the first edition of his ' Saint's Rest,' referred 
to his dispute at Bewdley, and to the victory which he con- 
ceived he had there obtained, Tombes shortly afterwards pub- 
lished 'An Antidote against the Venom' contained in this 
passage, which occasioned Baxter to publish his principal work 
on this subject: 'Plain Scripture Proof of Infants' Church 
Membership and Baptism ; being the arguments prepared for, 
and partly managed in, the public dispute with Mr. Tombes, at 
Bewdley, on the first day of January, 1649. With a full reply 
to what he then answered, and what is contained in his sermon 
nnce preached, in his printed books, his MS. on 1 Cor. vii. 14 1 
with a reply to his valedictory oration at Bewdley ; and a Cor- 
rection for his Antidote.' 1650. 4 to. 

In the preface to this treatise he gives some account of its 
*' conception and nativity," from which I shall present an extract 
or two. The progress of his mind respecting baptism, which 
is remarkably similar to the process through which many in- 
dividuak have gone in reference to the same subject, is thus 

• life, psrt L|». 96. • AtbeiLOjum. voLttLf* IMS. 



684 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 



stated by him : *^ When I was called forth to the sacred^ mud* 
sterial work, though my zeal was strong, and I can truly say, 
that a fervent desire of winning souls to God was my modfc^ 
yet being young, and of small experience, and no great reading 
being then a stranger to almost all the fathers, and most of the 
schoolmen, I was a novice in knowledge, and my cooceptioni 
were uncertain, shallow, and crude. In some mistakes I wai 
confident, and in some truths 1 was very doubtful and snspieuNMi 
Among others, by that time I had baptized but two children il 
Bridgnorth, I began to have some doubt of the lawfiiloMB of 
infant baptism, whereupon, I silently forbore the practice^ and 
set myself, as I was able, to the study of the point. One pait 
of my temptation was the doctrine of some divines who laa 
too far in the other extreme. 1 had read Dr. Burgess^ and sons 
years after Mr. Bedford, for baptismal regeneration ; and heard 
it in the common prayer that God would bless baptism to the 
infant's regeneration, which I thought they had meant of a reel 
and not a relative change. I soon discerned the error of this 
doctrine, when I found in Scripture that repentance and faith 
in the aged were ever prerequisite, and that no word of God 
did make that the end to infants which was prerequisite hi 
others ; that signs cannot, by moral operation, be the instru- 
ments of a real change on infants, but only of a relative ; and 
that to dream of a physical instrumentality, was worse than 
popish, and to do thai in baptism which transubstantiation 
hath done in the Lord*s*8up])er, even to tie God to the con- 
stant working of a miracle. 

^^ Upon my first serious study, I presently discerned that 
though infants were not capable of what is before expressed, 
nor of every benefit by baptism, as are the aged, yet that they 
were capable of the principal ends ; that it might be a sign to 
enter them church members, and solemnize their dedication to 
Christ, and engage them to be his people, and to take him for 
their Lord and Saviour, and so to confer on them remission of 
sins, and what Christ by the covenant promisetli to the baptized* 

^^ Yet did I remain doubtful some time after, by reason the 
Scriptures spoke so sparingly of infant baptism, arid because my 
apprehensions of those things, which in themselves were clear 
and certain, remained crude and weak till time had helped thein 
to digest and ripen. And the many weak arguments which I 
met with in the words and writings of some divines, to which I 
formed most of the same answers as Mr. T. now doth, were not 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 685 

the least stambling-block in my way. I resolved, therefore, 
ailently to forbear the practice while I further studied the point. 
And being more in doubt about the other sacrament than this, 
I durst not adventure upon a full, pastoral charge, but to preach 
only as a lecturer till I were fully resolved. In which state I 
continued where I now am, till I was removed by the wars, still 
thinking and speaking very favourably of mere Anabaptists." p 

He then proceeds to give an account of the discussions which 
tock place on this subject while he was in Coventry ; of the full 
examination of it which he was there led to institute ; and of 
the progress of his controversy with Tombes, as already stated. 
According to his account, he was instrumental in Mr. Tombes' 
eoming to Bewdley ; and he solemnly avers, that throughout the 
whole affair Tombes was the aggressor. He indeed told a dif- 
ferent tale ; and a good deal of angry correspondence took place 
between them. To determine the question, who was the first 
md principal aggressor, is now unnecessary ; and the detail of all 
the circumstances which finally led to Baxter's publication, would 
be as tedious as it would be unprofitable. The volume itself 
(Contains a considerable portion of valuable matter relative to 
the controversy, and also a great deal that is irrelevant. . It 
abounds with numerous and subtle distinctions, for which most 
of Baxter's controversial writings are distinguished. It presents 
a great deal that would exceedingly puzzle an adversary to an- 
swer, and much of which he might take advantage. One of his 
great objects is to settie the right of infants to be church mem- 
bers, which he considered of more importance than their bap- 
tism ; but it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory idea of all that 
he intended by their membership. 

Tombes replied in his ^ Precursor ; or, a Forerunner to a large 
Tiew of a Dispute concerning Infant Baptism.' 1652. 4to. This 
large work he produced at three several times, making in all two 
Tcry thick, closely- printed quarto volumes. Its general tide 
18, ^ Antipaedobaptism ; or, no plain or obscure proof of Infanta' 
Baptism or Church-Membership,' &c. In this voluminous pro* 
duction he replies to Baxter, Marshall, Geree, Cobbet, Blake, 
Church, Stephens, Homes, Featley, Hammond, Baillie, Brinslee, 
Sydenham, Fuller, Drew, Lyfford, Carter, Rutherford, Cragge, 
Cotton, Stalham, Hall, and others. It was published be- 
tween the years 1652 and 1657; and affords no small proof 

P Preface, pp. 2, 3, 



688 THB UWM AMD wmtmiBs 

of the iodiittry (rf its authoryu well at of hie devoied leel htti 
cnue which he had espoused. 

Baxter's work passed through several editionay a proof ef dii 
interest then taken in the con tr o ve r sy ; in the tUrd of wUchi 
he notices Tombes's ^ Precursor/ and several oAer pnUicadoM 
for and against him. His own account of the work sappiiss sB 
the additional information respecting it which it ia miisiafy 
to introduce. ^'The book,'' he says, ^God blessed with un- 
expected success to stop abundance from turning Anabqilisn^ 
and reclaiming many, both in city and country, and some ef 
the oflBcers of the Irish and English forces, and gam a eon- 
siderable cheek to their proceedings. Concerning it, I shall 
only tell the reader, that there are towards the latter ptfl 
of it, many enigmatical reflections upon the Anabaptists, ftr 
their horrid scandals, which the reader that lived not in those 
times will hardly understand } but the cutting off die Idq^ 
and rebelling against him and the parliament^ the Baateni 
and other sects that sprung out of them, the i u va Ji ng ef 
Scotland, and the approving of these, were the erimes tbcta 
intended ; which were not then to be more plainly q>oken el^ 
when their strength and fury were so high. Afker the writ- 
ing of that book, I wrote a postscript against the doctrine 
of Dr. Burgess and Mr. Thomas Bedford, which I supposed to 
go on the other extreme ; and therein I answered part of a 
treatise of Dr. Samuel Ward's, which Mr. Bedford published } 
which proved to be Mr. Thomas Oataker's, whom I defended,, 
who is Dr. Ward's censor ; but I knew it not till Mr. Gataker 
afiber told me. 

^^ But, after these writings, I was greatly in doubt whether it be 
not certain that all the infonts of true believers are justified and 
saved, if they die before actual sin. My reason was, because it 
is the same justifying, saving covenant of grace which their 
parents and they are in, and as real faith and repentance is that 
condition on the parents' part which giveth them their right to 
actual remission and adoption ; so to be the children of such 
is all the condition which is required in infants, in order to the 
same benefits ; and without asserting this, the advantage of die 
Anabaptists is greater than every one doth imaginew Bat I 
never thought with Dr. Ward, that all baptized children had 
this benefit and qualitative sanctification also ; nor with Dr. 
Burgess and Mr. Bedford, that all converted at age had inherent 



OF RICHAEO HAXTMB.. 087 

■eminal grace in baptism certainly given them; nor with 
Bishop Davenant, that all justly baptized had relative grace of 
justification and adoption, but only that all the infants of true 
believers, who have right to the covenant and baptism in foro 
emk, as well as in faro eeclesuBy have also thereby right to 
the pardon of original sin, and to adoption, and to heaven, 
which right is by baptism sealed and delivered to them. This 
I wrote to Mr. Oatidcer, who returned me a kind and candid 
answer, but such as did not remove my scruples; and this occa- 
sioned him to print Bishop Davenant's disputations with his 
answer. The opinion, which I most incline to, is the same 
which the Synod of Dort expresseth, and that which I conjec- 
ture Dr. Davenant meant, or I am sure came next to."^ 

Tombes, in the third part of his ^ Antipiedobaptism,' pub- 
lished in 1659, introduced some private correspondence between 
Baxter and himself, which faac} taken place subsequently to 
Baxter's last publication on infant church-membership, and 
baptism } and there replied at length to some of his senti- 
ments. Baxter, after a lapse of nineteen years, published 
* More Proofs of Infant Church-Membership, and consequently 
their Rights to Baptism ; or, a Second Defence of our Infant 
Rights and Mercies.' 1675. 8vo. 

This volume is divided into three parts, which contain, he 
tells us, ** The plain proof of God's statute or covenant for 
Infants' Church'^Membership from the creation, and the conti- 
nuance of it till the institution of baptism ; with the defence of 
that proof against the frivolous exceptions of Mr. Tombes. A 
confbtation of Mr. Tombes' arguments. A confutation of the 
strange forgeries of Mr. Danvers against the ambiguity of infant 
baptism, and of his many calumnies against myself and writings. 
A catalogue of fifty-six new commandments and doctrines, 
which he and the sectaries who join with him in those calumnies 
own. Animadversions on Mr. Danvers* reply to Mr. Wells ;" 
all of which he declares to be ^^ extorted by their unquiet 
importunity."' 

4 Life, part i. p. 109. 

' The docirlne of the Synod of Dort, on the subject referred to by Baxter, 
b as foUowst— << Quando quidem, Ac.— That is, Seeing that we are to Judge 
of the wUl of God by his word, which testifies that the children of believers 
are holy ; not, indeed, by nature, but by the benefit of the gracious oorenant, 
in which they are comprehended along with their oarents; pious parents 
ought not to doubt of the election and lalration of their children whom 



688 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 

The dispute was now enlarged, including others as well as 
Tombes. Danvers was a private gentleman of small fortune wbo 
had joined the Baptists in the time of the Commonwealth. 
He was then governor of Stafford, and a justice of the peace* 
He was a fifth-monarchist in some of his principles, though he 
did not go the full length of the party in regard to practice* 
He was apprehended as one of them, and lodged in theTower, 
where he appears to have remained many years, as he only (dn 
tained his release in 167 !• Having been at some private meet- 
ings, where measures were concerted in favour of the Duke of 
Monmouth, he was obliged to flee to Holland after the failure of 
that attempt, where he died shortly afterwards.' 

His work in this controversy, to which Baxter refers, is one of 
considerable labour : ^ A Treatise on Baptism, wherein that of 
Believers, and that of Infants, is examined by the Scriptures, 
with the history of both, out of Antiquity,' &c. As an historical 
work, it displays very considerable research. His opponents 
accused him of doing injustice to the fathers and ecclesiastical 
writers of the primitive church ; and both parties found in the 
ambiguity and uncertainty of these authorities, sufficient em- 
ployment for their time and patience. He was answered by 
Blinmau and Wills, as. well as by Baxter, and defended himself 
in three distinct treatises, published in 1675. 

In the same year in which Baxter's last work was published, 
he produced another small performance, to which it had led — 
* Richard Baxter's Review of the State of Christian Infants.' 
1676. Svo. In this pamphlet, he inquires "whether children 
should be entered in covenant with godly baptism, and be visi- 
ble members of his church, and have any covenant right to par- 
don and salvation ?" This publication was occasipned by Mr. 
£. Hutchinson, Mr. Danvers, and Mr. Tombes, all of whom had 
assailed him. ^ 

God batb called in infancy out of this life.*' — j^rt, on Predestination, Sect. 17. 
Davenant was one of the English divines deputed by King James to attend the 
Synod of Dort. He was then professor of divinity in the University of Cam* 
bridge, and was afterwards made bishop of Salisbury. 

• Crosby's Hist, of the Baptists, vol. iii. p. V7» 

* On the subject of infant salvation, which has been a source of great 
anxiety and distress tu many, 1 beg to refer the reader to the following work, 
which is far more satisfactory than an^r thing else known to mc an this deeply 
interesting topic — * An Essay on the Salvation of all Dyinjf in lufaocy ; in- 
cluding Hints on the Adamic and Christian Dispensations,* by the Rev. 
Pavid Russelli of Dundee. 12mo. 2d Edit. 182d. 



OV RICHARD BAXTBft. 689 

It is deeply to be regretted that this controversy should have 
so long distracted the church of Christy and that many eminent 
men have devoted so large a portion of valuable time and 
strength to its discussion. On no one point of Christian 
practice has so much been written, and on both sides to so 
little purpose, as the parties seem nearly as far from agreement 
as ever. It has tended greatly to injure the cause of religion 
among the Dissenters, having divided their affections and re- 
duced their strength in almost every place. Of the same mind 
on every other topic of importance, it is lamentable that a dif- 
ference of opinion respecting one ordinance, and that of a 
personal nature, affecting each individual but once in his life^ 
should cause greater strife and injury than ail other subjects of 
difference together. The doctrine of free communion, however, 
as far as baptism is concerned, promises fair, in the course of 
time, to extinguish a controversy, which all the books that hav^ 
been written upon it have entirely failed to determine. In 
this result, had he lived to witness it, none would have rejoiced 
more than Baxter ; as he was more zealous in contending for the 
communion of all Christians, than for infant baptism, notwith- 
standing his warmth in maintaining it. 

4 

' The Quakers, as a distinct sect, made their first appearance 
in the times of Baxter, and during the agitations of the civil 
wars. His controversies with them were much briefer than 
those in which he engaged with the Baptists, but were suffi- 
ciently keen while they lasted. His opinion of them has been 
already given in the first part of this work. If that opinion be 
regarded as severe, it should be remembered tliat the body 
referred to has undergone a great change for the better, in its 
spirit and mode of acting, since the time of Baxter. He com- 
plains bitterly of the treatment that he experienced from them, 
which must, therefore, be regarded as an apology for his man- 
ner of treating them in return. Speaking of them many years 
after their first appearance, he says : 

"The Quakers, in their shops, when I go along London 
streets, say, * Alas ! poor man, thou art yet in darkness.' They 
have oft come into the congregation, when I had liberty to 
preach Christ's Gospel, and cried out against me as a deceiver 
of the people. They have followed me home, crying out in 
the streets, * The day of the Lord is coming, when thou shalt 

VOL, I. y Y 



690 THB LIFJB AND WRITINGS 

peri$h as e deceiver/ They have stood in the market-place, 
and under my window, year after year, crying out to the people, 
^Take heed of your priests, they deceive your souls!' and if 
they saw any one wear a lace or neat clothing, they cried out to 
me, ' These are the fruit of thy ministry/ If they spake to 
me with the greatest ignorance or nonsense, it was with as much 
fiiry and rage as if a bloody heart had appeared in their fiaces; 
so that though I never hurt, or occasioned the hurt, of one of 
them that I know of, their tremulent countenances told me what 
they would have done had I been in their power. This was 
from 1656 to 1659/' « 

The idea of danger from them, intimated in this passage, W9S 
doubtless^n entire mistake. Their words and spirit were fre- 
quently violent and provoking; but their conduct was inva- 
riably harmless. Had they been less opposed, and treated in a 
more Christian manner, they would have attracted less att0i-> 
tion, and been less formidable to those who opposed them- 
Considering the abuses of divine ordinances which had so long 
and so extensively prevfuled, it is not surprising that such a 
system as Quakerism should have arisen ; and it may^ perh ap»> 
have answered a useful purpose in calling the attention of mea 
professing Christianity to the great design of ail its ordinances, 
and to which they ought ever to be regarded as subservient — 
the promotion of spirituality of mind, and the enjoyment of 
communioi; with God. 

To form a correct idea of Baxter's writings on this subject, 
it is necessary to advert to his fears of the subversion of the 
Christian ministry in the nation by some of the measures of 
the Rump Parliament. Exceedingly alarmed by certain reports 
which he had heard, he exerted his influence, which spears to 
have been very powerful, in the county of Worcester, to pro- 
mote an appeal to Parliament. The effect of this appeared in 
^^ The humble petition of many thousands, gentlemen, free- 
holders, and others, of the county of Worcester, to the pariii- 
ment of the Commonwealth of Ikigland, in behalf of the able, 
£uthfu], godly ministry of this nation." This petition was 
drawn up by Baxter, and presented by Colonel Bridges and Mr» 
Thomas Foley, on tlie 22d of December, 1652. It was after- 
wards printed, with the answer of the speaker, in the name of 
the House, thanking the petitioners for their zeal and good 

* Works, roL xvL p. 152. 



OF EfCHARD BAXTER. 691 

^ffecUous, ftnd promising to take the petition into consideration. 
It expresses the fears of the petitioners, founded on various cir- 
cumstances which are enumerated, that an attempt would be 
ni^de to put down the ministry in the kingdom. It states the 
Importance of the ministry both to the temporal and the spi- 
ritual good of the country; with the sin and danger of subverting 
{(• It therefore prays for the preservation and encouragement of 
faittiful ministers ; that a suitable provision might be made for 
Ibem 1 that attention might be paid to the dark parts of Eng- 
land and Wales ; for the continued preservation of the univer- 
sities {^nd schools of learning » and lastly, that measures might 
be taken to heal the religious divisions which prevailed, and for 
the establishment of a better system of church government. 

This petition w^s very dffensive to those who viewed with an 
linfavonrable eye a standing ministry, especii^Uy as supported by 
the state. The Quakers, in particulars who were then beginning 
to attract attention, were exceedingly hostile to the prayfir pre^ 
qented to parliament ; and George Fox attacked it in a pam* 
phlet, entitled, ' The Threefold Estate of Antichrist.' This 
brought Baxter into the field with— < 

* The Worcestershire Petition to the Parliament for the 
Ministry of England, Defended by a Minister of Christ in that 
County, in answer to sixteen queries, printed in a book p^ledn 
A Brief Discovery of the Threefold Estate of Antichrist,' ^o, 
J653. 4to. Baxter defends his petition against th^ queries oon-« 
tained in this performance, and retaliates with his characteristio 
acuteness in some counter queries at the end* 

That the parliament then sitting seriously meditated the abo- 
lition, either of the ministry or of tl^e tithes, is improbable^ Bnli 
i| petition bad be^n presented to it by a council of officers held 
aC Whitehall on the 1 2th of August, l$d2> which, among other 
^mga, prayed ^^ that profane, scandalous, and ignorant minia*^ 
tern might be ejected, and men approved for godliness and gjfta 
encouraged $ ^d that a convenient maintenance might be pro* 
vidfid for them, and the unequal, troublesome, and eontentMMiQk 
Wi^y of tithes be taken away.'' ^ This petition was referred to 
a committee, after the speaker had, in the name of the House^ 
thanked the petitioners for their zeal in the public cause. The 
report of this committee has been already given in page 139; 
from which it appears, that nothing further was recommended 
than some arrangements respecting the payment of tithes. It was 

' GoQdwia'i Commonwealth, vol. iii. p. 419. 

YY 2 



692 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 



probably with a view to counteract this petition^ however, that 
Baxter drew up the one from Worcestershire. Tliat there wai 
just ground of complaint against many of the clergy, is evident 
enough from Baxter's own account of them; and had the 
Rump Parliament enacted some measure for the support of the 
clergy, less liable to objection and abuse than the tithe system, 
it would have deserved well of the country, and saved its 80c« 
cessors the labour and the honour which yet await them. It is 
evident that an attempt was made, which was Jl)oth wise and 
moderate in itself, and would no doubt have been improved, till 
it had finally abolished an extensive and inveterate evil, had the 
powers which then were been permanently established. 

Speaking of the petition and the events which followed it, he 
says in his own Life, *^ Tlie sectaries were greatly annoyed, and 
one wrote a vehement invective against it ; which I answered 
in a paper called ^ The Defence of the Worcestershire Petition,* 
(which, by an oversight, is maimed by the want of the accuser's 
queries,) I knew not what kind of person he was that I wrote 
against, but it proved to be a Quaker; they being just now rising, 
Btid this being the first of their books, as far as I can remember, 
that I had ever seen. 

^^ Presently, upon this, the Quakers began to make a great 
fitrr among us, acting the part of men in raptures, speaking in 
the manner of men inspired, and every where railing against 
tithes and ministers. They sent many papers of queries to 
divers ministers about us ; to one of the chief of which I wrote 
an answer, and gave them as many more questions to answer, 
entitling it ^ The Quaker's Catechism.' These pamphlets being 
but one or two days' work, were no great interruption to my 
)[>etter labours, and as they were of small worth, so also of small 
cost. The same ministers of our country, that are now silenced^ 
are they that the Quakers most vehemently opposed, meddling 
Kttle with the rest. The marvellous concurrence of instruments 
telleth us, that one principal agent doth act them all. I have 
oft asked the Quakers lately^ Why they chose the same ministen 
to revile whom all the drunkards and sorcerers rail against? 
And why they cried out in our assemblies, Come down, thou 
deceiver, thou hireling, thou dog ; and now never meddle with 
the pastors or congregations ? They answer, that these men sin in 
the open light, and need none to discover them ; that die Spirit 
hath his times both of severity and of lenity. But the truth is, 
they knew then they might be bold without any fear of suffering 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 693 



by it : and now it is time for them to save their skins^ they suf* 
fer enough for their own assemblies." ^ 

The following is the pamphlet to which he refers in the 
above paragraph: 'The. Quaker's Catechism; or, the Quakeni 
questioned, their questions answered, and both published 
for the sake of those of them that have not yet sinned unto 
death ; and of those ungrounded novices that are most in dan- 
ger of their seduction.' 1657* 4to, In an introductory ad« 
dress to the reader, he explains the circumstances which origi«- 
nated his Catechism; giving an account, in much the same 
terms that we have already quoted, of the manner in which 
the Quakers assailed himself and his brethren. He then ad- 
dresses the ** Separatists and Anabaptists of England," whom 
he classes with the Quakers, accusing them of originating the 
^ wild generation," which is the more immediate object of his 
attack. Then follows a long letter to a young friend, who was 
first inclined to be a Baptist, but fell in with the Quakers, and 
whom he had endeavoured to reclaim. Next comes a paper, or 
information taken on oath at Bristol, of one who represents 
some of the Quakers as disguised Romish priests : then fol- 
lows the Catechism itself; in which the controversy is treated 
in a very desultory manner. Indeed, the doctrines of the 
Friends had scarcely been brought to a consistent form ; it would 
consequently have been vain to expect that the undisciplined 
troops, composing their army, should either attack or be at- 
tacked in regular battle. Baxter having been treated very un- 
ceremoniously, ih as unceremonious in his addresses and ques- 
tions to " the miserable creatures," whom he considered to be 
labouring under dreadful delusion. The following specimen 
of his questions will give the reader a fair sample of his mode 
of interrogating them. The subject is—the sufficiency of the 
light, which all men are supposed to enjoy. 

** Was it sufficient before Christ preached the Gospel, and 
sent his apostles ? or, is it now sufficient to all that never heard 
the Gospel ? If so, is not the Gospel a vain and needless 
thing 7 or, are you Christians that dare so affirm ? If the world 
have sufficient light, what need they your teaching, or discourse, 
or conviction? If all have sufficient within them, what need 
they any convicting grace ? Why did Christ send Paul to open 
men's eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, if they 

f Life, part i. pp. U5^ 116. 



694 THE Lira AND WRITINGS 

had sufficient light before ? I pray you do not dis<lain to tdl 
me, when you have rubbed your eyes, if all men haVe sUffict^iit 
light within them, why you got up into the judgment-seat, and 
pronounced me so oft to be in darkness, and to be Inrid of ths 
light, and to have none of the Spirit. If till have it^ why may 
not I have it ?" 

In the same year in which he published his Catechism, h0 
sent out a series of monthly tracts, which were chic^Ay intended 
to counteract the principles and progress of Quakerism. Hie 
first appeared in August, 1657, and is entitled, ^ One Sheet kit 
the Ministry against Malignants of all sorts/ In September, 
he published ^ One Sheet against the Quakers ; * and in the fcil-» 
lowing month, ^ A Second Sheet for the Ministry, justifying ottf 
Calling against Quakers, Seekers, and Papists, and all that deny 
us to be the Ministers of Christ/ 

Into these tracts it is unnecessary to enter particularly, » 
their titles sufficiently explain their nature and design. Tliqr 
furnish additional evidence to mUch that had been already ad- 
duced of the ceaseless vigilance and untiring labour of Baxter; 
His eye was every where ; his hand was in every work. AliTC 
to all the dangers and temptations then abounding in the 
country, he employed, with the utmost promptness, all the 
means which he could devise to avert the evils, or to warn men 
against them. He admonished Cromwell, he addressed the 
parliament, and, at the same time, expostulated with a Seeker, 
questioned a Quaker, and catechised a child. When it was ne- 
cessary, he produced a folio ; when less might answer the pur- 
pose, he published a monthly tract. Well might he give the 
following answer to the reproaches of idleness thrown out 
against the ministry : 

" The Quakers say, we are idle drones, that labour not, and 
therefore should not eat. The worst I wish you is, that you had 
but my ease instead of your labour. I have reason to take 
myself for the least of saints, and yet I fear not to tell the ac- 
cuser that 1 take the labour of most tradesmen in the town to 
be a pleasure to the body, in comparison with mine ; though for 
the ends and the pleasure of my mind, I would not change it 
with the greatest prince. Their labour preserveth health, and 
mine cunsuineth it; they work in ease, and I in continual pain; 
they have hours and days of recreation, I have scarce time to 
eat and drink. Nobody molesteth them for their labour, but 



OF RICHARD BAXTSR« 695 

the more I do, the more hatred and trouble I draw upon me. If 
a Quaker ask ine what all this labour is, let him come and see^ 
or do as I do, and he shall know/' 

Baxter was, sometime after this, attacked in a huge volume 
with a singular title : ^ The Rustic's Alarm to the Rabbies ; or^ 
the Country correcting the Universities and Clergy, and not with- 
out Cause, Contesting for the Truth against the Nursing Mothers^ 
and their Children^ &c. By way of Intercourse held in Special 
with four of the Clergies' Chieftans, John Owen, Thomas 
Danson, John Tombes, and Richard Baxter; which four Fcremm 
hold the Sense and Senseless Faith of the whole Fry, &c. By 
Samuel Fisher, who some time went astray among the many 
Shepherds, .but is now returned to the great Shepherd and 
Overseer of the Soul/ 1660. 4 to. pp. 600. To this enormous 
volume of rant, it does not appear that any of the persons at* 
tacked, made a reply. Fisher was originally in the churchy 
and chaplain to Sir Arthur Haselrigg : he afterwards became a 
Baptist, and wrote the only folio volume which I believe has 
ever been written on that side of the question, ^ Baby Baptism^ 
mere Babyism,' in which he animadverts on Baxter. He soon 
after became Quaker, and laboured hard to destroy the things 
which lie had formerly built up. He is said to have been a man 
of piety and of learning, but fickle and violent. Nothing but 
an inspection of his books can enable any one to form an idea 
of the extraordinary style in which he wrote. 

At a subsequent period of his life, Baxter engaged in a per- 
sonal controversy on the principles of Quakerism, with William 
Penn, but it led to no publication on the points in debate. 
The discussion has been referred to in the former part of this 
virork. By that time, the number of the Friends had greatly in- 
creased, their principles and practice had assumed a more 
definite form, and their conduct, in regard to the great subject 
of religious liberty, had entitled them to the approbation and 
esteem of all the friends of religion and freedom. In Penn and 
Barclay they found abler and more successful defenders and 
advocates than Fox or Fisher, who required to be met with 
different arguments, and in a better style and spirit^ than had 
been employed by Baxter. 

In the last year of his life, Baxter was led to engage in a con- 
troversy with the Rev. Thomas Beverly, on the subject of the 



696 THB LJFB ANI> WRITINGS 

Millenium^ and the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ This 
is one of those subjects which appears, from time to time, to 
have agitated the church of Christ, from the ver}' beginning. 
Even in the days of the apostles, some indulged the expectation 
that the coming of the Lord was at hand, and, under the in- 
fluence of this feeling, appear to have relaxed in their attention 
to the ordinary duties of life.' In the subsequent ages, the 
doctrine of the Millenium was a favourite speculation with many, 
though very various and discordant sentiments were entertained 
respecting it. At the Reformation it had its patrons among those 
yvhose imaginations were excited by the extraordinary events of 
the period, to expect that the time of the restitution of all things 
was near. During the Commonwealth, the fifth-monarchy men 
brought this subject again into prominent notice ; but the ex- 
travagances of some of them, and the destruction which they 
brought on themselves, sunk it into contempt. It was held, • 
however, by some most respectable and learned individuals, both 
before and after the time of the Commonwealth. It is only 
necessary to mention, in proof of this, the names of Joseph 
Mede and Henry More; men alike distinguished for learning and 
talents, and for their mild and conciliatory dispositions. 

Among the most strenuous and ardent supporters of this 
doctrine, was Thomas Beverly, a man by no means destitute of 
good sense, scriptural information, and ardent zeal. He was 
pastor of a dissenting congregation, which assembled in Cutlers' 
Hall, and began his career as a writer on the prophecies, about 
the period of the Revolution, of which he was a most devoted 
friend and admirer. In a work published in 1688, dedicated to 
the Prince of Orange, he endeavours to show that the Papacy 
could not last above nine years, and that the Millenium would 
commence in 1697- From this time to that portentous year, 
be continued to send forth his publications on the subject in 
great numbers, challenging every body to answer them. He 
lived to see all his prophetical calculations fail ; so that on the 
year in which they should have commenced their fulfilment, he 
resigned his pastoral charge, retired into the country, and 
shortly after sunk into obscurity. Such was the fate of a man 
whose talents, ardour, and devotedncss, had they been better 
directed, might have rendered him eminently useful ; but whose 
misdirected zeal and erroneous calculations issued only in dis- 

» 2Thcss.ii.iii.5— 12. 



OF RICUAAD BAXTER. 697 

appointment to himself, sorrow to his friends^^and triumph to 
the enemiei of religion. ^ 

Beverly was the friend and correspondent of Baxter. He 
admired his talents, respected his piety, and courted his. ac- 
quaintance. Knowing the candour with which Baxter listened 
to every plausible representation on religious subjects, and being 
convinced that if he could but engage his attention, he would 
openly espouse his cause, or enter the lists against him; either of 
which results would answer his purpose by calling attention to 
his own publications. He accordingly presented him with them 
88 they appeared, and most perseveringly solicited his observa- 
tions upon them. Having published his ^ Catechism of the King- 
dom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Thousand Years ; showing 
by Scripture that the great articles of the Redemption, the 
ResurrecUon, the Mystery of the Saints not dying but changed, 
the Judgment, the Delivering up of the Kingdom to God, all in 
all, cannpt be explained at full dimensions without it ;* he sent it 
to Baxter, with an earnest request to be favoured with his opi- 
nion of it. The substance of Beverly's doctrine appears to be : 
that Christ's kingdom begins only at the Millenium; that 
the commencement of the Millenium and the resurrection of 
the saints, are parallel events ; that the Millenium is the day of 
judgment spoken of in Scripture ; that during it the saints shall 
increase and multiply upon the earth ; that the wicked shall 
also be upon the earth ; and that a grand conflict shall take place 
at the battle of Armageddon, when the wicked shall be de- 
stroyed. With all this is mixed up some strange speculations 
about the person of Christ. 

On receiving the * Millenary Catechism,' Baxter addressed a 
long and kind letter to the author, proposing a series of (jues- 
tions to htm. He assures him they were written not in a spirit 
of captiousness, but from a real desire of information, which he 
considered Beverly well qualified to supply. As these questions 
are not unimportant at the present time, I shall extract a few 
of them. 

** Doth the Revelation mention one thousand years or two ? 
If but one^ doth not that begin upon the fall of Babylon ? Why 
say you that Christ's kingdom beginneth at the one thousand 
years, when so many things tell us of his kingdom existent long 
before ? Hath he not governed by laws, and initial execution, 
long before ? yea, the kingdom is among us and within us. Do 
• Wilsoa's Hist, of Diss. Churches, vol. ii. pp. 64^66. 



698 THB Lift AND WRITINGS 

not the spirits of the departed just, with the ^gels, nomr dm* 
stitute the general assembly above; and is not that the kingdom 
of Christ, and doth he not now reign over all ? Shall these 
blessed souls come down for one thousand years, and dwell either 
with devils, or where devils now dwell, in the air ? If they come 
thither with Christ at judgment, shall they dwell there so long? 
and is it no worse a place than where they are ? Seeing tte 
heavens that now are must then be burnt, is not the air the lowtr 
part of the heavens, or that at least, and shall Christ and the 
new Jerusalem dwell in the consuming fire ? I cannot possibly 
find what time you allot to the conflagration of heaven ; whe- 
ther it shall continue burning all the one thousand years, or be 
quickly dispatched at first ; nor yet what time or measure yoil 
set to the conflagration of the earth. Doth it burn all at ouce, 
or by gradations, as Dr. Cressener thinks, beginning at Rome, 
and so going on ? or is it all the one thousand years proceeding 
to its dispatch ? If so, it is a wonder that this long fire eoiH 
sumeth not Gog and Magog, and if the inhabitants fly from it, 
as at Etna, whither do they carry their goods, and where wiU 
they find room, both saints and sinners ? Is it the new earth 
all the while it is burning ? If it be burnt at all at the begin- 
ning, where are the surviving saints all the while ? 

*^ You avoid many difficulties by holding but one resurrection; 
but what then becomes of the bodies of all the wicked, who die 
during the one thousand years ? Do soul and body go to hell 
unburied, or do only their souls suffer, and their bodies never 
rise ? Is there one conflagration or two ? The Scriptures speak 
but of one ; and then what becomes of your new earth at the 
end of the one thousand years ? are not Gog and Magog bunit 
at last ? Is your beloved city on eartii in one place ? and where? 
or over the whole earth ? Is not the number that cover the 
camp, as the sand of the sea, with Gog and Magog, inconsistent 
with the description of the new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness, and with the times of restitution, when th^ groaning 
creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into 
a paradisiacal state ?" ^ 

Such is a specimen of the questions which Baxter proposed 
to Beverly, on his having transmitted to him a copy of the work 
which he had published. Could I have quoted them all, they 
would have shown how amply Baxter, even at this advanced 
period of his life, entered into the subject, and that no portion 

^ Letter to Beverly.— jffoxter MSS. 



OF RICHARD BAXtEtt. 6^$ 

of his natural acuteness had yet filled him. It does hot seem 
to have produced much effect on Beverly ; and therefore, in 
the course of the year 1691, appeared a 4to tract, entitled 
* The Glorious Kingdom of Christ described and clearly vin- 
dicated, &c., by Richard Baxter, whose comfort is only the hope 
of that kingdom/ 

In this work he enters the lists with the Millenariatis in ^ 
tieral : i^ith those who boldly asserted the future restoration and 
reign of the Jews, and the one thousand years' rest before the con- 
flagration; with those also who elcpected a reign of one thousand 
years after the conflagration ; and with Beverly in particular, in 
answer to his challenges and censures, of which he appears to 
have been very liberal. Baxter endeavours to explain the pro- 
mise of the new heavens and the new earth ; and contends for 
the everlasting duration of Christ's kingdom. He undertakes 
to prove that the doctrines of Beverly, and the Millenarians, are 
chimerical, and without foundation in Scripture ; that the view!^ 
commonly entertained on these subjects are in accordance with 
Idl correct interpretation of the prophecies of the Bible ; that 
Christ's kingdom is spiritual in its nature, properly commenced 
at his resurrection, and will continue till the final conflagratioUj 
when it will be perfected for ever in heaven. 

Prom this work, it appears that Baxter did not believe that the 
ten tribes were ever so entirely lost as many suppose, and that part 
of them existed in the time of Christ and the Apostles ; conse- 
quently that the recovery of such a body, according to the expec- 
tations of many, is not to be looked for. Nor does he appear to 
have believed in any national conversion of the Jewish people, 
in their restoration to their own country, in their instrumentality 
for the conversion of the world, or in their future superiority 
over the nations. His reasonings on all these topics, cannot be 
given. I do not agree with him in every point, but I have no 
hesitation in saying, that though less known than many of his 
virorks, it is one of the acutest and best written of his numerous 
publications. The opinions of Beverly were not new when he 
wrote ; they had been frequently started and exploded before. 
They have been repeatedly revived since, maintained with no less 
confidence, and propagated with equal zeal ; and in future ages 
will probably continue to experience the same fate. One pas- 
sage of Baxter's tract, relating to Beverly, I think merits to be 
quoted : 
'^ Your writings make it plain, that you are a good inan^ €t 



700 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

deep thoughts^ fallen into a fond esteem of your neWj imripe 
conceptions^ and wrapt up thereby into a diseased conceitednesi. 
How you will be able to bear it when Providence and experience 
have confuted you in 1697^ I know not. But I am the more 
bold to foretell your failing, by my persuasion, that your expo- 
sition of the Revelation, is a mere mistake from the beginning 
almost to the end. 

'^ Wonder not that nobody writeth to confute yon. For men 
love not to trouble themselves with convincing every single man 
of his errors. The reason why I attempt it is, because by the 
seduction of some of my friends, and the general inclination of 
the Antinomian, Anabaptist, and separating party to this con- 
ceit of the thousand years' kingdom, I understand that your 
opinion, which formerly was tolerable as confined to a few con- 
ceited good men, is now becoming a great article of their feith 
and religion, especially since I see that in all your professed ex- 
traordinary humility, you brand all who dissent from you as 
semi-Sadducees of the apostacy, and constantly challenge all 
pastors and doctors to answer you ; and maintain (though yoa 
conform) that God's word knoweth not a clergy." • 

Beverly published a short answer to Baxter, as full of con- 
fidence as ever. In consequence of which, Baxter brought out 
quickly after, another pamphlet in ^ Reply to Mr. Thomas 
Beverly's Answer to my Reasons against his Doctrine of the 
Thousand Years' Middle Kingdom, and of the Conversion of the 
Jews.' Feb. 20, 1691. 4to. This tract consists of only twenty- 
one pages, and must have been among the last things of a con- 
troversial nature wliich Baxter wrote, as appears from the date 
on the title-page, where he also speaks of himself ^^ as passing 
to that world where we shall see face to face." Beverly had the 
last word in ^ The One Thousand Years' Kingdom of Christ in its 
full Scripture State, answering Mr. Baxter's new Treatise in 
opposition to it.' 1691. 4to. 

Thus ended Baxter's debate with Beverly on the subject of 
the Millenium ; and here must terminate our account of the 

* Pp. ^5, 46. It is a very curious fact, which appears to have struck 
Baxter, as he rercrs to it more thau oDce iu this pamphlet, that the abettors 
of the doctrine of the MilleuUim, ag^aiust which he coiiteuded, were mostly of 
two classes— Conformists and High Calvinists. That this is the case still, ii 
known to all who are acquainted with the parties who have agitated this 
question in latter years. This is not the place to account for this co-incidence, 
but it is certainly worthy of some attention. Beverly was a Dissenting Con« 
forroiat, and attached to the high side of the Christian controversy in wbidi 
be took part. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 701 

minor controversies in which he was engaged. Employed in 
such affairs during the greater part of his public life, he seems 
to have become so accustomed to 'the warfare and language of 
religious controversy, that it had comparatively little influence 
on his temper. He could pass without effort from debating 
Baptism to meditations on the ^ Saint's Rest ;' and from disputes 
about the Millenium, to the expression of his ' Dying Thoughts.' 
He opposed firmly what he believed to be error ; but though he 
often used the language of sharpness, the law of kindness never 
ceased to reign in his breast. 



702 THB UFB AfiJi WRITINGS 



CHAPTER XL 



POUTICAL AND miTOBICAI. WORKS. 

latFoductory Observations— < Humble Advice' — * Holy Commofiwealth'- 
^Q and Design of the Work— Involved the Author in much trouble— The 
Political Principles which it avows — Recalled by Baxter — Motives Cor 
doings so— < Church History of Bishops '—Attacked by Morrice— < True 
History of Bishops and Councils Defended '— < Breviate of the life of Mrs. 
Baxter ' — < Penitent Confession ' — Conduct of Long towards Baxter—' Re- 
liquiae Baxteriane '-Character of this Work— Imperfectly Edited by Syl- 
vester — Calamy's Account of it, and its Reception — His Abridgment of it 
—Controversy to which it led. 

It is difficult to define what ought^ in particular circumstances, 
to be the conduct of a Christian minister respecting political 
affairs. Neither the profession of Christianity, nor the office of 
the ministry, deprives a man of his civil privileges, or of a 
right to exercise them. At the same time, " all things which 
are lawful may not be expedient.*' Every man, and especially 
every minister of Christ, is bound to study what may tend most 
effectually to promote the grand design of Christianity, and to 
abstain as much as possible, both from giving offence to the 
weak, and exciting uimecessary prejudices against him on tKe 
part of others. It is easy to act when the affairs of a country 
are moving on with regularity and smoothness ; but when ^' the 
foundations are all out of course," and ^' civil dudgeon " runs 
high, the most inoffensive and conscientious persons may fre- 
quently be exposed to great difficulty. Taking part in their 
country's affairs will expose them to the charge of meddling and 
sedition; while entire neutrality may probably bring upon 
them the no less injurious insinuation |of selfish indifference. 
To these difficulties religious people were greatly exposed 
during the trying period of England's struggle for civil and re- 
ligious freedom. 

Baxter was not a man formed for neutrality. It was not in 
his nature to avoid taking part with the weajk and righteous, 



OF RICHARP BAXTER. 703 

and opposing their oppressors. His mind entered into every 
subject which interested his countrymen^ and regardless of con- 
sequences to himself, he fearlessly committed both his actions 
and his opinions to the public. In the former part of this work, 
we have seen how he joined the army of the commonwealth, with 
bis reasons for so doing. He was a lover of constitutional mon- 
archy, but an enemy of despotism ; and regarding the govern- 
ment as determined to crush the religion and liberties of his 
country, he felt himself bound to support those whom he viewed 
as its best and only friends, though many of their measures he 
. saw reason to condemn and oppose. 

It must be confessed, however, that he was not at home on 
political matters. They were uncongenial to his heavenly mind, 
and to all his habits and pursuits. Compliance with the wishes 
of others, the promotion of what he considered the peace and 
interests of religion and the commonwealth, or the defence of 
himself against gross misrepresentations, were the motives by 
which he appears to have been generally actuated in all bis 
writings of this description* Some of the works which are 
now to come before us contain much information respecting the 
period they relate to, and are, on this account^ still important 
and interesting. 

The first of these which claims our attention, * The Wor- 
cestershire Petition,' with Baxter's defence of it, may be re- 
garded as the earliest of his political performances ; but as 
sufficient notice of them has been taken in treating of the 
Quaker controversy, with which these pamphlets were closely 
connected, it is unnecessary to advert to tliem again. His 
next work in this department was not published by himself. 
^Richard Baxter's Humble Advice; or, the Heads of those 
Things which were offered to many Honourable Members of Par- 
liament by Mr. Richard Baxter, at the end of his Sermon, De- 
cember 24, at the Ahbey of Westminster ; with some Additionsj 
as they were delivered by him to a friend, that desired them, who 
thought meet to make them public' 165S. 4to. There is no- 
thing in this tract worthy of particular notice ; it contains some 
instructions, which the author thought calculated to promote 
reformation and peace. 

The work which, of all others written by Baxter, created the 
strongest sensation at the time, and occasioned the greatest 
trouble to him afterwards, was his ^ Holy Commonwealth ; or^ 



704 THE LIFB AND WRITINGS 

Political Aphorisms: opening the true principles of Govern- 
ment ; for the healing of the ndstakeSy and resolving the doubU, 
that most endanger and trouble England at this time ; and 
directing the desires of sober Christians that long to see the 
Kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of the Lord and 
of his Christ/ 1659. 8vo. The following is his own accoont 
of the origin and object of this work, with the treatment which 
it experienced. 

