He afterwards returned to Kidderminster, and resumed the work of his ministry. He hindered, as far as it was in his power, the taking of the covenant, he preached and spoke publicly against the engagement, and therefore it is very unjust to brand him, as some have done, as a trumpeter of rebellion.* When the army was marching to oppose King Charles II. at the head of the Scots, Mr. Baxter took pains, both by speaking and writing, to remind the soldiers of their