" The book which hath furnished my enemies with matter of 
reviling, which none must dare . to answer, is my ^ Holy Com- 
monwealth.' The occasion of it was this : when our pretorian 
sectarian bands had cut all bonds, pulled down all government, 
and after the death of the king had twelve years kept out hia 
son, few men saw any probability of his restitution, and every 
self-conceited fellow was ready to offer his model for a new form 
of government. Mr. Hobbes* * Lieviathan ' had pleased many.^ 
Mr. Thomas White, the great Papist, had written his Politics in 
English, for the interest of the Protector, to prove that subjects 
ought to submit and subject themselves to such a change.* 
Mr. James Harrington (they say, by the help of Mr. H. 
NevilleO had written a book in folio for a democracy, called 
Oceana,^ seriously describing a form near to the Venetian, and 

* Hobbes produced bis * Leviathan ; or, 4he Matter, Form, and Power of 
a Commonwealth,' in 1651. Few books have occasioned more or fiercer coo- 
troversy than this production of the philosopher of Malmsbury. J t is an able, 
learned, but most paradoxical and irreli^ous performance. Jts principles 
would justify all social disorder and all impiety. But the scales of the Levia- 
than are very bard to penetrate, and liave injured most of the weapons which 
have been tried upon it. Lord Clarendon ** surv^ed " it, and Bishop Bramball 
endeavoured to " ca^cA " it ; but the monster still lived, exercising the io* 
grenuity and courage of many a successive combatant. The most formidable 
of his antagonists were — Cumberland, in bis work ' De Legibus Nature,' and 
Cudworth, in the ' intellectual System.' 

* The book of White to which Baxter here refers is, * The Grounds of Obe- 
dience and Government,' which appeared in 16r)3. The author was a Catholic 
priest, possessing considerable talents as a philosopher, and whose writinj^, 
both on theological and philosophical subjects, were numerous. He disputed 
some of the dogmas of his own church, and used to wrangle with Hobbes, 
with whom be was intimate. In the book above referred to, he justifies the 
resistance offered to Charles 1., and supported the government of Cromwell. 
He died in 1676, in the seventy- fourth year uf his age. 

' Henry Neville, according tu Wood, was an ingenious and wel]*bred gentle- 
man, and a good but conceited poet. — Allien, Oxon. vol. iii.p. 1119. He was 
an active member of a political club to which Harrington belouged. 

s * The Commonwealth of Oceana,' by Harrington, appeared iu 1G56, and 
was another of those theories of government, which were gendered during the 
Coaimouwealtbi aud with which Baxter appears to have been greaUy disst* 



OF RICHARD BAXTKR. . 705 

setting the people upon the desires of a change. After this, Sir 
H. Vane and his party were about their sectarian deniocratical 
iDodel,^ which Stubbs defended. * Rogers,^ Needham, * and Mr. 
Bagshaw,™ had also written against monarchy before. In the 
end of an epistle before my book on ^ Crucifying the World,' 
I had spoken a few words against this innovation and opposition 
to monarchy ; and haviiig especially touched upon ^ Oceana' and 
' Leviathan/ Mr. Harrington seemed in a Bethlehem rage ; for 
by way of &corn he printed half a sheet of foolish jests, in such 
words as idiots or drunkards use, railing at ministers as a pack 

tia6ed. It was written !u imitation of the * Atlantis' of Plato, and the 
' Utopia' of Sir Thomas More ; and, like both its celebrated prototypes, de- 
■erves to be viewed only as a political romance* It is constructed ou the priu« 
ciples of pure republicanism, and was therefore not more acceptable lo Crom- 
well thau afterwards to Charles. The author was one of the must active, 
restless spirits of the Commonwealth, — Ingenious and visionary, but very 
harmless. He died in a state of insanity, having^ for some time before his 
death imaj^ned that his perspiration was turned into flies aud bees. Tlie cele- 
brated Tolaud collected his works, to which he prefixed a Life. The ' Oceana ' 
if worth the reading for its ingenuity aud style. 

^ I suppose Baxter refers here to Vane's * Healing Question,' in which he 
endeavours to adjust the points of government on democratical principles, 
combined with religion. 

* Stubbs wrote an ' Essay in Defence of the Good Old Cause ; or, a Dis- 
course concerning the use and extent of the Power of the Civil Magistrate in 
Spiritual Affairs.' 165i). The preface to this work contains a defence of 
Vane ; but he also wrote by itself < A Vindication of that Prudent aud Ho- 
nourable Knight, Sir Henry Vaue, from the Lies and Calumnies of Mr. Rich- 
ard Baxter, in a Monitory Letter to the said Mr. B.* 1659. This is the book 
to which I suppose Baxter alludes. 

^ John Rogers, the Fifth -Monarchy man, wrote < Christian Concertation 
with Mr. Prynne, Mr. Baxter, and Mr. Harrington, for the True Cause of the 
Commonwealth.' 1659. 4to. This is intended as an answer to Prynue's * Ana- 
tomy of the Republic,' &c. ; and to Baxter's * Holy Commonwealth,' aud 
part of bis ' Key to Catholics.' Rogers was not destitute of parts and learn* 
ing ; but he was one of the most enthusiastic spirits of the excited age in 
which he lived. 

' Marcbmont Needham was one of the most celebrated political adventurers 
of the times. He was author of mauy of the < Mercuries,' as they were 
called, which then flew about in all directions, and took all sides of the great 
political questions which agitated the country. He is said to have been 
** traiisceudently gifted in opprobrious and treasonable droll," which he did 
not scruple to employ on all occasions. Perhaps the pamphlet to which Bax- 
ter refers, as written by him, is his < Discourse of the Excellency of a Free 
State above a Kingly Government.' 1650. 

" The book of Bagshaw's referred to is a Latin treatise * De Monarchia Ab- 
BolutA Politica,' &c. 1659. '* The arguments in this discourse," says Baxter, 
** seem to be such |ioor, injudicious, slender stuff, that it was one occasion of 
my writing twenty arguments against Democracy, which 1 put into the book 
which 1 have since revoked^ * The Holy Commonwealth.'— jS{ut«r'# Second 
JdmomHan to Bagshaw^ 

VOL. I. Z ^ 



706 THB LIFB AND WRITINtiS 

of fools and knaves ; and by his gibberish derision persuading 
men that we deserve no other answer than such scorn and non- 
sense as beseemeth fools. With most insolent pride he carried 
it, as if neither I nor any ministers understood at all what policy 
was, but prated against we knew not what, and had presumed 
to speak against other men's art, which he was master of, and 
his knowledge, to such idiots as we, incomprehensible.*^ This 
made me think it fit, having given that general hint agunst his 
• Oceana,' to give a more particular charge, and withal to give 
the world and him an account of my political principles, and 
to show what I held as well as what I denied ; which I did 
in that book called ^ Holy Commonwealth,' as contrary to 
his heathenish commonwealth. In which I pleaded the 
cause of monarchy as better than democracy and aristocracy; 
but as under God the universal monarch. Here Bishop 
Morley hath his matter of charge against me, of which 
one part is that I spake against unlimited monarchy, because 
God himself hath limited all monarchs. If I had said that 
laws limit monarchs, I might, amongst some men, be thought 
a traitor and inexcusable; but to say that God limited! 
monarchs, I thought had never before been chargeable with 
treason, or opposed by any that believed that there is a God. 
If they are indeed unlimited in respect of God, we have many 
Gods or no God. But now it is dangerous to meddle with these 
matters, most men say. Let God defend himself. 

" In the end of this book is an appendix concerning the cause 
of the parliament's first war, which was thus occasioned: Sir 
Francis Nethersole, a religious knight, who was against the 
lawfulness of the war on both sides, sent his man to me with 
letters to advise me to tell Cromwell of his usurpation, and to 
counsel him to call in the king ; of which, when I had given him 
satisfaction, he sent him again witli more letters and books to 
convince me of the unlawfulness of the Parliament's war, and 
others attempting it at the same time, and the confusion, 
which the army had brought upon us, being such as made me 
very much disposed to think ill of those beginnings which had 
no better an end, I thought it best to publish my detestation 

" Baxter could scarcely expect any other treatment than he here describes 
from such men as Harriug;ton. Politics was the element in which such men 
lived and breathed — the field which they considered their own. They pc- 
g'arded Baxter as leaving his proper business and meddling with theirs, wbfii 
he wrote on government, and were therefore disposed to say in banter^ •* Ne 
sutor ultra crepidam," instead of reasoning; with hinr. 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 707; 

and lamentation for those rebellious proceedings of the army ; 
which I did as plainly as could be borne, both in an epistle to 
them, and in a meditation at the end, I withal declared the 
very truth, that hereby I was made suspicious and doubtful of. 
the beginnings or first cause, but yet was not able to answer 
the arguments which the lawyers of the Parliament then gave> 
and which had formerly inclined me to that side. I confessed 
that if men's miscarriages and ill accidents would warrant me 
to condemn the beginnings which were for another cause, then 
I should have condemned them ; but that not being the way, I 
found myself yet unable to answer the first reasons, and there- 
fore laid them down together, desiring the help of others to 
answer them, professing my own suspicion, and my daily prayers 
to God for just satisfaction. And this paper is it that containeth 
all my crimes."® 

Such is Baxter's own account of this work many years after its 
publication. Beside the preface and conclusion, it contains 
three hundred and eighty theses, or aphorisms, each of which is 
illostrated at more or less length : beginning with, ^^ There are 
men inhabiting the earth," and ending with ^^ A prudent godly 
prince is so rare, that the people who enjoy such, ought greatly 
to love, obey, and honour him." The space between these very 
evident points is filled up with a multitude of discussions, some 
more and others less interesting. On many of the subjects which 
he discusses, Baxter had enlightened views* He was the friend of 
civil liberty, and an enemy to despotism and arbitrary power. 
On both these subjects he occasionally wrote well. He seems 
also to have understood the great end and design of govern- 
ment to be, the good of the governed ; and describes more accu- 
rately than might have been expected, the nature of the British 
constitution. On the magistrates' power or authority in matters 
of religion, he was at fault, and writes like a person who imper- 
fectly understood the subject. He would never have been a 
persecutor himself, but he saw no objection that men should be 
compelled to submit, for their own good, in what he regarded. 
as lesser matters. This, however, is very dangerous ground to 
occupy. 

The most obnoxious part of the book, at the time which fol- 
lowed its publication, is the conclusion, where he defends the 
doctrine of resistance to illegal and oppressive governments, and 
justifies the war on the part of the people of England against 



\ 

\ 



« Life, parti, pp. 118, 119. 

zz2 



708 THS LTFK AND WRITINGS 

the king. The following passages state the principal groimds 
of his opinion, in which, whatever reproach he had to endure at 
the time, every friend of the British constitution now agrees 
with him. 

" The laws in England are above the king : because they are 
not his acts alone, but the acts of king and parliament coo- 
junctly, who have the legislative, that is, the sovereign power* 
This is confessed by the king in the answer to the nineteen 
propositions. The king was to execute judgment according to 
these laws, by his judges in his courts of justice: and his par- 
' liamcnt was his highest court, where his personal will and word 
were not sufficient authority to suspend or cross the judgment 
of the court, except in some particular cases submitted to him* 
The people's rights were evidently invaded : ship-money and 
other impositions were without law, and so without authority. 
The new oath imposed by the convocation and the king, the 
ejecting and punishing ministers for not reading the Book of 
Sports on the Lord*s-days, for not bowing towards the altar, for 
preaching lectures, and twice on the Lord's-day; with many the 
like, were without law, and so without authority. 

" The parliament did remonstrate to the kingdom, the danger 
of the subversion of its religion and liberties, and of the common 
good and interest of the people, whose trustees they were : and 
we were obliged to believe them both as the most competent 
witnesses and judges, and the chosen trustees of our liberties. 
We are ourselves incapable of a full discovery of such dangers 
till it be too late to remedy them : and therefore the constitu- 
tion of the government having made the parliament the trustees 
of our liberties, hath made them our eyes by which we must 
discern our dangers, or else they had been useless to us. The 
former proceedings afforded us so much experience as made the 
parliament's remonstrance credible. We saw the king raise forces 
against the parliament ; having forsalvcn it, and first sought to 
seize upon its members in a way which he confessed a breach 
of its privilege. All the king's counsellors and soldiers were 
subjects, and legally under the power of the parliament. It 
had power to try any subject, and adjudge them to punishment 
for their crimes. The offenders whom it would have judged, 
iled from justice to the king, and there defended themselves by 
force. 

'^ When the parliament commanded us to obey them, and 
not resist them) I knew not how to resist and disobey theiD| 



OF BICHARD BAXTER. 709 

without violation of the command of God, ^' Let every soul 
be subject to the higher power/' &c. \ and without incurring 
the danger of the condemnation there threatened to resisters. 
I think none doubts but that command obliged Christians 
to obey the senate as well as the emperor. When it was 
confessed by the king that the legislative power was in the 
three estates conjunct, and the estate was mixed, and conse- 
quently that the parliament had a part in the sovereignty, I 
thought it treason to resist them, as the enemy did, apparently, 
in order to their subversion ; and unlawful to disobey their just 
commands, such as I thought these were. 

'^ I had great reason to believe that if the king had con- 
quered the parliament, the nation had lost all security of their 
liberties, and been at his mercy, and not merely under his go- 
▼emment ; and that if he had conquered them by such persons 
as he then employed, it had not been in his power to have 
preserved the commonwcath if he would. His impious and 
popish armies would have ruled him, and used him as other 
armies have done those that trusted them. 

" I knew that the parliament was the representative body of 
.the people of the commonwealth, who are the subject of the 
common good ; that the common good is 4;he essential end 
of government, and therefore that it cannot be a just war that, 
by their king, is made against them, except in certain ex- 
cepted cases : and that the end being more excellent than the 
means, is to be preserved by us, and by no means to stand in 
competition u-ith the end. And, therefore, if I had known that 
the parliament had been the beginners, and most in fault, yet 
the ruin of our trustees and representatives, and so of all the 
security of the nation, is a punishment greater than any fault 
of theirs against a king can deserve; and that their faults 
cannot disoblige me from defending the Commonwealth. I 
owned not all that ever they did ; but I took it to be my duty 
to look to the main end. I knew that the king had all his 
power for the common good, and therefore that no cause can 
warrant him to mak^ the commonwealth the party which he 
shall exercise hostility against. War against the parliament, 
especially by such an army, in such a cause, is hostility 
against them, and so against the commonwealth. All this 
seemed plain to me : and especially when I knew how things 
went before, and who were the agents, and how they were 
minded, and what were their purposes against the people." p 

r Holy Commonwealth, pp. 470, 472, 474, 477^478,4\&Q)\*^\« 



710 THB UFB AND WRITlBfGS 

I doubt greatly Urhether, by any man of hia own or o. tht 
present age, a clearer exposition could be given of the jiistify« 
ing causes of the civil war than these extracts furnish. They 
afford an admirable specimen of the clear view which BaaOer 
had of the great question which so long distracted the oountryi 
and sufficiently account for his own conduct and that of many 
others in these painful transactions. While many eircumstaiieei 
compelled him to review the past^ his mind never underwent 
any material change on those points. In the following passagei 
after having noticed the faults which had been committed on 
both sides, and some reasons of regret peculiar to himad^ be 
avows his deliberate conviction of the righteousness of the 
cause, and declares what would be his future conduct under 
similar circumstances. 

'^ I shall continue with self-suspicion to search^ and be glad 
of any information that may convince me if I have been mis- 
taken ; and I make it my daily earnest prayer to God that he 
will not suffer me to live or die impenitently, or without the dis- 
covery of my sin, if I have sinned in this matter. Could I be 
convinced of it, I would as gladly make a public recantation 
as I would eat or drink ; and I think I can say that 1 am truly 
willing to know the truth. But yet I cannot see that I was 
mistaken in the main cause, or dare repent of it, nor forbear 
the same, if it were to do again in the same state of things. I 
should do all I could to prevent such a war ; but if it could not 
be prevented, I must take the same side as then I did. And my 
judgment tells me that if I should do otherwise, I should be 
guilty of treason or disloyalty against the sovereign power of the 
land, of perfidiousncss to the commonwealth, of preferring of- 
fending subjects before the laws and justice, the will of the king 
above the safety of the commonwealth, and consequently 
above his own welfare; and that I should be guilty of giv- 
ing up the land to blood, or to much worse, under pretence 
of avoiding blood in a necessary defence of all that is dear 



to us." *i 



* The Holy Commonwealth ' was published at a very critical 
time, just as- Richard Cromwell was falling, and before it ap- 
peared whctiier a republic or the old monarchy was to occupy his 
place. " It was written," the author tells us, " while the Ixird 
Protector, prudently, piously, faithfully, to his immortal honour, 
did exercise the government." Unfortunately, with Richard fell 
the liberties of England for many a year; and the powers that 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 7U 

telne to be, took care to remember the alleged sins of Baxtet 
pommitted in this work. It was often quoted against him, and 
its sentiments greatly misrepresented. Among others, it was 
attacked by Thomas Tomkins, a high-church clergyman, and 
a decided opposer of toleration and the privileges of the dissents 
era after the Restoration, in his ^ Rebel's Plea examined ; or^ 
Mu Baxter's Judgment concerning the late War.' 1660. 4tOt 
Tomkins was the nephew of an old acquaintance of Baxter, a 
prebendary at Worcester, where he was a schoolboy when Bax- 
ter lived in the county. After writing this book he was created 
tL doctor, and made chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
Baxter says, his ^ Rebel's Plea^ ^^ was a confutation of such 
passages .in his ^ Holy Commonwealth,' as he least understood^ 
and could make most odious."' This is not the only book 
which Tomkins wrote against the Nonconformists. He was 
author of ^ The Inconveniencies of Toleration ; or the Modem 
Pleas of Toleration considered;' a book on which Baxter 
bestows some animadversions in his ' Apology for the Noncon-* 
formists' Ministry.' The author was in high esteem with Shel- 
don, who made him rector of Lambeth, and conferred on him 
other preferments. • 

Beside this direct attack, all the political adversaries of Bax« 
ter, such as Morley,^ L'Estrange, Long, and others, took occa« 
sion to reproach him for the sentiments of this book. At last^ 
m company with some of the writings of Owen, Locke, and 
other friends of British freedom, it was consigned to the fire by 
a decree of the University of Oxford. This reflected honour 
rather than disgrace on Baxter; and was in due time, as has 
been mentioned elsewhere, amply avenged on the time-serving 
body which thus dishonoured itself. 

Long before that time, however, in consequence of the 
incessant attacks made upon him,^ on account of this worky 

^ Life, part ii. p. 374. ■ Athcn. Oxon. vol. iii. p. 1047. 

* fiishop Morley declares that it was on account of the sentiments avowed 
in the * Holy Commonwealth ' he refused to allow Baxter to preach in his 
diocese } and that he told him so when he waited on him to ohtain permis- 
sion to resume his labours at Kidderminster : which he alleges Baxter con- 
cealed. This does no credit to the bishop ; and only shows how dangerous it 
4hen was for a man to preach the Gospel, or be a friend to the liberties of his 
country. — See the Bishop of fVinchestei'^s f^mdication, 

" Que of the most furious attacks made on Baxter, in which the ' Holy Corn- 
monwealth ' is referred to, was by a person of the name of Edward Pettit^ 
M.A., in a work entitled ' Visions of Government/ published in 1684. Afte^ 
jnisrepresenting; the principles^ and caluomiating the character, of Baxter, he 



712 THS L1FK AND WRITINGS 

1 

he published at the end of the preface to his ^ life of Faith,' 
printed in 1670, his regret for having published the book, 
and recalls it. The document is very curious, and foiled to 
answer its purpose. The scrota manet was too powerful 
for Baxter's declaration of non scrotum. *' Let the reader 
know/' he says, ** that whereas the bookseller hath in the 
catalogue of my books^ named my ' Holy Commonwealtlu or 
Political Aphorisms,' I do hereby recall the said book^ and pro- 
fess my repentance that ever I published it, and tliat not only 
for some bye-passages, but in respect of the secondary piirt of the 
very scope ; though the first part of it, which is the defence of 
God and reason, I recant not. But this revocation I make with 
these prorisoes : that I reverse not all the matter of the book, 
nor all that more than one have accused, as e. ff* the assertion 
that all human powers are limited by Ood ; and if I may not 
be pardoned for not defying Deity and humanity, I shall prefer 
that ignominy before their present triumph and /laiiutj who 
defy them : * that I make not this recantation to the miHtaiy 

puts into tlie mouth of Bradsbavr, — whom be infamously represents as prc^ 
dent of hell, bestowing the* crowuon Baxter, in acoutei^t between him, Hobbet, 
and Neville, fur pre-eminence, — the following invectire : ** Jf he, whose hiHk 
is faction, who&c religion is rebellion, whose prayers are speUs, whose piety it 
mapc, whose purity is the gall of bitterness, who can cant and recant and 
cantnj^ain, who can transform himself into as many shapes as Lucifer, (wbo 
Is never more a devil thau when au an^el of ligrht, and like bim, wbo, proud 
of bis perfections, first rebelled in heaven,) proud of bis imo^nary (races, 
pretends to rule and govern, and consequently rebel on earth, be the greatest 
politician, then make room for Mr. Baxter. Let bim come in and be crowned 
with wreaths of serpents, and chaplets of adders ; let b)s triuropbaot cbariflt 
l»e a pulpit, drawu on the wheels of cannon by a brace of wolves in sheep's 
clothing; let the ancient fathers of the church, whom, out of ignorance, be 
has vilified ; the reverend and learned prelates, whom, out of pride and ma- 
lice, be has abused, belied, and persecuted; the most righteous king, whose 
rounler, (I speak my own and his sense,) contrary to the light of all religion, 
laws, reason, and conscience, he has justiSed, then denied, tbeu again and 
again and again justified ; let them all he bound in chains to attend his infer- 
nal triumph to his ' Saint's Everlasting Rest ;' then make room. Scribes and 
Pharisees, hy|>ocrites, Atheists, and politicians, lor the greatest rebel oueartb, 
and next to him that fell from heaven." — Of the author of this malignant pro- 
duction I can give no account. Beside his ' Visions of Government,' from 
which this extract is given, I have two other hooks of bis, ' The Vision uf 
Purgatory,' ICiiO, and « The Visions of the Reformation,' 1683. They all 
discover marks of genius, though they leave it difficult to divine the true 
character of their author. In an engraved title to the * Visions of Goveniment,* 
Charles II. is represented trampling on a monster with three beads->tbc 
Grand Turk, the Pope, and a Presbyterian. The bead of the Presbyteriaa is 
evi«iently iuteuded for Richard Baxter ! 

« In this passage Baxter alludes particularly to Bishop Morley, who vindi- 
cated himself from the charge of being ** a dcfier of Deity and humaully." 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 713 

fury and rebellioua pride and tumult against which I wrote it, 
nor would have them hence take any encouragement for impe- 
nitence; that though I dislike the Roman clergy's writing so 
much of politics, and detest ministers meddling in state matters, 
without necessity or a certain call ; yet I hold it not simply un- 
beseeming a divine, to expound the fifth commandment, nor to 
ahow the dependence of human powers on the divine, nor to 
instruct subjects to obey with judgment and for conscience' sake : 
that I protest against the judgment of posterity, and all others 
that were not of the same time and place, as to the mental cen- 
sure either of the book or revocation, as being ignorant of the 
true reasons of them both. Which things provided, I hereby 
under my hand, as much as in me lieth, reverse the book, and 
desire the world to take it as non scriptumJ* ^ 

The reasons which influenced him to take this singular step, 
he assigns very openly and candidly in the following passage of 
his Life : ^^ Ever since the king came in, that book of mine was 
preached against before the king, spoken against in the par- 
liament, and wrote against by such as desired my ruin. Morley, 
bishop of Worcester, and many after him, branded it with trea- 
son, and the king was still told that I would not retract it, but 
was still of the same mind, ready to raise another war ; and 
a person not to be endured. New books every year came out 
against it ; and even . men that had been taken for sober and 
religious, when they had a mind for preferment, and to be taken 
notice of at court and by the prelates, did fall on preaching or 
writing against me, and especially against this book, as the 
most probable means to accomplish tiieir ends. When I had 
endured this ten years, and found no stop, but that still they 
proceeded to make me odious to the king and kingdom, and 
seeking my utter ruin this way, I thought it my duty to remove 
this stumbling-block out of their way, and without recanting any 
particular doctrine in it, to revoke the book and disown it, de- 
siring the reader to take it as non scriptum^ ^\\A telling* him 

■ 

Had the bishop's notions of the divine character been more correct, and his 
poUUcal theology more accordant with the Bible, he would have been less 
known at court, and would not have gloried iu depriving Richard Baxter of a 
license to preach the Gospel. 

f Bishop Morley makes some very severe strictures on this recantation, 
at well as on the * Holy Commonwealth ' itself. He considers, with some jus. 
ticc, that the recauiatiuu is very equivocal, and affords little evidence that 
Baxter had changed his mind. To a man of his high-rburch principles it ne* 
ccfttarily appeared very unsatisfactory. — See the Conclusion of his f^lndicaium, 
pp. 1—15. 



714 THB LIFE AND WB1T1M6S 

that I repented of the writing of it. And so I did, yet teUing 
him that I retracted none of the doctrine of the first party whidi 
was to prove the monarchy of God : hut for the sake of ths 
whole second part, I repented that I wrote it s for I was re? 
solved, at least, to have this much to say agunst all that after 
wrote, and preached, and talked against it, that I had revdked 
that book, and therefore should not defend it. The incessant 
bloody malice of the reproachers made me heartily wish, oq 
two or three accounts, that I had never written it ; because it 
was done just at the fall of the government, and was buried id 
our ruins, and never that I know of did any great good ; be* 
cause I find it best for ministers to meddle, as little as may be^ 
with matters of polity, how great soever their provocations may 
be : and therefore I wish that I had never written on any sodi 
subject. [I repented also that I meddled against Vane and Har- 
rington, which was the second part in defence of monarchy, 
seeing that the consequents had been no better, and that my 
reward had been to be silenced, imprisoned, turned out of all^ 
and reproached implacably and incessantly as criminal, and 
never like to see an end of it. He that had wrote for so little, 
and so great displeasure, might be tempted, as well as I, to 
wish that he had sat still, and let God and man alone, with 
matters of civil polity. Though I was not convinced of many 
errors in that book, so called by some accusers, yet I repented 
the writing of it as an infelicity, and as that which did no 
good, but hurt.*' * 

Various opinions will be entertained of this singular mode of 
recalling a printed work ; and it may seem improper, in the face 
of Baxter's own protest against the judgment of posterity, re* 
specting both the book and its revocation, to pronoimce any 
opinion on the matter. But all such protests are vain ; what is 
published is public property, and no man has a right, after pub* 
lishing a book, to protest against others forming or expressing ao 
opinion of it. It does not appear that Baxter ever changed his 
mind respecting the substance of the sentiments of his ^ Holy 
Commonwealth,' but he regretted their publication, as he 
became thereby involved in disputes which were foreign from 
the nature of his principal occupation, and exposed himself to 
reproach, which, as a minister of Christ, he would rather have 
avoided. It might, perhaps, have been better had the book not 
been published, but that being done, it is to be regretted he 

■ Life, part uL pp. 71, 72. 



<OF RICHARD BAXTER. 715 

3hoiild have thus recalled it. It contains nothing of ivhich he 
bad any reason to be ashamed. The passages of it most 
pbjected to^ are the parts which of all others are most creditable 
to the judgment and feelings of Baxter ; and respecting which 
there is now scarcely any difference of opinion in this enlightened 
country. I will not, however, defend the political consistency 
of Baxter. In these passages, he avows principles and approves 
of conduct not reconcilable with his opposition to the doctrines 
of Hooker, on which I have remarked in another chapter. And, 
indeed, in the ^ Holy Commonwealth' itself, there are posi« 
tions that it would be impracticable to harmonize. Considering 
also what part he acted in connexion with the army of the 
commonwealth, and the defence which he makes of his own 
conduct, he ought to have been more sparing in his censures 
ot others who, in these affairs, do not appear to have acted 
differently from himself, or to have been influenced in their 
conduct by motives less pure or patriotic.^ 

In 1680, Baxter published his ^ Church History of the Go« 
yemment of Bishops, and their Councils Abbreviated.' This is 
a quarto volume of more than 500 pages, and, though chiefly a 
compilation, must have cost the author very considerable labour. 
It contains an account of the leading transactions of Christian 
princes and popes, and of the principal heresies and contro- 
versies till the Reformation. Its object is to inform the ignorant 
of the state of the ancient churches, and to correct many mis- 
takes and misconceptions that prevail respecting the heresies of 
former times, and the means employed to destroy or promote 
them. 

* Baxter teUs a curious auecdote regpectiag Dr. South in couuexion with 
his * Holy Commonwealth/ *' Bishop Morley having preferred a youngs roan 
named Mr. S— orator of the University of Oxford, a fluent, witty satirist, 
and one that was some time mentioned to me to be my curate at Kiddermin-> 
ster; this man> being household chaplain to the lord chanceUor, waa ap- 
pointed to preach before the king, where the 'crowd had high expectations of 
some vehement satire. But when he had preached a quarter of an hour he was 
utterly at a loss, and so unable to recollect himself, that he could go nu fur- 
ther, but cried * The Lord be merciful to our infirmities,' and so came down. 
About a month after, they were resolved yet that. Mr. S— should preach 
the same sermon before the kiug, and not lose his expected applause ; and 
preach it he did, little more than half an hour, with no admiration at all of 
the hearers; and, for his encouragement, the sermon was 'printed. When 
it was printed, many desired to see what words they were that he was stopped 
at the first time, and they found iu the printed copy all that he had said first, 
and one of the next passages, which he was to have delivered, was against me 
for my * Holy Commonwealth.' "'■^Life, part ii. p. 380. 



716 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

Ecclesiastical history' is a very important branch of studjr^ 
but one which is attended with many difficulties. The widely- 
spread and diversified circumstances of the Christian churchy 
even from the earliest period, render it difficult to arrive at 
satisfactorv views of manv events in which it was concerned. 
Those events were seldom recorded at the time, or by the per- 
sons who lived on the spot. The early writers who undertook 
to give the history of the churchy^ were not well skilled in the 
laws of historic truth and evidence, nor always well fitted to 
apply those laws. Opinions and statements scattered over 
the pages of the . fathers and their successors, are often vagof, 
discordant, and unsatisfactory, presenting almost endless per* 
plexity, or matter of debate. While these and other causes 
contribute to render ecclesiastical history very difficult, they 
who have devoted themselves to it in modern times, look at the 
subjects of their investigation througli mediums which tend to 
colour or distort most of the facts passing under their review. 
Their associations and habits of thinking lead them unconscious- 
ly to attach modern ideas to ancient terms and usages. The 
word church, for instance, almost invariably suggests the idea 
of a body allied to the state, and holding the orthodox creed. 
The heretics of church history are generally regarded as men of 
erroneous principles and immoral lives. Councils are bodies 
representative, and clothed with something approaching to in- 
fallible authority. Bishops are not regarded as pastors of par- 
ticular congregations, but ecclesiastical rulers of provinces. 
All these things tend greatly to bewdlder and perplex an in- 
quirer into the true state of the profession of Christianity during 
a long succession of ages ; and from their distracting influence, 
even the strongest minds can scarcely be protected. Impartia- 
lity is commonly professed, and, in most instances, honestly in- 
tended, but very rarely exercised. 

That Baxter should be altogether free from prejudice is not 
to be supposed^ But as he held with none of the great leading 
parties of his own day on the subject of church government, he 
was as^ likely as most men to ascertain the truth ; while total 
regardlessness of the influence which his discoveries or their 
promulgation might have upon his own circumstances, must 
have operated powerfully in securing an honest declaration 
of truth. * 

* In the mtroduclxon U^^tet oJludea to Dr. Heylin's unjust ai^persionf oo'tbe 
Presbyteriauft, awOi b\& B^^mwx^ MTx^^tk^\\\t)^c^^>^\^^^<«^^vn^QC blood ; wbicb 



OF RICHARD BAXTER* 717 

His representation of the reason for undertaking this pub- 
lication^ and especially the testimony he bears respecting the 
chief causes of the evils and contentions which have afflicted the 
Christian church, are exceedingly important. 

^' I found by the people of London, that many, influenced 
by the Tate confusions in this land, had got an apprehension that 
all schism and disorder came from ministers and people re- 
sisting the bishops, and that prelacy is the means to cure schism; 
so that seeing what church tyranny hath done in the world, 
they fly to it for refuge against that mischief which it doth prin- 
cipally introduce. Wherefore I wrote the history of prelacy, 
or a contraction of all the history of the church, especially Bin- 
nitts and Baronius, and others, of councils ; to show by the 
testimony of their greatest flatterers what the councils and con- 
tentions of prelates have done. But the history, even as deli- 
vered by Binnius himself, was so ugly and frightful to me in the 
perusing, that I was afraid lest it should prove, when opened by 
me, a temptation to some to contemn Christianity itself for the 
sake and crimes of such a clergy. . As an antidote, therefore, I 
prefixed the due commendation of the better, humble sort of 
pastors. But I must profess that the history of prelacy and coun- 
cils, doth assure me that all the schisms and confusions that 
have been caused by Anabaptists, Separatists, or any of the 
popular, unruly sectaries, have been but as flea-bitings to the 
church, in comparison of the wounds that prelatical usurpation, 
contention, and heresies, have caused. I am so far from won- 
dering that all Baronius's industry was thought necessary to 
put the best visor on such actions, that I wonder the Papists 
have not rather employed all their wit, care, and power, to 
get the histories of councils burnt and forgotten in the world ; 
that they might have only their own oral, flexible tradition 
to deliver to mankind ; what their interest, pro re nata^ shall 
require."* 

The first part of the work, in which he giv6s an account of 
the primitive churchesi, showing most satisfactorily that they 
vere single congregations under the government of their respec- 
tive pastors or bishops; with the rise of diocesan episcopacy, and 
the progress of corruption, till Christianity became amalgamated 

brought upon him a fierce rejoinder from Vernon, in his preface to Heylin's 
Life, with the repetition of the story of Baxter's killing a man, as the evidence 
of his bloody disposition ; and some remarks on the church history. 
• Idfe, part iU. pp. 181, 182. 



71& THE LIPR AND WRITINGS 

with secular things and placed under the power of civil gofen- 
ment, is the most important. 

The views and reasonings contained in thb portion of the 
work) are fully supported by the best authorities. I regret diat 
my limits render it impracticable to make quotations : and to 
follow him through his account of popes and councils, would be 
unprofitable. As far as they are concerned, church history is littk 
better than a record of human depravity and impiety under the 
name of religion. It is an almost unbroken exhibition of the 
lust and abuse of power — of irreligious arrogance and domina- 
tion-— of the worst passions of human nature, seeking their 
gratification, and displaying their most malignant qualities, in 
combination with a pretended regard to the interests of the 
pure and holy religion of Jesus, 

This work of our indefatigable author did not pass with- 
out animadversion. It was attacked by a clergyman named 
Morrice or Maurice, chaplain to Archbishop Sancroft, in an 
anonymous work, entitled ' A Vindication of the Primitive 
Church Diocesan Episcopacy : in answer to Mr. Baxter's Church 
History, as also to some parts of his Treatise of Episcopacy.' 
1682. 8vo. The great object of this work is to shake the autho- 
rity of Baxter's statements, and to vindicate the bishops from 
what is laid to their charge. Tliis led Baxter to write and pub- 
lish his * True History of Councils Enlarged and Defended.' 1682. 
4to. This work is written with very considerable vigour and 
spirit, and is in some respects more interesting than the former. 
Baxter was stung and roused by some of the reproaches and 
misrepresentations of his adversary, and defends himself ex- 
ceedingly well. He was accused of want of learning, and of 
want of accuracy ; of misquoting and mistranslating his authori- 
ties. The following extract contains a piece of his own history^ 
as well as a view of the extent of his reading, and of the a»- 
thorities whioh he used ; it is therefore curious : 

" Seeing these things are thought just matter for our accuser's 
turn, I will crave the reader's patience while I tell him the 
truth. It is now about twenty-five years since I read the Ger- 
man history in the collections of Freherus, Reuberus, and Pis- 
torius, and about thirtv vears since I read the collections of 
Goldastus. The Magdeburgers, Osiander, Sleidan, or any such 
Protestants, I thought vain to allege to Papists. About seven 
or eight years ago^ L was accused for preaching, and fined by. 
Sir Thomas DaVu •, «.xv^ 0^^ vjwt^wx. ^%& ^\jx Vs^ bim to Sir 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 719 

Edmund Bury Godfrey, to levy it on me by distress. ■ I had no 
way to avoid it, but bond fide to make away all that I had. 
Among the rest, I made away my library ; only borrowing part 
of it for my use. I purposed to have given it almost all to Cam- 
bridge, in New England; but Mr. Thomas Knowles, who knew 
their library, told me that Sir Kenelme Digby had already given 
them the Fathers, Councils, and Schoolmen, and that it was 
history and commentators which they wanted. Whereupon I 
sent them some of my commentators, and some historians, among 
which were, Freherus', Reuberus', and Pistorius' collections; 
and Nauclerus, Sabellicus, Thuanus, Jos. Scaliger, &c. Gol- 
dastus I kept by me, (as borrowed,) and many more which 
I could not spare ; the fathers, councils, and schoolmen, I was 
stopped from sending. Now, whether I was unacquainted 
with those that partly stand yet at my elbow, and which I had 
read so long ago, must depend on the credit of my memory ; 
which, I confess, of late \a& grown weak : but not so weak as 
to think that Marquardus Freherus was not one man, and a Pa* 
latinate Councillor, though it be names that I most forget. Why 
I gave not the christian names of Reuberus and Pistorius, whe- 
ther because I forgot them, or because I minded not so small a 
thing, not dreaming what would be inferred from it, I remember 
noL But when I wrote that abridgment, I made use of none 
that I thought the Papists would except against. For the first 
ages, I gathered what I remembered out of the Fathers, and out 
of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Evagrius, Theodoret, the Tri- 
partite, Nicephorus, Liberatus, Brev. Victor Vtic, Bede, and 
such others as are by them received. Beside which, I prin- 
cipally followed and epitomized Binnius and Crab, and partly 
BaroniuS) with Platina, Onuphrius Panunius, Stella, Petavius, 
and others of their own. I resolved I would not so much as 
open Goldastus, or any Protestant collector, that they might 
not except against their credit, and reject them as malicious, 
cursed heretics. Therefore, even those histories which be in Gol- 
dastus, I would not take as out of him, but some of them from 
the books published by others, and some as cited by Binnius, 
Petavius, or other such : and this is now the proof of my vanity. 
'^ He accuseth me for not using Valesius' edition of Euse- 
bius, and those editions of the councils which he accounteth 
the best. To which I say, I am not rich enough to buy them, 
nor can keep them if I had them. Must none write but rich 
meo ? The French councils would cost more than many of us 



720 TUB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

are worth. We have had uo ecclesiastical maintenance these 
nineteen years, and we cannot keep die hooks we have. 

^^ As for my using Hanmer's translation oF Eusebius and 
Socrates, my case was as before described. Valesiua I had not; 
Grynosus I made use of heretofore. But since I was, by con- 
straint, deprived both of my books and money to buy morei 
when I wrote that abridgment, I had only Hanmer's transb- 
tion left me : and if that sort of men who forced me to give 
away my books, to keep them from being distrained on, will 
make use of tliis to prove me ignorant of them, the matter it 
very small to me. 

^^ If you say I should not then have written, I answer. Could 
they so have silenced us in the pulpit, they had more answered 
their own judgment than mine. I had no use for critics, nor for 
any thing in Eusebius and Socrates that depends on the credit 
of the translator.'' ^ 

There is something very stinging in this and some other pas- 
sages of the present work, as applied to the party by whom 
Baxter was chiefly opposed. His defence of himself against 
the other misrepresentations of this author, which refer both to 
his work and to himself, are, in general, very satisfactory, but 
do not require to be gone into. 

In the preface to this work, he gives some account of Job 
Ludolph's * History of Ethiopia.' He then, in reply to L'Estraiige, 
gives a specimen of the readiest method of confuting Mr. 
Baxter, by noticing the story of his killing a man, adding 
the true account of that affair, which has been given in the 
first part of these memoirs. Annexed to the work is an admir- 
able anonymous pamphlet, by Mr. David Clarkson, ^ Diocesan 
Churches not yet Discovered in Primitive Times ; or, a Defence 
of the Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet.' Clarkson is well known as 
the colleague and successor of Dr. Owen. On this occasiou, 
Baxter and he, though an Independent, wrote in conjunction. 
They were agreed on the main points in dispute, viz., that dio- 
cesan episcopacy was not the primitive form of church govern- 
ment, but a departure from it. Clarkson was a man of great 
piety and moderation, and of more accurate learning than 
Baxter, though far from equal to him in acuteness and con* 
troversial talents.^ 

^ * True History of Councils Defended/ pp. 56—59. 
• Wood (MV\c\uO«.oii.\o\. \v. v328) sajs Clarkson afterwards dtsowoei! 
this book, thougVi OTX \<\k9X ^\)X\x<;)fiv^ \a ^^%<^ "Oksx %vi« \^^ «Iter wards pub- 



OP nirHARD BAXTKR. 721 

Baxter also speaks, on his title-page, of a detection of tlie 
false history of Edward, Lord Bisliop of Cork and Uoss, in 
Ireland. He refers to a publication of Bishop Wetenhairs, 
entitled, ^The Protestant Peace*Maker,' published in 1682; in 
a postscript to which are some notes on several of Baxter's 
iiTitin^ for peace. His lordship evidently did not understand 
the subject on which he wrote. His strictures arc feeble, and 
undeserving of the attention which Baxter bestowed on them. 
The two works on church history, which wc have now noticed, 
with the treatise on episcopacy, are among the best of Baxter's 
writings, which have not been re-published, and well deserve 
the attention of inquirers into the affairs of the church. ' 

The ' Breviat of the Life of Mrs. Margaret Baxter, with 
some account of her mother, Mrs. Hanmer,' was published 
shortly after Mrs. Baxter's death, in 1681. Of this little work 
considerable use has already been made, in noticing Baxter's 
marriage, and his wife's death. Of Mrs. Baxter it is un- 
necessary again to speak ; she possessed great piety, energy, 
and benevolence, and was peculiarly fitted to be the wife of 
such a man. His account of her is full of affection, very mi- 
nute, and very faithful ; as it records some of her failings, as 
well as her virtues. It is strikingly characteristic of the author. 
He mentions in the preface, that in his wife's will he was par- 
ticularly requested to re-print five hundred copies of the funeral 
sermon for her mother, written in 1661, which leads him to 
give some account of his writing the biographical sketch of his 
wife and of some other individuals of his family, 

'^ Being thus obliged, by her request, mine own affections 
urged me to premise this Breviat of her own Life ; written, I 

Ushcd a rery admirable tract, < Primitive Episcopacy stated aod cleared from 
the Holy Scriptures aod Ancient Records.' 1688. 8vo. To this work Maurice, 
then a Dr., published au answer, in a ' Defence of Diocesan Eplicopacy.' 1691« 
8vo. Dr. Maurice was a person of very considerable learniuf^, of which \l% 
teems sufficiently sensible in his controversy with Baxter. 

' There is one fact mentioned in his * True History of Councils Dcfemled/ 
which ought to be mentioned. It throws some Ught on the charge of perse- 
cuting the Episcopalians, preferred against Cromwell and his party. " In the 
days of the usurpers I moved for a petition, that, when tliey granted liberty of 
eonscience to so many others, they would grant liberty fur the full exercise of 
the Episcopal government to all that deserved it. Bui the episcopal party 
thai I tpake to would not endure it, <u knowing what hare liberty would be ta 
their cause^ unlete they could have the sword to tupprea th$S€ that yield not ta 
iheir reasoHt.** — p. 13K 

VOL. !• 3 A 



722 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

confess, under the power of melting grief, and therefore perhaps 
with the less prudent judgment ; but not with the lest, but thfc 
more truth, for passionate weakness poureth out all, which 
greater prudence may conceal. Conscionable men's histories 
are true, but if they be also wise, they tell ua but some part of 
truth ; concealing that which would do harm, and which the 
depraved world cannot bear without abusing it. But we that 
are less wise tell all the truth, too little regarding how men wiD 
receive it. 

** And hence comes all history, which hath not evidence equal 
to natural, to be of less credit than most men think ; wlule bad 
men lie, and good men leave out so much of the truth, aa maka 
the rest to be as another thing than altogether it would appear. 

"And having purposed to write this breviat Concerning my 
dear wife, God having, the same year, taken away two m<we of 
my ancient family, I wrote a breviat of their lives also. One 
was my excellent, holy mother-in-law, Mary the daughter of 
Sir Thomas Hunks, widow to my dear father. She was one of 
the most humble, mortified, holy persons that ever I knew; and 
lived in longing to be with Christ, till she was a hundred yeait 
old, wanting three or four, in full understanding, and at last re- 
joicing in the triumphant, frequent hearing, and repeating the 
ninety-first Psalm. 

" The other was my old friend and housekeeper, Jane Mat- 
thews, who lived in pious, humble virginity, with eminent worth 
to about seventy- six or seventy-seven years, and died of mere 
decay, without considerable pain or sickness, about a month or 
six weeks before my wife. 

" To these I add a fourth, a breviat of the life and death of 
the worthy mother of my wife, as to the time that I knew hert 
But I have cast by these latter three, and much of the first, 
by the counsel of wise friends, as things which they think that 
strangers will not make so great a matter of, as love and near^ 
ness made me do. 

. '^As to these little private histories of mine own family 
forementioned, I was loth to cast by my own mother-in-law's 
life, she being a person of extraordinary holiness, living long 
with Sir Robert Harley, whose lady was her cousin* german ; 
afterwards at Shrewsbury, and after with my father and me, 
&c., in so great communion with God, contempt of the 
world, and all its pomp and vanity; so great victory over the 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 723, 

fleshy and so strong desires to die ; and especially in such eon« 
stant, fervent, successful prayer, that had marvellous answers, 
aa very few Christians attain. 

*f She is gone after many of my choicest friends, who within 
one year are gone to Christ, and I am following even at the 
door. Had I been to enjoy them only here, it would have been 
but a short comfort mixed with the many troubles which all our 
failings and sins, and some degree of unsuitableness between the 
nearest and dearest, cause. But I am going after them to that 
blessed society, where life, light, and love, and therefore har-< 
mony, concord, and joy, are perfect and everlasting/' 

To the Memoir of Mrs. Baxter itself, after the extracts 
already given, I shall not any further advert. It is an interest- 
ing testimony to the character of a beloved and excellent 
woman, who enjoyed the highest confidence of this man of 
God, and who devoted herself to promote his comfort and 
usefulness to the end of her life. He had intended to make his 
account of her, and of all the circumstances connected with 
their marriage, much more extended ; but was diverted from his 
purpose by the advice of some judicious friends* His papers 
on this subject have I suppose been destroyed, which I do not 
much regret; though they would have gratified curiosity, they 
might not answer any useful purpose. 

Among the historical and biographical 'writings of Baxter, 
may be properly classed his ' Penitent Confession, and necessary 
Vindication/ 1691. 4 to. This must have been among the 
latest of his productions, as a letter prefixed to it, addressed 
to Bishop Stillingfleet, is dated June 13, 1691. Few men have 
been subjected to greater or more calumnious misrepresentations 
than Baxter. To these he was particularly exposed, not only 
from the public part which he acted, and from his sentiments as 
a Nonconformist, during a period of great difficulty, but from 
the promptitude and honesty with which he always avowed and 
published his convictions, respecting both himself and others. 
He was a great lover of peace and of his friends ; yet he had a 
still stronger love for truth and the interests of religion. The 
man who could fearlessly sacrifice himself to what he believed 
the cause of righteousness required, was not likely to be fasti- 
diously cautious in speaking of the conduct of others^ whether 
friends or foes. 

3a2 



724 THK TJFB AND WRITINGS 

Among his bitterest and most persevering enemies^ was one 
Long, a clergyman of Exeter, who appears to have considered 
it his duty to hunt down the Nonconform!^ ia general, and 
Baxter above all others. According to Wood-— ^ He was a 
person well read in the fathers'^ in Jewish, and other ancient 
writings ; and much conversant with the works of the more 
modern authors^ as having been well skilled in the writings of 
the several sorts of English separatists, especially of the Presl^- 
terians. The great danger and destructiveness of their rebellious 
principles and practices (reducing them into faithful historicsl 
narratives from their first origin and source quite down to thesr 
times) few, if any, have fully and truly represented in their 
proper colours, fairly examined, or more clearly refuted and set 
out. He hath also undergone that very toilsome drudgery of 
reading many or most of Mr* Richard Baxter's books, and 
hath published reflections and animadversions on several of 
them." 8 

, This violent individual, after attacking several of Baxter's 
' controversial pieces, to which reference is elsewhere made, 
vented his full malignity in an anonymous volume, imputed 
to him by Baxter, and which he afterwards acknowledged* 
' The Unreasonableness of Separation, the second part ; or, a 
further impartial Account of the History, Nature, and Pleas of 
the present Separation from the Church of England, with special 
Remarks on the Life and Actions of Mr. Richard Baxter/ 1681. 
8vo. The zeal and labour employed in getting up this book are 
quite extraordinary, in order to show that Baxter was a bad man, 
and a great heretic* His life and writings must have been ran- 
sacked in the most assiduous manner, to furnish the mis-state* 
ments and mis-representations with which the book abounds* 
To investigate their nature, and expose their injustice, would fill 
up a volume. Happily, it is not necessary to the just and fair re* 
putation of Baxter ; that has outlived the abuse and the very 
memory of Long ; who is now known only to the curious in the 
history of those times as the calumniator of Owen and Baxter, 
the defender of High-Church principles in religion, and of pas* 
sive obedience in politics. That he was a man not altogether 
destitute of talents, is evident even from his mischievous books; 
but talents, however great, when prostituted to evil purposes, and 
employed in opposing or vilifying men of principle and integrityi 



^F RICHARD BAXTBR. 725 

iikimately bring upon their possessor the displeasure of God^ 
and the indignation of men> 

Baxter wrote an answer to this scurrilous production at the 
time; but delayed its publication till he received in 1691 an 
anonymous letter, signed ^^ Caniianus De Minimis" calling 
him to repent and to publish his Confessions like Augustine. 
Baxter printed this letter at the end of one prefixed to his 
Confession^ addressed to Stillingfleet, and thanks the writer^ 

' The only part of Lonf^'g book, which it is worth while to quote, is the 
condoftioii, which he caUs a characteristic epitaph of Baxter. It will iUuBtrate, 
better than any thing I could say, Loofj^'s vituperative character :*— ^ 

ilic jacet RichaMus Baxter^^ 

TheologuB ArmatuSy 

Loiolita Reforroatus, 

Haresiarcha ^rianus, 

Schismaticonim Aotisi^aous ; 

Cujus pruritus disputandi peperit^ 

Scriptitandi cacoethes nutrtvit, 

Predicandi zelus intemperatus maturavit, 

ECCLBSIX SCABIEM ; 

Qui dissentit ah iis quibuscum consentit maxim^ ; 

Turn sibi cum aliis Nonconformis, 

Preteritis, praesentibus, et futuris $ 

Re^m et Episcoporum Juratus hostis, 

ipsumq; Rebellium solenne fcedus ; 

Qui natus erat, per septua^ota Aduos 

£t Octog^inta Libros, 
Ad perturbandas Re^i Respublicas, 
£t ad bis perd^ndam Ecclesiam Anglicanam ; 
Maguis tamen excidit ausis : 
Deo Gratias. 
The followini^ is a translation of this effusion of malice and wicked- 
ness: — Here lies Richard Baxter, a militant divine, a reformed Jesuit, a 
brasen heresiarch, aud chief of the schismatics ; whose itch of disputiu^ be* 
^t, whose humour of writing nourished, and whose intemperate zeal in 
preaching brought to its utmost height, the leprosy of the church : who dis- 
sented from those with whom he most agreed, from himself as well as from 
all other Noucouformists, past, present, and to come ; th^ sworn enemy of 
kings and bishops, and in himself the very bond of rebels ; who was born, 
through seventy years and eighty books, to disturb the peace of the kingdom, 
^d twice to attempt the ruin of the Church of England ; in the endeavour of 
which mighty mischiefs he fell short. Thanks be to God. 

It was the fashion to write epitaphs for Baxter ; another scurrilous enemy 
proposed to write over his tomb the two lines which are mangled in the last 
part of the above — 

*' Hie situs est Baxter, currus auriga paterni, 
Quern si non tenuity maguis tamen cxcidU ausis." 
•"• Young* s Anti • Baxieriantg. 

The above quotations justify the remark of Granger, ** Baxter's enemies 
have placed him in hell ;" that candid aud spirited writer, however, justly 
adds, ** but every man that has not ten times the bigotry that Baxter himself 
badj mutt conclude that he is in a better place." — Jliiog, ffUt. vol, v, p. 81» 



726 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

though unknown to him, for giving him the opporUuiit]^ of pin* 
fessing his repentance. The greater part c^ the letter wottU 
demand to he quoted, did the limits of this work admit of it, as 
illustrative of the spirit of Baxter, and explanatory of hit designs 
in writing his Confession. 

After this excellent prefatory letter, he proceeds to gm 
some account of the necessity of repentance, and of the tfaiop 
for which others blamed him, but for which he did not Uami 
himself. He then reviews many particulars in his life and 
.writings, defending, extenuating, explaining, or retracting, as 
matters seemed to require. As the statements, in connexioB 
with his own life, have been ofteti used in this work, this pam- 
phlet requires no further notice. It is a singular evidence of 
the integrity, tenderness of conscience, and regardlessness of 
the applause or censure of men, for which Baxter was so 
remarkable. 

The last work in this department remaining to be noticed, 
is the largest, and, at the same time, the most important of all. 
' Reliquiae Baxterianee : Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the 
most memorable passages of his Life and Times, faithfully pub- 
lished from his own original manuscript, by the Rev. Matthew 
Sylvester.' fol. 1686. Of a work, the most valuable parts of 
which have been incorporated in this volume, the reader will 
not expect to be furnished with a detailed description in this 
place. A few particulars, however, are necessary to be stated. 

It contains an account of Baxter, from his birth, in 1615, to 
the year 1684; including his personal transactions, or private 
life, his ministerial life, and his views of the great public affairs 
of his times. It is divided into three parts : the first extending 
from his birth to the time of the Commonwealth ; and in- 
cluding some occurrences which happened afterwards. The 
second goes back to the Westminster Assembly, and to the civil 
wars, and concludes with the year 1665, at the time of the 
plague in London. The third, which he began to write in 
1670, takes up the narrative where it had broken off, and brings 
ic down to about 1684. There is also a large appendix of 
papers and letters of various degrees of interest. 

Considered as an account of Baxter and his times, it is an 
invaluable document; but it is exceedingly to be regretted that 
it fell into the hands of so incompetent an editor as Sylvester. 
ile was a very good maU) but utterly unfit for the task which was 



OV RICHARD BAXTER. 727 

devolved upon him. Instead of digesting the materials which 
Baxter had left in the roughest state, he appears to have printed 
them with all their imperfections, and with scarcely any regard 
to arrangement. The consequence is, the book is almost un- 
readable, except for the purpose of consultation ; and even that 
is attended with much difficulty from its disorderly disposition. It 
is also printed with remarkable inaccuracy, either from the editor 
or the printer, in numberless places, grossly mistaking the author's 
meaning, or leaving it unintelligible. The following paragraph 
from Sylvester's preface, sufficiently justifies what I have now 
stated. 

^ As to the author*s ordering and digesting of his own me* 
moirs, a rhapsody it now appears; and as to method and 
equality of style, somewhat below what curious readers might 
expect : yea, and from what it had been, had it but passed the 
author's stricter thoughts and view. Yet we shall find the his- 
tory greatly useful, though not exactly uniform ; nor is it so 
confused as to be incapable of easy references, and reductions 
to such proper order as may best please the reader, if the de^ 
sign be clear and worthy, viz., to set in open light the degene* 
rate age he lived in : the magnolia of grace and providence as 
to himself; his self-censurings on all occasions ; caution and 
conduct unto others; and tracing all events to their genuine 
sources and originals. The judicious reader will improve such 
things. There were several papers loosely laid, which could not 
easily be found when needed. And the defectiveness of my 
very much declining memory made me forget, and the more 
because of haste and business, where I had laid them after I 
had found them. Some few papers mentioned, and important 
here, are not yet found, though searched after, which yet, here- 
after, may be brought to light amongst some others intended 
for the public view, if God permit. The reverend author wrote 
them at several times, as his other work and studies and fre- 
quent infirmities would admit of. He was more intent upon 
the matter than the method; and finding his evening sha- 
dows growing long, as the presage of his own approaching and 
expected change, he was willing, through the importunity had, 
rather that the work was done somewhat imperfectly, than not 
at all. It is true, indeed, that he hath left us nothing of the 
last seven years of his life, save his apology for his accused 
^ Paraphrase and Notes on the New Testament ;' for which he 
was so fiercely prosecuted, imprisoned^ traduced, and fined* 



'72S THE UFJS kHJ} WRITINGS 

And tb6ugh some pressed me to draw up the supplemental bit* 
tory of his life, yet the wisest that I could consult advised me 
to the contrary ; and 1 did take their counsel to be right and 
good." 

The chief value of this woik consists in the faithful portrut 
ivhich it presents of the excellent and venerable author* Jt 
exhibits him at full length, displaying all his greatness, his 
weaknesses, and his peculiarities. It enables us to live with Bax- 
ter, and in Baxter's times. It opens his heart, and enaUes us 
to read, without disguise, what was passing there. It opens his 
chamber door, and discloses the retirement and the privacies 
of the man of God — holding fellowship with his Maker and 
Redeemer— -mourning over his deficiencies and sins — wrestling 
in prayer, and rejoicing in hope. It conducts us to his pulpit, 
and places us almost within reach of (he Ughtening of his eye, 
and the music of his voice— 'arresting attention, flashing con«* 
viction, penetrating with sorrow, or filling with peace and joy« 
It introduces us to his flock, and makes us femiliar with his 
pastoral visits, his catechetical labours, his faithful discipline. 
It places him before us as the centre of an extended circle of 
correspondents, who looked to him for counsel to guide, for 
encouragement to act, for comfort to suffer — vigilant, tender, 
and conscientious. It exhibits him as the patriot, alive to all 
the wrongs of his country, and endeavouring to redress or miti- 
gate them ; ambitious, not of ease, honour, or preferment ; and 
regardless of all personal interests, if he might but promote 
the public good. It depicts him as the steady and devoted 
witness and confessor of Christ ; enduring wrongfully for his 
Master's sake, with all patience and long-suffering with joyful* 
ness. It is such a book as cannot be read without the deepest 
interest by all who have any respect for Baxter, for the class of 
persons to which he belonged, or for the period in which he 
lived. 

Baxter's account of public occurrences, in some of the most 
important of which he was not merely personally but deeply 
engaged, must be received with allowance for those mis- 
takes to which the most candid and upright men are liable; 
and for thase prejudices of party and of system, from which it 
is obvious Baxter was not exempted. Wherever he records 
what he said or did, or what occurred under his own eve, tiie 
fullest dependence may be placed upon his statements. His 
reasonings on facts may frequently be liable to objection ; and 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 723 

when lie speaks of the conduct and principles of others, on 
the ground of what he heard, we must examine what he 
says by the established laws of evidence, llie period of 
which he treats did not belong to the ordinary course of the 
world. There was nothing common-place in its features. 
Politics, religion, law, government, all assumed new and strange 
characters. AH classes of men were thrown out of their ac- 
customed circumstances and relations, and assumed forms and 
habits, novel and strange. It was impossible to think, speak, or 
write, but as partisans. Hence, the difficulty in arriving at true 
and accurate views of many of the individuals and affairs of 
those times. Baxter affords important aid ; but implicit conii-* 
denoe must not always be placed in his judgment, or in the re-* 
ports which he received from others. I have introduced every 
thing important in his narrative, in his own language, making 
the required verbal and grammatical corrections; but I have 
frequently corrected his statements and disputed his reasonings 
in the notes. Justice -to Baxter required that I should faith- 
Ailly record his views ; justice to truth, and to the light with 
which we are now furnished, required that I should not sup^ 
press my own. 

Dr. Calamy has left us, in ^ His Own Life,' the following ac-* 
count of this publication, which shows, that had it been under 
his care, rt would have appeared in a more improved form. 
**Thi8 work," he says, " was much expected, and had been long 
earnestly desired. Mr. Baxter left it, with his other MSS., to 
the care of his beloved friend, Mr. Sylvester, who was chary of 
it to the last degree, and not very forward to let it be seen ; yet 
had not leisure enough to peruse and publish it. After some 
time, I obtained the favour of the MS., and read it over and 
discoursed with him about the contents with all imaginable 
freedom. I found the good man counted it a sort of sacred 
thing to have any hand in making alterations of any sort, iu 
which I could not but apprehend he went too far, and was 
cramped by a sort of superstition. 

^^ Of this I was the more fully convinced upon my seeing se^ 
veral passages in the MS. that I could perceive likely to do 
more hurt than good ; and being informed, upon inquiry made, 
that he had a discretionary power left him by his deceased 
friend, I freely told him some things must be left out, or he 
would be charged with great weakness. He asked for instances; 
and I bf gan with Mr. Sylvester's own character, and told him I 



730 TUB LIFA ANH WEITIM6S 

could not see how he could, with decency, let that atandt tbougk 
it ivas an instance of the author's kindness to him, when be 
himself was to be the publisher. He seemed surprised and 
struck, and upon my turning to it and reading it to Um, owned 
that that should be altered, and empowered me to do it. I fur- 
ther mentioned to him some few reflections on persons and 
families of distinction, which would be offensive, though the 
matters related were true enough. These, also, he suflered 
me to blot out. I then fastened on some other thinga relathig 
to Mr* Baxter himself, about a dream of his, and his bodily 
disorders, and physical management of himself, and some 
other things that were too mean, the publishing of wfaidi 
1 told him to censure. After a good deal of discourse^ he 
suffered these also to be expunged. The contents prefixed to 
Mr. Baxter's narrative, and the index at the end, were of my 
drawing up. For my pains, I had from the bookaellen the 
present of a copy." ^ 

Notwithstanding the remarksof Dr. Calamy, Sylvester brought 
out the Life in a most unfinished state ; and full of the sort 
of gossip, and tiresome digressions, which he had been en- 
treated to omit. Even the index, drawn up by Calamy, reflects 
little credit on his skill or industry^ being not more correct 
or complete than the work itself. 

Of this work, Calamy justly observes, ^^ It met with the same 
treatment, as Baxter in his lifetime was much used to, both as to 
his person and his writings. It has been valued by some, and 
as much slighted by others. But where it has been most freely 
censured, it has been generally acknowledged to contain a col- 
lection of many valuable things of divers kinds." ^ It was first 
attacked by Baxter's indefatigable adversary. Long; who 
published, in 1697, ^ A Review of Mr. Richard Baxter's Life ; 
wherein many mistakes are rectified, some false relations 
detected, some omissions supplied, out of his other books ; with 
remarks on several material passages.' 8vo. This volume is in 
fact only a repetition of the ' Second Part of the Unreasonable- 
ness of Separation,' published by Long, in 1682, with additions 
of the same malignant nature. Of diis man of violence and 
war, enough has already been said. Baxter's account of his 
former attack upon him is justly applicable to the present 
His object is not to correct the mistakes or errors of Baxteti 
but to prove him to have been a liar, and a villain, and that the 



OV EICHARD BAXTBE. 781 

4ito of his party were generally no better* It is unnecessary to 
▼indicate Richard Baxter from such charges of the Rev* Thomas 
Long, prebendary of Exeter. 

The work was attacked with no less virulence and ma-* 
lignity by a person named Young, who, Calamy says, came 
from Pl]rmouth. He entitles his small Grub*street libel, 
' Anti«»Baxterian» : or, Animadversions on a book entitled Re- 
liquiae Baxterianse/ 1696. 12mo. It is difficult to divine the 
motive or object of this worthless performance ; the author of 
which seems to have been crazed as well as wicked. He talks 
all sorts of nonsense and ribaldry ; speaking sometimes as a 
(^hurehman, and sometimes as a dissenter : so that no correct 
opini<m can be formed, either of his sentiments or designs, from 
this publication, 

. Dr» Calamy published in 1705, ^Aii Abridgment of Mr* 
Baxter's History of his Life and Times/ This work appeared 
at first in one volume, '8vo ) but in 1713, the author re-pub- 
lished it in two volumes, with a continuance of the history of 
the Dissenters till 171 1> and an account of the ejected minis- 
ters. In 1727) he published ^ A Continuation of the Account 
of the ejected Ministers ;' so that the complete work makes four 
considerable volumes. As an abridgment of Baxter it is very faith- 
fiil, but dull ; because it is a continued translation of Baxter's 
own narrative from the first to the third person : thus destroying 
the charm of the finest of Baxter's personal descriptions, and 
necessarily fettering the style of Calamy throughout. The 
entire work, however, is replete with valuable, and in general, 
accurate information respecting the character, principles, and 
sufferings, of the Nonconformists. 

'^This work," the author says, ^^ cost me no little puns, and 
was more taken notice of in the world, and got me more friends 
and enemies too, than I could have expected or imagined. I had 
the thanks of several in the established church, as well as of a 
great number out of it. Many also were displeased, and some 
went so fiur as to threaten my abridgment with the public censure 
of the convocation. A dignified clergyman discoursing to that 
purpose with one of my booksellers, that had a concern in the 
work, and telling him what he had heard from several, that 
there was a design of that nature on foot, the bookseller re- 
quested him to be so kind as to tell any members of the convo- 
cation, that if they would pursue that design, and bring it to 
bear, he would willingly present such as were active in it with 



732 THB UFS AND WAITINGS 

a purse of guineas, and did not doubt but the consequence would 
turn to good account to him in the way of business. This being 
reported, there was no more talk heard of that nature* 

''Among other censurers. Dr. William Nichols, some time 
after publishing a Latin defence of the doctrine and* discipline 
of the Church of England, charges me in his historical Ap« 
paratus, ^ with hard and severe reflections running through my 
work//'* 

As a counterpart and counteraction to Baxter and Calamr, 
John Walker, a clergyman of Exeter, published in a folio 
volume, ' An Attempt towards recovering an Acconnt of the 
Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy of the Church of England, 
Heads of Colleges, Fellows, 'Scholars, &c., who were seques* 
tered, harassed, &c., in the late time of the grand Rebellion ; 
occasioned by the ninth chapter, now the second volume^ of Drt 
Calamy's Abridgment,' &c. 1714. 

It is impossible to deny that many of the clergy suffered 
severely during the civil wars, which no doubt involved many 
worthy individuals and families in undeserved as well as severe 
distress. Walker, it is evident, bestowed great pains to repre* 
sent their hardships. But his attempt falls far short of the book 
to which it was intended as a reply. It is exceedingly incorrect 
in the staterhent of numbers, in the representation of many 
occurrences, and in general is deficient in historic fidelity. It 
cannot be referred to as a book of authority. 

^^My work/' says Calamy, "was also warmly reflected on in a 
pamphlet, entitled, ' A Case of present Concern in a Letter to a 
Member of the House of Commons,' in Mr. Wesley's defence of 
his letter concerning the education of Dissenters in their private 
academies ; in a sermon of Mr. Stubbs, entitled, * For God or for 
Baa), or no Neutrality in Religion ;' and in almost all the warm 
and angry pamphlets which at that time swarmed from the press 
in great plenty. ^ Animadversions ' were published upon me 
in a dialogue ; my Abridgment was said to * deserve to be 
condemned by public authority, and to undergo the fiery trial ; 
and there came out a rebuke to Mr. Edmund Calamy, author of 
the Abridgment of Mr. Baxter's Life by Thomas Long, B. D. 
But he was a man of such a temper, and the spirit that ran 

* Dr. Nichols* work was, replied to by Mr. Peirce of Exeter, in his * Viudica- 
tion of the DisseDters.' Both Nichols and Peirce published first in Laliu ; hut 
their worlf^s afieirwardft apv^&i^^ iu English. Those whoaredisiuclioed to read 
larger publicaUous, vi\\V Vmv\ \u x\\^^<i xvtvi N«^>aw!kfc%» v.Vve substance of the 



or AICHARD BAXTER* 



733: 

throi^h his writings was so bitter, and had such a mixture of 
weakness with fury, that it seemed to little purpose to offer at 
pursuing the argument, and therefore I forebore.'^ °* 
. In the tenth chapter of his Abridgment, Calamy reduces to 
distinct heads the reasons of the Nonconformists for separating 
from the church of England* This part of the work is written 
with great care and judgment, and was considered at the time 
one of the ablest defences of the Nonconformists which had ap- 
peared. It was therefore attacked by the Rev. Thomas 011}'ffe, 
rector of Durton and Hedgerly, in his * Defence of Ministerial 
Conformity,' which came out in three parts in the years 
1703, 1705, and 1706. The celebrated Dr. Hoadly, afterwards 
bishop of Bangor, also entered the lists with Calamy in * The 
Reasonableness of Conformity to the Church of England ;' which 
appeared in two parts, and went through several editions. In 
reply to both these antagonists, Calamy published in three suc- 
cessive parts^ occupying as many volumes, his ^ Defence of 
Moderate Nonconformity.' 1703-4-5. The controversy was 
managed with great ability on both sides^ and affords by far the 
fullest view of the points in debate b^tweeo the Church and the 
Nonconformists to be found in our language. ^ 

"» Calamy's Own Life, vol. i. pp. 445—449. 

■ It called forth the commendatioii of John Locke, who declared that while 
the author " stood to the principles there laid down, he had no occasion to be 
afraid of any antagonist.*'— Cotomif'f Oipfi Z^^e, toI. ii. p. 3K 



734 THB LIFB AND WRITINGS 



CHAPTER XII, 



DEVOTIONAL WOBKS. 

Introductory ObBervations— < The Saint's Everlasting Rest '—Written for bit 
own use in the time of Sickness — Composed in Six Months — Notices o{ 
Brook, Fym, and Hampden, whose names are omitted in tl^e latter Edi- 
tions—Description, Cliaracter, and Usefulness of the Work— Attacked by 
Firmin— Baxter's « Answer to his Exceptions •—« The Divine Life •—Occa- 
sioned by a request of the Countess of Balcarras- Its Objeet «nd Eiod- 
lence— * Funeral Sermons ' for various Persons—* Treatise of Death « 
* Dying Thoughts'—' Reformed Liturgy '— ' Paraphrase on the New Tsita* 
ment'— * Monthly Preparations for the Communion'*-' Pb«tical Frsg- 
ments ' — ' Additions ' to the Fragments —< Paraphrase of the F»alais* 
^General Review of his Poetry — Conclusion. 

The talents of Baxter as a writer appear to great advantage 
in every department in which they were employed. Asa contro- 
versialisty he had not only no superior, but no equal in his day. 
In the field of theological warfare he was a giant« and few indi- 
viduals who attempted to grapple with him, had reason to be 
proud of their success. In the practical instruction of religion 
he was not less distinguished. His knowledge of the word of 
God, and of the corrupt workings of the human heart, was 
profound ; while his power over the minds and the affections of 
others, has been evinced by the numbers who have derived the 
highest benefit from his preaching and his writings. It is an 
extraordinary circumstance that, amidst the multiplicity of his 
labours, and the variety of his controversial discussions, he was 
enabled to preserve uninjured, during a long period of years, a 
more elevated tone of devotional feeling than has usually been 
enjoyed by Christians, even in the most favoured walks of life. 
This will appear in the following review, which commences with 
the first and most popular of his works, and closes with almost 
the last production of his pen. 



OP RICHARD BAXTER* 735 

' The Saint's Everlasting Rest^'^* though the second book 
which Baxter published, was thie first he wrote ; and had he never 
written another, it alone would have endeared his memory for 
ever, to all who cherish the sublime hopes of the Gospel. ^' It 
was written by the author for his own use during the time of his 
languishing, when God took him off from all public employ* 
ment;" and furnishes an admirable illustration of the richness 
and vigour of his mind, as well as of the great sources of its 
consolation. *' While I was in health," he says, ^^ I had not 
the least thought of writing books, or of serving God in any 
more public way than preaching, but when I was weakened with 
great bleeding, and left solitary in my chamber at Sir John 
Cook's, in Derbyshire, without any acquaintance but my servant 
about me, and was sentenced to death by the physicians, I 
began to contemplate more seriously on the everlastingrest, which 
I apprehended myself to be just on the borders of. That my 
thoughts might not too much scatter in my meditation, I began 
to write something on that subject, intending but the quantity 
of a sermon or two ; but being continued long in weakness^ 
where I had no books and no better employment, I followed it 
on, till it was enlarged to the bulk in which it is published. The 
first three weeks I spent on it was at Mr. Nowel's house, at 
Kirkby Mallory, in Leicestershire ; a quarter of a year more, 
at the seasons which so great weakness would allow, I bestowed 
on it at Sir Thomas Rous's, in Worcestershire ; and I finished it 
shortly after at Kidderminster." p 

Thus, in less than six months, and those months of pmn and 
sickness, he produced a quarto volume of more than eight hun- 
dred pages, rich in Christian sentiment, wonderfully correct 
and pointed in style, and fertile in most beautiful illustrations. 
^* The marginal citations," he tells us, '^ I put in after I came 
home to my books, but almost all the book itself was written 
when I had no book but a Bible and a Concordance; and I found 
that the transcript of the heart hath the greatest force on the 
hearts of others." 

The success and approbation which this work experienced, 
were very great. The first edition was published in 1649; the 
ninth edition, now before me, appeared in 1662, and it passed 
through several other editions in 4to, in the course of the few 
following years. 

• Works, ToU, xxiL xxiii. » life, p. 108. 



73& ' THtt LTF£ AND WRITrNGS 

To each of the four parts into which the work is divided, de- 
dications are prefixed. The whole is dedicated to the people 
of Kidderminster; the first part to Sir Thomas and Lady Jaoe 
Rous ; and the three following to the people of Bridgnorth, 
Coventry, and Shrewsbury. The first three are addressed to 
those who had enjoyed his stated, or occasional labours ; the 
last is '^ a testimonv of his love to his native soil, and to his 
many godly and faithful friends there living." All these ad<« 
dresses contain many faithful admonitions and warnings, much 
calculated to impress the minds of those with whom he had 
associated. ^ 

Considerable alterations were made in the latter editions of thtf 
Rest. The most singular of these, is his omitting the names of 
Brook, Hampden, and Pym, as among those whom he rejoiced 
to have the prospect of meeting in heaven ! It certainly would 
have been better either not to have introduced them at all, or to 
have allowed their names to remain. It looks like blotting them 
out of the book of life. The expectation that this would please 
the enemies of Puritanism, failed to be realized; while the 
author, at the same time, did violence to his own feelings, as his 
judgment of the individuals whose names he erased remained the 
same. *' The need," he says, " which i perceived of taking away 
from before such men as Dr. Jane, any thing which they might 
stumble at, made me blot out the names of Lord Brook, Pym, 
and Hampden, in all tlie impressions of the book that were made 
since 1659 : yet this did not satisfy. But I must tell the reader, 
that I did it not as changing my judgment of the persons, well 
known to the world : of whom Mr. John Hampden was one, 
whom friends and enemies acknowledged to be most eminent for 
prudence, piety, and peaceable counsels ; having the most uni- 
versal praise of any gentleman that I remember of that age.'*' 
This testimony to the Christian character of Hampden is parti- 
cularly important, as Baxter appears to have been very intimate 
with him. His patriotism will not be reckoned the less worthy 
of estimation, when it is ascertained to have been of Christian 
Origin and growth. 

Though Baxter says nothing particular of Brook and PjTn, it 

t These dedications, with the exception of the first to the people of Kidder- 
mlaster, and that to Sir Thomas and Lady Rous, do uot exist iu the fint 
edition. They appear to have been added afterwards. 

' Life, part iii. 177, 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 73? 

may not be unacceptable to the reader to be furnished with their 
character. Robert Grevillc, Lord Brook, was distinguished 
for his patriotism, his love of liberty, and his ardent piety. 
He and Lord Say had fully determined to go to America, on 
account of the civil and religious oppressions of Charles I.; and 
though he never left England, one of the early settlements was 
named Saybrook, after the two noblemen. He was a leading 
man in the Long Parliament, one of the commanders in its 
army ; and was killed by a musket shot in the eye, at the storm^ 
ing of a close in Lichfield, in 1643. * 

Lord Brook was an author as well as a soldier, and signalized 
himself in ^ A Discourse, opening the Nature of that Episcopacy 
which is exercised in England.' 1641. 4 to. This tract dis- 
covers a considerable portion of acuteness, and a respectable 
degree of acquaintance with the argument both from Scripture 
and antiquity. The piety and liberality of the writer are also 
▼cry strongly marked. The conclusion of it is worth quoting. 
*^ To this end, God assisting me, my desire, prayer, endeavour, 
fihall still be to follow peace and holiness. And though there 
may haply be some little dissent between my poor judgment 
and weak conscience, and other good men who are more clear 
and strong ; yet my prayer shall still be to keep the unity of 
the Spirit in the bond of peace. And as many as walk after 
this rule, peace, I hope, shall still be on them, and the whole 
Israel of God." * Yet Brook was a sectary and fanatic ! He 
wrote another book, * The Union of the Soul and Truth,' which 
I have not seen. 

For the character of John Pym, who died about the same 
time with Lord Brook, it is enough to refer to Neal. " He was 
an admirable speaker, a man of profound knowledge and expe* 
rience in business, and no less respected for his private worth 
and piety than for his public talents. He was carried from his 
own house to Westminster on the shoulders of the chief men of 
the House of Commons, the whole House going in procession 
before him, preceded by the assembly of divines. Marshall 
delivered a most eloquent and pertinent funeral sermon on 
the occasion. Parliament ordered his debts to be paid, and 
a stately monument to be built for him in the chapel of 
Henry VIL » 

Such were the men whose names Baxter was induced, from 

• Whiiclocke's Mciu. p. 66. ' Pp. 123, 124. 

« Vol. iii. p. 82. 31 Baillle's Letters, vol. i. p. 409. 

V0L« I. 3 B 



738 THB UFB AND WRITINGS 

the clamour raised agunst them, to erase from the book in 
which they had been honourably mentioned, as among the ex- 
cellent of the earth, who had gone to that rest, in which be 
hoped shortly to join their glorified spirits. The clamour which 
required the names of such men to be blotted out, is disgraceful 
only to those who manifested it. No act of man, or lapse of 
time, can erase from the roll of England's Christian patriots, the 
names of Brook, Pym, and Hampden; or deprive them of the 
glory which justly belongs to their illustrious deeds. 

The first and last parts of the Saint's Rest, were all that the 
author originally designed ; the one containing the explanatioa 
of the nature of the rest, the other ' a directory for getting ami 
keeping the heart in heaven, by heavenly meditation.' The hat, 
indeed, he tells us, was the main thing intended in the writing 
of the book, and to which all the rest is subservient. The 
second part treats of the certainty of the future rest, where 
he enters much further, than is necessary in such a book, into 
the evidences of Revelation, mixed up with discussions and stories 
about apparitions, witches, and compacts with the devil ; which 
are blemishes on the fair face of this beautiful producdon. 
The third is on the use which ought to be made of the doc- 
trine and prospect of the everlasting rest. The first four 
chapters of it being intended for secure and sensual sinners who 
might happen to read the book ; and the three last for Chris- 
tians, to direct and comfort them in the time of affliction, and to 
stir them up to seek the salvation of their brethren. 

Comparing the first edition of this work, which is very rare, 
with the subsequent ones, which the author considerably al- 
tered, I am disposed to give it the preference. It contains 
chiefly his own thoughts, as they arose in his mind, and were 
freely expressed during a period of severe affliction, when he was 
far removed from books, and had eternity constantly before 
him. There are very few of those marginal notes and digres- 
sions which were supplied at a future period, and that tend much 
more to distract than to interest the reader. 

The very title of this book operates like a charm on the mind 
of a Christian, and leads him to associate with it the most 
delightful ideas. Everlasting Rest presents to the wearied, 
harassed, suffering spirit, a prospect fuir of glory and repose. 
As the cessation of labour, the termination of suffering, and 
the end of all evil ; in connexion with the eternal enjoyment of 
God, it is the sum of Christian blessedness : comprehending in 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 739 

it all that is calculated to reconcile to the trials of lifei and to 
sustain under its labours and sorrows. It is a rest which consists 
act in indisposition or incapacity for action, or in the indulgence 
of indolence and sloth ; but which implies activity without weari- 
ness, and exertion without fatigue; the constant employment 
of our best faculties on the worthiest objects and employmeents 
securing that felicity which is to be found only in doing the will 
of Qod, without involving exhaustion of spirits, or diminution of 
strength. What more can man desire to render him supremely 
happy ? 

To such a person as Baxter, a martyr to disease and pain^ 
possessed of a spirit characterised by restless activity, which was 
constantly repressed and counteracted by a body ill adapted to 
be the instrument of its boundless desires ; but who, notwith- 
standing this counteraction, continually struggled to do the work 
of God, the hope of rest must have been exquisitely delightful. 
Surrounded as he was at the same time with all that grieved his 
spirit, and resisted his efforts, it is not wonderful that he fled to 
the promise of rest as his refuge and his anchor. While he did 
this, however, he did not surrender himself to the mere contem* 
plation of the joy set before him ; it roused and excited him to 
still greater exertions ; or induced that patience with joyfulnesij 
of which the apostle speaks, and which is the peculiar effect of 
the Christian hope. 

'^ It is sweet to look forward to the restitution of all things ; 
to think of a world where God is entirely glorified, and entirely 
loved, and entirely obeyed ; where sin and sorrow are no more ; 
where severed friends shall meet, never again to part ; where 
the body shall not weigh down the spirit, but shall be its fit 
medium of communication with all the glorious inhabitants and 
scenery of heaven ; where no discordant tones or jarring feelings 
shall interrupt or mar the harmony of that universal song which 
shall burst from every heart and every tongue, to him who 
sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb* And it is not only 
sweet, but most profitable to meditate on these prospects. It is 
a most healthful exercise. It brings the soul into contact with 
that society to which it properly belongs, and for which it was 
created. 

^ The world think that these heavenly musings must unqualify 
tlie mind for present exertion. But this is a mistake, arising 
from an ignorance of the nature of heaven. The happiness of 
heaven is the perfection of those principles which lead to the 

3b2 



740 THB LIPB AND WRITINGS 

discharge of duty, and therefore the contemplation of it must 
increase our sense of the importance of duty. That happinest 
is not entirely a future thing, but rather the completion of a 
present process, in which every duty bears an important part. 
The character and the happiness of heaven, like the light and 
heat of the sun-beams, are so connected, that it is impossible to 
separate them, and the natural and instinctive desire of the one 
is thus necessarily linked to the desire of the oth^. FSill of 
peace, as the prospect of heaven is, there is no indolent relin- 
quishment of duty connected with the contemplation of it : for. 
heaven is full of action. Its repose is like the repose of nature; 
the repose of planets in their orbits. It is a rest from all con- 
troversy with God ; from all opposition to his will. His servants 
serve Him. Farewell, vain world ! . No rest hast thou t6 oflfier 
which can compare with this. The night is far spent ; soon will 
that day dawn, and the shadows flee away.'^^ 

^ The Saint's Rest ^ has been one of the most useful of Baxter's 
works ; the most useful to Christians, for whom it was chiefly 
intended. It appears to have been the means of impressing Mr. 
Thomas Doolittle, and Mr. John Janeway, two excellent Non- 
conformist ministers. Sir Henry Ashurst ascribed his conversion 
to it. Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, Robert Warburton, of Grange, 
both persons of great eminence in piety, devoted much of the 
evenings of their lives to the reading of this work, and derived 
great enjoyment from it. But these, I apprehend, are far from 
solitary instances ; it has gone through many editions, and fully 
justifies the remark made on it by Dr. Bates, ^' It is a book for 
which multitudes will have cause to bless God for ever." 

The late Mr. Favvcett, of Kidderminster, published an excel- 
lent abridgment of it in 1758. . It makes no alteration on the 
sense or even language of the author, but diminishes the bulk of 
the work by omitting many digressions, controversial discussions, 
together with the prefaces, dedications, and other things of a 
temporary and local nature. From that time, the circulation of 
the original work has been greatly diminished, but I have no 
doubt the design of the author has been fully accomplished ; as 
a much greater circulation has been given to his sentiments in a 
moderate 12mo than could have been obtained for the bulky 
4 to. Those, however, who wish to do full justice to Baxter and 
his treatise, will not be satisfied with any thing but the original. 
Giles Fumm, ^ ?\t%b^leriaa minister, who appears to have 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 741 

thought Baxter carried his views of meditation on the ^ Saint's 
Rest' too far, published in 1671 9 what Baxter calls ^^ a gentle 
reproof for tying men too strictly to meditation/' This Baxter 
answered immediately in a small pamphlet entitled, ' The Duty 
of Heavenly Meditation Reviewed, against the Exceptions of Mr. 
Giles Firmin/ 4to. In general, there is little danger of men erring 
in the extreme of dwelling too much on heavenly and eternal 
things* The number of persons addicted to mystical devotion, 
or exclusively engrossed by spiritual exercises, has been small 
compared with the multitude even of serious Christians, whose 
minds have been too little occupied in this manner. The at- 
tractions of earth are so powerful, and the affinities of our nature 
BO strong to material objects, that we require every possible ex- 
citement and encouragement to look off from the things that are 
seen and temporal, to those which are unseen and eternal. And 
as we cannot be influenced by that which we do not know or 
love, or with which we are not conversant, the more that the 
unseen world and its permanent glories are the objects of contem- 
plation, the more powerfully must we be attracted by them, till 
meditation on heaven is swallowed up in its full and everlasting 
enjoyment. 

The work on the * Divine Life,'» published in 1664, next 
demands our attention. The occasion of it, he tells us, was 
this : " The Countess of Balcarras,* before going into Scotland 
after her abode in England, being deeply sensible of the loss of 
the company of those friends which she left behind her, desired 
me to preach the last sermon which she was to hear from me, 
on these words of Christ : ' Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now 
come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall 
leave me alone ; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is 
with me.' At her request I preached on this text, and being 
afterwards desired by her to give it her in writing, and the pub- 
lication being her design, 1 prefixed the two other treatises, to 
make it more considerable, and published them together. The 
treatise is upon the most excellent subject, but not elaborate at 

• Works, vol. xiii. 

* Since the remark on the Countess of Balcarrasi at page 503« was printed 
oftf 1 have ascertained that she was married a second time to the unfortunate 
Earl of Ar^yle, there rererred to. 1 have seen also a curious letter from her 
to the Duke of Lauderdale, accompanying the stune taken from the heart of 
her son, of which Baxter speaks. — Letters from Ladif Margaret Kcv.iud^i^aJ* 
ierwiwdt wife to Bishop Burnet. 



742 THB LIFE AND WRITINOS 

all ; being but popular sermons preached in the midst of diTert" 
ing businesses^ accusations, and malicious clamours. 

'^ When I offered it to the press, I was fain to leave out the 
quantity of one sermon in the end of the second treatise, (that 
God took Enoch,) wherein I showed what a mercy it is to ODe 
that walked with God, to be taken to him from this world ; 
because it is a dark, wicked, malicious implacable, treacherous, 
deceitful world, &c. All which the bishop's chaplain mmt 
have expunged, because men would think it was all spoken of 
them. And so the world hath got a protection against the force 
of our baptismal vow." * 

This admirable treatise may be placed either under the bead of 
the experimental or the devotional works of our author. I have 
placed it in the latter class, chiefly for my own convenience in 
the arrangement of this work. It is divided into three parts — 
The Knowledge of God — Walking with God — and Converse 
with God in solitude. This division obviously embraces all the 
great points of Christian practice and experience. Without the 
knowledge of God, man can have no objective religion. He is 
the glorious object of love, veneration, and hope ; the source 
of all pure and spiritual enjoyment ; and the spring of all right 
conduct. He who knows God aright, will, at the same time, 
walk with God, or in the course of obedience to him ; and with 
this course will be invariably connected, that spiritual fellow- 
ship with him which is at once the enjoyment of religion, and 
the best proof of its reality. 

None of the works of Baxter is written with greater sweetness 
than this. The manner of it is in good keeping with the sub- 
ject : soft, tender, and full of spirituality. He lays open to the 
reader, as it were, the very recesses of his own heart ; and de- 
, scribes his own character and procedure in delineating the es- 
sential features of the Christian character and profession. In 
himself were combined, in an extraordinary degree, the con- 
templative and the active in religion. In the former he de- 
lighted no less than in the latter. To him the Gospel of Christ 
was a continual feast. It presented to him a boundless and 
exhaustless subject ; combining all that was holy, excellent, and 
sublime ; all that was most worthy in itself with every thing 
calculated to inspire the love of goodness, and promote the 
most joyful compliance with the divine will. In meditation he 
found relief ftoitv the severity of bodily pain, from the anguish 



OF RICHARD BAXIVR. 743 

of ifisappointinent, and the sorrow 6f unmerited suffering ; from 
the pains and griefs occasioned by his own sins, or the sins of 
others. While all around was darkness and tempest, here he 
found repose to his spirit, and a' quiet refuge. When languid^ it 
recruited his strength ; when discouraged, it re-invigorated Iiis 
hope; when exposed to perils, or called to the discharge of 
arduous duties, it gave fresh energy and animation to his soul. 
God as revealed in the economy of redemption, was the grand 
centre of all the principles, feelings, and exercises of Baxter* 
It was to him at once an attractive as well as a repelling power ; 
drawing him to holiness and happiness, and repelling every 
thing that was mean and unworthy from his character, as well 
as what was more directly evil. 

To the extraordinary degree in which the mind of Baxter was 
imbued vrith the spiritual knowledge of God, arising from the 
intimacy of his communion with him, arose no small portion of 
that energy of character for which he was so distinguished. The 
proper value of the contemplative life in him was thus strikingly 
illustrated. In many men, contemplation operates as a princi- 
ple of seclusion : it renders society disagreeable ; the bustle 
and business of it intolerable. They can be happy only in 
retirement, and in abstraction from the duties of social obli- 
gation. Such persons become a kind of spiritual epicures: 
who can enjoy only what is exquisite, and adapted to the most 
delicate pdate. The common food of Christianity is unsuited 
to them. Their religion assumes all the character of a refined, 
spiritual selfism ; concerned only about one thing, and that 
thing comfort : it partakes not of the active principles or sym- 
pathies of apostolic Christianity. 

In others, activity is too much separated from meditation. 
The leaves and the fruit are cultivated without due attention to 
the root of the tree. Enjoyment is found only, or chiefly in 
the crowd, or on the stage of public life. Effect is studied 
rather than principle ; and all is supposed to be well if others 
are but persuaded that it is so. There is little that is perma- 
nent and influential in this class of persons. What is thus 
produced is easily blasted and overthrown. There is a want of 
sufficient breadth and depth in the foundation, for the super- 
structure which they endeavour to rear, and hence it often tum- 
. bles into ruin. Professed concern for the good of others, when 
connected with indifference to our own, cannot be sincere in its 
nature or lasting in its duration. BaKlet \^ >i\i&'^'^^?^Va&\x^\^^ 



744 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 

of the two great constituent principles of the Christian character 
now adverted to, and which constitute the subject of the work 
under consideration. 

The chief fault that presents itself to me in this work is, the 
extent to which he dwells on the natural attributes of God, such 
as his eternity, simplicity, omnipotence, &c., as comprehended 
in that knowledge which is eternal life. Not that I would ex- 
clude these things ; but he has dwelt upon them in undue pro- 
pordon, and to the exclusion of more extended views of the 
moral attributes of God, which constitute the grand subject of 
Revelation, and the great objects of Christian faith and enjoy- 
ment. In the natural perfections of God, however, Baxter was 
furnished with delightful subjects for the exercise of his meta- 
physical powers. The u.>cs of God's ^' simple and uncompounded 
essence of his incorporeality and invisibility," were quite to his 
taste; ttiough likely to be regarded by the reader as more inge- 
nious than profitable. He has also some disquisitions about 
sin, as whether ^^ God decrees not, or wills not, ut evemi pecca^ 
turn; and whether he wills de eventUy that sin shall not come to 
pass, when it doth ? " in which little light is thrown on these 
mysterious questions. 

ITiese, however, are but trifling blemishes in this valuable 
work, which abounds with passages of great beauty, illustrative 
not only of the fine genius, but the intense ardour of Baxter's 
spirit and feelings. I have just fixed my eye on a page, which 
I cannot deny myself tlie pleasure of extracting, though it is 
but one of many I have been tempted to introduce. 

"To walk with God," he says, "is a word so high, that I 
should have feared the guilt of arrogance in using it, if I had 
not found it in the Holy Scriptures. It is a word that im- 
porteth so high and holy a frame of soul, and expresseth such 
high and holy actions, that the naming of it striketh my heart 
with reverence, as if I had heard the voice to Moses, * Put 
off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou 
standest is holy ground.' Methinks he that shall say to 
me. Come see a man that walks with God, doth call me to 
see one that is next unto an angel or glorified soul. It is a far 
more reverend object in mine eye than ten thousand lords or 
princes, considered only in their fleshly glory. It is a wiser 
action for people to run and crowd together to see a man that 
walks with God, than to see the pompous train of princes, their 

entertaii^n^cuis, oy iW\t xuvlvu^V* Qn\v\ Xv^y^^^^ \xc\\v tluvt walks 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 745 

vnth God, though neglected and contemned by all about him I 
What blessed sights doth he daily see! What ravishing tidings, 
what pleasant melody doth he daily hear, unless it be in his 
swoons or sickness! What delectable food doth he duly 
taste ! He seeth, by faith, the God, the glory which the blessed 
spirits see at hand by nearest intuition ! He seeth that in a 
glass, and darkly, which they behold with open face ! He 
seeth the glorious Majesty of his Creator, the eternal King, 
the Cause of causes, the Composer, Upholder, Preserver, and 
Governor of all worlds ! He beholdeth the wonderful me- 
thods of his providence ; and what he cannot reach to see, he 
admireth, and waiteth for the time when that also shall be open 
to his view ! He seeth by faith the world of spirits, the hosts 
that attend the throne of God ; their perfect righteousness, their 
full devotedness to God ; their ardent love, their flaming zeal^ 
their ready and cheerful obedience, their dignity and shining 
glory, . in which the lowest of them exceed that which the 
. disciples saw on Moses and £lias,*when they appeared on the 
holy mount and talked with Christ ! He hears by faith the 
heavenly concert, the high and harmonious songs of praise, the 
joyful triumphs of crowned saints, the sweet commemorations of 
the things that were done and suffered on earth, with the praises 
of Him that redeemed them by his blood and made them kings 
and priests unto God. Herein he hath sometimes a sweet fore- 
taste of the everlasting pleasures which, though it be but little, 
as Jonathan's honey on the end of his rod, or as the clusters of 
grapes which were brought from Canaan into the wilderness ; 
yet they are more excellent than all the delights of sinners/' ^ 

Under the general head of his devotional writings, it is ne- 
cessary that 1 should include the following funeral sermons, 
from several, of which 1 have already made extracts in the first 
part of this work ; and two treatises on the subject of death. I 
class them together as they relate chiefly to one topic, and do 
not call for distinct notice. - Their titles, which I give fully, suf- 
ficiently explain their nature. 

' The last work of a Believer, his passing prayer, recommend- 
ing his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him, prepared 
• for the funeral of Mary, the widow first of Francis Charlton, 
Esq., and after of Thomas Hanmer, Esq.' 1660. 4to.^ 

^ A Sermon preached at the funeral of that holy, painful, and 
fruitful minister of Christ, Mr. Henry Slxibbs, ;A^o\sX %Sc^ ^^'ox^ '^ 

• Workt, vol xilL pp. 242, 243. ^ VU^, ^o\, ^ A\« 



746 THS Lin AND WRITINGS 

successful preacher at Bristol^ Wells^ Chew, Dmsleyy Lonckm, 
and divers other places/ 1678. 4to.^ 

' A true Believer's choice and pleasure instanced in the exem- 
plary life of Mrs. Mary Coxe, the late wife of Dr. Tliomas 
Coxe/ 1680- 4to/ 

* Faithful Souls shall be with Christ, the certainty proved, and 
their Christianity described and exemplified in the truly Chris- 
tian life and death of that excellent amiable saint, Henry 
Ashurst, Esq., citizen of London, briefly and truly published for 
the conviction of hypocrites and the malignant, die atrengthen- 
ing of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters 
of families in London. Go, and do thou likewise.' 1681. 4to.> 

^ A Sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. John Corbet, that 
faithful minister of Christ, with his true and exemplary cha- 
racter.' 1682. 4to.^ 

^ A treatise of death, the last enemy to be destroyed.' Show- 
ing wherein its enmity consisteth, and how it is destroyed. Fsrt 
of it was preached at the funeral of Elizabeth, the late wife of 
Mr. Joseph Baker, pastor of the church at St. Andrew's, in 
Worcester, With some few passages of the life of die said 
Mrs. Baker, observed.' 1659. 8vo.'^ 

'Mr. Baxter's Dying Thoughts upon Philippians i. 23.' 
Written for his own use on the latter times of his corporal 
pains and weakness.' 1 683. 4to. ^ 

All these discourses and treatises show how familiar the mind 
of Baxter was with the subject of death, and illustrate the ad- 
mirable use which he made of it, in promoting the good of 
others. It was a favourite topic of his ministry from the very 
beginning, arising out of the feeble state of his health, and from 
the apprehension which he entertained that his career was 
likely to be a very short one. Though in this he was mistaken, 
he never lost the impression that he must soon die, and there- 
fore constantly preached and wrote under that impression. 

His 'Dying Thoughts* abound in admirable sentiments, express- 
ed in appropriate and beautiful language, worthy of a believer in 
the near prospect of eternity. They were written for his own use, 
and originally intended to be left to his executors for publica- 

• Works, vol. xiii. p. 61. ' Ibid. p. 91. ■ Ibid. p. 124. 

»» Ibid. p. 163. 

^ AmoDg^ the Baxter MSS. is a letter from a clergyman of the name of 
Taylor, at SlandtoTd^ «Lekwo\Nl«d^ia^ that the * Treatise on Death' had been 
tlie means of h\& coiivets\o\i -^ wv^T^cv^^%^A\v^'&^a^«*^^J^svcA respecting soaie 
difficu\liet ^rbicVi Vie U\X. ou Xi;i^ %>M^cX. ^1 %>i>a%crvVww>., 

k Works, vo\. ivu. i?* ^2.7 . ^ V\3J^.N<i\.V^.*r^ ^ \«iv\,^i^.x»N^ 



OP RICHARD BAXTER. 747 

tion^ but were finally brought out by himself. Calamy puts them 
under the date of 1685^ and represents them as having furnished 
great consolation to Lord William Russell before his execution^ 
But, as he speaks of himself as in the seventy-sixth year of his 
age^ and the fifty-third of his ministry," which was the year of 
his death, he must have altered and improved the work shortly 
before he died.° 

In these Thoughts^ as there are few raptures, so there are no 
depressions or despondencies. They discover throughout a 
solemn, calm, undisturbed serenity ; the steady contemplatioii 
of dissolution and all its consequences, without alarm or terror. 
He knew in whom he had believed ; to him, therefore, death had 
no sting. Its poison liad been extracted, and the grim tyrant 
deprived of his power to injure. In Christ, his soul had found 
rest ; his life was made sure by the covenant of redemption : so 
that he could lay down his head and die in the sure and certain 
hope of a resurrection to glory. Unenviable must be the state 
of that man's feelings, who can read these reflections as the 
honest and sincere expressions of a soul ready to take its flight 
into eternity, without exclaiming, '* Let me die the death of 
this righteous man, and let my latter end be like his." 

Among the devotional works of Baxter must be classed 'The 
Refoqned Liturgy,' which he drew up by the request of his 
brethren, at the time of the Savoy conference. Part of it was 
published among the other papers relating to that affair^ and in 
his Own Life, by Sylvester ; the whole appears among the docu- 
ments of the Savoy conference ; at the end of the first volume of 
Calamy 's Abridgment; in the folio edition of his works; and in 
the fifteenth volume of the present edition. The circumstances 
which led to his compiling this work have been sufficiently de- 
tailed in the account of the Savoy meeting and debates, Bax- 
ter produced an entirely new liturgical service, not because he 
objected to the whole, or greater part of the former, but as the 
shortest and easiest method of removing what he considered 
its defects, its inaccuracies, and repetitions. It was not de- 
signed by him to be enforced by legal enactments, in the room 
of the other ; but rather as a specimen, or directory, for con- 

■ Works, vol. xvii. p. 331. 

* His < Dying Tbouf^bts ' were abridged by Fawcett^ a work by no means 
so necessary as tbe abridgment of tbe ' Saint's Rest.' Sir James Stonebouse 
was so deligbted witb tbem, tbat be says <* I bavesLVmoAl \ft»rtiX>^v(s^V| 
heart; J am cootinuaJJy quotinf^ tbem in m> UttienC*— ^^ IiSU«r% frvm 4^ 
OriM, Sfc. roL it p. 209, 



748 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 

ducting the public service of the church. He was occupied on 
this work not more than a fortnight ; a period which he ac- 
knowledges to have been ** too short for doing it with the ac- 
curateness which a business of that nature required ; or for the 
consulting with men or authors. He could make no use of any 
book, except a Bible and a Concordance ; but he compared it 
all with the Assembly's Directory, the Book of Common-prayer, 
Hammond and L'Estrange." p 

Without pronouncing on the comparative excellences of this 
liturgical work, or intimating that it is every thing such a 
work should be, it is not too much to say, that it is remarkable 
for simplicity, appropriateness, and fulness. The forms of 
prayer contain variety without repetition, and are so scriptural 
that they are made up almost entirely of scriptural language ;* 
references to which he has thrown into the margin. Few better 
liturgies probably exist ; and had it, or something of the same 
improved description, been adopted by the church, at the period 
when the subject was under discussion, some of the chief dif- 
ficulties experienced by the early Nonconformists to the Book 
of Common-prayer would have been removed. There was no 
.disposition then, however, to listen to the voice of candid and 
conscientious objection ; and though the subject has frequently 
been agitated since, the imperfections of the Anglican Liturgy 
seem to be increasingly sanctified by time, and every day dimi- 
nishes the probability of any improvement taking place upon it« 
The motive for alteration, so far as the Nonconformists are con- 
cerned, may be said to be extinguished ; as no change on the 
liturgical forms of the Church, would reconcile the great body 
of the Dissenters to it. Their objections are now chiefly to the 
constitution of the church as allied to the state, and to the 
whole system of episcopal government; objections which no 
modification of forms and ceremonies would either remove or 
materially alter. 

In this class of writing, I feel justified in placing the only 
work of an expository nature published by Baxter : his ' Pa- 
raphrase on the New Testament, with Notes, Doctrinal and 
Practical,' &c. 1685. 4to.*i Of the trouble into which he was 

f Life, part ii. p. 306. 

4 WaJcb, in hi& ' Ribliotbeca Theolot^ica,' mentions ' Meditations on the 
Seven Penitential P&almft/ by Baxter. He says they were published in En- 
glish, and trausWled mlo C^etma.\i/\\\ \N\\\Oct Xwk^xvwj,^ \\\«Y appeared in two 
editions, 1684 and \6fe7 . He %^'3% xV^^ ^tt \x^\.^x^v«Vi ^v^^tt'Cv^^^oxxMswl^ 
in their uature, aud ous^iXVi^i«.IWxV^^\^^>^^ei»a^^\^*«^«^^ \^^^^Y^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 749 

brought by this work, a full account has already been given, in 
the history of his trial before the infamous Jefferies. It now 
only remains to say something of the book itself. Its origin 
and object are well stated by himself in the following passage 
in the preface. 

'^ A friend long urging me to write a paraphrase on the 
Epistle to the Romans, as being hard to be understood ; when I 
had done it, I found so much profit by the attempt, that it 
drew me to go on till I had finished what I offer you. It was 
like almost all my other public works, done by the unexpected 
conduct of God*s urgent providence, not only without, but con- 
trary to my former purposes. God hath blessed his church 
with many men's excellent commentaries on the Scriptures, 
and I never thought myself fit to do it Better than they have 
done ; but that is best for some persons' use which is not best 
to others. I long wished that some abler man would furnish 
Tulgar families with such a brief exposition as might be fitted 
to the use of their daily course in reading the Scriptures, and 
instructing their households. I found that many who have done 
it better than I can do, are too large and costly for this use ; 
some, like Diodati, are very sound but unsatisfactorily brief; 
some have parcelled their annotations into so numerous shreds, 
that readers, especially in a family course, will not stay to 
search and set them together to make up the sense. I like Dr. 
Hammond's order best, but I differ from him in so much of the 
matter, — take his style to be too lax, his criticisms not useful 
to the vulgar, and his volume too big and costly ; I therefore 
chose more plainly, and yet more briefly and practically, by the 
way of paraphrase, to suit it to my intended end. 

'^ But I must give the reader notice, that where I seem but in 
few words to vary from the text, those words answer the large 
criticisms of divers expositors, as the learned may find by search- 
ing them and the Greek text ; though I must not stay to give 
the reasons of them as I go on. That though I have studied 
plainness, yet brevity is unavoidably obscure to unexercised per- 
sons, who, as learners, cannot understand things without many 
words. That where the Evangelists oft repeat the same things 
to avoid tediousness, I repeat not the whole exposition ; and yet 
thought it not meet wholly to pass it by. That where the text is 

sitively affirm that Walch is mistaken, but I have never seen any such work 
of Baxter's ; nor does it appear in any catalogue of bis books published ia 
Eofflandj either by himself or others* 



750 THB UVX AND WRITmOS 

plain of itself) instead of an exposition, I fill up the spice by 
doctrinal, or practical obsen^ations, seeing practice is the end of 
all, and to learners this part is of great necessity. That where 
great doctrinal controversies depend on the exposition of any 
text, I have handled those more largely than the rest, and I hope 
with pacificatory and satisfactory evidence/' ' 

Though this work is not critical, and was intended by the 
author chiefly for the unlearned, it bears marks of consideraUe 
labour when attentively examined. Baxter had long and pro- 
foundly studied the Scriptures ; possessing a large portion of 
acuteness, and being very independent in his manner of think* 
ing, he often throws considerable light on difficult passages. 
He does not give the process, but the results ; without the 
parade of criticism and learning, he frequently furnishes us with 
their best fruits. So that without toil or labour, we are at once 
put in possession of what he conceived to be the meaning of the 
word of God. I feel bound to say, that I have seldom consulted 
Baxter's Paraphrase, which I have done occasionally for many 
years, without deriving instruction from it ; and finding that it 
either threw some light on what was dark, or suggested what 

tended to remove a difficultv. 

« 

The reasons which he assigns for not attempting an exposition 
of the book of Revelation, are worthy of quotation. Among 
other things, he says, 

" I am far below Didnysius, Alexandrinus, and most of the 
ancient Fathers, even Augustine himself, who professed that they 
understood it not. Yea, the incomparable Calvin professeth 
that he understood not the thousandth part of it 5 and his part- 
ner, Beza, would give us little of it, next to none : both refusing 
to write a comment on it. I honour them that know more 
than I, and contradict them not ; I had rather say too little, 
where other men have said enough, than say more than I know, 
it is not through mere sloth that 1 am ignorant. Women and 
boys, who have studied it less than I, think they know herein 
what I do not ; but I confess that despair is much of the cause. 
Forty-four years ago, when I was but young, I studied it, I doubt 
too soon, and read Brightman, Napier, Parens, &c., and after 
that Mede, Potter, and many more ; beside such treatises as 
Downame de Antichristo Broughton, and other such ; with 
the answers of Bellarmine, &c. I met with many divines and 
laymen who had chosen it out for the chief study of their lives, 



or mCHABD BAXTER. 751 

Mid I found 80 great diversity of opinions, five of the most con- 
fident going four ways, and so little proof of what they most 
confidently asserted, that I despaired of being so much wiser 
than they as to come to satisfaction, if I should lay by more 
necessary studies, and make this the business of the rest of my 
life, which yet I durst not do. Afterwards I conversed with 
my iSellow labourer, Mr. Nathaniel Stephens, who hath written 
af it, and was much upon it inl his discourse, but I durst not 
be drawn to a deep study of it. When since I read Mr» 
Durham, Dr. More, &c., and Grotius, and Dr. Hammond, and 
many annotators, I confess despair, and morQ needful business^ 
made me do it but superficially. And when I had for my own 
use written the rest of this Paraphrase on the New Testament, 
I proposed to have said nothing of any more of the Revelations 
than of the three first chapters, professing that I understood it 
not i but after, being loth to omit wholly any part of the New 
Testament, and thinking that the renewed study of that which 
■peaketh so much of the New Jerusalem might be suitable to a 
pained dying man, I thought of it more searchingly than I had 
heretofore ; but have not now either the strength of wit, or 
length of time, that are necessary to so hard a work, and there- 
fore presume not to oppose others, but refer the readers to 
them that have more thoroughly studied and expounded it than 
I can do. But yet I thought that those generals which I under- 
stood might be usefiil to unlearned readers, though they made 
them no wiser than I am myself, while those that are above me 
have enough higher to read/' ' 

The sentiments expressed in this passage are illustrative of 
the modesty of Baxter, and of his distnist of his own under- 
standing on the difiicult subjects of the apocalyptic visions. 
Without subscribing to the propriety of regarding these visions 
as unintelligible, considering the little success which has at- 
tended the speculations of many respecting their design, di£B- 
dence on such subjects is much more a Christian virtue than 
confidence. It is not difficult to frame a prophetic hypothesis, 
and to adjust its parts with considerable skill and ingenuity ; but 
to prove that it is the very thing intended by the angel of the 
apocalypse, requires a portion of wisdom from Him who alone 
can open its seals, which does not yet appear to have been af- 
forded to any of the sons of men. But while there is much that 
is obscure in the book, it is delightful to find so much that is 
intelligible ; and that though many of the symboU asvd \\v^\5^* 

' Atfrnttaaent to < Paraphcass oik ^t ^«ii TtsvmASDx: 



752 TAB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

glyphxcs yet remain to be deciphered, the suffering and glory 
of the Redeemer, the final , triumphs of his kingdom and iu 
everlasting duration, are revealed with a clearness not inferior 
even to that of the Gospel itself. 

A posthumous work of a devotional nature by Baxter, ap« 
peared after his death, with the following title : * Monthly Pre- 
parations for the Holy Communion, by R. B. To which is 
added suitable Meditations, before, in, and after recovery; with 
Divine Hymns in common tunes, fitted for Public Congregations 
or Private Families/ 1696. 12mo. 

. This little work has a preface by Sylvester, in which it is very 
singular that he makes no mention whatever of the meditations 
as the productions of Baxter. There can be no doubt, how- 
ever, that they were published from some of Baxter's manu- 
scripts, left in possession of the editor, or that they were fur- 
nished by some one who took notes while Baxter delivered 
them. I am inclined to think the latter must have been their 
origin ; as some of the language is like Baxter's, but other parts 
of it not. Of the hymns I am unable to form any opinion, 
whether they were composed by Baxter, or some one else. 
Their devotion is more worthy of admiration than their poetry. 

I must now introduce a class of Baxter's writings, with which 
few of the readers of his works are familiar. I refer to his 
poetry, of which I should have been afraid to speak with much 
confidence in my own judgment, had not Montgomery given 
him a place among the Christian poets of England, and spoken 
of him in the following terms : 

" This eminent minister of the Gospel, though author of some 
of the most popular treatises on sacred subjects, is scarcely 
known by one in a hundred of his admirers, as a writer in verse ; 
yet there is a little volume of * Poetical Fragments* by him, in- 
estimable for its piety, and far above mediocrity in many pas- 
sages of its poetry. The longest piece, entitled, " Love breath- 
ing thanks and praise,' contains his spiritual auto-biography, 
from the earliest impressions made upon his conscience by 
divine truth, to the breaking out of the civil war ^tween Charles 
I. and the parliament. In this, and indeed in all the other 
minor pieces, he speaks the language of a minute self-observer, 
and tells the experience of his own heart in strains which 
never lack fetvenc'j^woT \wi^^^ ^Vc^o^^wie^ however unapt in the 
art of tuTuuig tau^l^A '^^uo^^ \\\ ^^^^ ^^ ^»5^^\ \sx^ ^sr^^^ 



OF RICtiARD BAXTER. 753 

ttonally be found. A great portion of this volume well merits 
re-publication, as the annexed examples will prove. He that is 
not powerfully affected by some of these, whatever be his taste 
in polite literature, may fear that he has neither part nor lot in 
a matter of infinitely surpassing interest even to himself.'^ ' 

The volume, of which Mr. Montgomery thus speaks, and from 
which he inserts some striking extracts, was first published in 
1681, in small Timo, with the following singular title : ^ Poetical 
Fragments : Heart Employment with God and itself. The con- 
cordant discord of a broken healed heart ; sorrowing, rejoicing, 
fearing, hoping, living, dying.' 

** These poetical fragments," he says, " except three heretofore 
printed, were so far from being intended for the press, that they 
were not allowed the sight of many private friends, nor thought 
worthy of it: only, had 1 had time and heart to have finished the 
first, which itself, according to the nature and designed method, 
would have made a volume far bigger than all this, being intend- 
ed as a thankful historical commemoration of all the notable 

■ 

passages of my life, I should have published it as the most self- 
pleasing part of my writings. But, as they were mostly written 
in various passions, so passion hath now thrust them out into 
the world. God, having taken away the dear companion of the 
last nineteen years of my life, as her sorrows and sufferings long 
ago gave being to some of these poems, for reasons which the 
world is not concerned to know ; so my grief for her removal, 
and the revived sense of former things, have prevailed with me 
to be passionate in the open sight of all." ^ 

He afterwards published ^ Additions to the Poetical Frag- 
ments, written for himself, and communicated to such as are 
more for serious verse than smooth.' 1683. He left also, fullv 
prepared for the press, an entire poetical version, or ^ Para- 
phrase of the Psalms of David, with other Hynuis,' which were 
published after his death in 1692, by his friend, Matthew Syl- 
vester. Putting all his pieces together, therefore, we have suf- 
ficient means of determining Baxter's claims to the character of 
a poet. 

He himself was not ignorant of the qualities which are ne- 
cessary to constitute excellence in this department of literattire^ 
and puts in his own claims very modestly. " I will do," he 
says, '^ my wise friends, whose counsel I have much followed^ 

■ Montgumer>'8 Christian Poet, p. 320. * Epistle, y. U 

VOL. J. 3 C 



7S4 TBB LIFB AND WRITfi«GS 

that rights as to acquit them from all the guilt of the publicatioo 
of these fragments. Some of them say^ that such work it 
below irie ; and those that I think speak more wisely, say, I am 
below such work. These I unfeignedly believe. I hare long 
thought that a painter^ a musician, and a poet, are contempti- 
ble if th^y be not excellent ; and that I am not excellent, I am 
satisfied ; but I am more patient of contempt than many are. 
Common painters serve for poor men's works; and a fiddler may 
s^rve at a country wedding. Such cannot aspire to the attain- 
ments of the higher sort, and the vulgar are the greater number. 
Dr. Stillingfleet saith, ^ I seldom follow my friends* advice;' m 
this I justify him, though in other things my advisers contradict 
him. I know that natural temper makes poetry savour to se- 
veral wise and learned men, as differently as meats do to various 
appetites. I know such learned discreet men, that know not 
ti'hat a tune is, nor can difference one flrom another. . I wonder 
at them; and oft doubt whether it be an accident, or an integral 
of humanity which they want. Annatus, the Jesuit, in bis 
answer to Dr. Twisse De Scientia Media, commends his poetry, 
(for a poem added in the end,) in scorn, as if it were a di^raoe 
to a school divine. I take one sign of an acumen of wit to make 
it likely that the man hath the same wit for other work. 

" For myself, I confess that harmony and tnelody are the plea- 
sure and elevation of my soul. 1 have made a psalm of praise 
ill the holy assembly the chief delightful exercise of my religion 
and my life, and have helped to bear down all the objections 
which I have heard against church music, and against the 149 
and 150th Psalms. It was not the least comfort that I had in the 
converse of my late dear wife, that our first in the morning, and 
last in bed at night, was a psalm of praise, till the hearing of 
others interrupted it. Let those that savour not melody, leave 
others to their different appetites, and be content to be so fir 
strangers to their delights." ^ 

In m far as genius and imagination are essential to the cha- 
racter of a poet, it is impossible to doubt that Bakter possessed 
high claims to that distinction. His prose writings are full of 
poetry. His genius every now and then bursts forth where we 
least expect its appearance ; and in no writer of tlie age are 
there so many passages exquisite for their pathos and tender- 
ness, or dazzling with splendour. His language is often re- 

,'« ^i^\%\ift^ \j^» 2^ 3. 



or RICHARD BAXTBR. 755 

markable for its cjiasteness, and for its rhythm; so that it would 
only require a little skill in the mechanical construction of verse, 
to convert many of his pages into the sweetest poetry. 

That he was not skilled in versification, is, at the same time, 
very obvious. He had the ideas of poetry, and often the expres- 
•ions also, but could not frame them skilfully, according to the 
laws of verse. This kind of employment required more patience 
and labour than he was capable of bestowing. He could not waste 
time on the collocation of words and syllables; and hence he 
often becomes tame and prosaic, in immediate connexion with 
the utterance oi' the finest and loftiest conceptions. 

He lived during what Johnson calls " the age of the meta- 
physical poets ;" whom he describes as learned men, who made 
it their whole endeavour to show their learning. They yoked 
the most heterogeneous ideas together by violence ; ransacked 
nature and art for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions. 
They were fond of conceits, both of idea and phraseology ; they 
broke every image into fragments, and mixed the sublime and 
ridiculous, the lofty and the low, in the most extraordinary 
manner. Such were Donne and Denman, Waller and Cowley, 
according to Johnson ; and such he would have reckoned Bax- 
ter, had he met with any of his poetical effusions. 

The longest of Baxter's poetical pieces, as Montgomery has 
remarked, is a fragment of his own life and experience in verse. 
It is entitled ^ Love breathing Thanks and Praise,* and is full of 
the most glowing gratitude. From this poem an extract or two 
has already been given in the first part of this work. The open- 
ing bnes run, with a slight exception, very smoothly. They 
discover the school to which the author belonged, in the 
manner > in which he pursues the leading figure of a worm 
praising God. Yet there is nothing offensive in the thought or 
the language. 

*' Eternal God ! this worm lifu up the bead, 
Aod looks to Tbee, by Thee encourag^ed ; 
CheerM by thy bounty, it would speak thy praise. 
Whose wond'rous love hath uicasur'd all my days. 
If thou vouchsafe to make a worm rejoice, 
Give hiiu a thankful praisioj; heart and voice* 
Thy shining^ glory blessed angels see : 
Angels rou>t sing thy highest praise, not we. 
But if thy warming beams cause worms to speak 
Their baser part will not the concert break. 
When time was yet do measure, wheu \Ue &uu 
Itanpid motion had not yet begun , 

3c2 



756 THB LIFE AND WRITrNGS 

When heaT^n, ftod eardiy and sea, were yet mitaiii'd 
Angels and meo, and all thinics else un-nam*d $ 
When there did nothiog else exist but thee» 
Tbou wast the same, and still the same wilt be. 
When there was none to know or praise thy nanie« 
Thou wast in perfect blessedness the same." * 

In the following passage a most original and poetical image 
is employed with great felicity^ to illustrate the re-forming of 
man in God's own image. The idea of the Deity taking the 
signet from his own right hand, to form the. stamp by which his 
own offending creature is to be restored to holiness and bliss, u 
exquisite in itself, and uncommonly well sustained. 

*' When man from holy love tum'd to a lie. 
Thy ima^ lost, became thine enemy ; 
O what a seal did love and wisdom fiod 
To re-impriot thine image on man's mind ! 
Thou sent'st the signet from thine own right band ; 
Made man for them that had themselves unman'd. 
The fiternal Son, who in thy bosom dwelt. 
Essential burning love, men's hearts to melt ; 
Thy lively image ; he that knew thy mind. 
Fit to illuminate and heal the blind. 
With love's great office thou didst him adorn. 
Redeemer of the helpless and forlorn. 
On love's chief work and message he was sent : 
Our flesh he took, our pain he underwenr. 
Thy pardoning, saving love to man did preach : 
The Reconciler stood up in the breach. 
The uncreated image of thy love. 
By his assumption and the Holy Dove, 
On his own flesh thine image first imprest ; 
And by that stamp renews it on the rest." J 

The account of his early experience, and of the steps by 
which he was first led to choose God for his portion, and then 
his work as his great employment, is very admirably given. In 
the following passage he describes how God takes advantage of 
the natural love of self which belongs to man, and implants his 
own fear, as a seedling which gradually ripens into the love of 
God and of goodness^ and brings forth fruit to his glory. 

" Fear is the soil that cherisheth the seed. 
The nursery in which heav'n's plants do breed. 
God first iu nature finds self-love, and there 
He takes advantage to implant his fear. 
With some, the time is long before the earth 
Disclose her young one by a springy birth. 
When heav'n doth make our winter sharp and long. 
The seed ot XoNftW^^Vi^^ v^x ^^^\qa >4Mt ^oung, 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR. 757 

But when God makes it sprisg-tlmey his approach 

Takes from the harren soil its great reproach ; 

When heav'n*s reviving smiles and rays appear. 

Then love begins to spring up above fear ; 

And if sin hinder not by cursed shade. 

It quickly shoots up to a youthful blade. 

And when heav'n's warmer beams and dews succeed. 

That's ripen'd fruit which e'en now was but seed* 

Yet doth not flow'riog, fruitful, love forget 

Her nursing fear, there still her root is set ; 

In humble self-denial undertrod, 

While flower and firuit are growing up to God.*' ■ 

Tliere is a short poem, entitled * The Resolution/ which was 
composed when he was silenced and cast out of the church. 
It conveys his reflections on that sorrowful event, and expresses 
his high determination to suffer the loss of all things for Christ's 
sake. The following lines, referring to the dispersion of friends, 
the storms of life, and the final assembling, are very beautiful, 
though the figure is not uncommon. 

'* As for my friends, they are not lost : 

The several vessels of thy fleet, 
Though parted now by tempests tost. 

Shall safely in the haven meet. 
Still we are centred all in Thee ; 

Members, tho' distant of one head, 
* In the same family we be. 

By the same faith and Spirit led. 
Before thy throne we daily meet. 

As joint petitioners to Thee ; 
In spirit we each other greet. 

And shall again each other see. 
The heavenly hosts, world without end. 

Shall be my company above ; 
And thou, my best, my surest Friend, 

Who shall divide me from thy fove ?" • 

From the dialogue between Flesh and Spirit, I have already 
given a very beautiful extract, in noticing the work on self-de- 
nial, to which it was first attached. The dialogue between 
Death and a Believer is very gravely intended, and contains 
some very good passages, but is occasionally ludicrous. The 
same remark applies to the poems on grace, wisdom, madness, 
hypocrisy, and man. They abound with the faults of the meta- 
physical poets, interspersed with flashes of real poetical genius. 

His Psalms are far from contemptible ; for, although few 
of them are without rugged and prosaic lines, they frequently 
contain very good stanzas. He had ev\detv\\^ \ie.%\Av<^\ ^<acw- 

' Poetical FragmeDts, p. 16. « \\M.'^% W* 



758 • THS Un AND WRITINGS 

siderable puns on his yereion. There is a peculiarity in the 
structure of the verse, which often discovers mechanical in- 
genuity, though it "contributes frequently to destroy the poetry. 
By putting certain words in a different character widiin brackets, 
he contrives to make the verse long or short, as these words are 
used or omitted. He did this, he tells us, becaiwe *^ nature 
weary of sameness, is re-created with a variety of tunes.'' I shall 
give as a specimen the first stanzas of the twenty-third P^alm, 
printed after this plan, which' may be considered a fiur average 
sample of the whole. 

** The Lord himself my tbaplMrd is. 

Who doth me feed and [safely] keep ; 
What can 1 want that's truly good. 

While I am [one of] his own sheep ? 
He makes me to lie down and rest 

In [pleasant] pastures, tender grass ; 
He keeps and gently leadeth me 

Near [the sweet] streams of qvietnese. 
My failing soul he doth restore. 

And lead in [safe and] righteous ways ; 
And aU this freely, that his grace. 

And [holy] name may have the praise.'* 

It is pleasant to remark the delight and enjoyment which 
this holy man felt in sacred poetry and music ; a delight 
which he seems to have cherished to the very last. Sylvester 
tells us in his preface to his Psalms, that **when his sleep 
was intermitted or removed in the night, he then sang much; 
and on the Lord*s-day8, he thought the service very defective, 
without some considerable time were spent in singing ; nay, he 
believingly expected that his angelical convoy would conduct 
him through all the intermediate regions, to his appointed man- 
sion in his heavenly Father's house, with most melodious hal- 
lelujahs, or with something equally delightful/' In this fraaie 
of mind, he probably was when he composed his ^ Exit,' and bis 
/ Valediction.' In both he takes his leave of the world^ satisfied 
to be gone, and longing for the enjoyment of his Lord. I quote 
a few stanzas from the former, as a vale to the poetry of Baxter. 

'* My soul, go boldly forth, 
Forsake this sinful earth ; 
What hath it been to thee 

But pain and sorrow P 
Mid thiukest thou 'twHl be 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 7^9 

Where blessed spirits dwell. 

How pure and ligbtful ! 
But earth is near to hell, 

How dark and frightful ! 

Jerusalem above. 
Glorious in light and love, 
is mother of us alL 

Who shall enjoy them ? 
The wicked hell-ward fall. 

Sin will destroy them. 

God is essential love ; 
And all the saints above 
Are like unto him made. 

Each in his measure. 
Love is their life and trade. 

Their constant pleasure. 

What joy must there needs be. 
Where all God's glory see I 
Feeling God's vital love, 

Which still is barning : 
And flaming God-ward move. 

Full love returning. 

Lord Jesus, take my spirit: 
I trust thy love and merit; 
Take home this wand*ring sheep. 

For thou hast sought it ; 
This soul in safety keep. 

For thou hast bought it" ^ 

I have dwelt longer on Baxter's poetical pieces than, to 
some, their importance may seem to justify. I have been the 
more particular, however, because they are less known than 
most of his writings, and because they form a very appropriate 
conclusion to his devotional works. They show what every 
thing which Baxter wrote confirms, that his religion was a reli- 
gion of enjoyment. It is the more necessary to remark this, 
because a superficial observer may be induced to suppose that 
the contrary was the case. His writings, it will be remarked, 
speak much of mortification, and self-denial, and crucifixiont 
They do ; and Baxter felt himself impelled to dwell on these 
■ubjects, because iie regarded the evils which render them 
necessary as the true banes of man's happiness. He was 
persuaded that, till the habit of resisting and conquering the 
flesh and tlie world be formed, and unless it be kept in con- 
stant exercise, no real enjoyment can be found. The self- 
denial which he, therefore, inculcated, arose out of the state of 

^ Poetical Fragments, pp. 148^153, 



760 TUB UFB AND WRITINGS 

human nature, and was directed to the highest good of man— 
the enjoyment of the divine complacency. 

Baxter was probably regarded by the men of the world of 
his own age, as one of the most demure, joyless, mortified 
persons on earth ; and such, on their principles, he certiunly 
was. Yet Baxter was a singularly happy man. He tells us 
that he knew nothing of low spirits or nervous depression, not* 
withstanding all his bodily sufferings. His hopes of heaven 
and its blessedness were rarely clouded from the beginning to 
the end of his Christian course. His hands were constantly 
full of his Master's work, and his heart ardently set upon the 
accomplishment of it. llie pulse of the Christian life ever 
beat most vigorously in his veins ; the Christian walk he steadily 
pursued ; and its close was as peaceful and serene as its pro« 
gress had been honourable- 
It is pleasing to read of the melody of his feelings, of the 
tenderness or " passion " of his heart, of his songs in the night, 
and his delight in sacred poetry and music. They are eiddencei 
of the rest which his soul had found in God. There was a close 
and holy union between the fountain of living joy and his reno- 
vated spirit. *^ Being justified by faith, he had peace with God 
through the Lord Jesus Christ, and rejoiced in hope of the glorj 
of God." Devotion was his element, and its exercises were his 
delight. By this means he renewed his impaired strength, 
restored his lost tranquillity, and replenished his exhausted 
comfort. It was the master-principle of his mind and cha- 
racter; that which harmonized and adjusted all their move- 
ments, and guided all their aims. I may, with the greatest 
propriety, accommodate to himself the beautiful description 
which he gives of a Christian's devout meditations in the con- 
clusion of his * Saint's Rest.' 

"As Moses, before he died, went up into Mount Nebo, to 
take a survey of the land of Canaan, so he ascended the mount 
of contemplation, and by faith surveyed his heavenly rest. He 
looked on the delectable mansions, and said, ' Glorious things 
are deservedly spoken of thee, thou city of God.* He heard, 
as it were, the melody of the heavenly choir, and said, ' Happy 
the people that are in such a case ; yea, happy is that people 
whose God is the Lord.' He looked upon the glorious inha- 
bitants, and exclaimed, * Happy art thou, O, Israel ! Who is 
like unto thee, O ^^o^\^^ ^w^^ Vj <cv&\*i\4^' He looked on 



OV mCHARD BAXTEiU 7^1 

the Lord himself, who is their glory, and was ready, with the 
rest^ to fall down and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever. 
He looked on the glorified Saviour, and was ready to say 
* Amen,' to that new song, ' Blessing, and honour, and glory, 
and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto ' 
the Lamb/- He looked back on the wilderness of this world, 
and blessed the believing, patient, despised saints; he pitied 
the ignorant, obstinate, miserable world. For himself, when 
thus employed, he said, with Peter, ' It is good to be here,' or, 
with Asaph, ^ It is good for me to draw near to God.' Like 
Daniel, in his captivity, he daily opened his window, looking 
towards the Jerusalem that is above, though far out of sight. 
Like PaulV affections towards his brethren, though absent in the 
flesh from the glorified saints, he was yet with them in spirit, 
joying and beholding their heavenly order." ® 

Engaging so deeply in these delightful exercises of holy con- 
templation, he was thus eminently qualified to explain and re- 
commend them to others. They constitute the life of the soul, 
the beauty of religion, the glory of the Christian. ** As the 
lark sings sweetly while she soars on high, but is suddenly 
ulenced when she falls to the earth ; so is the frame of the 
soul most delightful and divine, while it keepeth God in view by 
contemplation. But, alas 1 we make there too short a stay, 
and lay by our music." ^ 

Will the reader now join with me in closing this chapter with 
the beautiful prayer which concludes the ^ Rest ? ' " O Thou, 
the merciful Father of spirits, the attractive of love, and 
ocean of delight ! draw up these drossy hearts unto thyself, and 
keep them there till they are spiritualized and refined ! Second 
thy servant's weak endeavours, and persuade those that read 
these lines to the practice of this delightful, heavenly work ! 
Oh ! suffer not tlie soul of thy most unworthy servant to be a 
stranger to those joys which he describes to others ; but keep me 
while I remain on earth in daily breathing after thee, and in a 
believing, affectionate walking with thee. And when thou 
comest, let me be found so doing : not serving my flesh, nor 
asleep with my lamp unfurnished, but waiting and longing 
for my Lord's return. Let those who shall read these 
pages, not merely read the fruit of my studies, but the 
breathing of my active hope and love ; that if my heart were 
• < Saint's Rest/ 4to. p. 814« ' Ibid, v* ^^^% 



762 Tsm un ahd whitimgs 

open to their view^ they might there read thy lovt most deeply 
engmven with a beam from the face of the Son of God ; tiid 
not find Tani^, or Inftti or pride within, where the words of lilii 
appear without; that bo these lines may not witnev agaimt 
me; but, proceeding from the heart of the writer, may be 
effisotuai, tfirough thy graee, iqwn the heart of the reader, and 
ao be the savour of li& to bodu''* 

•«SaIafi Bast,' 410, ]k8U. 



IHT MOIARB BASmHU Jti 



CHAPTER XIII. 



GENERAL C0MCLU810N. 

Baxter, tha author of Prefaces to many Books by others— -Leaves vaiions 
Treatises ia Maouscript— His extensive Correspoodeace still presenred— 
Iietter to Increase Mather — Account of Transactions with his Book- 
sellers — G>ncurrence of Opinions respectin|^ him as a Wrltei^— Barrow- 
Boyle— Wilkins — Usher— Manton —Bates— Doddridge— Kippif^-Oiton-« 
Addison — Johnson — Grainger— WUberlbrce— His own Review if hie WiiU 
ings — Its characteristic candour and fidelity— The aaagaitade of his Laboma 

' as a Writer— The number and variety of his Worics— 41is Readipeif ' 
His Style— Sometimes injudidous both in his Writings and his Coodnd^ 
Deficient in the full statement of Evangelical Doctrine— Causes of ^t 
DeficioKsy— Conclusion. 

• 

Having laid before the reader some account of every book 
published by Baxter, as far as can be aacertained, untb those 
observations which have been suggested by their nature and 
design, it only remains that I should collect together some 
miscellaneous circumstances, which could not properly be 
noticed under any of the preceding heads, and o£fer some ^on-f 
eluding remarks on the character of Baxter as a writer. 

Besides the books he wrote himself, he prefixed, generally at 
the desire of their respective authors, prefiEices or commendatory 
epistles to a great number of publications. Of these^ Calamy 
has given the following enumeration, which I have no doul^ 
could be greatly increased, were it of sufficient importance to 
devote the time which such a research would require : 

'^ We have a preface of his before Mr. Swinnock's book of 
' Regeneration ;' another before a book of Mr. Eede's ; another 
before Mr. Jonathan Hanmer's ^ Exercitation of Confirmation;' 
another before Mr. Lawrence's, of ' Sickness ;' two before two 
of Mr. Tombes's books ; another before a discourse of Mr% 
William Bell'a, of < Patience}' djx vdl\xxA»sSossq^ \s^Va^\^^ 



764 THE- LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Allein^s 'Life;' a preface to his 'Alarm to the Unconverted;' 
another to Howe's 'Blessedness of the Righteous;' another to 
Mr. Clark's 'Annotations on the New Testament;' another to 
Mr. Abraham CliflFord's 'Discourse on the Two Covenants;' 
another to one edition of Mr. Rawlet's book of the 'Sacra- 
ment:' another to the eleventh of Sender's 'Dailv Walk;' 
another to Mr. William Allen, of the ' Covenants ; ' another to 
a book of Dr. Bryan's, of '-Dwelling with God;' another to 
Mr. Hotchkis's ' Forgiveness of Sin ; * another to Mr. Gouge's 
'Surest and Safest Way of Thriving ;' another to Mr. Obed. 
Wills, of ' Infant Baptism/ against Mr. Danvers's; and one to 
Mr. Corbet's ' Remains ;' with many others." ' 

Baxter left several treatises in a more or less prepared state 
for publication, besides all that he published himself. Some of 
these saw the light afterwards, others remain or have been de« 
stroyed. His work on ' Universal Redemption,' ' The Protes- 
tant Religion Justified,' his ' Poetical Paraphrase of the P^ms,' 
the ' Narrative of his own Life,' his ' Mother's Catechism,' 
' Monthly Preparation for the Communion,' have all been no- 
ticed already among his posthumous publications. 

Into the subject of what he calls ' Physical Predetermina- 
tion,' he appears to have entered very largely ; and there yet 
remains among his manuscripts what would make a considerable 
volume 9n it. It seems to be in reference to this manuscript 
that he says in his Own Life: 

" When I had written my book against Mr. Gale's 'Treatise 
for Predetermination,' and was intending to print it, the good 
man fell sick of a consumption, and I thought it meet to sus- 
pend the publication, lest I should grieve him, and increase his 
sickness, of which he died. And that I might not obscure 
God's providence about sin, I wrote and preached two sermons 
to show what great and excellent things God doth in the world 
by the occasion of man's sin ; and, verily, it is wonderful to 
observe that in England all parties, prelatical first. Indepen- 
dents, Anabaptists, especially Papists, have been brought down 
by themselves, and not by the wit and strength of their enemies ; 
and we can hardly discern any footsteps of any of our own 
endeavours, wit, or power, in any of our late deliverances, but 
our enemies' wickedness and bloody designs have been the occa- 
sion of almost all : yea, the Presbyterians themselves have suf- 
fered more by l\\e A\\\X\tv^ e^ficv^ q.\ ^«v\ <q^nw ^^-^^viant, and 



OF EICUARD 3AXTBB. 765 

their imskilfiilnest Jn healing the divisions between them and 
the Independents and Anabaptists and the Episcopalians, than 
by any strength that brought them down ; though since men's 
wrath hath trodden them as in the dirt/' ^ 

On the subject of predestination, Baxter says a great deal in 
the second book of his Catholic Theology, in which he endear 
vours to reconcile ^^ the Synodists and Arminians, the Calvinists 
and Lutherans, the Dominicans and Jesuits," Judging from 
what he says on the subject in that work, I should not suppose 
that his separate treatise throws much light on it, or that the 
world sustains a great loss from its suppression. Theophilus 
Gale, for whom this intended treatise was designed, was one of 
the profoundest scholars and theologians of his time. His 
learning was more extensive and accurate than Baxter's, and 
his judgment, both in metaphysics and theology, more correct. 
His ^ G)urt of the Gentiles,' in which, among other subjects, he 
discusses predestination, and free-will, and their consistency with 
each other, is, without exception, the profoundest book of the 
age. It contains greater stores of pagan and sacred learning, 
on every thing relating to the whole range of philosophy and 
religion, than any book which had previously appeared. 

Baxter left also ' Divers Disputations on sufficient Grace; seve- 
ral Miscellaneous Disputations on various Questions in Divinity, 
briefly managed at the Monthly Meeting' of Ministers held while 
he was at Kidderminster. ' Two Replies to Mr. Lawson's 
Animadversions on his Aphorisms ;' ' A Reply to Warren's 
Animadversions' on the same ho6k ; and the commencement of 
^ A Reply to Dr. Wallis's Animadversions :' beside many other 
pieces in a more or less prepared state for publication. Most 
of these treatises still remain among the Baxter MSS. depo- 
sited in the Redcross-street library. None of them appear to 
me to be deserving of publication ; as among the printed works 
of Baxter sufficient is to be found already on all the subjects of 
which thev treat. 

The most interesting portion of these manuscript collections 
is the correspondence. There are many hundred letters between 
Baxter and his friends on a great variety of subjects ; extending 
from an early period of his public life till near the time of hit 
death. Sylvester appears to have intended the publication of a 

r Life, part iii. p. 185. There is another passage in Baxter's Life in which 
he speaks disrespectfully of Gale and his Work *, \ViU* Y\« ni^ \oq %^\ V) ^^> 
where be differed from a brother aathor«-^PaU ^. v« V^'^* 



766 ram upb and weithigs 

tolnme of these letters ; i^ but, for reasons whieb do not appeeTi 
abandoned the design, Aii Baxter's manoscripts in his pos- 
session were at last deposited in the hands of Dr. WilUams's 
trustees, by whom they hare been carefully preserved. 

Though I did not find on examining these letters mueh addi- 
tional matter that could be used in this Life of Baxter, he haviag 
published every thing of importance inspecting himself, I fcel 
satisfied that a volume or two of very interesting letters might 
be furnished from them. An editor of competent abilities sad 
leisure could produce a very valuable selection. Aokm^ 
Baxter's correspondents were some of the most distinguished 
men of his times. Lord Chief ^Justice Hale, the Dvk^ at Lsih 
derdale. Lord Clarendon, the Earl of Orrery, Archbishop Tillot* 
son, Bishop Brownrigge, Henry More, Glanville, Robert Boyisi 
Greaves, Henry Dod well, Heyiin, Bruno Ryves, Gataker, Vines, 
Owen, Howe, Bates, Peter Du Moulin, Dr. Hill, Arrowsmith, 
Burgess, William Penn, Eliot, Mather of New England, 
and a multitude of others. Many of Baxter's letters to hit 
friends are very long, and as he appears to have been in the 
practice of keeping copies of those which he regarded as impor- 
tant, all of which are in his own hand ; his correspondence alone 
must have created to him vast labour. In numerous instances 
he appears to have been treated by troublesome persons, who 
applied to him to solve their doubts and perplexities, and exer- 
cised his ingenuity by their cases of conscience. Where he 
considered the laity in earnest, he seems never to have been 
unwilling, though at the expense of great labour to himself, to 
attempt afibrding them satisfaction. 

A short letter that he wrote to Increase Mather, which Palmer 
thinks may have been among the last he ever wrote, is so excel- 
lent and characteristic of the writer, that it will not be considered 
out of its place here. It refers to Cotton Mather *s Life of 
Eliot, the apostle of the Indians, and the valued correepondent 
of Baxter. 

" Dear Brother, 
'^ I thought I had been near dying at twelve o'clock in bed : 
but your book revived me ; I lay reading it until between one 
and two. I knew much of Mr. Eliot's opinions by many letters 
which I had from him. There was no man on earth whom I 
honoured a\)o\e Yivcci. U \% bU evangelical work that is the 



Df llfDttARiy BAZTBi. 767 

apostolieal ttiecMrion which I plead for. I am ncm dying I 
hope as he did. It pleated tne to iread from him my case* ^ My 
understanding faileth, my memory faileth, and my hand and pen 
fail| but my charity faileth not/ That word much comforted me. 
I am as zealous a lover of the New England Churches as any 
nan^ according to Mr. Noyes^ Mr. Norton's, and Mr. Mitchael's^ 
and the Synod's model. I love your father upon the letters I 
received from him. I love you better for your leamingi labourf^ 
Mtki peaceable moderation. I love your mm better than either 
of you, for the excellent temper that appeareth in his writings. 
O that godliness and wisdom may thus increase in all fiunilies. 
He hath honoured himself half as much as Mr. Eliot, I say half 
US much, for deeds excel words. God preserve you and New 
England. Pray for your fainting languishing friend, 

" Aug. 8, 1891. Hi. Baxter."* 

A person who had so much to do with the press as Baxter, 
inust have been connected with the principal religious booksel- 
lers of the period, and a knowledge of his transactions with 
them must throw some light on the extent to which religious 
Works were circulated at this time. From the multitude of 
books published by Baxter, many of which appear to us unin- 
teresting, it appears surprising that the author should have 
found encouragement to print them. It appears, however, that 
he c<^uld not only publish without risk, but that they were the 
source of a considerable revenue, which he generally applied to 
some benevolent purpose. In the following document, written 
as a vindication of himself from a charge of ruining his book- 
sellers, he gives a very interesting account of the manner in 
which he transacted business with them. It affords us also 
some additional illustration of the circumstances and the disin« 
terestedness of Baxter. After adverting to several of the false 
charges which had been circulated against him, he thus pro* 
ceedsi 

*' But now comes a new trial : my fufferings are my crimes. 
My bookseller, Nevil Symmonds, is broken, and it is reported 
that I am the cause, by the excessive rates that I took for my 
books of him ; and a great dean, whom I much value, foretold 
that I would undo him. Of all the crimes in the world, I 
least expected to be accused of covetousness. Satan being 
the master of this desigi\ to hinder the success of my writingi 

' Paiiner's Noaooni Men, vdi ti&k ^ A^% 



768 TQS LIFB AND WRITINGS 

wheii I am dead^ it is part of my warfare, under Christ, to re- 
sist him. I tell you, therefore, truly all my covenants and 
dealings with booksellers to this day. 

'^ When I first ventured upon the publication of my thoughts, 
I knew nothing of the art of booksellers. I did, as an act of 
mere kindness, offer my book called ' The Saint's Rest,' to 
Thomas Underbill and Francis Tyton, to print, leaving the 
matter of profit, without any covenants, to their ingenuity. 
They gave me ten pounds for the first impression, and ten 
pounds a piece, that is, twenty pounds for every after impres- 
sion, till 1665. I had, in the mean time, altered the book, by 
the addition of divers sheets. Mr. Underbill died ; his wife 
becama poor. Mr. Tyton had losses by the fire in 1666. They 
never gave, nor offered me a farthing for any impression after 
that, nor so much as one of the books ; but I was £ain out of 
my own purse to buy all that I gave to any friends or poor per- 
son that asked it. 

"This loosening me. from Mr. Tyton, Mr. Symmonds stepped 
in, and told me that Mr. Tyton said he never got three-pence 
by me, and brought witness. Hereupon I used Mr, Symmonds 
only. When I lived at Kidderminster, some had defamed me 
of a covetous getting of many hundred pounds by the book- 
sellers. I had, till then, taken of Mr. Underbill, Mr. Tyton, and 
Mr. Symmonds, for all, save the * Saint's Rest,' the fifteenth 
book, which usually I gave away ; but if any thing for second 
impressions were due, I had little in money from them, but in 
such books I wanted at their rates. But when this report of 
my great gain came abroad, I took notice of it in print, and told 
that I intended to take more hereafter : and ever since I took 
the fifteenth book for myself and friends, and eighteen-pence 
more for every ream of the other fourteen which 1 destinated 
to the poor. With this, while I was at Kidderminster, 1 bought 
Bibles, to give to all the poor families ; and I got three hundred 
or four hundred pounds, which I destined all to charitable uses. 
At last, at London, it increased to eight hundred and thirty 
pounds, which, delivering to a worthy friend, he put it into the 
hands of Sir Robert Viner, with a hundred pounds of my 
wife's, where it lieth, settled on a charitable use after my death, 
as from the first I resolved. If it fails, I cannot help. I never 
received more of any bookseller than the fifteenth book, and 
this eighteeu-peivcc a ream. And if, for after impressions, I 
had more oi t\voa^ M\j^^\v\Xv^>Je«sv\ %w^ w^^^^^lViok about two 



OP RICHARD 3AXTJIR. 769 

third parte of the common price of the bobkseUer^ or little 
more, and oft less ; and sometimes I paid myself for the print* 
ing many hundreds to give away ; and sometimes I bought them 
of the bookseller above my number, and sometimes the gain 
was my own necessary maintenance ; but I resolved never to lay 
up a groat of it for any but the poor. 

^ Now, sir, my own condition is this : Of my patrimony or 
nnall inheritance I never took a penny to myself, my poor kin- 
dred needing much more. I am fifteen or sixteen years divested 
of all ecclesiastical maintenance. I never had any church or 
lecture that I received wages from, but, within these three or four 
years much against my disposition, I am put to take money of 
the bounty of special particular friends ; my wife's estate being 
never my property, nor much more than half our yearly expense. 
If, then, it be any way unfit for me to receive such a proportion 
as aforesaid, as the fruit of my own long and hard labour for 
my necessary and charitable uses ; and if they that never took 
pains for it have more right than I, when every labourer is 
master of his own, or if I may not take some part with them, [ 
know not the reason of any of this. Men grudge not a cobbler, 
or a tailor, or any day labourer, for liring on his labours, and 
why an ejected minister of Christ, giving freely five parts to a 
bookseller, may not take the sixth to himself, or to the poor, I 
know not. But what is the thought or word of man ? 

** Dr. Bates now tells me, that for his book, called the ^ Divine 
Harmony/ he had above a hundred pounds, yet reserving the 
power for the future to himself; for divers impressions of the 
Saint's Rest, almost twice as big, I have not had a farthing : 
for no book have I had more than the fifteenth book to myself 
and friends, and the eighteen-pence a ream for the poor and 
works of charity, which the devil so hateth, that I find it a mat- 
ter past my power, to give my own to any good use ; he so robs 
me of it, or maketh men call it a scandalous thing. Verily, 
rince I devoted all to God, I have found it harder to give it when 
I do my best, than to get it : though I submit of late to him 
partiy upon charity, and am so far from laying up a groat, that 
(though I hate debt) I am long in debt," &c. &c. &c. ^ 

This letter was written in 1678. In his Life, Baxter declares^ 
that Symmons must have received in mere charity from him, 
that is, I suppose, more than he was strictly entitled to demand^ 

k AppendU to Bsztcr't Oira Life, No. xU« 
VOL. I. 3 X> 



77(r THX LIIB AWD WBITIKM 

8 sum not less than five hundred pounds^ if net ilSAfljr i^ tlkM* 
sand. The money which Baxter appropriated from hit profits 
to a charitable purpose, he unfortunately lost by the sfanttiBg 
up of the exchequer ; so that the hard^-eahied guds of many 
years were lost in one day. From Baxter's statement of the 
agreement with the booksellers, it is very evident that the cir- 
culation of his works must have been extensive to tei^ble them 
to afford the sums which h6 expended^ Coonpariog these 
^th the compensation receive for Paradise Loet,^ it is dear 
that the publishers and the public theti were bettlMr judges ef 
poetry than of theology, A singular revtrs^ has taken plaet 
since that period. 

There is a remarkable concurrence of opinioiis respecting the 
character and talents bf Baxter^ even among thoae who wnt 
be regarded as unfavourable to many of the sentiments fi)r 
which he contended. This agreement can be aceounted far only 
on the ground, that the high integrity of his diaraeter and the 
superiority of his talents were beyond dispute ; . and that the 
evident tendency of all his writings is t6 promote the best inte- 
rests of men. His contemporaries in the churchy as wdl ss 
his brethren out of it, unite in their testimony to his wotth and 
greatness, and the value of his writings. 

Dr. Barrow said, his practical writings were never mended, 
and his controversial ones seldom confuted. With a view to 
his casuistical writings, the honourable Robert Boyle, declared, 
^^ He was the fittest man of the age for a casuist, because he 
feared no man's displeasure, nor hoped for any man's prefer- 
ment/' Bishop Wilkins observed of him, that he had cultivated 
every subject he had handled ; that if he had lived in the pri- 
mitive times, he would have been one of the fathers of the 
church ; and that it was enough for one age to produce such a 
person as Mr. Baxter. Archbishop Usher's high thoughts of 
him, appeared in his earnest importunity to induce him to write 
on the subject of conversion. Dr. Manton thought Mr. Baxter 
came nearer the apostolical writings than any man in the age« 
Dr. Bates' opinion of his eloquence has been given already. '^ His 
books," he says, ^* for their number and variety of matter, make 
a hi)rary. They contain a treasure of controversial, casuistical, 
and practical divinity. His books of practical divinity have 
been effectual for more numerous conversions of sinner* to God, 
than any pnuled \u out Uove \ and while the church remains on 



OF EICHARD BAXTBR. 771 

earthi will be of continual efficacy to reeover lost souls. There 
is a vigorous pulse in them that keeps the reader awake and 
attentive/' ^ 

Few men were capable of forming a better or more candid 
opinion of Baxter than Dr. Doddridge. He was well acquainted 
with his writings, very similar to him in his sentiments, and par- 
took largely of his desire to be useful to all men. He thus 
expresses his opinion of his character as a writer : 

'^ Hb style is inaccurate, because he had no regular educa- 
tion ; and because he wrote continually in the views of eternity : 
but juiUdous, nervous, spiritual, and remarkably evangelical : a 
manly eloquence;, and the most erident proof of an amazing 
genius: with respect to which he may not improperiy be 
called the English Demosthenes : exceeding proper for convic- 
tion : see his ' Saint's Rest,' all his treatises on conversion, and 
especially his ^ Call to (he Unconverted,' * Divine Life, and Coun- 
sels to Young Men:' few were ever more instrumental for awaken^ 
ing and converting more souls. His book of converse with God 
in solitude, is a most sublime piece of devotion : his Gildas Sal- 
viamis is a most extraordinary piece, and should be read by 
every young minister before he takes a people under bis stated 
care ; and I think the practical part of it deserves to be read 
every two or three years : for nothing has a greater tendency to 
awaken the spirit of a minister to that zeal in his work, for want 
of which many good men are but shadows of what by the bless^ 
tng of God they might be, if the maxims and treasures laid down 
in that incomparable treatise were strenuously pursued." "* 

In a letter to a friend, giving him some account of his studies, 
Doddridge says, ^* Baxter is my particular favourite. It is im- 
posaibb to tell you how much 1 am charmed with the devotion, 
goodaense, and pathos, which is eveiy where to be found in liim« 
I cannot forbear lookiqg upon him as one of the greatest orators, 
both with regard to copiousness, acuteness, and energy, that our 
nation hath produced ; and if he hath described, as I believe the 
temper of his own heart, he appears to have been so far superior 
to the generality of those whom we charitably hope to be good 
men, that one would imagine that God raised him up to disgrace 
and eondemn his brethren ; to show wthat a Christian is, and 
how few in the world deserve the character. I have lately been 

* These testimoDies are collected by Pawcettin the Preface to hU' Abrid|^- 
sent 4if the Saint^s Eeat.' 
■ Or ton's < Letten to{)i«8«ptiog MiaUtosft,' moVIi V^V^^>\^^* 

3d2 



772 THB LIFE AND WRITINGS 

reading his Gildas Salvianus^ which hath cut me out much woik 
among my people. This will take me oiF from so close an ap- 
plication to my private studies, as I could otherwise covet, but 
may answer some valuable ends with regard to others and 
myself.'* 

But these commendatory opinions of Baxter have not been 
confined to evangelical Churchmen and Dissenters ; the literary 
men of the nation have not been backward to express their ap- 
probation of Baxter's talents and piety. Dr. Kippis, under the 
article * Doddridge' in the ' Biographia Britannica,' institutes a 
comparison between him and Job Orton, the author of ^ Dod- 
dridge's Memoirs.* — " It has occurred," he says, ** to us, that 
Mr. Orton, who so long resided at Kidderminster, the principal 
seat of Mr. Baxter's ministerial usefulness, had a xronsiderable 
resemblance in certain respects to that famous divine. In 
extent of abilities, Baxter was greatly superior to Mr. Orton, and 
he prodigiously exceeded him in the multiplicity of his writings; 
but with regard to the nature of their practical works and the 
strictness, we had almost said the rigidness, of their personal 
piety, there was no small degree of similarity. Both of them 
display in their productions the same ardent zeal to excite the 
attention of men to their eternal concerns, and urge these con- 
cerns with peculiar energy and pathos. Both of them were ani- 
mated with a seriousness of spirit which seems never to have 
forsaken them in the most ordinary occurrences of life : nor 
could either of them bear to be much interrupted in their sacred 
employments. When some visitors to Mr. Baxter, after having 
fiitten awhile with him, said, ^ We are afraid, sir, that we break 
in upon your time ? ' His answer was, * To be sure you do.'/' 

While this passage shows the high idea which Kippis enter- 
tained of Baxter's character, I conceive that the points of re- 
semblance between him and Orton were very few. Orton was 
stiff, formal, and cautious to a fault, not to mention other par- 
ticulars ; qualities the very opposite of those which distinguished 
Baxter, whose warmth and energy often involved him in difficul- 
ties, which the timid prudence of the other was sure to pre- 
vent. The souls of the two men were cast in totally different 
moulds. Baxter would have set the world on fire, while Orton 
was lighting a match. 

^rton himself held Baxter in the highest veneration. In one 
of his lettew to V\ve ^^n» ^t» \i\x%\ve&^ he says, " I would 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 773 

recommend you to read some practical divinity every day; 
especially the works of Howe, Henry, Watts, Doddridge, and 
writers of that strain and spirit, whom God eminently honoured 
as instruments of great usefulness in his church. Above all, 
Baxter, who was, with regard to the success of his labours and 
writings, superior to them all/' ^ 

^^ Addison say^, ' I once met with a page of Mr* Baxter; upon 
the perusal of it, I conceived so good an idea of the author's 
piety, that I bought the whole book/ Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
in his * Rambler,' has quoted Baxter twice, (No. 71 and 196) 
in such a manner as to show that he considered his name to be 
worthy of a place amongst the highest authorities. He is also 
frequently mentioned in Johnson's conversations with Boswell : 
and once, when Boswell asked him what works of Richard 
Baxter he should read ? ' Read any of them,' said the sage^ 
*for they are all good/ "p 

But no writer has more accurately or candidly sketched the 
character of Baxter than Grainger, whose invaluable Biogra- 
phical History supplies information about numerous individuals^ 
of whom no account is any where else to be found; and who 
rarely distorts his portraits under the influence of personal or 
professional prejudice. 

'^ Richard Baxter," he says, '^ was a man famous for weak- 
ness of body and strength of mind ; for having the strongest 
sense of religion himself, and exciting a sense of it in the 
thoughtless and the profligate; for preaching more sermons^ 
engaging in more controversies, and writing more books, than 
any other Nonconformist of his age. He spoke, disputed, and 
wrote with ease ; and discovered the same intrepidity when he 
reproved Cromwell and expostulated with Charles II. as when 
he preached to a congregation of mechanics. His zeal for 
religion was extraordinary; but it seems never to have prompted 
him to faction, or carried him to enthusiasm. Tliis champion 
of the Presbyterians was the common butt of men of every 
other religion, and of those who were of no religion at alL 
But this had very little effect upon him : his presence and his 
firmness of mind on no occasion forsook him. He was just 
the same man before he went into a prison, while he was in it, 
and when he came out of it ; and he maintained a uniformity 
of character to the last gasp of his life. His enemies h&ve 

* Orton't ' Letters to Dissenting Ministers,* vol. i. p. 103. 

9 Ibid. pp.3\5,3\&. 



774 TH« Lin AKH witTftt^s 

placed him in hell ; bat eVery man who has not ten times the 
bigotry that Mr. Baxter himself had, must eonclude that he is 
in a better place. This is a very faint and imperfect sketch of 
Mr. Baxter's character. Men of his size are not to be drawn 
in miniature. His portrait, in full proportion, is in his ^ Nar* 
rative of his own Life and Times/ which, though a rhapsody, 
composed in the manner of a diary, contains a great variety of 
memorable things, and is, in itself, as far as it goes, a history of 
Nonconformity.'* *> 

I cannot close this collection of testimonies to the merits of 
Baxter, without adding that of Mr. Wilberforce, a name whidi 
will ever be dear to every fnend of religion and httraanity. I 
cannot help saying, however, he ought not to have considered 
Baxter as exclusively the property of the church of England. 
Baxter, though not properly a Dissenter, was^ in the strictest 
sense of the term, a Nonconformist. *' I must beg," says Mr. 
Wilberforce, *^ to class among the brightest ornaments of the 
Church of England, this great man, who, with his brethren, was 
So shamefully ejected from the church in 1662, in violation of 
. the royal word, as well as of the dear principles of justice. 
With his controversial pieces I am little acquainted ; but his 
practical writings, in four massy folios, are a treasury of Chris- 
tian wisdom. It would be a most valuable serrice to mankind 
to revise them, and, perhaps, to abridge them, to render them 
more suited to the taste of modern readers. This hsis been 
already done in the case of his * Dying Thoughts,* a beautiful 
little piece, and of his * Saint's Rest.' His * la fe,* also^ written 
by himself, and in a separate volume, contains much useful mat- 
ter, and many valuable particulars of the history of the times of 
Charles I., Cromwell," &c. ' 

Having presented to the reader a selection of the opinions 
which have been expressed of Baxter, as a writer, by men of 
the first eminence, both in his own times and since, I have re- 
served his own opinion, or review, for the last. As no man was 
so fully acquainted with his writings as himself, so no one could 
express a more enlightened or candid opinion of them than be 
has done. It leans to the side of severity rather than of leni- 
ency, and presents so amiable a view of the author's character 
that it cannot fail to excite esteem and admiration. Combined 
with his review of his Christian character and experience, it 
presents what Qmtv^t justly calls a full-length portrait of the 



Of RieBABD BAXTB1U 775 

team He jud({ed hhnsdf ihst he might not be judged, and 
was evidently far more sensible of his own imperfections, and 
morie ready to censure them than any, even of .his bitterest 
opposers. He constantly defended the integrity of his charact^ 
and the purity of his motives, but was most willing to adwow- 
ledge that none of his works were without spot or blemisii 
befeveOod. 

^Concerning almost all my writings, I must confess thai mjr 
own judgment b, that fewer well studied and polished had been 
better I but the reader who can safely censure the books, is not 
fit to censure the author, unless he had been upon the place, and 
acquainted with all the occasions aiid circumstances. Indeed^ 
for the ^ Saint's Rest,' I had four months' vacancy to write it^ 
but in the midst <if continual languishing stnd medicine: bnti 
for the rest, I wrote them in the crowd of all my other «nploy- 
mentB, which would allow me no great leisure for polishing and 
exactness, or any ornament ; so that I scarce ever wrote ono 
Aeet twice over, nor stayed to make any blots or interliningSf 
but was fain to let it go as it was first conceived ; and when my 
own desire was rather to stay upon one thing long than run 
over many, some sudden occasions or other extorted almost oil 
my writings firom me ; and the apprehensions of present usefoU 
ness or necessity prevailed against all other motives : sq that 
ibe divines which were at hand with me still put me on, and 
approved of what I did, because they were moved by present 
necessities, as well as 1 1 but diose that were fiur off, and felt not 
those nearer motives, did rather wish that I had taken the- other 
Way, and publidied a few elaborate writings ; and I am ready 
myself to be of their mind, when I forgot the case that I then 
stood in, and have lost the sense of former motives. The op* 
posing of the Anabaptists, Separatists, Quakers, Antinomians^ 
Sediers, &c., were works which then seemed necessary; and 
so did the debates about church-government and communion, 
which touched our present practice : but now, all those reasons 
are past and gone, I could wish I had rather been doing soma 
work of more durable usefulness. But, even to a foreseeing 
man,(Who knoweth what will be of longest use, it is hard to 
discern how far that which is presently needful maiy be. omitted, 
fof the sake of a greater, fiiture 'good. There are some other 
works wherein my heart hath more been set than any of those 
feremenlioned, in whkh 1 have met with great bbstructioBS : for 
I must declare^ that in this, as in many bthei imXMn%^ 



776 THE LIFB AND WE1TIM€S 

not the choosers of our own empbyroenlSy any mots thaaoC 
our own successes. 

^ And yet, that I may not say worse than it deaenreth of my 
former measure of understanding, I shall truly tell yoa what 
change I find now in the perusal of my own writinga. Those 
pcnnts which then I thoroughly studied, my judgment ia the 
aame of now as it was then, and therefore in the aubatuce ef 
aiy veligion, and in those controversies which I then aeaidied 
into with some extraordinary diligence, I find not my mind dis» 
poaed to a change : but in divers points that I studied atighdy^ 
aind by the halves, and in many things which I took upon trust 
from others, I have found since that my apprehoisiona 
either erroneous or very lame*. And those thinga which I 
orthodox in,^ I had either insufficient reasons for, or a mixtore 
of some sound and some insufficient ones, or else an inauAcient 
stpprehension.of those reasons ; so that I scarcely knew what I 
aeemed to know : and though in my writings I found little ia 
snbatance which my present judgment differeth from, yet in my 
^Aphorisms' and * Saint's Rest,' which were my first writiiq;s, I 
find some few unmeet expressions, and one common infirmity* 
i perceive that I put off matters with some kind of confideucci 
as if I had done something new or more than ordinary in them^ 
when, upon my more mature reviews, I find that I aaid not half 
that which the subject did require. As, e. ^., in the doctrine of 
the covenants and of justification, but especially about the 
divine authority of the Scripture in the second part of the 
^ Saint's Rest,' where I have not said half that should have been 
aaid ; and the reason was, because that I had not read any of 
the fuller sort of books that are written on those subjects, nor 
conversed with those that knew more than myself, and so all 
those things were either new or great to me which were common 
and small, perhaps, to others ; and because they all came in by 
the way of my own study of the naked matter, and not firom 
books, they were apt to affect my mind the more, and to seem 
greater than they were. And this token of my weakness so 
accompanied those my younger studies, that I was very apt to 
atart up controversies in the way of my practical writings^ and 
ulso more desirous to acquaint the world with all that I took to 
be the truth, and to assault those books by name which I 
thought did tend to deceive them, and did contain unsomid and 
dangerous doctrine ; and the reason of all this was, that I waa 
then in iVie vigoMx oi tcj >jwi?Oc&Ni\. ^y¥^^^\xv»c&^ and the new 



OF RICHARD BAXTBR«> 777 

app6aitnce of any sacred truth, it was more apt to affect me 
and be more highly valued than afterwards, when commonness 
kad duUed my delight; and I did not sufficiently discern then 
bow much, in most of our controversies, is verbal, and upon 
nmtiial' mistakes. And^ withal, I knew not how impatient 
divii^es were of being contradicted, nor how it would stir up all 
their powers to defend what they have once said, and to rise up 
against the truth which is thus thnist upon them as the mortal 
•oemy of their honour : and I knew not how hardly men's 
asinds are changed from their former apprehensions, be the evi* 
dence never so plain. And I have perceived that nothing so 
nnch hinders the reception of the truth as urging it on men 
with too harsh importunity, and falling too heavily on their 
errors : for hereby you engage their honour in the business, and 
they defend their errors as themselves, and stir up all their wit 
and ability to oppose you. In controversies, it is fierce opposi* 
tion which is the bellows to kindle a resisting zeal ; when, if Uiey 
be neglected, and their opinions lie awhile despised, they usually 
cool andcome again totliemselves. Men are so loth to bedrenched 
with the truth, that 1 am no more for going that way to work i 
and, to confess the truth, 1 am lately much prone to the con* 
trary extreme,, to be too indifferent what men hold, and to keep 
my judgment to myself, and never to mention any thing wherein 
I differ from another on any thing which 1 think I know more 
than he ; or, at least, if he receive it not presently, to silence it, 
and leave him to his own opinion ; and I find this effect is mixed 
according to its causes, which are some good and some bad« 
The bad causes are, 1. An impatience of men's weakness, and 
mistaking forwardness, and self-conceitedness. 2. An abate* 
ment of my sensible esteem of truth, through the long abode 
of them on my mind. Though my judgment value them, yet it 
is hard to be equally affected with old and common things, as 
with new and rare ones* The better causes are, 1. That I am 
much more sensible than ever of the necessity of living upon 
the principles of religion which we are all agreed in, and uniting 
in these ; and how much mischief men that overvalue their own 
opinions, have done by their controversies in the church; how 
some have destroyed charity, and some caused schisms by them, 
and most have hindered godliness in themselves and others, and 
used them to divert men from the serious prosecuting of a holy 
life ; and, as Sir Francis Bacon saith in his Essay of Peace, 
^ that it is one great benefit of cUuxcVv ^^^q^ «scA ^:a\\^;qk\^ 



its THX LI9B AND WAITmOS 

that writing eontrdrenieft is turned into books of pnuittfltl da^ 
Votion for increase of piety and virtue/ 2* And I find that it is 
much more for most men's good and edification^ to cop f t ti i 
with them only in that way of godliness which all are agreed i% 
and not by touching upon differences to stir op thair corrap- 
tions, and to tell them of little more of your knowledge than 
what you find them willing to receive firom you as nier« leainers } 
and therefore to stay till they crave information of yoa. We 
mistake men's diseases when we think there needeth nothing te 
eure their errors, Imt only to bring them the evidence of tnith. 
Alas ! there are many distempers of mind to be removed IwAee 
men are apt to receive that evidence. And, therefore, that 
church is happy where order is kept up, and the abilitiea of the 
ministers command a reverend submission firom the hearers, and 
where all are in Christ's school in the distinct ranks of teacben 
and learners; for in a leatning way men are ready to rcoeive the 
truth, but in a disputing way, they come armed againat it with 
pejudice and animosity. 

" And I must say, forther, that what I last mentioiiied on tiw 
by, is one of the notablest changes of my mind. In ray yoodi, I 
was quickly past my fundamentals, and was running up inta a 
multitude of controversies, and greatly delighted with metafriiy- 
sical and scholastic writings, (though, I must needa aay, my 
preaching was still on the necessary points,) but the older I 
grew, the smaller stress I laid apon these controveiries and 
curiosities, though still my intellect abhorreth coniMon, ai 
finding far greater uncertainties in them than I at first diaoemed, 
and finding less usefulness comparatively, even where there ii 
the greatest certainty. And now it is the fondamental doctrines 
of the Catechism which I most highly value, and dally think of, 
and find most useful to myself and others* Ttie Creed, the 
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, do find me now 
the most acceptable and plentiful matter for all my meditations. 
They are to me as my daily bread and drink; and, as 1 can speak 
and write of them over and over again, so I had rather read or 
hear of them, than of any of the school niceties, which once so 
much pleased me. And thus I observed it was with old Bishop 
Usher, and with many other men. And I conjecture that this 
effect also is mixed of good and bad, according to its causes. 
The bad cause may, perhaps, be some natural infirmity and 
decay. And, as trees in the spring shoot up into brttidies, 
leaves, and b\oa«om&, Wx.m^^ «NX3»£cc^>X!t(^ \ifc dcains down 



Of ftlCHAftb BAXTER. 779 

liito the! root ; so possibl j, my natare, conscious of its Infirmity 
and decay, may find itself insufficient to the attempting of dif-* 
ficult things, and so my mind may retire to the root of Christian 
principles, and also, I have often been afraid, lest ill rooting at 
first, and many temptations afterwards, have made it more ne« 
cessary for me than many others, to retire to the root and secure 
my fundamentals. But, upon much observation, I am afraid 
lest most others are in no better a case. 

'^ The better causes are these: I value all thingti according to 
tiieir use and ends, and I find in the daily practice and expe- 
rience of my soul, that the knowledge of God and Christy and 
the Holy Spirit, and the truth of Scripture^ and the life to come> 
and of a holy life, is of more use to me than all the most curious 
speculations. I know that every man must grow as trees do, 
downwards and upwards both at once ; and that the roots in- 
crease as the bulk and branches do. Being nearer death and 
another world, I am the more regardful of those things which 
my everlasting life or death depend on. Haring most to do 
with ignorant, miserable people, I am commanded by my charity 
and reason to treat with them of that which their salvation lietb 
on ; and not to dispute with them of formalities and niceUes, 
when the question is presently to be determined, whether they 
shall dwell for ever in heaven or in hell. In a word, nvy medi'^ 
tations must be most upon the matters of my practice and my 
interest i and as the love of God, and the seeking of everlasting 
life, is the matter of my practice and my interest, so must it be 
of my meditation. That is the best doctrine and study which 
maketh men better, and tendeth to make them happy. I abhor 
the folly of those unlearned persons, who revile or despise leanw 
ing, because they know not what it is : and I take not any piece 
of true learning to be useless ; and yet my soul approveth of the 
resolution of holy Paul, who determined to know nothing among^ 
his hetoers, that is comparatively to value and make ostentation 
of no other wisdom, but die knowledge of a crucified Christ ; 
to know God in Christ is life eternal. As the stock of the tree 
affordeth timber to build houses and cities, when the small 
though higher multifiirioiis branches are but to make a crow's 
nest or a blasK, so the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, of 
heaven and holiness, doth build up the soul to endless blessed-^ 
ness, and affordeth it solid peace and comfort ; when a multitude 
of school niceties serve but for vain janglings and hurtful diver- 
rfons and contentions^ and yet I wou\d not &\«satA^ tD^ inu^set 



780 THE U¥K AND WRITINGS 

from the perusal of Aquinas, Scotus^ Ockham,. Anmiueniki 
Durandus, or any such writer ; for much good may be gotten 
from them : but I would persuade him to study and live upon 
the essential doctrines of Christianity and godliness, incomparably 
above them all. And that he may know that my testimony is 
somewhat regardable, I presume to say that in this, and as much 
gainsay my natural inclination to subtilty and accuratenets in 
knowing, as he is like to do by his if he obey my counsel : and 
. I think, if he lived among infidels and enemies of Christ, be 
would find, that to make good the doctrine of faith and life 
eternal were not only his noblest and most useful study, but 
also that which would require the height of all his parts, and the 
utmost of his diligence, to manage it skilfully to the satisfieictioo 
of himself and others. 
^I add, therefore, that this is another thing which I am changed 
in, that whereas in my younger days I never was tempted to 
doubt of the truth of Seripture or Christianity, but all my doubts 
and fears were exercised at home, about my own sincerity aud 
interest in Christ, and this was it which I called unbelief; since 
then my sorest assaults have been on the other side, and such 
they were, that had I been void of internal experience and the 
adhesion of love, and the special hqjp of God, and had not dis- 
cerned more reason for my religion than I did when I was 
younger, I had certainly apostatized to infidelity. I am now, 
therefore, much more apprehensive than heretofore of the neces* 
sity of well grounding men in their religion, especially of the 
witness of the indwelling Spirit; for I more sensibly perceive, 
that the Spirit is the great witness of Christ and Christianity to 
the world. And though the folly of fanatics tempted me long 
to overlook the strength of this testimony of the Spirit, while 
they placed it in a certain internal assertion, or enthusiastic 
inspiration ; yet now I see that the Holy Ghost, in another man-* 
ner, is the witness of Christ, and his agent in the world. The 
Spirit in the prophets was his first witness, and the Spirit by 
renovation, sanctification, illumination, and consolation, assimi- 
lating the soul to Christ and heaven, is the continued witness to 
all true believers : and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, 
the same is none of his. (Rom. viii. 9.) Even as the rational 
soul in the child is the inherent witness or evidence that he is the 
child of rational parents. And, therefore, ungodly persons have 
a great disadvantage in their resisting temptations to unbelief, 
•nd it is uo woxidfci \l Ci\\m\.>a^ ^ %X\i\siV:?iSsi^-Ulock to the Jews, 



OF RICHARD RAXTBR. 76 1 

and to the Gentiles foolishness. There is many a one that hideth 
bis temptations to infidelity, because he thinketh it a shame to 
open them, and because it may generate doubts in others ; but I 
doubt, the imperfection of most men's care of their salvation^ and 
of their diligence and resolution in a holy life, doth come from 
the imperfection of their belief of Christianity and the life to 
come. For my part, I must profess, that when my belief of 
things eternal and of the Scripture is most clear and firm, all 
goeth accordingly in my soul, and all temptations to sinful conn 
plianees, worldliness, or flesh-pleasing, do signify worse to me 
than an invitation to the stocks or Bedlam. And no petition 
seemeth more necessary to me than, — I believe, help thou my 
unbelief. Lord, increase our faith. 

** Accordingly, I had then a far higher opinion of learned per« 
sons and books than I have now ; for what I wanted myself, I 
thought every reverend divine had attained, and was familiarly 
acquainted with. And what books I understood not by reason 
of the strangeness of the terms or matter, I the more admired, 
and thought that others understood their worth. But now ex- 
perience hath constrained me against my will to know, that 
reverend learned men are imperfect, and know but little as well 
as I, especially those that think themselves the wisest : and the 
better I am acquainted with them, the more I perceive that we 
are all yet in the dark. And the more I am acquainted with holy 
men, that are all for heaven, and pretend not much to subtleties, 
the more I value and honour them. Aiid when I have studied 
hard to understand some abstruse admired book, (as De Scientia 
Dety De Promdentia circa Malum, De Decretis, De Pradeter^ 
mnationej De lAbertate Creatura, &c.) I have but attained the 
knowledge of human imperfection, and to see that the author is 
but a man as well as I. 

*' And at first I took more upon my author's credit than now 

I can do : and when an author was highly commended to me by 

others, or pleased me in some part, I was ready to entertain the 

. whole ; whereas now I take and leave in the same author, and dissen^ 

in some things from him that I like best, as well as from others. < 

'^ At first, I was greatly inclined to go with the highest in con* 
troversies on one side or other ; as with Dr. Twisse and Mr. 
Rutherford, and Spanhemius de Providentia et (jratia, &c. But 
now I can so easily see what to say against both extremes, that 
I am much more inclinable to reconciling principles. And 
whereas then I thought thatcottciUaXox^vrei^WxvecLQx^sX^MscL^ 



782 THB Lin AND WBITIN08 

that were willing to please ail, and would pretend |o reeondk 
the world by principles which they did not understand them* 
selves, I have since perceived, that if the amiableness of peace 
and concord had no hand in the business, yet greater light and 
stronger judgment usually is with the reconcilers, than with either 
of the contending parties, as with Davenant, Hall, Uaher, Lud* 
Crocius, Bergius, Strangius, Camero, &c. But on both accoiMits 
their writings are most i^oeptable ) though I know that mode* 
ration may be a pretext of errors. 

' *' At first, the style of authors took as much with me aa the ar- 
gument, and made the arguments seem more forcible, bat ixnr 
I judge not of truth at all by any such ornaments or aoddenli^ 
but by its naked evidence. 

" I am much more cautelous in my belief of history than here- 
tofore. Not that I run into their extreme, that wilt beliete 
nothing, because they cannot believe all things. But I an 
abundantly satisfied by the experience of this age, that there ti 
po believing two sorts of men, ungodly men, and partial mca, 
though an honest heathen of no religion may be believed, where 
enmity against religion biasseth him not; yet a ddMUcbed 
Christian, besides his Enmity to the power and practice of his 
own religion, is seldom without some further bias pf interest and 
faction, especially when these concur; and a man both ungodly 
and ambitious, espousing an interest contrary to a holy, heavenly 
life, and aho factious, embodying himself with a sect or party 
suited to his spirit and designs, there is no believing his word 
or oath. If you read any man partially bitter against others, oi 
difiering from him in opinion, or as cross to his greatness, iale- 
rest, or designs, take heed how you beUeve ai^y Htore than the 
historical evidence distinct from his word oampelleth you to 
believe. The prodigious lies which have been published in this 
age in matters of fact with unblushing confidence, even where 
thousands or multitudes of eye and ear witnesses knew aH to be 
false, do call men to take heed what history they believe, 
especially where power and violence af&>rd that privilege to 
jtlie reporter, that no man dare answer him, or detect his firaud, 
or if they do, their writings arc all suppressed. As long as men 
have liberty to examine and contradict one another, one may 
partly conjecture by comparing their words, on which aide the 
truth is like to lie. But when great men write history, or flat- 
terers by their appointment, which no man dare contradict| 
believe it but aa ^ow ^^ ^oo»Xa»^^4^ 



OF RICHARD BAXTER* 783 

^So in this hgp there have been such things written against 
parti^ an4 persons whom the writers design to make odious^ 
so notoriously false, as you would think that the sense of their 
honour, at least, should have made it impossible for such men to 
write* My own eyes have read such words and actions asserted 
with most vehement, iterated, unblushing confidence, which 
al>undance of ear- witnesses, even of their own parties, must needs 
know to have been altogether false j and therefore, having myself 
now written this history of myself, notwithstanding my protesta- 
tion, that I have not in any thing wilfully gone against the truth, 
I expect no more credit from the reader, than the self-condensing 
light of the matter, with concurrent rational advantages, from 
persons, and things, and other witnesses, shall constrain him to. 
If he be a person that is unacquainted with the author himself, 
and the other evidences of his veracity and credibility, and I 
l^ave purposely omitted almost all the descriptions of any per^* 
sons that ever opposed me, or that ever I or my brethren suffered 
by, because I know that the appearance of interest and partiality 
might give a fair excuse to the reader's incredulity; except 
only when I speak of the Cromwellians and Sectaries, where I 
%m the more free, because none suspecteth my interest to have 
engaged me against them, but with the rest of my brethren I 
have opposed them in the obedience of my conscience, when 
by pleasing them I could have had almost any thing that they 
could have given me ; and when beforehand I expected that 
the present governors should silence me, and deprive me of 
maintenance, house, and home,' as they have done to me and 
many hundreds more $ therefore, I supposed that my descrip- 
tion and censures of those persons who would have enriched 
and honoured me, and of their actions against that party which 
hath silenced, impoverished, and accused me, and which before- 
hand I expected should do so, are beyond the suspicions of 
envy, self-interest, or partiaKty : if not, I there also am content 
that the reader exercise his liberty, and believe no worse even 
pf these men, than the evidence of fact constraineth them, 

** And though I before told the change of my judgment against 
provoking writings, I have had more will than skill since to 
avoid such, I must mention it by way of penitent confession, 
that I am Coo much inclined to such words in controversial 
writings, which are too keen and apt to provoke the person 
whom I write against. Sometimes I suspect that age soureth 
my spirits, and sometimes I am apt to think that it is oMt ^ ^ 



784 THS LIPJB AND WRITINGS 

hatred of a flattering humour, which now prevaileth so in the 
world, that few persons are able to bear tlie truth ; and I am 
sure that I cannot only bear myself such language as I use to 
others, but that I expect it, I think all these are partly causes; 
but I am sure the principal cause is a long custom of studying 
how to speak and write in the keenest manner to the common, 
ignorant, and ungodly people ; without which keenness to them 
no sermon or book does much good ; which liath so habituated 
me to it, that I am still falling into the same with others ; for- 
getting that many ministers and professors of strictness do 
desire the greatest sharpness to the vulgar and to thrir adver- 
saries, and the greatest lenity, and smoothness and comfort, if 
not honour, to themselves. I have a strong natural inclination 
to speak of every subject just as it is, and to call a spade a spade, 
and verba rebus (gnare ; so as that the thing spoken of may be 
fullest known by the words ; which methinks is part of our 
speaking truly. But I unfeignedly confess that it is faulty, be- 
cause imprudent ; for that is not a good means which doth 
harm, because it is not fitted to the end ; and because, whilst the 
readers think me angry, though I feel no passion at such times 
in myself, it is scandalous and a hinderance to the usefulness of 
what I write : and especially, because though I feel no anger, 
yet which is worse, I know that there is some want of honour 
and love, or tenderness to others ; or else I should not be apt to 
use such words as open their weakness and offend them ; and 
therefore I repent of it, and wish all over sharp passages were 
expunged from my writings, and desire forgiveness of God and 
man. And yet I must say, that I am oft afraid of the contrary 
extreme, lest, when I speak against great and dangerous errors 
and sins, though of persons otherwise honest, I should encou- 
rage men to them, by speaking too easily of them, as EH did to 
his sons ; and lest I should so favour the person as may befriend 
the sin and wrong the church. And 1 must say as the New 
England synodists : ' We heartily desire, that as much as may 
be, all expressions and reflections may be forborne that tend to 
break the bond of love. Indeed, such is our infirmity, that the 
naked discovery of tK? fallacy or invalidity of another's allega* 
tions or arguings is apt to provoke. This in disputes is 
unavoidable.' 

" And, therefore, I am less for a disputing way than ever, be- 
lieving that it temyteth men to bend their wits to defend their 
errors,, and opipos^ X\\^ Xt\x\Xv^ ^\A\5v\Ar\^^ >\^\«!&^ \J\w infor* 



OP RICHARD baxtbr; 785 

mation ; and the servant of the Liord must not strive, but be 
gentle to all men, &c. Therefore, I am most in judgment for 
a learning or teaching way of converse : in all companies, I will 
be glad either to hear those speak that can teach me^ or to be 
heard of those that have need to learn/' ' 

The life and writings of Baxter are now fully and impartially 
before the reader, llie views entertained of them by others^ 
and his own estimate of himself and his works, with the ex- 
tended details which I have brought forward, leave little to be 
said in the way of a general summary* My own opinions have 
been always freely expressed on all the subjects which have passed 
successively under consideration ; and, had I now been disposed 
to criticise the writings and character of Baxter more minutely^ 
the extracts just given from his own pen must have, in a great 
measure, deprived me of the power to c^n^ure. Though not 
unconscious of his imperfections, I frankly acknowledge that 
I have been more disposed to mark' his beauties, than to expose 
his faults; and would rather leave the reader under the impres- 
sion of his many and great excellences^ than minutely acquahted 
with his foibles and failings. 

Every reader of the preceding part of this work must be struck 
with the magnitude of Baxter's labours as a writer. The age 
in which he lived was an age of voluminous authorship ; and 
Baxter was beyond comparison the most voluminous of all his 
contemporaries. Those who have been acquainted only with 
what are called his practical or spiritual writings, form no 
correct estimate of the extent of his works. These form twenty- 
two volumes octavo, in the present edition ; and yet they are but 
a small portion of what he wrote. The number of his books 
has been very variously estimated ; as some of the volumes which, 
he published contained several distinct treatises, they have some- 
times been counted as one, and sometimes reckoned four or iive« 
The best method of fonning a correct opinion of Baxter's la« 
hours from the press, is by comparing them with some of his 
brethren, who wrote a great deal. The works of Bishop Hail 
amount to ten volumes octavo ; Lightfoot's extend to thirteen ; 
Jeremy Taylor's to fifteen; Dr. Goodwin's would make about 
twenty; Dr. Owen's extend to twenty-eight; Richard Baxter's^ 
if printed in a uniform edition, could not be comprised in less 
than sixty volumes, making more than from thirty to forty 
thousand closely*printcd octavo pages ! 

"Life, parti, p. 137. 
VOL, I. 3 B 



786 THE L1FB AND WRITINGS 

On this mass of writing he wm employed from the year 1649| 
when his first work appeared, till near the time of his death in 
169 15 a period of forty-four years. Had he been chiefly engaged 
in writing, this space was amply sufficient to have enabled him 
to produce all his works with ease. But, it must be recollected 
that writing was but a small part of his occupation. His labours 
as a minister, and his engagements in the public busineaa of his 
times, formed his chief employment for manyyears, so that he 
speaks of writing but as a kind of recreation from more severe 
duties. Nor is this all ; his state of health must be taken into 
consideration, in every estimate of his work. A man more dis- 
eased, or who had more to contend with in the frame of bis 
body, probably never existed in the same circumstances. He 
was a constant martyr to sickness « and pain, so that how be 
found it practicable to write with the composure which be ge- 
nerally did, is one of the greatest mysteries in his history. The 
energy of his mind was superior to any discouragement, for, 
though it often felt the burden and clog of the fieeh, it never gave 
way4o its desire of ease, or succumbed under the pressure of 
its infirmities. He furnishes an illustrious instance of what may 
be' done by principle, energy, and perseverance, in the most 
untoward and discouraging circumstances. 

The subjects on which Baxter wrote embrace the whole rai^ 
of theology, in ail the parts of which he seems to have been 
nearly equally at home. Doctrinal, practical, casuistical, and 
polemical, all occupied his thoughts, and engaged his pen. His 
inquiries ranged and his writings extended from the profoundest 
and most abstruse speculations on the divine decrees, the con- 
stitution of man, and the origin of evil, to the simplest truths 
adapted to the infant mind. To say he was master of any 
subject, would be too much, but he must be very wise or very 
stupid to whom Baxter can impart no instruction. If he does 
not always impart light, he seldom fails to suggest some pro- 
fitable reflection, or to lead his readers to discover difficulties 
where they had seen none before. On the most important 
subjects, he dwells with the greatest delight, expatiating with a 
freedom which evinces how fully they occupied his own mind, 
and interesting his readers by the earnestness of his naanner and 
the beauty of his illustrations. 

Few men, perhaps, have had greater command of their know- 
ledge, or ot iW povjet ot cowN^^vu^it^ than Baxter. He appears 
to have read ever5\X\\xv?^ x^v^xSxi^ x^>m.^ wrcw ^\^\^»ssss^^^«s\d tn 



hAt^ remembered all he read. The fathers and tthMlnitn^ 
the doctors and reformers of a)l ages and countries^ seem to hiiTe 
been as familiar to him as the alphabet of his natite tongue^ 
He rarely makes a parade of his knowledge^ but h^ neter failA 
to convince that he was well acquainted with most that had beeti 
written on the subject he discusses. Hi9 mistakes were seldonl 
the mistakes of ignorance. He laboured to derive his know^^ 
ledge from the fountains of information ; and considering that he 
had not enjoyed the benefits of a university education, the defects 

^of it very rarely appear. Such an education might have given 
more correctness, but would have added nothitig to the tigovf 
of his mind. 

Ever alive to the claims of duty, and the cAlls ot Prof ideiieei 
he obeyed with the utmost promptitude every d^matid made updn 
him by his brethren, his country, or the state of the chtitdh. 
Perhaps he erred in complying too readily, atid using hin pen on 
occasions when a dignified silence wouldhave been tnore suitabte* 
His own apology, however, on the subject of his many writings^ 
is very satisfactory. With him it was usually matter of eon« 
science to write, and only such an acquaintance with all tha 
circumstances as cftn now scarcely be had, could enable us to 
form a correct judgment as to the necessity which he conceived 
was laid upon him. 

When he did write, it was with a pointed pen^ wtiich i^ never 
chargeable with obscurity or feebleness. The extent ot his know- 
ledge and his command of language, betrayed him into exube« 

. ratlce and redutidancy. He heaps up arguments, and raises piles 
of reasons, scarcely knowing when to stop, or what limits to 
prescribe to a discussion. Though a lover of drder, he had no 
time to arraiige'or select his thoughts when he sat down to write^ 
so that he poured them forth with all the Copiousness of Ms 
mind, but often with an irregularity and incongruity that ma« 
terially injured their betiuty and effect. He belabours an adve^« 
sary till he has destroyed not only his existence but his very 
form. Not content with disarming him, and using his ahns 
Against himself, he seems to take pleasure in having him an 
object of pity, if not of scorn. His metaphysics atid refinements 
have frequently been referred to. These constituted both his 
power and his weakness as a controversialists They enabled him to 
discover any assailable points in the positions of his adversaries; 
to penetrate into every crevice, and to lay open every mistake^ 
l^hejr at the aame time supplied an a\aiQ«l \uNv\\\mN:X^ ^^tt^^^ 

8b2 



788 TUB LIFB AND WRITINGS 

tion to himself. He had always ground on which he could retreat 
with advantage, so that he was frequently left in quiet posses- 
i^ion of the field. This style of debate, however, enfeebled the 
cause, while it appeared to constitute the strength of its advo* 
cate. It rarely produced conviction of the truth, but oftien in- 
duced, suspicion that error, was lurking under the forms and 
behind the battlements of logic and metaphysics. 
• The style of Baxter is considerably diversified. It is often 
ilicorrect, nigged, and inharmonious, abounding in parenthesis 
and digressions, and enfeebled by expansion. It is happiest 
when it is divested entirely of a controversial character, and the 
subject relates to the great interests of salvation and charity. It 
then flows with a copiousness and purity to which there is no* 
thing superior in the language in which he wrote. The vigorous 
conceptions of his mind are then conveyed in a corresponding 
energy of expression ; so that the reader is carried along with a 
breathless impetuosity, which he finds it impossible to resist. 
Baxter knew nothing of that vice of learning which Bacon so 
beautifully describes,^ as consisting '* more in hunting aft^ 
words than matter; more after the choiceness of the phrase, 
and the round and clean composition of the sentence, and the 
sweet falling of the clauses, and the varying and illustration with 
tropes and figures, than after the weight of matter, worth of 
subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, or depth of 
judgment.'' Baxter was superior to all this. Truth in all its 
majesty and infinite importance alone occupied the throne of his 
spirit, and dictated the forms in which its voice. should be ut- 
tered. And. when it spoke, it was in language divinely suited 
to its nature, never distracting by its turgidness, or disgusting 
by it^ regularity. He could be awful or gentle, pathetic or 
pungent, at pleasure ; always suiting his words to his thoughts, 
and dissolving his audience in tenderness, or overwhelming them 
with terror, as heaven or .hell, the mercies of the Lord, or the 
wrath to come, was the topic of discourse. It may confidently 
be affirmed, that from no author of the period could a greater 
selection of beautiful passages of didactic, hortatory, and con* 
solatory writings, be made. 

In the character of Baxter, both as a %vriter and a public man, 
there was a marked deficiency of wisdom. Had this been in 
proportion to his knowledge, his piety, and his fearlessness, he 
would have becu uue^ualled among the men of his times. But 
in thib respect Vve oll^w fe^ W Xjs^qw \Xx<^<^ >^\v^n4^\^ ^^atly hi« 



OF RICHARD BAXTER. 789 

inferiors in every other quality of mind and character. His re- 
proofs and expostulations were frequently ill-timed and injudi-* 
eious, in consequence of which they failed iu producing the 
effect which he was most anxious to accomplish. The same 
remark is applicable to many of his writings ; not his contro- 
versial ones only, but even his practical, works, displaying frequent 
marks of want of judgment. This defect did not arise chiefly 
from the haste with which he connposed. In those cases in 
which he bestowed most labour, we are furnished with the 
greatest proofs that knowledge and wisdom do not always go 
together ; and in the conduct of great public measures, he was 
guilty of the greatest blunders. 

lliis feature of his mind fully accounts for that want of con- 
sistency which is so remarkable in some parts of his conduct* 
It did not arise from timidity^ from the fear of giving offence^ 
or from the desire of human applause. None of these disposi- 
tions had any place in the soul of Baxter. On the contrary, his 
would have been a smoother and more pleasant part, had he 
acted decidedly with either of the two great professions, who 
both claimed him, and both disowned him. From this want of 
judgment, in the grand struggle for Nonconformity, what he 
built up with one hand, he pulled down with the other. He 
ftrst opposed the church, and then turned round and opposed his 
brethren. He objected to conformity, and yet conformed; he 
seceded from the establishment, and vet held stated communion 
with it ; he declined a bishoprick, and begged for a curacy. He 
wrote books which made many dissenters, and yet was always 
angry with those who dissented. He decided where he ought 
to have hesitated, and hesitated where he should have decided. 
Possessed of a firmness of character which nothing could sub«- 
due, he was yet often turned aside from his purpose for a tim^ 
by a trifling difficulty, and frequently lost himself in mists of hia 
own creating. 

It is a striking fact, that men of extraordinary talents and 
attainments are frequently marked by the peculiarity which has 
been adverted to in the case of Baxter — an inaptitude to manage 
little matters, or to apply their general knowledge .to practical 
purposes. Bacon could lay down laws for the government of 
the world, both of matter and mind, and yet could not manage 
with discretion his own servants. Newton could measure and 
weigh the universe, but in ordinary afieats iu»\\\lc^\ft^ ^^c^& ^>ssv* 
plkity of childhoQ^. Ip Baxtef there y/^ ?^ goW^X^^a ivKS^v£>2y 



790* TH9 UFB AN1> WE1TIN6S 

pf purposCi and a straightforward earnestness in prosecuting it, 
which prevented his attending to those roinor circumstances of 
manner and method that often completely frustrated the object 
of bis strongest desire. Deceived by the purity of his own prin- 
ciples and aims, he often expected too much from others ; and 
was ill prepared for the reception and opposition which he ex- 
perienced. Confident in the correctness of his own opinions on 
some important points, and desirous of inducing all men to 
embrace them, he over-estimated the strength of principles in 
others, and moderated the difficulties which obstructed the pro- 
gress of his schemes. In various respects, he was born before 
his time ; and was therefore imperfectly adapted to the world in 
which be lived. His schemes of reconciliation, catholic com- 
munion, and general philanthropy, which were deemed Utopian 
by many, have survived the opposition which they then expe- 
rienced, are no longer regarded as visionary speculation, and are 
destined to enjoy a still greater measure of approbation in the 
ages to come. 

In the greater number of the practical writings of Baxter, a 
larger infusion of evangelical doctrine would have added greatly 
to their interest and effect. The fulness, freeness, and suitable- 
ness, of the grace and salvation of the Redeemer to sinners, are 
rather implied and assumed in his treatises than brought promi- 
nently forward or urged. That he understood them well is un- 
questionable I but his talent lay in dealing with sinners on some- 
what different grounds. He had seen much of the abuse of the 
doctrines of grace, and was in consequence induced to dwell 
on the dangers of abusing them too frequently, and at too great 
length. In his system^ terms, conditions, and qualifications (a 
phraseology foreign from the Gospel), frequently occur, embar- 
rassing himself, and stumbling to others. His directions to the 
sinner, and the weak believer, are not sufficiently simple ; they 
lead rather to the mind itself for comfort, than to the object 
which alone can relieve it. Faith, repentance, and good works, 
all of great importance in themselves, are more frequently the 
subjects of discourse than the person, the atonement, and the 
glory of the Saviour, as the ground of all hope, and the source 
of all consolation. In these respects, the writings of Baxter 
differ considerably from those of Owen, and the men of his 
school ; though no substantial difference of sentiment subsisted 
between l\\etti. 



of IlICHAIl!> BAXTBR. 791 

Christianity, view it fVotn different points, and are variously in- 
fluenced by it. Some are most attracted by its grace, others 
most influenced by its holiness. The divine goodness and love 
are consequently the chief subjects of discourse by the former^ 
while the malignity of sin and its hatefulness to God are chiefly 
dwelt upon by the latter. Both hold the same sentiments re« 
specting the two parts of divine economy, though each dwell on 
that, which is the principal motive to love and obedience in their 
respective cases. The experience of Baxter shows, that from 
the commencement to the close of his religious course, he was 
chiefly influenced by those views of God which induced hatred of 
sin, repentance, and self-abasement ; and all that is included ia 
the phrase — Godly fear. This led him to say, 

** Fear is to love, as was tbe law to ^race; 
And as John Baptist goes before Christ's face» 
Preacbini^ repeutance ; it prepares bis way. 
It is tbe first appeariog of the day — 
Tbe dawning ligbt which comes before tbe sun.'* 

What he felt himself to be a great constraining principle, he 
naturally enough applied to others ; and was thus led to dwell 
more on *' the terrors,*' than the " tender mercies of the Lord.*' 

" My feeble new-born soul began with crying. 
My infant life did seem to me stiU dying, 
Betwixt supporting hope and sinking fears. 
My doubting toul did languish many years." ^ 

This gives an air of sternness and severity to many of his 
writings, and the appearance of legality, which must not be con* 
iidered as evidence that he did* not understand the Gospel, 
enjoyed little of its consolation, or imperfectly experienced its 
sweetening influence. On the contrary, the very poem from 
which I have extracted his representation of the influence of 
fear, and which records his experience, is entitled 'Love 
breathing thanks and praise,' and affords the most delightful 
illustration of the power of this heavenly principle upon him. 
He tells us, after dwelling upon his fears, 

*' At last my fears became my greatest fear, 
. . Lest that my whole religion should lie there. 

No man hath more of holiness than love ; 
Which doth free souls by complacency move. 
A slavish fear desireth leave to sin ; 
it doth but tie th« hands and wa»h tbe skin. 
Hypocrites act a forced, affected part. 
Where love is absent, God hath not the heart."" 

/ Poetical Fragments, p. 13. ^ Vav^, Y^A\^\^* 



792 THB LIFB ANP WRITINOS OF RICHARD BAXTER. 

His pantings after greater measures of' holy love and delight 
in God, were singularly ardent ; every paragraph of this poem 
closing with the beautiful line^ 

** O my dear God ! How precious is tby love I" 

Indeed, in all his devotional ^vridngs, the predominance of his 
love to God is apparent ; and from the contemplation of the 
love of God, he derived pure and constant enjoyment. 

The natural temper of Baxter was quick and irritable, impa- 
tient of contradiction, and prone to severity, lliis was partly 
owing to the diseased state of body, from which he endured 
constant and incredible pain. It appears that he was deeply 
sensible of this infirmity, and that he laboured hard to subdue 
it. It led him frequently to use harsh and irritating language 
towards his opponents, which created increased hostility, and 
gave them an idea that he was an unamiable man^ who might be 
feared or esteemed, but who could not be loved. But if Baxter 
was easily provoked, he was ever ready to forgive. He was 
warm, but not irrascible. He cherished no resentments, tvas 
always happy to accept an explanation or apology, and was as 
prompt to pardon, as he had been ready to take offence* In 
the expression of all his feelings, he was open and undisguised. 
He always spoke from the heart, whether it was filled with in- 
dignation, or overflowed with love. 

I have literally exhausted all I can say respecting the faults 
and infirmities of this extraordinary and excellent man. Such 
as they were, they were obvious on the very surface of his charac- 
ter ; while they constitute but a small drawback on the numerous 
virtues by which it was adorned. In his personal character, 
the grace of God shone forth with distinguished lustre. The 
Christian ministry enjoyed in him one of its brightest ornaments, 
and the Nonconformists one of their ablest defenders and advo- 
cates. He died full of years and of honour, in the presence of 
his brethren, and lamented by all good men. He is now enjoy- 
ing that * Everlasting Rest,* of which he wrote so well, and for 
which he prepared so many. No sculptured monument has been 
reared to his memory, to mark the spot where his ashes repose. 
He needs it not. His name lives in his works. Among the 
Christian writers of our country, there is perhaps no individual 
who occupies so wide a circle, or who fills it with so deserved an 
influenccj as Richard Baxter, 



CHRONOLOGICAL LIST 



or 



THE WORKS OF BAXTER 



1. Aphorisms of Justification^ with their Explications. 

Wherein also is opened the Nature of the Covenants^ 
Satisfaction^ Righteousness^ Faith^ Works, &c. 1649» 
12mo. 

2. The Saint's Everlasting Rest; or^ a Treatise of the blessed 

State of the Saints in their enjoyment of God. 1649. 4to« 

3. Plain Scripture Proof of Infants' Church-Membership and 

Baptism. ItidO. 4 to. 

4. Animadversions on a Tract by Mr. Thos. Bedford. 1652. 

4to. ' 

5. A Friendly Accommodation of the Controversy with Mr. 

Bedford. 1652..4to. : 

6. Tombs*s Precursor, stayed and examined. 1652. 4 to. 

7. Letters between Mr. Baxter and Mr. Tombs^ concerning 

their Dispute. 1652. 4to. 

8. The right Method for Peace of Conscience and Spiritual 

Comfort, in thirty^two directions. 12mo. 1653. 

9. Richard Baxter's Judgment about the Perseverance of Be- 

lievers. 1653. 

10. Christian Concord ; or, the Agreement of the Associated 

Pastors and Churches of Worcestershire. 1653. 4to. 

11. The Worcestershire Petition to Parliament. 1653. 4to. 

1 2. The Petition Defended in Sixteen Queries, in a book in* 

titled ^ A Brief Discovery of the three-fold State of An^ 
tichrist.' 1653. 4 to. 

13. True Chmtiauity y two Assize Setmov^* \^"5>\* ^X^% 



794 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST 

14. Richard Baxter's Apology; containing bi8 Reasons of Dis- 

sent from ^r. Blake^ &c. 1654, 4to. 

15. — • Reduction of a Digressor in Reply to 

Kendal. 1654. 4to. 

15^ Admonition to Eyre. 1654. 4to. 

17. Crandon Anatomised. 1654. 4to. 

18, Confutation of Lewis Molinaeus. 1654. 

4to. 

19. Confession of Faith j especially concern- 
ing the Interest of Repentance and sincere Obedience to 
Christ in onr Justification and Salvation. 1655. 4to. 

20. humble Advice to the Members of Parlia- 

liament ; a Sermon preached in Westminster Abbey. 
1655. 4to. 

21. Making Light of Christ. 1655. 4to. 

22. Of Judgment; a Sermon preached in St. Paufs. 1655. 4to. 

23. The IQuaker's Catechism, 1655. 4to. 

24. The Unreasonableness of Infidelity. 1655. 8vo. 

25. Gildas Salvianus ; or, the Reformed Pastor. 1656. 8vo. 

26. The Agreement of the Worcestershire Ministers for Cate- 

chising. 1556. 12mo. 

27. Certain Disputations of Right to the Sacraments. 1656. 

28. The Safe Religion ; or, three Disputations for the Reform- 

ed Religion against Popery. 1657* 8vo. 

29. A Treatise of Conversion. 1657. 4to. 

30. A Winding-Sheet for Popery. 1657. 8vo. 

31. A Sheet for the Ministry against Malignants. Jbid* 

32. A Sheet against the Quakers. Ibid. 

33. A Second Sheet for the Ministry. Ibi<L 

34. A Sheet directing Justices in Corporations to discharge 

their duty to God. Ibid. 

35. A Call to the Unconverted. 1657- 8vo. 

36. The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ. 1658. 

4to. 

37. Saving Faith. 1658. 4to. 

38. Confirmation and Restoration. 1658. 12mo. 

39. Directions and Persuasions to a sound Conversion. 1658. 

4to. 

40. Disputations of Church Government. 1658. 4to. 

41. The Judgment and Advice of the Associated Ministers of 

Worcesletsh\xe,\w reference to Dury. 1658. 4to. 

42. Four D\spxxla\.\oi» ol i\)l%^b^^^^L\Qvv« \wi%* ^is^ 



OP TRB WORKS 09 BAXTER. 7W 

43. Universal Concord. 1658. 12ino. 

44. The Grotian Religion discovered. 1658.»12ino. 

45. Key. for Catholics. 1659. 4to. 

46. Holy Commonwealth. 1659. 8vo. 

47* A Treatise of Death ) a Fmieral Sermon for Mrs« Baker* 
1659. 8vo. 

48. A Treatise of Self-Denial. 1659. 4to. 

49. Catholic Unity. 1659. 12mo. 

50. The True Catholic and Catholic Church described. 1659, 

1 2mo. 
5 1 • A Sermon of Repentance, preached before the House of 
Commons, April 30. 1659. 4to« 

52. A Sermon of right Hejoicing, preached before the Lord 

Mayor, May 10. 1659. 4to. 

53. The Life of Faith, a Sermon, preached before the King^ 

Julv 22. 1659. 4to. 

54. The Successive Visibility of the Church. 1659. I2mo. 

55. The vain Religion of the formal Hypocrite. 1659. 12mo. 

56. The Fool's Prosperity. 1659. 12mo. 

57. The Last Work of a Believer ; a Sermon preached at the 

death of Mrs. Hanmer. 1659. 4to« 

58. The Petition to the Bishops for Peace, &c. 166I« 

59. The Reformed Liturgy. 166K 

60. The Mischiefe of Self-Ignorance, and the Benefits of Self- 

Acquaintance. 1662. 8vo. 

61. Baxter's Account to the Inhabitants of Kidderminster of 

the Cause of his being forbid to preach among them. 
1662. 4 to. 

62. A Saint or a Brute. 1662. 4to. 

63. Naw or Never. 1663. 

64. Fair Warning ; or, Twenty*five Reasons against the ToIera« 

tion of Popery. 1663. 8vo. 
63. Divine Life. 1664. 4to. 

66. IVo Sheets for Poor Families. 1665, 

67. A Sheet for the Instruction of the Sick during the Plague. 

1665. 

68. Reasons for the Christian Religion. 1667. 4 to. 

69. Directions to the Converted, for their Establishment^ 

Growth, and Perseverance. 1669. 8vo. 

70. ITie Life of Faith, 1670. 4to. 

71* Cure of Church Divisions. 1670. 8vo, 



796 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST 

72. Defence of the Principles of Loye, in answer to Exceptions 

against the Cure of Church Divisions* 1671. 8vo. 

73. The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day. 1671. 8vo. 

74. The Duty of Heavenly Meditation revived. 1671* 4to. 

75. How far Holiness is the Design of Christianity. 1671* 4to. 

76. The Difference between the Power of Magistrates and Church 

Pastors, and the Roman Kingdom and Magistracy. 1671* 
4 to. 

77. God's Goodness Vindicated. 1671. 12mo. 

78. A Second Admonition to Mr. Edward Bagshaw. 1671. 

8vo. 

79. More Reasons for the Christian Religion, and no Reason 

against it. 1672. 12mo. 

80. Sacrilegious Desertion of. the Holy Ministry rebuked. 1672. 

12mo. 

81. The certainty of Christianity without Popery. 1672. 8vo. 

82. The Church told of Mr. Edward Bagshaw's Scandals. 

1672. 4 to. 

83. Christian Directory. 1673. Fol. 

84. Full and Easy Satisfaction which is the true and safe Re* 

ligion. 1674. Svo. 

85. The Poor Man's Family Book. 1674. 8vo. 

86. An Appeal to the Light ; a Sermon on Ephesians i. 3. 

1674. 4to. 

87. Catholic Theology. 1675. Fol. 

88. More Proofs of Infants' Church-Membership. 1675. Svo. 

89. Two Disputations of Original Sin. 1675. 12mo. 

90. Select Arguments against Popery. 1675. 4 to. 

91. A Treatise of Justifying Righteousness. 1675. 8vo. 

92. An Answer to Dr. Tullie's angry Letter. 1675. Svo. 

93. The Substance of Mr. Cartwright's Exceptions considered. 

1675. Svo. 

94. Christ, not the Pope, the Universal Head of the Church, 

a Sermon. 1675. 4to. 

95. Reasons for Ministerial Plainness and Fidelity. 1676. Svo. 

96. A Review of the State of Christian Infants. 1676. Svo. 

97. Judgment of Nonconformists, concerning the office of Rea- 

son in Religion. 1676. 4to. 

98. The Judgment of Nonconformists on the difference between 

Grace and Morality. 1676. 4to. 

99. Their Judgment a\voMt Tl\u\g& Indiflferent commanded by 

aul\\0T\ly. \^lVi, ^\.o* 



OF THB WORKS OF BAXTER. 797 

100. Their Judgment about Things Sinful by Accident. 1676, 

4to. 

101. What Mere Nonconformity is not. 1676. 4to. 

102. Roman Tradition examined in the point of Transubstan* 

tiation, 16/6. 

103. Naked Popery; or, the Naked Falsehood of a Book 

called 'The Catholic Naked Truth.' 1677. 4to. 

104. A Funeral Sermon for Mr. Henry Stubbs. 1678. 8vo. 

105. Which is the True Church— the whole Christian Church, 

as Headed by Christ, or the Pope and his Subjects. 
1679. 4to. 

106. The Nonconformist's Plea for Peace. 1679. Svo. 

107. A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Mary Cox. 1680. Svo. 

108. The True and Only Way of Concord of all Christian 

Churches. 1680. Svo. 

109. Defence of the Nonconformist's Plea for Peace. 1680. Svo. 

110. The Second Part of the Nonconformist's Plea for Peace. 

1680. 4 to. 
1 1 1 • A moral Prognostication of what must be expected in the 

Churches of Christendom till the Golden Age returns. 

1680. 4to. 
112.. Church History of the Government of Bishops and their 

Councils. 1680. 4 to. 

113. An Answer to Dr. Stillingflcet's Charge of Separation. 

1680. 4to. • 

114. Treatise of Episcopacy. 1681. 4to, 

115. A Funeral Sermon for Henry Ashurst, Esq. 1681. 4to. 

116. Poetical Fragments, 1681. 12mo. 

117. An Apology for the Nonconformist's Ministry. 1681. 4to« 

1 18. Methodus Theologiae Christians. 1681. Fol. 

119. Universal human Church Supremacy, in answer to Dbd** 

well. 1681. 4 to. 

120. Baxter's Account of his Dissent from Dr. Sherlock. 1681. 
4to. 

121. A Search for the English Schismatic. 1681. 4to. 

122. A Third Defence of the Cause of Peace. 1681. Svo. 

123. A Second True Defence of the Mere Nonconformists. 

1681. 

124. A Breviate of the Life of Mrs. Margaret Baxter. 168J. 

4to. 

125. An Answer to Mr. Dodwell's Letter, calling for more An- 

swers. 1682» 4 to. 



7d8 tsUkM6to&it:kt Llit 

126. A Specititen df ttie present fiiode of ContMtersy id 

England^ in Reply to L'Estrange. 1682. 4to. 

127. The True History of Cdtincila enlarged and defended. 

1682. 4to. 

128. A Funeral Serhion for Mr. John Corbet 1682. 4 to. 

129. Of the Immortality of Man's Soul. 1682. 12ino. 

130. On the Nature of Spirits* 1682. I2mo. 

131. A Sermon for the Cure of Melancholy^ 1682. 4to. 

132. Compassionate Counsel to Young Men. 1682* l2mo. 

133. How to do Good to Many. 1682. 4to. 

134. Family Catechism. 1683. 8vo. 

135. Additions to Poetical Fragments. 1683. 12mb. 

136. Obedient Patience. 1683. 8to. 

137« Richard Baxter's Farewell Sermbn, prepared to lufe 
been preached to his hearers in Kidderminster at his 
departure, but forbidden. 1683. 4to. 

188. -^ Dying Thoughts. 1683. 8vo. 

139. The dangerous Schismatic clearly Detected and fully 

Confuted. 1683. 4to. 

140. The Second Part against Schism, and a Book reported to 

be Mr. Raphson's. 1683. 4to. 

141. A Survey of the Reply to Mr. Humphrey. 1683. 4to. 

142. Catholic Communion defended against both extremes. 

1684. 4to. 

143. An Answer to Dr. Owen's Arguments against that Prac- 

tice. 1684. 4to. 

144. Whether Parish Congregations be true Christian Churches. 

1684. 4 to. 

145. A short Answer to the Chief Objections in a Book intitled 

' A Theological Dialogue.' 1G84. 4to. 

146. Catholic Communion doubly Defended. 1684. 4to. 

147. The Judgment of Sir Matthew Hale, of the Nature of True 

Religion. 1684. 4to. 

148. Unum Necessarium. 1685. 8vo. 

149. A Paraphrase on the New Testament. 1685. 4to. 

150. Richard Baxter's Sense of the Subscribed Articles. 1689. 

4to. 

151. The English Nonconformity, as under King Charles the 

Second, and James the Second, stated and argued. 
1689. 4to. 

152. A Treatise o( Ktvow\ed^e«aud Love compared. 1689. 4to. 

153. Caiu and K\>d'^'^^\\t^\Vj- XVo^'^^. '^>ivi. 



OP THB WORKS OF BAXTBR. 799 

154. The Scripture Gospel defended. 1690. 8vo. 

155. A Defence of Christ and Free Grace. 1690. 8yo. 

156. An End of Doctrinal Controversies. 1691. 8to. 

157. The Glorious Kingdom of Christ Described and Vindicated 

against Mr. Thos. Beverly. 1G91. 4to. 

158. A Reply to Mr. Thos. Beverly. 1691. 4to. 

159. Of National Churches. 1691. 4to. 

160. Against Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdictipn. 1691. 8vo. 

. 161. Richard Baxter's Penitent Confession and necessary Vin- 
dication. 1691. 4 to. 

162. The Certainty of the World of Spirits, fully evinced by 

unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witch- 
crafts, &c. 1691. 1 2mo. 

163. The Protestant Religion truly Stated and Justified. 1692. 

8vo. 

164. A Paraphrase on the Psalms of David, with other Hymns. 

1692. 8vo. 

165. A Treatise of Universal Redemption. 1694. 8vo. 

166. Reliquiae Baxterianae : or, Narrative of his Life and Times. 

1696. Fol. 
167* Monthly Preparations for the Holy Communion. 1696. 

12mo. 
168. The Mother's Catechism. 1701. 8vo. 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



A. 



^ct of Uniformity, injuntice, impolicy, 
and cruelty of, 221^—234. Ite effecU, 
235, 236. Mr. Soutbey's misstate- 
ment of it CKposed, 236, note. Severe 
act afTBii^Bt private meetings, or con- 
venticles, 246, 247. The Five-mile 
Act passed, 257. Oath imposed by it, 
ib. Observations on it, 258i Re- 
newal of the conventicle act, 285, 
286. The Test Act passed, 300, 301 . 
Act for excluding the Duke of York 
from the throne carried iu the House 
of Commons, hut lost in the House 
of Lords, 332, 333. The Toleration 
Act passed, 392, 393. 

JIdamic curse, on the extent of, 449, 
aud note, 

Addi9on*s (Joseph) opinion of Baxter, 
773. 

j4Ueine's (Joseph) ' Alarm,' character 
of, 495* 

jimes (Dr.) , notice of his * Fresh Suit 
against Human Ceremonies in God's 
Worship,' 19, 20, notes. And of his 
* Cases of Conscience,' 544, note*. 

Anabaptists, See Baptists, 

Anglesey (Earl of), character of, 182, 
note 7, 

Antinomianism^ nature of, 660, 661. 
Its appearance at the Reformation, 
661. Originated in Popery, (6., 662. 
Opposed by Luther, 662, 663. its 
origin in England, 664. Statement 
of its principles by Dr. Crisp, 664 — 
<H66. Opposition of Baxter, 667. 
Antinomianism, the chief subject of 
his * Cuufession ot Faith/ 667—669. 
Remarks ou it, 669. On Baxter*s 
' Holiness, the Design of Christiani- 
ty,' 670, 671. * Appeal to the Light,' 
671, 672. Reply to it, 672. * Trea. 
tise of Juitifyiog AJghteousaesB/ 
VOL. /. 






ib,f 673. ' Scripture-Gospel De* 
fended,' 674. Influence of Baxter's 
writings and preaching ou Antino- 
mianism, 675 — 677. Observation of 
Baxter ou the conduct aud principles 
of the Autinomiaus, 515, 516. Lead- 
iug errors of their system, 677, 678. 
Autiuomianism successfully opposed 
by the Rev. Andrew Fuller, 679, note. 

Army, Parliamentary, increased by the 
accession of the Puritans, 32 — 34. 
Its state after the battle of Naseby, 
44—46, Character of it, 49—53. 
Various occurrences in it, after the 
battle of Langport, 57 — 60. Clauses 
why Mr. Baxter had so little success 
in his ministerial labours in it, 60, 
61. Remarks on his views of the 
army, .and on his conduct while in 
it, 66, 67. 

Articles of religion, required to be 
signed by the Toleration Act, Mr. 
Baxter's opinion of the sense of cer- 
tain, 393— 396. 

Ash (Mr. Simeon), biographical notice 
of, 242. 

Ashurst (Mr. Henry) , benevolence of, 
during and after the fire of LundQO, 
262. Biographical account of, 340 — 
342. 

Ashurst (Sir Henry), Biographical do* ^ 
tice of, 370, note. His generous 
conduct to Mr. Baxter, 364, 366. 
Extract from a dedication to him. 

Assembly of Divines, Mr. Baxter's cha- 
racter of, 68, 69. Lord Clarendon's 
account of it, 70, note. Remarks on 
it, ib. Milton's account of it, ib,, 71. 
Remarks on it, 70, 71. notes. Com- 
parison of the three characters^69^70« 
Mr. Uaxlet'% ^kCcouuX. o^ >^^ \^^^va% 

3 V 



802 



INDEX. 



B. 



Bagthaw (Edward), Biograpliical ac- 
count of, 602, 603, aud note •», No- 
tice of bis viodicatioD of Mr. Baxter 
agaiust Bishop Morley, 505. Ac- 
count i)f his controversy with Mr. 
Baxter on church divisions, 600, 601. 
And of Baxter's replies to him, 601. 
Character of his treatise, • De Mo- 
narchic Absolute Politick, 705, note «. 

Balcarrat (Countess of) , Bio^crapbical 
account of, 502, 503, 74 1 , note. No- 
tice of her son, 503. Baxter's * Di- 
vine Life' undertaken at her re- 
quest, 741. 

Baldwin (Mr. Thomas), successor of 
Baxter, at Kidderminster, character 
of, 134. 

Baptists y or Anabaptists f discussions of, 
with other sects, 39. Mr. Baxter's 
account of them, 80. 82. Analysis 
of M\'. Baxter's controversial pieces 
on baptism, with remarks, 681 — 688. 

Barlow (Bishop), an opponent of Mr. 
Baxter, notice of, 463. 

Barrow's (Dr.) character of Mr. Bax- 
ter's writings, 770. 

Bastwifk (Dr.) , notice of, 25, note '. 

Bates (Dr. William), censured by the 
Nonconformists for his occasitinal 
conformity, 248. Consults Lord 
Keeper Brid^man on the construc- 
tion of the oath required by the Five- 
mile Act, 259. Which he takes, ib. 
His account of Mr. Baxter's last 
sicknes!; and death, 399 — 401. And 
of his character aud labours, 406 — 
409.770. 

Battle of Edffhill, 40, 41. Of Naseby, 
44. Of Langport, 54. Of Worces- 
ter, 113, 114. 

Baxtei- (Mrs.j, step-mother to Mr. 
Baxter, character of, 342. 722. 

Baxter (Mrs. Margaret), marriage of 
to Mr. Baxter, 239. Conditions of 
their marriage, t^. Her attention to 
him during his imprisonment, 280. 
Instance of her presence of mind, 
305, note ^. Encourages him to sub- 
mit to warrabts of distress, 316, 
note r. Her death, 342. Her at- 
tachment to him, 343. His charac- 
ter of her, 344, 345. Account of her 
husband's * Breviat ' of her life, 721. 
723. 

n/xTER (RichanI). 

i. Personal Memoirs or Him. — Birth, 
1. Character of his father, t^., 2. 
His first religious impressions, 2, 3. 
Education, aud c\\«Lr3ic\.fet o^ \\\% tu- 
tors, 3, 4. ProeTe&% ol VA% t^V\»\oxx% 
feeUugR, 5,6. m% e^cav* ^tom ^^vci- 
Ing during bw w%\^^tt6^«xU>4dXw« 



Castle, 6. Illneiui aud its effects, 7. 
Further progress of his education, tA. 
8—10. Is troubled with doubt, 10. 
His consequent distress of mind, a^., 
11—13. His diseased habit of body, 
13,14. Goes to court, 14. Renark- 
able preservation y 15.' Death of bis ^ 
mother, and character of his mother- ' 
in-law, ik. His attachment to the 
ministry, tb* His conformity, 18. 
Is ordained by Bishop Thomborougb, 
t^. Preaches his first sermon at 
Dudley, 19. Examines the Noncon- 
formist controversy, and adopts some 
of the principles of Noocooformity, 
t^., 20. Progress of his mind, 21. 
Residence and labours in Bridge- 
north, ib, Effect of the Et-Cvtera 
oath on him, 22. Ezaroioes the sub- 
ject of Episcopacy, t^., 23. Is io- 
vited to Kidderminster, 26. Removes 
thither, 28. His account of the state 
of religion at this time, 29—33. His 
judgment of the causes of the civil 
war, 32i His reflections on the cha- 
racter of the opposinj^ parties, 3^37. 
Reasons which probab^ indined 
him to the parliamentary canse, 37, 
38. Is obliged to quit Kiddermin- 
ster, 38. Does to Gloucester, 37. 
Returns to Kidderminster, and is 
obliged to withdraw, 40. Visits Al- 
cester, ib. His residence in Coven- 
try, i^., 42. Opposes the Analwp- 
tists, 43. Consults several ministers 
about his going into the army, 47. 
Consents to become chaplain to Co- 
lonel Whalley's regiment, 48. His 
cool reception by Cromwell, ib. His 
opinion of the soldiers, 49. He is 
falsely accused of murdering a mao 
at Langport, 55. His satisfactory 
vindication of himself, 56*. His ill- 
ness at Bristol, 57. His account of 
various occurrences in the army, 57 
— 59. He disputes with some sec- 
taries at A|^mondesham, 59, 60. 
Chief impediments to his success 
in it, 60, 61. Goes to London on 
account of his health, 64. His ill- 
ness in Worcestershire, ib. Quits 
the army, and is entertained by Lady 
Rous, 65. Remarks on his views of 
the army, and on his conduct in it, 
ib. — 67. His account of the Wesl- 
miuster assembly, 68, 69. Remarks 
thereon, 69, 70. His account of the 
religious parties in England between 
1646 and 1656, 72—82. Observa- 
tions on it, 82, 83. His remarks on 
various minor sects, fih — 95. Ob- 
^«.t\«XA»<cv^ citv ^^ 4S — 98. He re- 



INDKX. 



808 



loyalty, 109. Remarks on bis con- 
duct towards King^ Charles I., t6., 

110, 111. Towards the parliament, 

111, 113. And towards the leaders 
and soldiers of the Commonwealth, 

112, 113. Account of his ministry 
and success at Kidderminster, 115 — 
130. Remarks on bis style of preach- 
ing, and on his public and private 
exertions, 131 — 133. Lasting effects 
of his labours, 133, 134. Principles 
on which he act«d towards Crom- 
well, 142, 143. He preaches before 
the Protector, 144. Interview of 
Baxter with him, 143, 144. He goes 
to London, 159. Preaches before 
the parliament, 160. Remarks on 
his sermon, t^.. 161, note K And 
before the Lord Mayor, idl, and 
note *. Notice of bis labours during 
his second residence at Kiddermin- 
ster, 164. His extensive correspond- 
ence, 165, 169,andM0te^ His efforts 
to promote the propagation of the 
Gospel among the American Indians, 
165, 166. He is appointed one of 
the king's chaplains, 172, and note 9, 
His desire of agreement between the 
Episcopalians and Presbyterians, 1 73. 
Interview with the king, and speech 
to him, 174—176. Observations 
thereon, 176, 177. Propositions drawn 
up by Baxter, 17b. Character of 
them, 179. Tney are presented to 
the king, i6., 180. His observa- 
tions on the king's declaration, 181, 
182. Petition to the king, 182, 1B3. 
Further proposals made to the king, 
and interview with him, 184 — 187. 
Imperfect notions of Baxter on reli- 
gious liberty, 187, note. His senti- 
ments on the altered declaration of 
the king, 188. His account of the 
king's offer to make some of the 
Nonconformists bishops, 193 — 195. 
Letter to Lord Clarendon, 195 — 197. 
His modest request for himself, that 
he might be permitted to remain at 
Kidderminster, 197. His proceed- 
ings at the Savoy conference, 200, 

201. Prepares a reformed liturgy, 

202. And exceptions against the na- 
tional liturgy, ib,, 203. He endea- 
vours to be restored to Kiddermin- 
ster, but is frustrated, 215—222. A 
letter of his intercepted, 222, 223. 
Preaches in London, 223, 224. Ob- 
tains a license from the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, 224, 225. Unjustly 
charged with sedition, 225. At- 
tempts, but In vain, to negociate with 
the vicar of Kidderminster, 226. 
Conduct of Bishop Morley and the 
Dean of WoretBier towards him 

a,, Z27» Mu totirr takes teate 



'-k 



Kidderminster, 228. His reasons 
for discontinuing his ministry before 
Bartholomew-day, 229. Account of 
his marriage, 236---240. Narrowly es- 
capes a plot to arrest him, 244, 245, 
He retires from London to Acton, 

249. ^ Works written or published 
by bim between 1661 and 1665, t6., 

250. His providential escape ftoni 
assassination, 250. And from a ma- 
levolent informer, t^., 251* His opi- 
nion respecting occasional comBiu- 
nlon, 251. His reflections on the 
plague in London, 252, 8.^. his 
account of the Five- mile Act^ 256— • 
259. And of the fire of lAndoOf 260» 
261. Interview of Baxter with the 
Lord Keeper respecting a compre- 
hension, 268—270. His reflections 
on the terms offered, 271. He is 
complained against for preaching* 
272. His character of Lord Chief- 
Justice Hale, 274—276. Treatment 
of Baxter by Dr. Ryves, 277, 278. 
At whose instigation he is sent to 
prison, 279. He is advised to apply 
for a habeas corpus^ ib,, 280. JDe- 
mands it from the Court of Common 
Pleas, 281. Behaviour of the judges, 
t^. He is released, 282. His bene- 
factors during his imprisonment, 283. 
Removes to Totteridge, ib. His 
writings l>etween the years 1665 and 
1670, &., 284. Remarks on his con- 
troversy with Or. Owen, on the 
agreement of Christians, 284. Ami- 
cable letter of Baxter to Lord Lau- 
derdale, declining the acceptance of 
preferment in Scotland, 286—288. 
His pecuniary loss by the shutting of 
the Exchequer, 294. Takes out a 
license to nreach, 297. Preaches at 
Pinner's Hall, and afterwards near 
Fetter-lane, 298, 299. Removes 
from Totteridge to Bloomsbury, 299. 
Is requested to draw op new terms 
of agreement, 302. Healing mea- 
sure proposed in consequence, which 
fails lu tne House of Commons^ 303. 
Providential deliverance from dan- 
ger while preaching at St. Janqes's 
market-house, 305. Attempts of in- 
formers against him frustrated, 306. 
His license recalled, 3D7. Employs 
an assistant, ib. Escapes being im- 
prisoned, 308. Engages in another 
scheme of comprehension, .309. He 
is harassed by informers, 310— 312. 
Baxter's goods distrained, 316. His 
reflections on being obliged to part 
with his library, 318. Various mi- 
nisterial labours, 319. His contrQ-^ 



804 



INDEX. 



cbapel, 320. Various publications 
between 1670 and 1675, 321. His 
further preaching in London, 322. 
It preached against by Dr. Jane, 
323, 324. Calumniated hy Dr. Ma- 
•on, 324. Warrant issued against 
bim, and bis interview with Bishop 
Comptrin, 325. OSers bis chapel in 
Oxendou- street to Dr. Lloyd, 326. 
Various slanders a^iust bim, 3i7. 
His reflections on the times, 334. 
Remarks thereon, 335. Books pub- 
lished by bim between 1676 and 1681, 
336. His continued suffering, 346. 
Is ap|irebended, and bis ^ods are 
distrained, 347. Could obtain no 
redress, 348. His devout reflections 
ou his suffering, t^., 349. He is 
again apprehended and hound to bis 
rood behaviour, 351, 352. He is 
Drought before the justices, and again 
bound over, 354. His reflections on 
the state of his own times, ib. Ap- 
prehended ou a charge of sedition, 
358. Copy of bis indictment, 359 — 
362. Extracts from bis * Paraphrase 
on the New Testament,' on which 
the indictment was founded, 363, 
364, Tioie. Argument of bis counsel, 
Mr. PoUexfen, 365. Extraordinary 
behaviour of JefTeries to him and to 
Mr. Baxter, t6., 366. Arguments uf 
bis other counsel, Mr. Wallop, 367. 
Mr. Rotheram, ib. Abuse of Bax- 
ter by Jefferies, 368. Arguments of 
Mr. Atwoud, 364. Jefferies' address 
to the jury, 370. He is found guilty, 
ib. He endeavours to procure a new 
trial, or a mitigated sentence, ib. His 
letter to the Bishop of London, 371, 
372. He is fined and imprisoned, 
Remarks on his trial, ib., 
His behaviour while in pri- 
375, 376. His fine remitted, 
be is released, 376,377. His 
review of his own life and opinions, 
and account of his matured senti- 
ments, with remarks thereon, 378 — 
391. His sense of certain articles 
required to be subscribed by the dis- 
senting ministers under the Tolera- 
tion Act, 3^3—396. Notice of his 
latter years, 3'J7. He preaches fv»r 
Mr. Sylvester, .IPS. Writings at this 
time, ib. Account of his Ian sick- 
ness and death, 399—403. Buried 
at Christ Church, Nev\ gate-street, 
403. Devout exordium of his will, 
ib.f 404. Notice of his principal 
bequests, 404. Character given him 
by his nephew, 405, note. Numer- 
ous funeral fceTU\ou«i 1^^e^c\\^:^il Kot 
bim, 405. Descr\pt\ou u?\\\% c\v«j^e- 
ter and person by Mr. ^\\ve%xw, 
ib., 406. Of h\» \a\iou\* wid tW^ 



ib, 
373. 
son, 
and 



racter by Dr. Bates, 406—409. Ge- 
neral* estimate of bis character, ta- 
lents, and piety, 409 — 412. 
II. SuRVBY or Mr. Baxter's Wri- 
tings, 41.5. ObserTations on the 
theological literature of the periud, 
4 16— 420. CbronoloeicaL list of hit 
works, 792—799. Classification of 
them, 420. 

1. PForks on the Evidences of Religion: 
— Design, plan, aud execution of bis 
' Unreasonableness of iufidelitv,' 
422—429. Of bis < Reasons of the 
Christian Religion,' and its * Appen- 
dix,' 429—432. And ' More Rea- 
sons for the Christian Religion,* 432. 
Of bis treatises * On the Immortality 
of Man's Soul, rmd of tbe Nature of 
itand of other Spiiits,' 433 — 137. Of 
bis ' Certainty of tbe World of Spirits 
evinced,' 437 — 440. Mr. Baxter the 
first original writer in tbe English 
language on the evidences of reveal- 
ed religion, 440, 44 i. 

2. Doctrinal tVorks : — < Apborisms on 
Justification,' 444—450. * Apology ' 
for them, and its opponents, 451— 
455. < Confession of Faith,' 455— 
459. * Thoughts on Perseverance,* 
460, 461. ' Four Disputations of Jus- 
tification,' 461. « Treatise of Saving 
Faith,' 462. 'Treatise of Justifying 
Righteousness/ 463. « Two Dispu- 
tations of Original Sin,' 464. * Ca- 
tholic 'Iheology,' 465—468. * Me- 
thodus TheologijB,' 468 — 472. * End 
of Doctrinal Controversies,' 472, 473. 
General view of bis doctrinal senti- 
ments, 475—479. Remarks on his 
manner of conducting controversy, 
479—484. 

3. PTorks on Gmverwn ;-rHis * Trea- 
tise on Conversion,' 486—493. Call 
to the Unconverted,' 493—495. • Now 
or Never,' 494. • Directions for a 
sound Conversion,' 496, 497. ' Di- 
rections to the Converted,' 498. 

* Character of a sound Christian,' 
499. * Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance,' 
501. * A Saint or a Brute,' 506— 
508. Various smaller treatises, 501'. 
Observations on this* class of Baxter's 
writings, ib., 510. 

4. PTorki on Christian Experience:— 

* Right Method for settled Peace of 
Conscience,' 513— 516. «The Cru- 
cifying of the World,' 516—518. 

* Treatise on Self- Denial,' 518—524. 

* Obedient Patience,' 524, 525. 
•Life of Faith,' 526—529. 'Ser- 
mon on Faith,' 528. ' Kuowlcd|rc 

^w^ V»«v<- cvNvec^^T^^; 529—533. 



INDHX. 



805 



5. ff^orks on Christian FJhicx:-^ 
* Cbri^iiiu Directory,* 543—549, 
551 — 554. * Gilildii Salviaiius, or the 
Reformed Pastor,* 554—55U. « Jlea- 
suiis fur Miniiiters usiu^ FUinuess/ 
559. « The Poor Man's Faiiiilv 
Book,' 559— 5G2. ' Catechising o'f 
Families,* 562, 563. * The Mother's 
Catechism, 563. ' Sheets for the 
Ptwr and Afflicted,' i*., 564. < Di- 
rections to Justices of the Peace,' 
564, 565. < How to do Good to Many,' 
565, 566. < Compassionate Counsel 
to Youug Men,' 567. ' Divine Ap- 
pointment of the Lford's Day, 56i< — 
571. General remarks on Mr. Bax- 
ter's ethical writinf^s, 572. 

6. fFarks on Catholic Communion: — 
' Christian Concord, or Agreement 
of the Associated Pastors and 
Churches of Worcestershire,' 579 — 
581. ' Agreemcuit of divers Minis- 
ters for Catecnising/ 581, fi%2. 
< Disputatious of Right to Sacra- 
mento,' 582—584. Notice of a Re- 
ply to it, 585. * Confirmation and 
Restauration,' 586—588. < Five Dis- 
sertations of Church Government,' 
588. ' Judgmeot conceniing Mr. 
Dury,' 591. * Universal Concord,* 
593. ' The True Catliolic, and Ca- 
tholic Church Described,'595. * Cure 
for Church Divisions/ 596—598. 
' Defence of the Principles of Love,' 
599. * Second Admonition to Bag- 
Shaw,' 601. * The Church told of 
Mr. EUIward Bagshaw's Scandal/ 
ib, ' True and Only Way of Con- 
cord,* 605, 606. * Catholic Communion 
Defentitfd,' 606—610. < Judgment 
of Sir Mathew Hale on the Nature 
of True Religion,' 610. * Sense of 
the Subscribed Articles of the Church 
of England,' 611. < Church Con- 
cord,' ib. Treatise * Of National 
Churches,' ib, * Moral Prognosti- 
cation,' ib. Summary view of Mr. 
Baxter's opinions on Catholic Com- 
munion and Church Government, 
612, 61.3. 

7. H^orkt on Nonconformity : — ' Ac- 
count of the Proceeiiings at the Sa- 
voy Conference,' 620— 622. • Sacri- 
lej^^ious Desertion of the Ministrv 
rebuked,' 622. Notice of Dr. Full- 
wood's reply Ut it, ib., 623. * The 
Juii<;uient of the Nonconformists 
concfrning the Office of Reason in 
Ri'li«:lou,' (123. * Difference between 
Grace and Moralitv,* ib. * About 
Thin:{.s Indifferent,* i7>. * And Sinful,' 
ib. ♦What Mere Noncooforuuty is 
not,'U. Hcuiarks on these treatises, 

^. 624. < The Nooconfvrmist's Plea 
for Peace/ V24^626. Reply to it 



by Mr. Chenev, 627. * Second Pwrt 
of the Plea,' 'ib. < Defence* of it* 
628. Account of Stillmgfleet's at- 
tack upon it, ib. 629. Reply of Mr. 
Baxter t(» his charge of separatioiK 

631. Rejoinder of Stilliugfleet, ib. 
6.32. Baxter's * Second Defence,' 

632. Further answer to Stillingfleet» 

633. 634. < Search after English 
Schismatics,' 635, 636. < TreatiM 
of English Episcopacy,' 636, 637. 
' Apology for the Nonconformittt' 
Ministry,' 637, 638. * English Non- 
conformity Truly Stoted,' 638, 639. 
Observations on the various Tkea* 
tises on Nonconformity, 639, 640. 

8. fTorks on Popery .— « The Safe Re- 
ligiouy' 642,643. 'Winding-Sheet 
for Popery,' 643. ' Grotian Religion 
Discovered,* ib* Controversy it . 
produced with Peirce, Womack, 
Heylin, and BramhaU, 644— M8. 

« Key for Catholics,' 648. ' Succei- 
sive Visibility of the Church/ 649. 
Controversy with Johnson respectioi^ 
it, ib., 650. 'Fair Warning, or 
Twenty-five Reasons against Tolera- 
tion of Popery,' 650,651. 'Differ- 
ence between the Power of Church 
Pastors and the Roman Kingdom/ 
651. 'Certainty of Christianily 
without Popery,' 652. ' Full and 
Easy Satisfaction which is the True 
Religion/ ib., 653. ' Christ, not 
the Pope, the Head of the Church/ 
654. * Roman Tradition Examined/ 
ib. ' Naked Popery,' ib. Contro- 
versv with Hutchinson respecting it, 
t^., '655. ' Which is the True 
Church i' 655. Controversy with 
Dodwell respecting it, ib., 656. 
'Dissent from Dr. Sherlock/ 656. 
Answer to Dodwell's letter, calling 
for more Answers, ib. ' Against 
Revolt to a Foreign Jurisdiction^' 
657. 'The Protesiant Religion 
Truly Stated and Justified,' ib., 658. 
His prayer for deliverance from 
Popery, 658. 

9. ffork$ on Antinomianism ;— Baxter's 
Early hostility to it. 666, ^67. The 
chief subject of his ' Confession of 
Faiih,' 667—669. « How far Holi- 
ness is the Design of Christianity,* 
670, 671. 'Appeal to the Light/ 
(17 1. Ntitice of a reply to it, 572. 
* Treali-ie of Justifying Riglit- 
eousuess* 672, 673. * Scripture 
Gospel Defended/ 674. Influence * 
of Baxter's writiiijs and preaching 

ou AiitintJiuiauism, 674 — 67H. 

10. fforlwon UaplVi|jiu,(itttt\uTV*m>«*^ 
JWillcnorianUm;— C«vkVtw«tvj hi^ 

« V\a\u ?tooU %>^ \tA«o\ ^^ss?^^-* 



606 



INDEX. 



683—685. Its success, 686. Reply 
to it by Tombes, 685. Baxter pub- 
lishes his * More Proofs of Infants' 
Church Membership/ 687. His 
Controversy with Daovers, 688. 

* Review of the State of Christian 
Infants,' ib. Remarks on this con- 
troversy, (j'69. C<induct of the Qua- 
kers, and controversy of Baxter with 
them, ib., 690. 'The Worcester- 
shire Petition to Parliament,' 690. 
The 'Petition Defended,' 691, 69*2. 
<The Quaker's Cateciiism,' 693. 
Single sheets a^^inst Quakerism, 
694. Controversy with Beverley on 
th€ Millenium, 697, 698. < The 
Glorious Kingdom of Christ describ- 
ed,' 699. Answered by Beverley, 700. 

* Reply • of Baxter, t*. 

11. Political and Historical ffTnris:- 
< Humble Advice,' 703. * Holy 
Commonwealth/ 704. Occasion of 
it, U, 705—707. Analysis of it, 707. 
His opinion on resistance to illegal 
{governments, and of the causes of 
the civil war, 708— 710. The pub- 
lication of this work the reason whv 
Baxter was not permitted to preacn 
in the diocese of Worcester, 711. 
Notice of various attacks upon the 
*Holy Com moo wealth/ ib» He 
recalls this work, 712. His motives 
for doing so, 713, 714. Remarks 
thereon, 714, 715. Analysis of his 

* Church History of the Goverumeut 
of Bishops and their Councils Ab- 
breviated,' 715—718. It is attacked 

.by Morrice, 718. Baxter's * True 
History of Councils Enlarged and 
I)efended/ ib. Extract from it, 718 
— 720. Account of his ' Breviat of 
the Life of Mrs. Baxter,' 721—723. 
His 'Penitent Confession,' 723. 
Conduct of Long towards him, 724 
— 726. Character of his < Reliquis 
Baxterianae,' 726—729. Imperfectly 
edited by Sylvester, 727. Dr. Cala- 
my'a accouut of it, and of its re* 
ceptiou, 729 — 731. Notice of his 
abridgment and continuation of it, 
and of the controversy to which it 
led, 731—733. 

12. Devotional Worhs: — * Saint's Ever- 
lasting Rest,' written for his own 
use during sickness, 735. And in 
six months, ib. His reasons for 
omitting the names of Lord Brook, 
Hampden, and Pym, iu the later edi- 
tions, 736. Description, character, 
and usefulness of this work, 738 — , 

740. It 14 aUacked V^'^- ^'utoaxi, \bA. 

741. Baxter's * \u%>NeT \oVv\%^v 
ceptions/ i6. Hw * l>VyVu«i LM^t* 



tess of fialcamtf, 741. Its object 
and excellency, 742 — 744. Notice 
of his * Funeral Sermons,' ' Treatise 
of Death,' and ' Dying Thoughts,' 
745—747. Character of his < Re- 
formed Liturgy,' 747, 748. Origin 
and object of his * Paraphrase un the 
New Testament,' 749, 750. His 
reasons fur not attemptioj^ an expo- 
sition of the book of Revelatious4 75d, 

751. Notice of his ' Monthly Pi«- 
parations for the Holy Communion/ 

752. Mr. Monti^omery's character 
vi Baxter as a Christian poet, tt., 

753. Account of bis * Poetical Frtf • 
ments/ 753. And 'Additions' to 
them, t^. ' Paraphrase oo the 
Psalms,* ib. His observations on 
the qualifications of a poet, tft., 754. 
Specimens of bis poetry, with re- 
marks thereon, 755 — 759. 

13. jmscellaneaus H^ritingt ,— lionet* 
of Mr. Baxter's prefaces to the works 
of others, 763, 764. Aod of various 
treatises in manuscript left by hia, 
764, 765. His extensive correspood- 
ence, 765, 766. Letter to Increase 
Mather, 766, 767. His account of 
his transactions with bis booksellen, 
767-^770, Concurrence of opinioas 
respecting him as a writer, 770 — 
774. His own candid and faithful 
review of his writings, 775 — 785. 
Number and variety of bis works, 
785, 7iiS, Facility with which he 
wrote, 787, 788. Character of bis 
style, 788. Sometimes injudicious 
both in his writings and his conduct, 
ib., 789. Deficient in the full state- 
ment of evangelical doctrine, 790, 
791. Causes of it, 792. 

Baxter (William), principal legatee of 
Mr. Baxter, biographical notice of, 

404, 405. His character of his uncle, 

405, note, 

BehmenistSf Mr. Baxter's account of 
the tenets of, and their principal fol- 
lowers in England, 91, 92. Obser- 
vations on the writings of Bebmen, 
92, note r, 

i?frn/ (Colonel James), Mr. Baxter's 
character of, 62, « 63. Remarks 
thereon, 63, rtote. Extract from a 
dedication to him, 521, 522. 

Beverley (Rev. Thomas), account of 
the Millenarian tenets of, GV6, Pub- 
lishes his * Millenary Catechism/ 
697, Questions addressed to him by 
Baxter, ib.. 698. Who publishes bis 
' Glorious Kingdom of Christ De- 
%^x\hed)' against him, 699. Extract 
\t<iV!a.\\.> \\>,^*l^^. '^vjS'ait^ <i< Bever- 

1^^ KOk\^\^VIV^K^%Ti^\^i^KXV^^ 



INDEX. 



sa^ 



Bithopricks offered by Charles II. to 
certaiD Nonconfomiist miuisters, 
193, 194. One of them decliued by 
Baxter, 197. The bishoprick of 
Norwich accepted by Reynolds, 198. 
Remarks on the proceedings, 199. 

Bishops^ conduct of, at the Savoy Con- 
ference, 200—208. Remarks there- 
on, 208, 209. Baxter's account of 
those who attended, 209—211. Re- 
marks on the whole proceeding, 212, 
213, Alterations proposed by the 
episcopal commissioners in the Book 
of Common Prayer, 213, note ^, Se- 
veral of them advise Charles II. to 
recall the Nonconformists' licenses 
to preach, 307. Account of the pro- 
ceedings on the Bishops' Test Act, 
313—315. 

^dke (Mr.), an opponent of Mr. Bax- 
ter, notice of, 461, note '. 

Blatphemy against the Holy Ghost, 
observations on, 427, 428. 

Booksellers, Mr. Baxter's account of 
bis transactions with, 767 — 770. 

Bojfle's (Hon. Robert) character of 
Mr. Baxter, 770. 

BojfU (Roger). See BroghilL 

BramhalVs (Bishop) Vindication of 
himself from the charge of Popery, 
notice of, 657. Baxter's opinion of 
this work, 657, 658. 

Bridges (Colonel], Biographical no- 
tice of, 514. Extract of a dedication 
to him, 513, 514. 

Bndgman (Sir Orlando) , Lord Keeper, 
biographical notice of, 259, note \ 
His construction of the Five-Mile 
Act, 259. Resigns the great seal, 
295. 

Brodie*s History of England, character 
of, 1 12. 

Broghill (Roger Boyle, Baron of, af- 
terwards Earl of Orrery) , character 
of, 173, note \ 302, iMte <*. Requests 
Mr. Baxter to draw up new terras of 
agreement, 302, 303. His treatise 
on the * Unreasonableness of Infi- 
delity,' dedicated to him, 423. 

Brook (Robert Greville, Lord), bio- 
graphical notice of, 737. 

Buckmgham (George VilUers, Duke 
of), character of, 266, and note '. 
His conduct towards the Noncon- 
formists, 267. 

Bunny* s (Edmund) 'Resolution,' no- 
tice of, 5, and note. 

Burgess (Anthony) , an opponent of Mr. 
Baxter, notice of, 445, 461, note s. 

JJicm^ff (Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury) 

character of Sir Matthew Hale, 276, 

note \ His evidence against the 

Vuke of JLauder dale, 312. Remarks 

oa « dedication of his, to the duke» 



ib.f note p. His testimony to Mrj 

Baxter's writings, 313, note. 
Burton f Henry), notice of, 25, note ^, 
Burton (Dr. Hezekiah), notice of, 270, 

tuUe^. 
Busby (Mr.), master of Westminster 

School, anecdotes of, 603, 604, notes* 

C. 

Calamy (Dr.) declines a bishoprick, 
198. Remarks on his conduct, ji., 
note *. His account of Baxter's 

* ReliquiflB,' or Narrative of his Life 
and Times, 729—731. Character of 
his Abridgment and Continuation, of 
that work, 731. its reception, ti., 
732. Controversy to which it gave 
rise, 732, 733. 

CatderwootTs (Dayid) AltareDamatce- 
num, notice of, 22, note. 

' Call to the Unconverted,' plan of, 493. 
Mr. Baxter's account of its effects, 
ib,y 494. Comparison of it with Mr. 
Law's 'Serious CaU,' 495. And 
with Alleine's < Alarm,* tft. 

Calvin's Institutions, character of, 542. 

CampbeWs (Dr.) 'Treatise ou Mira- 
cles ' recommended, 423, note '. 

Corr/icr^A^ (Christopher), an opponent 
of Mr. Baxter, notice of,446, 463, 464. 

Casuists of the Romish Church, obser- 
vations on, 541. Paucity of casu- 
istical books among the reformed 
churches accounted for, 545, not4* 

Catechising, Mr. Baxter's method of, 
119. Analysis of his treatise on 

* The Catechising of Families,' 562, 
563. And of his 'Mother's Cata^ 
chism,' 563, 564. His account of 
his practice in catechising, 581,582. 

' Catholic Theology,* title of Mr. Bax* 
ter*s treatise so called, 465, 466. His 
design in it, 466. Remarks on at, 
467. 

Catholic Communion, observations on 
Mr. Baxter's efforts to promote it, 
576, 577. And on his several treatises 
on this subject, 577— 611. Observa- 
tions upon his sentiments ou ibis 
subject, 612, 613. And on bis etforts 
to promote it, 593, 594. 

Charles 1., conduct of, at the com- 
mencement of the civil war, 32. 
By whom supported, 33. Strongly- 
marketl difference between his sup^ 
porters and his antagonists, ii., 34. 
Mr. Baxter's account of public af- 
fairs duriug bis reign, froui 1646 til) 
his death, with remarks thereon, 
102—1 15. Remarks on a passage in 
the 'Eikou Ba&vUke^' «5A<cVh^ ^l^ 
\ Yi\m,\^^w»UV . < • 



808 



INDfiX. 



Worcester, 113, 114. His flight, 
' 114. Account of his restoratioD, 157 
—159. His arrival iu Loodun, 161. 
Bate bypocrisy of, exposed, iA., note 
\ Intoxicatiou of the people at his 
return, t^., notey. Remarks on the 
circumstances of his restoration , 
162, 163. Views of the Nooconforni- 
ists respecting him, 171. His con- 
duct towards them, 172. Interview 
of Baster and several ministers with 
bim, 173—175. Remarks thereoA, 
176. He requires the ministers to 
draw up proposals respecting church 
goremmeot, 177. 1 neir paper pre- 
sented to him, 178, 179. His reply 

' to them, 179, 180. Meeting of the 
ministers with Charles, to bear the 
declaration, 181, 182. Petition 
against it, 182, 183. Charles alters 
bis declaration , 1 84— 1 88. He offers 
bisbopricks to Baxter, Calamy, and 
Reynolds, 193, 194. He has a pri- 
vate interview- with Baxter, 199. 
Issues a commission for the Savoy 
Conference, 200. And his declara- 
tion fer liberty of conscience, 241. 
His conduct towards Lord Claren- 
don, 266, note ^. An address pre- 
sented ,to bim by the Nonconformist 
ministers, 272, 273. He shuU up 
bis Exchequer, 294. Its conse- 
quences, 294, 295. Issues his dis- 
pensing declaration, 295. Which 
the Parliament votes to be illegal, 
299. Prorogues Parliament, 301. 
303. Commands the pers<*cution of 
the Nonconformists, 322. His death 
and character, 355, 356, and note. 
C%ar//o» (Miss Margaret), Bio<;raphi- 
cal notice of, 237. Her marriage to 
Mr. Baxter, 239. 
Cheney*s (Mr.) * Conforming Noncon- 
formist,' notice of, 627. And of 
Baxter's reply to it, 628. 

* Christian Directory^* Baxter's account 
of, 544 — 546. Remarks on its ar- 
rangement, 547. Opposed to the 
politics of Hooker, 548, 549. Re- 
marks on the notion of passive obe- 
dience iu this treatise, io» General 
character of the w<Mk, 551, 552. 
Comparison of it with the * Ductor 
Dubitantium ' of Bishop Taylor, 
552. Defects and excellencies of the 
* Christian Directory,' 552, 553. 

Christian erptiHence^ ob<iervations od, 
and on abuses and mistakes respect- 
iug it, 511 — 513. 

Christian fellowship^ Mr. Baxter's sen- 
timents conceruiii<r, 5h2, 583. Re- 
marks thereon, 5H1^, 5)64. 

Christians (early) , observ?il\owft ow ^« 
uuioa of, 573, ^:^useii v>t ^^lY'^Ta.Wviw 



among them, 574. Observations on 
the means of effecting their pe-mikm, 
ift., 575. 

Chvreh communion^ observaiions cm 
Mr. Baxter's sentiments respecting, 
612, 613. 

* Church Divisions r account of Mr. 
Baxter's 'Cure 'for, 598—600. Its 
reception, 600. Attacked by Mr. 
Bagshaw, t^., 601. Mr. Baxter's 
replies to bim, 601, 602. 

Onsrch Government, account of Mr. 
Baxter's ' Five Disserutions ' on,58d^ 
589. Extract from his dedication 
of them to Richard Cromwell, 590. 
Remarks thereon, t6., 591. 

< Church Historic of the Government 
of Bishops,' design of Mr. Baxter's 
treatise on, 715. His reasons for 
undertaking this work, 717. Out- 
line of it, 717, 718. Attacked by 
Morrice, 718. And defended by 
Baxter, ib. 

Churches, national, Mr. Baxter's opi- 
nion on , 6 1 1 . Analysis of bis ' Tree 
and only Way of Concord of all 
Christian Churches,' 604—606. And 
of his < Moral Prognostication,' re- 
specting the future state of churches 
by the restitution of primitive piety, 
purity, and charity, 61 1, 612. 

Civil war, state of religiou in England, 
before and at the commeuceraent of, 
29—32. Its causes, 32. Character 
of the parties engage«l iu it, ib» Rea- 
sons assigned for it, by both parties, 
35. Remarks thereon, 36. Mr. 
Baxter's judgment on this subject, 
ib., 37. 

Clare (Sir Ralph), biographical notice 
of, 2\tiynote, Account of his suc- 
cessful opposition to Mr. Baxter's 
return to Kidderminster, 216 — 219. 

Clarendon (Edward Hyde, Earl of), 
character of, 184, note*. His cha- 
racter of the Westnnnster assembly, 
7U, note. Remarks on it,t^. 69. His 
at-count of the conduct of the Non- 
conformists, 169,190. Exposure of 
its unfairness and inaccuracy, 190 — 
192. Letter of Baxter to him, 19.'>— 
197. His letter, recommendiug Mr. 
Baxter to be fixed at Kidderminster, 

219. Observations on liis conduct, 

220. Promotes the purisiug of the 
Five-Mile Act, 257. His fall, and 
remarks thereon, 265, 266, and 
?iole *». 

CMirkson's (David) publications on 
episcopacy, notice of, 720, and note*, 
721. 

Colcnvttu, ^ ?vi\kkt, execution of, for 

Comiwou P-vo>jcv-liwV^ ^v<c:'^^<cv<ai«& ^ 



INDEX. 



809 



the NoocouformiiiU a^inst, 202, 
203. Proceedinirs tlierefiii,207. Al- 
terations }>ropu«;ed therein by the 
episcopal comknissiouers ab the Savoy 
Conference, 213, note >", 214. 

Communicants, number of, at Kidder- 
minster, 119. 

Communion, occasional, Baxter's opi- 
nion on, 251. 

Comprehension, account of the dis- 
cussions concerninf^, with Lford 
Keeper Brid^man, 268—270. A bill 
proposed for it, frustrated by Bishop 
Ward, 270. A second scheoie of 
comprehension proposed, 309. 

Oompton (Dr. Henry), Bishop of Lon- 
don, notice of, 325, note ^. inter- 
▼iew of Baxter with him, 325. 

Conference, at the Savoy, accenntof, 
200—^12. Observations on it, 212, 
213. 

* Confirmation and Restanration,* ana- 
lysis of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, 586 
---588. His account of the mode in 
which confirmation was once admi- 
nistered in Eoj^land, 587, note ". 

Conformiit cler^ry, labours of, after the 
fire of London, 263. Observations 
on the published writing of some of 
them, u>,, 264. 

Conventicle Act, passed, 246. Suffer- 
ings of the people in consequence of 
it, 247, 248. Renewal of the act, 
285, 286. 

Conoertion, analysis, with remarks on 
Mr. Baxter's various publications on; 
' Treatise on Conversion,' 486 — 493. 

< Call to the Unconverted,' 493—495. 
* Now or Never,' 494. « Directions 
for a Sound Conversion/ 496, 497. 

< Directions to the Converted,' 498. 
Importance of this division of Mr. 
Baxter's works, 485—488. General 
remarks on them, 509, 510. 

Comtocation of 1661, notice of, 202, 
203. 

Corbet (Rev. John), biog^raphical ac- 
count of, 338— 341. 

CorporoHon^jict, observation on the 
repeal of, 252. 

Correopondence, extensive, of Mr. Bax- 
ter, 765, 766. 

Coventry, uotii^e of Mr. Baxter's re^ii- 
dence at, 41, 42. Character of his 
hearers there, 42, 44. 

Covenant, taken by Mr. Baxter, of 
which he afterwards repented, 42. 
He opposes the takinj^ of it in Kid- 
derminster, 111. 

Cradock (Walter), a Nonconformist 
minister, notice of, 17, note ^. 

Crandon (John), an opponent of Mr. 

Baxter, notice of, 451. 
OdghUm (Dr,), anecdote of, 271. 



\ 



Crew (Dr.), Bishop of Durham, anec- 
dotes and character of, 267, and 
note K 

Crisp (Dr.), biographical notice of, 
664, 6(j6. Account of his Antino« 
miao sentiments, ib. They are op* 
posed by Baxter, 666, 667. Repub- 
lication of his works by his son, 673. 
Account of the controversy which 
ensued, t^., 674. 

Croft's (Bishop of Hereford) 'Naked 
Truth,* notice of, and of the contro- 
versy to which it ;ave rise, 654j 656, 
notes* 

Cromwell (Oliver) invites Mr. Baxttr 
to become bis chaplain, but is rt» 
fused, 46. His cool reception of Mr. 
Baxter, 48. Mr. Baxter's character of 
Cromwell, 61 . His treatment of the 
Parliament, 137—140. Institutes a 
committee of triers, 140. And a com- 
mittee to report of fundamentals, 142. 
Baxter's conduct towards him, t^.«- 
144. Account of his preaching be- 
fore Cromwell, 144. His ioterriew 
with the latter, 145. Admissiop of 
the benefits of bis government, 146* 
Mr. Baxter's character of him, 148 
—152. Remarks thereon, 152, 193. 

Cromwell (Richard), succession of, to 
the Protectorate, and his subsequent 
retirement, 154 — 156. Remarks 
thereon, 156, 157. Extract from a 
dedication of Mr. Baxter's to bin, 
590. Observations on it, ib,, 591. 

< Crucifying of the fTorld by tho Qrom 
of Christ,' plan of this treatise, 517, 
Comparison of it with Maclaorio's 
sermon on the same subject, ib* 
Fine passage quoted from it, 5I7«— 
520. 

*, Cure of Melancholy,' observations on, 
535—537. 



D. 



Danby (Sir Thomas Osborne, Earl of, 
and Lord Treasurer), character of, 
302, note ^ Attackeil by Parliament, 
313. Impeachment of, for high 
treason, 331. His subsequent his- 
tory, ib., note *. 

Dance (Mr.), vicar of Kidderminster, 
chamctor of, 26. And uf his preach- 
ing, 21G. AlloMrs a lecturer to be 
chosen by bis parishioners, ib, Bax- 
ter solicits preferment lor him, 197. 
Failure of his application, 216,217. 

Danvcrs (Mr.), bioj^raphical notice 
of, 683. His controversy with Baxter, 
on bapti««m, and Baxter's reply, t^.. 

Daventry, origin of the dissenting cao- 
f;Tegai\uw a\, ^^\ > ^'ofl. 



810 



INDEX. 



oonduct of, towards Baxter, 310— 

312. 
JhcUnnm (relii^us), iosUDce of tbe 

prof ress of, 6. 
Ik e kMm (DaTid), biofrapbical notice 

of, 545, 9oi9. 

* JHrecHam to a Sound Ctnvertion,* 

aualysif of, 496, 4U7. And to tbe 

converted, 497, 498. 
JDiteiplmef account of Mr. Baxter's 

meetings for, 117. His exercise of 

church discipUne, 126. Want of 

discipline in the esublished Church, 

126, note. 
Z)Mpen«ifl^deolaratioB issued byCharies 

JI., 295. Remarlcg on its design, ib. 

Proceedings of the Nonconformists 

ki relation to it, 296. It is voted to 
. be illegal by Parliament, 299. 
DUtttUert, aeal of, against Popery, 

658,659. See NoHcm^ormisU. 
JHitresMf spiritual, remarks on, 11, 12. 

Account of Mr. Baxter's distress, 10, 

11. 

* JDimns L^«,' treatise on, written at 

tbe request of the Countess of Bal- 
carras, 741. lu object and excel- 
lency, 742—744. 

JDMruMa ConirovertitSf analysis of 
Mr. Baxter's treatise on tbe end of, 
472, 473. Observations on bis doc- 
trinal sentiments, 474—479 ; and on 
bis mode of conducting doctrinal 
controversies, 479—484. 

J}oddrid§re*s (Dr.) recommendation of 
tbe « Reformed Pastor/ 559. His 
character of Mr. Baxter's writing, 
771, 772. 

Doduftll (Henry) , account of, and of bis 
tenets, 655. Baxter's Controversy 
with him, 656. Their correspond- 
ence, 657, note, Tillotson's opinion 
of both of them, 656, note, 

Zhmstan's (St.) Church, accident at, 
during Mr. Baxter's preaching there, 
223, 224, and note ■. 

Dmy (Mr. John), account of his en- 
deavours to promote ecclesiastical 
peace, 591, 592. 

* Jbjfinf ThmigtUs* of Mr. Baxter, cha- 

racter of, 746, 747 ; and of Mr. Faw- 
cett's abridgment of them, 747, note. 



E. 



JBeeUsiastical Hittory^ difficulty of 

writing, 716. 
JSdrAti/, battleof, 40, 41. 
£Aieaiion, importance of, especially of 

academical education, 8, 9. Account 

of Mr. Baxter's educaX\on>^,4. 7 ^ ^, 
JSdtvards*9 ('Vhoma&^ * ^ft*X*inwv\%\ii 

Barefaced' , notice of, 4*3^, 4^ \ ^^ 

of himself, 4^» note. 



EUctUnt Mr* Baxter's aenthamts an, 
476. 

EUioi't (Mr.) eSorU to piofagaie tbe 
Gospel among tba American lodiaas 
promoted by Baxter, 165. Sncoctt 
of bis labours, 166. (Extract of a 
letter firom Baxter to bim, a^.— 168, 

England, state of religion in, before 
and at the commencement of the 
civil wars, 29—32. 

EfitcopaHam, Mr. Baxter's aceoaat of 
the teneU of, 73 — 91. A limited 
episcopacy pleaded for In bim and 
by others, 73. Account of bis < Trea- 
tise of Epucopacv,* 636, 637. Aaee* 
dote of their rejecting a toleration 
from Cromwell, 721, weie'. 

EreuUoMt, tenets of, 72 ; and iMle ' 73. 

Ertkine (Mr.), obeervaUons of, on tbe 
characteristic features of the writings 
of the Puritans and Nonconlnnnisis, 
418. 

Et'Certera oath, nature and eflfoct of, 
22, 23. 

Evidences of ReHgiem, Mr. Baxter's 
plan in studying and writing on, 
421, 422. Mr. Baxter tbe earliest 
original English writer on tbe En- 
deuces of Revealed Religion, 440, 
441. Analysis of bis Yarious tna<» 
tises on, with remarks, 422—440. 

Exchequer shut by Charles 11., 294. 
Its consequences, ib, 295. 

Exciution-BiU passed in the House of 
Commons, but lost iu the House of 
Lords, 332. 333. 

Ejfre (William), an opponent of Mr. 
Baxter^ notice of, 451, 452. 



F. 



Faith: — Mr. Baxter's sentiments od 
justifying faith, 477. Account of his 
< Life of Faith,' 526—528. Notice 
of his sermon on Faith, 528. 

FawcetVs (Benjamin) Abridgment of 
Baxter's < Saint's Rest,' character of, 
741 ; and of his < Dying Thoughts,' 
747, note «>. 

Fetter-Lane^ historical notice of tbe 
Dissenting Congregation in, 299, 
note •. 

Fifth-Monarchy Men^ account of the 
insurrection of, 222. 

Finch (Sir Heoeage) ,notiGe of,306,ii«l£. 

Fire of Loudon, in 1666, account of, 
260, 26 1 . Benevolent efforts made to 
relieve the inhabitants, 263. Tbe fire 
favourable to the labours of the Non- 
conformist Ministers, 2^. Preach- 
ing of the Conformist Clergy, 265. 

FVrmxu V5^\\t<^ «Oaa!L« the < Saim's 



INDBX. 



Sll 



fUher (Samuel) , notice of the * Rasfic*s 
Alarm to the Rabhies/ by, 695. 
Account of him, ib, 

Fwe-AfUe Jet ipassed, 256, 257. Oath 
imposed by it, ib. Jt is rig^orously 
enforced, 259. Sir Orlando Bridge- 
man's copstruction of it. ib. Obser- 
vations on it, 258—260. 

Foley (Thomas, esq.), Biographical 
notice of, 516. 

Fatherby's (Bishop) * Atheomastix,' 
notice of, 441. 

Fountain i^Mr, Serjeant), Biogprapbical 
notice of, 292, TuHe ^ His kindness 
to Mr. Baxter, 280, 283. His inter- 
esting character of Fountain, 291 ,292. 

Fowler (Dr. Edward), bishop of Glou- 
cester, notice of, 669, 670. Account 
of his * Design of Christianity,' 670. 

Fifx's (Mr.) notice of the treatment of 
the Dissenters.and of the trial of Bax- 
ter, 356, 357. Remarks thereon, 357, 
358. 

Freedom of the will, Mr. Baxter's sen- 
timents on, 478. 

Frewen (Dr.), archbishop of York, 
conduct of, at the Savuy Conference, 
200, 209. 

Fuller (Rev. Andrew), writings of, 
against Antinomianism, 679, note. 

Fundamentals of religion, remarks on 
the committee for, 141, 142. 

« Fkneral Sermons,' notice of various, 
published by Mr. Baxter, 745, 746. 

G. 

Gauden (Dr.) , conduct of, at the Savoy 

Conference, 210, and note *. 
Gayer (Sir John), determination upon 

the will of, 351,110^^. 
GeU (Dr.), notice of the tenets of, 92, 

and note '. 
Gibbon (Dr. Nicholas), account of, 

93, note •. 

* GUdas SalvianuSf or the Reformed 

Pastor,' analysis of, with remarks, 
554—559. 

Gillespie (George), his account of Eras- 
tianism, 73, note, 

GlanviVs (Joseph) * Sadducismus 
Triumphatus,' notice of, 435. His 
correspondence with Mr. Baxter, ib. 
And offer to vindicate him against 
the attacks of Bishop Morley, 505. 

Gloucester, anecdote of the siege of, 
338, note K 

* Cod's Goodness Vindicated,' remarks 
on this treatise, 533, 534. 

Godfrey (Sir Edmondbury), death 
of I 329, and note ". 

Godwin's History of the Common- 
wealth, character of, 110. 

Gfod, doing tomany, account of Mr. 
Bi^xter'B directions for, 565. 567. 



Gospel, obsenrationa on the Spirit's tes- 
timony to, 426, 427. 

Goring (Lord), defeat of, at the battle 
of Langport, 54. 

Gou^e (Rev. Thomas) , benevolent la* 
hours of, after the fire of London, 
262. Biographical account of him, 
340. 

Cough (General), anecdote of, 455. 

Crainger*s (Mr.), character of Mr. 
Baxter, 773, 774. 

CreviUe. See ^«oA (Lord). 

Crigg (Thos.), chaplain to the Bishop 
of London, Mr. Baxter's account of 
his refusing to license one of hii 
treatises, 499, 500. 

Grotius, character of, 644, 645. Vii|- 
dication of him by Dr. Peirce, 643, 
644. Lord Lauderdale's opinion of 
Grotius, 645, note ', 



H. 



£fa/ff (Sir Matthew), Lord Chief Jot- 
lice, Mr, Baxter's character of, 274— ^ 
276. Confirmation of it, by Bishop 
Burnet, 276, note *. Notice of his 
death, 336, 337. And of bis < Jod£- 
ment on the Nature of True Refi- 
gion/ &c. 610. 

Hall (Rev. Robert), observations of 
on the means of effecting a re-onion 
among Christians, 574, 575. Cha- 
racter ofjhis publications on Christian 
communion, 576, note. 

Hampden (John), character of, 736. 

Harrington's (James) ' Oceana,' cha- 
racter of, 704, 705, note s. 

Harrison (Major-General), characttr 
of, 55, note, 61, 62. 

Henry (Rev. Matthew), account of bis 
interview with Mr. Baxter, in pri- 
vate, 375, 376. 

Herbert's (Lord) treatise de Feritate, 
account of Mr. Baxter's repJy to, 
432, 433. 

Heylin (Dr. Peter), controversy of, 
with Baxter, 646. Proof of his lefui- 
ing towards Popery, 647. Notice of 
a < Review of nis Certamen Episto- 
lare,' ib,, note, 

Hinchman (Dr. bishop of London), 
character, of 210. 

Hoadly's (Benjamin) ' Reasonableness 
of Conformity,' and Calamy's reply - 
to him, notice of, 733. 

Hobbes's < Leviathan,' character of, 
704, note «*. 

Hollis (Denzil, Lord), character «f, 
182, note >. 

Holy Commonwealth, or Political 
AyVvon&in&* ol ^^xXjtx^ ^TviniOk "w^^ 
de%\snofO^)^V— 1^1« ^«L«BawSiA«^_j 
707 • VoUXacaSi v^s«^^^?^ ^\iafis^^ 



\ 



812 



IN DliX. 



avows, 708 — 710. Notice of various 
attacks upon it, 711. He recalls it, 

712, 713. Reasons for su doing, 

713, 714. ObservatiuLB thereuu, 

714, 715. 

Hohf Ghost, observations on the blas- 
phemy of, 427, 428. 

lAoke'f (Dr. Ricbttrd) < NoDconform- 
ist Champion,' notice of, G35. 

Hooker* t Ecclesiastical Polity, charac- 
ter of, 16, 17. His view of govern- 
ment opposed by Baxter, 548, 549. 

Himgarian Protestant Ministers, case 
ofy331. Oppression of the Protest- 
sots in Hungary, t^., note ^, 

autchinson*t * Catholic Naked Truth,' 
notice of, 654. Answered by Baxter, 
t6., 655. 

Hyde. See Clarendon, 

I. 

Immortality of the Soul, analysis of 
Jdr. Baxter's Treatise on, with re- 
marks, 434—440. 

Independents, Mr. Baxter's character 
of, with remarks, 76^78. 81. Union 
of the Independent and Presbyterian 
ministers, 3i^7. 

Indictment of Mr. Baxter for sedition, 
359—362. 

Infants, opinion of the Synod of Dort 
on the Salvation of, 687, note. Ex- 
cellent treatise of Mr. Russell ou thi^ 
subject, 608, iiott. 

Infidelity, close connexion of Popery 
with, 682. 

Informers against Baxter and others, 
account of the proceedings of, 307 — 
309, 310—316. 

Insurrection of Venner, and the Fifth 
Monarchy-men, account of, 222. 

J. 

Jacob, a Brownist, notice of, 23, note°. 

Jamest (Duke of York, afterwards King 
James 11.), opposition of the Parlia- 
ment to his marrying^ a Popish wife, 
.301. Exclusion bill pas«>ed against 
him in the House of Connnuiis, 332. 
But lost in the House of Lords, 33;^. 

t/(Dr»rt«'5 (St.) Market-house y account of 
Mr. Biixier's preachiojc there, 30.'). 
Providential escape ot him and his 
congregation, ib. 306. 

Jane (Rev. Dr.), biographical account 
of, 323, wo^r. Preaches against Mr. 
Baxter, 323, 324. 

Jeffries (Lord Chief Justice), conduct 
of, ou Mr. iSaxicY's \na\, iWo.^Vi^S, 
368. 370. 



\ 



55. RefuUUon of this false charge, 
56. 

Johnson* 9 (Dr. Samuel) opinion of 
Baxter, 773. 

Johnson, a Rorai&h priest, controversy 
of Baxter with, ou the successive 
visibility of the church, 649, 650. 

Judges, behaviour of, to Mr. Baxter, 

' ou his applying for a habeas cerfms^ 
281. 

Justices of the Peace, notice of Mr, Bax- 
. ter's * Directions ' to, 562, 563. 

Justification^ analysis uf Mr. Baxter's 
' Aphorisms * of, t^., 445. Animad- 
versitms thereon^ by Anthony Bur- 
gess, 445. John Warren, ih. Dr. 
John Wallis, ib.,, 446. Christopher 
Cartwright, 446. George La«»son, 
t6., 447. Observations on the A- 
phorisms, 447—450. Further at- 
tacks on Baxter, by Ludovicus Moli- 
usus, 451. John Crandon, ih, 
William Eyre, ib,, 452. Analysis 
of the ' Apology ' for the Aphorisms, 
452, 453. Extracts from the dedica- 
tion to Colonel Whalley, 453, 454. 
Extracts from Baxter's ' Confes&iun 
of Faith,' on justification, &c., 456 
— 459. Notice of his • Four Dis- 
putations on J usti6cation,' 461, 462. 
Analysis of his 'Treatise on Justify- 
ing Righteousness,' and account of 
its opponents, 463, 464. 

Juxon (Dr.), Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, character of, 245. 

K. 

Keeling, an informer against Baxter, 
account of, 307 — 309. He is liberated 
from prison through Baxter, 316. 

Kendal (Dr.), an opponent of Mr. 
Baxter, notice of, 461. 

* Key for Catholics,* notice of, 648. 

Kidderminster, inhabitants of, petition 
against their minister, 26. A Com- 
mittee of, invite Mr. Baxter to be- 
come their lecturer, ib. He is cho&en 
lecturer, and s^oes to reside there, 
27. State ot the people there, ib. 
Account of his first residence there, 
2K. He is obliged to qui; the town, 
38. Returns, and m again obliged 
to witlidraw, 41). Once more re- 
sumes his lal)Ours there, 100 — 102. 
His account of liis labours there, 115 

— 118. Ilissucce>r, U'J— 118. Ad- 
vantaq^es enjoyed by liiin there, 118 

— 130. Remarks on his style of 
prcacliiiig: there, 131. Ou his public 
v\\\d \u'^^*'^ exertions, 132, l.'i3. 

'>l\\«:\x VswSVvw^^ Vi^vtvLVs. "ftx VA\<.vi5iradn- 



Jennings (Thomas^ cX^ult-c^ ^\t.\ s.\.^x,m^ ^v:a.v>>^uv^\ Vnsvjxa^xsw^V 
Baxter with being W^U^ «^ m>xt^^tA ^^^\.^t^\^£.^^N^^v.vcw^>AxV^x^,^t't.-^^^, 



INDBX. 



813 



Notice of his successors in the miti- 
istrv there, 134, 135. Notice of his 
various labours, aud works com- 
posed, during his second residence, 
in Kidderniiuster, 164. His efforts to 
be restored to Kidderminster, 215, 
216. Charles II. and Lord Claren- 
don favourable to them, ib. Frus- 
trated by Sir Ralph Clare and Bishop 
Morley, 216—218. 220. Why Mor- 
ley would not allow him to return to 
Kidderminster, 711, note. The con- 
duct of Clare to the people of Kidder* 
minster, 220, 221. Character of 
some uf bis successors, 228. His 
parting advice to his flock, ib. Ex- 
tract from his dedication to them of 
his < Treatise on Conversion,* 488, 
489. Of his ' Directions to the Con- 
verted,' 497, 498. Of hii * Saint or 
a Brute,' 507, 508. 

Kippis't (Dr.) parallel between Baxter 
andOrton,772. Remarks on it, ib. 

* Knowledge and Love Compared,* plan 
of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, 529 — 
532. 



L. 



Lafnplugh (Bishop), anecdotes of, 326, 
note ^ 

Jjangport, account of the battle of, 54. 

Jjaiin verges of Mr. Baxter, specimen 
of, 471. 

Latitudinarian divines, Mr. Baxter's 
account of, 264. Observations there- 
on, ib.f and 265, note, 

JLaud, (Archbishop), conduct of, and 
its effects, 619. 

Lauderdale (Lord), character of, 289. 
Offers preferment to Mr. Baxter, 
286. His admirable reply to this 
offer, 286 — 288. Proceedings of 
parliament against him, 312; His 
opiuion of Grotius, 644,'fio/tf <^. Bax- 
ter's <Full and Easy Satisfaction 
which is the Safe Religion,' dedi- 
cated to bim, ^52, 653. Their cor- 
respondence, 653. 

Lawton (George), an opponent of Mr. 
Baxter, notice of, 446, 447. 

Lecture, Tuesday morning, instituted, 
298. Its present state, ib, note '. 

Leirh't (Edward) System of Divinity, 
character of, 543. 

Leighton (Dr.), notice of, 25, note c. 
Observations on bis * Slon's Plea 
against Prelacy,' ib, 

L*JEstrange (Sir Roger), character of, 
374. Anecdote of him, ib. Account 
of his * Casuist Uncased,' 635. 

Library, Baxter's account of his being 
obliged to part with, 7\9, 720. 
. Z*nm«r fo juraacb graated to Mr. Bax- 



ter, 297. The licenses to Noncon- 
formists r.ecalled, 307. 

Liturgy, a reformed one prepared by 
Baxter, and adopted by the Presby- 
terian ministers, 2U2, 203. Who 
brought it lo the bishops at the Savoy 
Cui)ferei)ce,^204. Their exteptious 
to the existing liturgy, 203. Altera- 
tions madein it, 213, note K Cha- 
racter of it, 747, 748. 

Lloyd (Dr.), Vicar of St Martin's, Mr. 
Baxter's chapel offered to, 326. He 
vindicates Baxter's character, 327. 

Locke's (Mr.) observations on the ope- 
ration of the Act of Uniformity, 234. 
Aud ou the conduct of the clergy to- 
wards the Nonconformists, 235, note, 

London, Mr. Baxter's reflections on the 
plague of, 252, 253. Account of it, 
254, 255. Preaching of the Non- 
conformist ministers to the inhabit- 
ants of, 255, 256. Account of the fire 
of, 260, 261 . Benevolence of Mr. Ash- 
urst and the Rev. Mr. Gouge on this 
occasion, 262. The fire advantage- 
ous to the preaching of the silenced 
ministers, t^., 263, 267, 268. Labours 
of the Conformist ministers, 263. 

Long't (Mr.) attack on Mr. Baxter, 
notice of, 635. Remarks on bis 
abuse of Baxter's ' Penitent Confes- 
sion,' 724. Hi« virulent epitaph on 
Baxter, 725, note. Notice of his 
< Review' of Mr. Baxter's Life, 730. 

Long Parliament, proceedings of, 24 
—26. 

Lord's Day, analysis, with remarks, of 
Mr. Baxter's treatise on the divine 
appointment of, 568 — 570. How the 
Lord's-day was celebrated in his 
early days, 571. 

Lougfiborough, ravages of the plague 
at, 255, note. 

Love (Mr.), notice of the execution of, 
113, note. 



M. 



Madstard (Mr. William), minister of 
Bridgnorth, notice of, 21. 

* Making Light of Christ,* a sermon of 
Baxter's, anecdote respecting the 
delivery of, 509. 

Malignant, origin of the term, 3!i,note K 

Manchester (fiiward. Earl of), cha- 
racter of, 172, note ^, 

Afanton (Dr. Thomas), character of, 
272, note. Mr. Baxter's character of 
him, 328. His character of Baxter, 
770. 

Martin (Henry), anecdote of, 138, 
note". 

Mason (pv.V ca^nxnxk^ q\% %as2^sk^ 



\ 



814 



INDEX. 



Maikert (Increase), letter of Mr. Bax- 
ter to, 7fi6, 767, 

Mmft (Rev. Robert) bequeaths a 
Jency to Baxter, io trust, 350. 
Whicli is forcibly witbheid by the 
Court of Chancery, but ultimately 
re6tored»a^. 

Mml-'TMh Plot, notice of,334, and note: 

MekmekUp persons, numbm of, con- 
sulted Mr. BaxUr, 535. Observa- 
tions on his * Cure of Melancholy by 
Faith and Physic,' ih. 536. 

* Metkadms TheoUgut Ckriiiianif,' Mr. 
Baxter's account of this treatise, 468 
—470. Analysis of it, 470, 471, and 
mate '. Concludinfp lines of, 471. 

MiUemmitm Controversy, account of 
Baxter's writinrs on, 697—700. 

MlUm's (John) character of the West- 
minster Assembly, 70, 71, neff. Re- 
marics thereon, /I, iMie, 69. 

Mmisier*M maintenance, proceeding of 
the Parliament respecting, 139, and 
Male. Notice of ministers imprisoned, 
272. See Noncomformists, 

MbraeUtt argument from, forcibly 
stated, 424, 425. 

' Muekiifg of Self'tgnoroncCf* analysis 
of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, 501. 

Molinaus (Ludovicus), an opponent 
of Mr. Baxter, notice of, 45 1 . Bax- 
ter's ' Difference between the Power 
of Magistrates and Oburch Pastors, 
and the Roman Kingdom,' why ad- 
dressed to him, 651. 

Monk (General), conduct of, in pro* 
motiog the Restoration, 157, 158. 
Mr. Baxter's interview with him, 159. 

MotUgomery (Mr.), his character uf 
Baxter as a Christian poet, 752, 753. 

Morct (Dr. Henry), account of the 
philosophical notions of. 436. Dif- 
ference between him and Mr. Baxter 
on the immortality of the soul, 436, 
437. 

Morice*s (William) * Coena quasi 
Koine,' notice uf, 585. Mr. Baxter's 
sentiments on this work, ib. 

Morley (Dr.), bishop of Worcester, 
conduct of, at the Savoy Coufereiice, 
206. 209. Unites with Sir Ralph 
Clare in preventing Mr. Baxter's re- 
turn to Kidderminster, 217, 218. 
Whom he silences, 226, 227. His 
reasou for so doing, 711, note, lu 
couj unction with Bishop Ward, he 
purposes a comprehension, 309. Ac- 
count of Mr. Baxter's controversy 
with him, 503— 5U5. Character of 
the Bishop's ' Vindication ' of him- 
self, 505, 506. N utice oV y\\\A\cttX\ou^ 
on this controversy, b^6,ifiote. ^\^ 
severe reflections ou lioxxer'* xt- 
cantatioD of bU HoV^ Common 
wealth/ 713, note 7. 



Mamay'i treatise on the Christiaii 
religion, notice of, 441. 

AUrriee (Dr.) attacks Baxter's 
' Church History of Government by 
Bishops,' 718. Baxter's reply to 
him, s^. IntcrestiDg extract from it, 
ib.,7l^,7». 

N. 

NdUrni (Mr. John), biographical notice 
of, 243, 244. 

NoMiky^ battle of, 44. 

Naglor (James), a Quaker, observa- 
tions on the case of, 91, and wHe \ 

Ntedham (Marchmont), biographical 
notice of, 705, iia<e ^ 

NfoiUe (Henry) , notice of, 704, mUe '. 

NichMt (Dr. Wm.) writings agaiost 
the Dissenters, notica of, 732, and 
note. 

Noneonfonmsit^ why opposed to the 
bishops. 34, and joined to the pariia- 
ment, ib. 35. Their views after the 
Restoration, 172. Conduct of Charles 
1 1 . towards them , t^. They have an 
interview with him, 173—175. Re- 
marks thereon, 176. They are re- 
quired to draw up proposals concern- 
ing church-government, 177. Which 
thev present to the king, 178, 179. 
His' reply to them, 179, 180. Meet- 
ing of Nonconformist ministers with 
Charles to hear his declaration, 181, 
182. They have a meeting with 
some bishops, 183. Petition the 
kiu^, iA,— 185. Who alters his 
declaration, 186 — 188. Clarendon's 
account of their conduct, 189, 190. 
Exposure of its inaccuracy and un- 
fairness, 190—192. Accpunt of the 
king's offer to make some of them 
bishops, 193—195. Remarks there- 
on, 197. Account of their proceed- 
ings at the Savoy conference, 200— 
212. Observations on it, 212, 213. 
Two thousand Nonconformist minis- 
ters ejected by the Act of Uniformity, 
229. Their character and conduct 
vindicated, 230—233. InjusUce and 
cruelty of the act exposed, 233, 234. 
Its injurious effects, 235. Remarks 
on their jealousy of the Roman Ca- 
tholics, 241. Severe act against 
their holdhi;^ private meetings, 246, 
247. Its eiafects upon the people, 
247. Censures of the Nonconformists 
against their ministers, 248. De- 
voted labours of the silenced Non- 
conformist ministers in London dor- 
lug the plague, 255, 256. The Five- 
TD^\ft KsX ^^&\^^ ^i^inst them, 257. 



INDfiX. 



815 



Which is connived at» 267, 268. Ac- 
coQDt of the eflbrtt mode by the 
Lord Keeper and others to procure 
compreheosion for the Nonconform- 
ittf, 268-^70. Efforts of Arch- 
bishop Sheldon to crush them, 271. 
Many of them imprisoned, 272. The 
Nonconformist ministers present an 
address to the kini^, ik. Its recep- 
tion, 273. They are assailed from 
the press, 273, 274. Charies II. 
connives at their toleration, 292 — 
294. Their procecdini^ in relation 
to the Icing's dispensing declaration, 
297. Proeeedinrs of the aspiring 
Conformists against them, 304. Per- 
secution against them renewed by 
order of Charies II., 322, 323. Their 
oppressed situation between 1676 
and 1681, 335, and at the dose of 
Charles If.'s reign, 355* Mr. Pox's 
remarks on the conduct of the court 
towards the Nonconfbrmists, 356, 
357. Observations thereon, 357, 358. 
Nonconf&mwhf defined, 614, 615. Ob- 
servations on the history of Noncon- 
formity, 615 — 620. Some principles 
of Nonconformity adoptea by Mr. 
Baxter, 20. Analysis, with remarks, 
of his various works on Noncon- 
formity : of the * Account of the Pro- 
ceedings at the Savoy Conference,' 
620, 621. This treatise never an- 
swered, 622. * Sacrilegious Deser- 
tion of the Ministry Rebuked,' 622. 
Notice of Dr. Fulwood's reply to this 
treatise, <^. 623. * The Judgment of 
NoDCouformists concerning the Of- 
fice of Reason in Religion,' 623. 
■ DiflTerenee between Grace and Mo- 
rali^r,' ib. < About Things Indiffer- 
ent,^ <»4 * About Things Sinful,' ib. 
* What Mere Nonconformity is not,' 
t5. Observations on these several 
tracts, t5., 624. The * Noncon- 
formist's Plea for Peace,' 624—626. 
Reply to it, by Mr. Cheney, 727. 
Second part of the * Plea,' 627. De- 
fence of it, 628. Attack of it 6y Dr. 
Stillingfleet» <6., 62i^« Answer of 
Baxter to his charge of separation, 

631. Stillingfleet's reply in his < Un- 
reasonableness of Separation , iA. 63 1 , 

632. Baxter's * Third Defence ' no- 
ticed, 632. His further answer to 
Stiliingfieet, 633, 634. Various sup- 
porters of Stillingfleet, 634, 635. 
Baxter's 'Search for the English 
Schismatic,' 635, 636. « Treatise of 
Episcopacy,' 636, 637. ' Apology for 
the Nobcoofbrroist's Ministry J 637, 
638. 'EaglisbNonconformil^ Truly 
Stated/ 638, 639. Remarks on these 
tMrh^ pMkntioa^ 639, 640* 



North (Lord Keeper), character of, 
350, note «. 

JVye (Mr.) endeavours to perfaade 
Mr. Baxter to accept Charles ll.'s 
declaratioQ of indulgence, 241. 



O. 



Oaiet (Titus), and the popish plot 
discovered by him, 328—330. His 
character, 330, note «. 
Oaths, profligate disregard of, by 
Chkries II., 172, and tude '. Oath «e- 
quir«Ml by the Five-mileAet, and obser- 
vations on it, 257, 258. Lord Keener 
Bridgman's construcdon of it^ w9. 
It is token by Dr. Bates, a. Oath 
reqnired by the bishops' Test Acty8|5. 
Oeeasionai CM W Stt tt m, discuisians 
among the Nonoonforttiists respect- 
ing. 251^ 252. 
(Hwo's (Thomas) « Defence of Min- 
isterial Conformity/ notiee of, 733. 
Ormmd (Duke of), notke of, 164, 

note*, 
Orrtry (Earl of), see Bro^hUi* 
Orton'M (Rev. Job) character of 9*x- 
ter's writings, 773. Remarks on 
Kippis's parallel between Baxter and 
Orton, 772i 
Otbome (Sir Thomas), see Danhy. 
Overton's (Richard) treatise on < Man's 
Mortallitie,'answered by Mr. Baxter, 
436. 
Owen (Rev. Dr.), controversy of Mr* 
Baxter with, on the terms of agree- 
ment among Christians, 284. Att4 
on catholic communion, 606-*608, 
610. Supposed address of Owen to 
the disputers on this subject, 6M» 
Owen (Mr. Johe), one of Baxter's 

tutors, character of, 4. 
OxoHdon^sireetf a chapel erected in, 
for Mr. Baxter, 311. It is offered to 
Di*. Lioyd, vicar of St. Martin's in 
the Fields, 326. Its subsequent Ms- 
tory, <6., note K 
Oxford, act of parliament passed at, 
against the Noneenfomists, 257* 



P. 

Pmckingrt9n (Sir John), notice of, 2ifk 
Intercepu a letter of Mr. Baxter's. 
222. 

Pagki's (Ephraim) Heresiography, 
notice of, 96, note, 

* Paraphrme on the New Testament,' 
origin and object of, 749, 750. Ex- 
tracte from, on which Mr. Baxter 
was indicted for sedition, 363, 364, 
note. Why it cQUt«A^% tu^ «vv^i&e^«^^ 
of the VxMk ^1 ^eu«<ii^ioeiaM^'%^i^^^>^^* 

r«rliMMii«, te«iia ^^ xiVi \ ytf inai »A 






816 



Index. 



by tbe accession of the Puritans, 32 
--34. Its cause, why embraced by 
Baxter, 37, 38. Remarks on his 
treatment of tbe Parliament^ 111, 
112. Cromwell's conduct towards 
the Parliament, 137—140. Charac- 
ter of Cromwell's Parliament, 138, 
- note ^, Their proceedings with re- 
ptrd to the maintenance of minis- 
ters, 139, and note. Their apprehen- 
sions of, and opposition to, Pupery, 
289, 299, 300. Oppose the Duke of 
York's raarryiuij^ a popish princess, 
301. Prorogued by Charles II., 302. 
Proceedings of, against Lauderdale 
and Lord Danby, 312, 313. Their 
. proceedings on re-assembling, t^. 
Debates in Parliament on the bishops' 
Test act, 314. 316. Disputes be- 
tween the Lords and Commons re- 
•pecting privileges, 315. The Long 
Parliament dissolved by Charles II., 
332. A new one called, and the Ex- 
clusion bill passed by the House of 
Commons, ib. But lost in the 
. House of Lords, 333. Prorogation 
of this Parliament, and resolutions of 
the House of Commons, t6. 

Passive obedience, doctrine of, asserted 
by Mr. Baxter, 549. Observations 
on the principles and writings of 
some of the clergy on this subject, 
550, 551. 

Patience, account of Mr. 'Baxter's 
treatise on, 524, 525. 

Peace of Conscience , publication of 
Mr. Baxter's * Right Method ' for, 
513. Extract from the dedication of 
it to Colonel Bridges, ib., 514. And 
to the poor in spirit, 515, 516. Cha- 
racter of this treatise, 515. 

Peirce (Dr.) , conduct of, at the Savoy 
conference, 211, 212, and note S 
Vindicates Grotius, and attacks Mr. 
Baxter, 643, 644. Notice of his 
* New Discoverer Discovered,' 646. 

* Penitent On^ession ' of Baxter, notice 
of, 723, 726. And of iu assailants, 
724, 725. 

Penn (William), controversy with 
Baxter, 319, aud note, 

Perkins's (William) < Golden Chain,' 
notice of, 543. 

Perseveiutnce of the saints, analysis of 
Mr. Baxter's < Thoughts ' ou, 460. 

Pettit' s (Edw&rd) 'Visions of Govern- 
ment,' and attacks on Baxter, notice 
of, 711, 712,.no/e". 

Pinner's Hall, Mr. Ikixter preaches at, 
298. Account of the lectures there, 
328. 

PUiSfue of London* ravages o\, Yo\. 
Mr. Baxter*s rcfteclvou* oiv '\X, ^*l> 
253. Prcacbiug ol xiie'tioucotklotvii 



,i8t ministers to the iDbmbitaote oTy 
255, 256. Notices of works respect- 
ing it, 256, note '. 

Poe^r^ (Latin) of Mr. Baxter, specimen 
of, 471. And of his Eng^lish poetry^ 
with remarks, 524, 755—759. 

Political affairs, tlie conduct of minis- 
ters respecting, considered, 702. 
Analysis of Baxter's Political Works, 
703-715. 

Pollexfen (Mr.), argument of« for Mr. 
Baxter, 365. Ju^e Jefferies* treat- 
ment of him, ib,, 366. 

' Poor AtcaCs Family Book* analysis 
of, with remarks, 559—561. Inter- 
esting anecdote of this work,561,562. 

Popery t apprehensions of the bishops 
and their agents concerning, 2tf9. 
Dread of the nation against it, 299, 
300. Public fast against Popery, 302. 
Baxter's prayer for deliverance from 
Popery, 658. Observations on it at 
the time he wrote, 621. 642. Analy- 
sis, with remarks, of his works 
against Popery : — * The Safe Reli- 
gion,' 642, 643. < A Wiudiug-Sheet 
for Popery,' 643. < Grotian Religion 
Discovered,' 643. Controversy to 
which it gave rise, 644—648. < Key 
for Catholics,' 648. • Successive 
Visibility of the Church,' aud con- 
troversy with Johnson respecting it, 
649,650. * Fair Warning; or. Twen- 
ty-five Reasons against Toleration of 
Popery,' 650, 651. * Difference be- 
tween tbe Power of Church Pastors 
aud the Roman Kingdom,' 651. * The 
Certainty of Christianity without 
Popery,''652. * Full aud easy Satis- 
faction which is the true Religion,' 
ib., 653. * Christ, not the Pope, the 
Head of the Church.' 654. < Roman 
Tradition examined,' ib, * Naked 
Popery,' ib. Controversy with Hutch- 
iuson respecting it, t6.,655. ' Which 
is the true Church?* ib. Contro- 
versy with Dodwell, ib., 656. * Dis- 
sent' from Dr. Sherlock,' t6. * An- 
swer to Dodwell*s Letter calling for 
more Answers,' ib, * Against Revolt 
to a Foreign Jurisdiction,' 657. 
* The Protesunt Religion truly Suted 
and Justified,' ib., 658. ' 0»>senra- 
tions on the zeal of Protestant Dis- 
senters against Popery,' 658, 659. 
Pup<!ry tho Originator of Antinomi- 
anism, 66], 662. 

Pordage (Dr.), notice of the tenets of, 
92, and note *. 

Presbyterians, Mr. Baxter's account of 

the tenets of, 74, 75, 81. Remarks 

>^«t%«\i>l^>i^>. Viisvss^^C the Pres- 



IKDlbt. tilV 



PrdfessioHf Cbristiab, obdeiVfttious od, 
582, 583. 

Piynne (William) » biog^p&ical notice 
of, 25, 26, note «. 

Psalm, the twenty-third, versified by 
Baxter, 758. 

PulpU in which Mr. Baxter preached, 
notice of, 135, note "». Observations 
00 the style best adapted for the pul- 
pil,491. 

Puritans, treatment of, before and at 
the commencement of the civil wars, 
30 — 32. The garb of, assumed by 
Romish priests, for the purpose of 
propagatinff sedition, 642, note, 

Pym (John}, character of, 737. 

QfiokerSf Mr. Baxter's account of the 
tenets of, 90, 91. Remarks on it, 
91, noiie^. Their sufferings under 
the bill ag^nst private meetings, 
248, and note, Ijieir conduct to- 
wak-ds Baxter, 690, Remarks on it» 
ib. ' The Worcestershire Petition ' 
against them, ib. The petition de- 
fended by Baxter, 691. Who pub- 
lishes the * Quaker's Catechism,' 
693. Specimen of his questions to 
them, ib,, 694. Notice of his « Sin- 
gle Sheets' relating to them, ib. 
Controversy with Wuliam Penn, on 
the principles of Quakerism, 695. 



R. 



Banters, notice of the tenets of, 89, 90. 

Read (Kev. Joseph), account of the 
impnsonment of, 323. 

< Reasons of the Christian Religion,* 
view of Mr. Baxter's treatise on, 
429—432. Account of « More Rea- 
sons for the Christian Religion, and 
no Reason against it,' 432, 433. 

Redempiion, Mr. Baxter's sentiments 
on the extent of, 477. 

* Reformed Pastor,* analysis of, with 

remarks, 554—558. Notice of abridg- 
ments of this treatise, 558. Dr. 
Doddridge's recommendation of it, 
559. 
Religion, low state of, at the time of 
Mr. Baxter's birth, 2. State of, be- 
fore and at the commencement of the 
civil wars, 29— 32. State of religious 
narties from 1646 to 1656, 68—98. 
Improved state of religion duriog the 
Commonwealth, 153, 154. 

* Reliquia Raxteriamt,* character of, 

726. Imperfectly edited by Sylves- 
ter, 727. Observations on it, 728, 
729. Calamys accouut of this pub- 
licatioa and of its reception^ 729— 






731, tiotic« of his abridgment oif 
it, ^nd pf the controversy to which it 
gave rise, 731—733. 

R^&raiion of Charles tl. account oL 
i57_|59. Remarks thereon, 162, 163. 

Revelation (Book of), Mr. Baxter's 
reasons for not writing an exposition 
of, 750, 751. 

Revolution of 1688, notice of, 392. 

Reynolds (Dr. Edward) accepts the 
bishoprick of Norwich, 198. Obser- 
vations on bis conduct, ib, note '. 

Rich (Robert;, second Earl of War« 
wick), character of» 144, noto. 

Rogers (John), a Fif^-monarcby man, 
notice of, 705. note ^, 

Rogers (Sir William) , minister of featon 
Constantine, notice of, 2—4. 

Roman Catholics, jealousy of th6.Noii<^ 
' conformists a^nst, 241. Proofs that 
their priests disguised themselves as 
Puritans, 642. note. 

Rosewell (Rev. Thomas), trial of, on a 
charge for high-treason, 352, 353^ 
its result, 353. 

Rotherham (Mr.), argument of in be- 
half of Mr. Baxter, 367. 

Roundhead, origin of the term, 35, 
note ^. 

Runuf' Parliament, put down by Crom- 
weU. 137. 

Rpves (Dr.), minister of Acton, con- 
duct of, towards Mr. Baxter, 277 » 
278. Causes him to be sent to pri- 
son, 278, 279. 



S. 



Sacraments, analysis of Mr. Baxter's 
< Disputations' on the rieht to, 564. 
Notice of Mr. Mopce's observations 
on it, 585; and of Mr. Baxter's senti- 
ments respecting them, id, 

' Saint or a Brute,* ex^ct from Mr* 
Baxter's dedication of, Sk)7, 508« 
Remarks on this treatise, 508. 

< Saints Everlasting i2efl,' occasion of, 
735. Baxter's reasons for omitting 
the names of Brook, Pym, and Hamp- 
den, in the later editions of this trea- 
tise, 736. Beautiful quotations from 
it, 760—762. Description, charac- 
ter, and usefulness of this work, 740, 
741. It is attacked by Giles Firmin« 
741, and defended by Baxter, ib. 
Character of Mr. Fawcett's abridg- 
ment of it, 740. 

Saltmarsh, biographical notice of, 668, 
and note. 

Sanderson (Dr.), bishop of Lincoln^ 
couduct of, at the Savoy Conference^ 
2lO,a\idnote*. 

Saravia l^t. k^\«iA^) \io>2«fe ^\% 'a^ 
fiote*. 

3g 



818 



INDEX. 



Sannnf Conferencei m royal commission 
issued for holding, 199,200. History 
of the proceedings at it, 200*212. 
Remarks thereon, 212, 213. 

Sawyer (Sir Robert), character of, 350, 
note^. 

Schoolmen^ Mr. Baxter's opinion of, 
531. Character of some of their 
works, 541. 

Scotch Prethyteriam, oppression of, 
331, and note ^ 

Seddon (Mr.), imprisonment of for 
preaching, 320. Is liberated by 
Baxter, tS. 

Seekers, notice of the tenets of, 89. 

Selden (John) , anecdotes of, and note '. 

Self 'Denial f analysis of Mr. Baxter's 
treatise on, 522 — 524. Extract from 
the dedication of it, 520—522. 

SKarpe (Rev. John, afterwards arch- 
bisnop of St. Andrews), notice of, 
169, and note <*. 

Shaw (Rev. Samuel), anecdote of, 265, 
note, 

Sheldon (Dr.) , bishop of London, cha- 
racter of. 209, fiote 245. His pro- 
ceedings at the Savoy Conference, 
200—209. Succeeds to the see of 
Canterltury, 245< Promotes the 
passing of the Five-mile act, 257. 
Which he rigorously enforces, 259. 
His efforts to crush the Nonconfor- 
mists, 271. 285. 315, note s. 

Shepherd (Mr. Serjeant), notice of Mr. 
Baxter's reply tu, on faith, 462. 

Slieppard^s (Mr.) Divine Origin of 
Christianity, character of, 442, note, 

Sherlock (Dr.) , suspected of instigating 
the prosecution of Mr. Baxter, 363 — 
374. Notice of his defences of Stil- 
lingfleet against Baxter, 634 ; and of 
Baxter's ' Account of his Dissent 
from Dr. Sherlock,* 656. 

Smart (Peter), notice of, 25, note •». 

South (Dr.), anecdote of, 715, note, 

Southampton (Earl), noble opposition 
of, to the passing of the I'ive-mile 
act, 257, and note. 

Southey*s (Mr.) account of the Act of 
Uniformity, misstatements of expos- 
ed, 236, note. 

Sfilsbury (Mr. Francis), a successor of 
Baxter, at Kidderminster, notice of, 
134. 

Spirits: — Account of Mr. Baxter's trea- 
tise on the ' Certainty of the World 
of Spirits,' 437—440. 

Sprigge*s * Anglia Rediviva,' character 
of, 44, note. His character uf the 
parliamentary army, 5.'^ Notice of 
his sermons, 85, 86, and note '. 

Sterne (Dr.), bishop o( Carlkle, con- 
duct of, at iVie Savo'j Co\A<tttuc^, 
210^211. 



Steny (Peter), Mr. Baxter's cbaneter 
of, 85, 86, note 4. Remarks oo ^ al. 

Stillingfleei (Dr.), zealous dforts ti, 
against Po^ry, 301, 302. . Cbaraclcr 
of his * Origines Sacrae/ 441. His 
vindication of Baxter from the charge 
of leaning towards SociDianism, 47€» 
Notice of his * Irenicum,' 628, nele. 
Observations on bis ' Mischief of Se- 
paration,' 628, 629. He is answefed 
by Baxter, 629. Publishes his < Ua- 
reasonableness of Separatioo,* afr., 
630. Baxter's reply to it, 633, 634. 
Notice of some of Stiliingflcet's de- 
fenders, 634, 635. 

Stonehouse*s (Sir James) character of 
Baxter's * Dying Thoughtt,' 747, 
note, 

Stubbs (Henry), a partisan of Sir Heniy 
Vane, character of, 87, and note ', SSL 
Notice of his writings, 705, note *. 

Stubbs (Rev. Henry), biographical ac- 
count of, 337. Notice of Mr.Bsx- 
ter's funeral sermon on him, 338. 

Style of Mr. Baxter, remarks on, 788. 

Subscription^ Mr. Baxter's opinion oa, 
605. Notice of his * Sense of tbe 
subscribed Articles of the Church of 
England,' 393—396. 611. 

Swallow-street^ chapel erected in, for 
Mr. Baxter, 325. He is forcibly kept 
out of it, t6. Subsequent history of 
the church there, 325, note s. 

Sylvester (Mr.), his account of Mr. 
Baxter's preaching for him, 398. 
And of his last sickness and death, 
401, 402. Vindication of bis me- 
mory from slander, 403. Descrip- 
tion of his character and person, 
405, 406. Observations on his edi- 
tion of * Reliquis Baxteriaos,' 727. 

SymondSf notices of some Nonconfor- 
mist ministers of that name, 17, 
note ". 

Systematic Theology, observations on, 
538 — 542. Notice of tbe svstems of 
Calvin, 542. Of Perkins, 543. And 
of Usher and Leigh, ib. 



T. 



Taylor (Colonel Silvan us), biographi- 
cal notice of, 327, note. 

Taylor (Bishop), observations of, on 
tlie paucity of casuistical books 
among the reformed churches, 545, 
note. His < Ductur Dubitaiiiium' 
compared with Baxter's ' Christian 
Directory,' 552. 

Test ^ct, proceedings relative to the 
passing of, 300, 301. 

TKeoU^coX VAXevoibure of Baxter's 



INDEX. 



819 



T'hwmhoroiu^h (Bishop), notice of, 18, 
and m>it, 

TUenus (Daniel), biof^phical notice 
of, 645, note j. HiB name assumed 
by Bishop Womack, in his attacks 
upon the Paritans, 645. 

JVloUon (Archbishop) , correspondence 
of Baxter with, on the subject of his 
court sermon, 629, 630. His opinion 
of Baxter and Dodwell, 656, note. 
Dedication of Baxter's treatise 
' Against Revolt to a Foreign Juris- 
diction,' 657. 

TolertUUm of Popery, opposed by Bax- 
ter, 650, 65 1 . Account of the passing 
of the Toleration Act, 392, 393. Mr. 
Baxter's sense of certain articles of 
religion required to be subscribed by 
it, 393— 396. 

Tonibes (John), origin of his contro- 
versy with Mr. Baxter, on the sub- 
jects and modes of baptism, 681. 
Account of their conference, 682, 
683. Notice of Tombes's < Antidote 
against the Venom ' of Baxter, 683. 
And of the reply of the latter in his 
' Plain Scripture Proof of Infants' 
Church-Membership,' 684, 685. Of 
Tombes's * Precursor/ and ' Anti- 
pedobaptism,' 685, 686. And of 
Baxter's ' More Proof of Infant 
Church-Membership,' 687. 

Tomkin* (Thomas), an opponent of 
Mr. Baxter, notice of, 7 1 1. 

Tongue (Dr. Israel), biographical no- 
tice of, 329, note ^ 

Totteridge, residence of Mr. Baxter at, 
283. 

Tinal of Mr. Rosewell for high-treason, 
352, 353. And of Mr. Baxter on a 
charge of sedition, 359 — 370. 

Triers, character of the assembly or 
committee of, 140, 141. 

Tully*s (Dr.) attack on Mr. Baxter 
upon justification, notice of, 463, 464. 



U. 



CTnt/ormt^y , Act of , 239. Its impolicy, 
230 — 233. Injustice and cruelty, 
233, 234. Its injurious effects, 235. 
Mr. Southey's misstatements re- 
specting it, exposed, 236, note. 

Union, of the early Christians, 573. 
Causes of separation, 574. Means of 
promoting re-union, i6., 575. 

* Unreasonableness of Infidelity ^ dedi- 
cation of, to Lord Broghill, 422, 
423. Intended as a reply to Clement 
Writer, 423. Its plan and arrange- 
ment, 424. Five observations ou 
miracles, 424 — 426. And on the 
SpirWa testimony to the Gospel, 426 
427. 



Usher (Archbishop) perfuades Mr. 
Baxter to write his treatise on Con- 
version, 492. Notice of his system 
of divinity, 543. 



V. 



Fane (Sir Henry), and the Vanistt^ 
Mr. Baxter's account of, 85—89. 
Remarks on it, 89, note. 

Vomghan (Lord Chief Justice), charac- 
ter of, 292, note ". Opinion of, on 
Mr. Baxter's mittimus, 282. His 
opinion against the fining of jury- 
men, 292. 

Venner*s Insurrection, account of, 222, 
and note, 

Filliers, see BucMngham (Duke of). 

Fincent (Rev. Thomas), labours of, in 
London, during the plague, 256, and 
note'i. 

W. 

fFalker's (James) * Account of the 
Sufferings of the Clergy,' character 
of 732. 

talking' mth God, felicity of, 744, 
745. 

fFallis (Dr. John^, an antagonist of 
Baxter, notice or, 445, 446. 

fFallop (Mr.), arguments of, in behalf 
of Mr. Baxter, 367. 

Ward (Seth, bishop of Salisbury), 
biographical notice of, 290, note. 
He prevents the passing of a compre- 
hension act, 270. His activity against 
the Nonconformists, 290, and note^ 
291. 

Warmestry, (Dr.), dean of Worcester, 
preaches against Mr. Baxter, 227. 

Wamej- (John), an opponent of Mr, 
Baxter, notice of, 461, and note ^. 

Warren, (John) an opponent of Baxter, 
notice of, 445. 

Webster*s (John) « Displaying of 
Witchcraft,' notice of, 439, 440, 
note. 

Westminster Assembly^ see Assembly 
of Divines. 

Whalley (Colonel), why engaged to 
Cromwell, 47. Receives Mr. Baxter 
as chaplain to his regiment, 49. 
Character of it, 49 — 52. Notice of 
the colonel, 455. Dedication of 
Baxter's < Apology ' to him, 453, 454. 

White (Thomas), a Catholic priest, 
notice of, 704, note •. 

Wickstead (Richard), one of Baxter's 
tutors, notice of, 4. 

Wight (Isle of), .account of the treaty 
of, with Charles, V<\^— V\l . 



m 



INDiX. 



JTtlAtM ][Dr.Jobb),bUhop6fChefter, 
chaHU;ter of, 370, sm/c *. His cfaa- 
nctelr of Mr. Baiter, 770. 

9fUUam III., Toleration Act of, and 
remarks oo it, 392, 393. 

ffMUams (Dr. DaHiel), opposea Anti. 
numiaoiim, 674. 

ff^Ueherafi and apparitioni, remarlcs 
on, 439. 

ff^maek's (Biiliop) ' Examii&ation of 
TlleniM before the Trien,* notice of, 
645, 646. And of hit * Arcana 
Dopnatum Anti-Remonitrantiam,' 
646 

fForeesUr, battle of, 113, 114. 

l^rMlenJUre Jlliiii^«,agreement of; 



its detlpi^ 577, 578. AiMs tf 
their asreemeDt for catechisin|, 9L 
miter (Clement), notice of, 4fl, 
iMe«. Mr. Baxter's *UnreHOBsU»- 
ness of Infidelity,' deaipaed as a i^ 
to him, 423. 

Y. 

I^ft(t>ncbest of), becomes a fl|te, 

289,iM«f. 
YoMig^ MeHt Mr* Baxter'^ compasuoa- 

ate counsel to, noticed, 567. 
i%«i^*f « Antl-Baxterian«/ noliceof, 

731* His irirulent epitaph on Bsx- 

tar, 729,iial^. 



MUVi) lQ^%\X>«>*LMV\\%<^Vf^a\ws'^'^'^•^^'«*>^^^f^«^^^ 



V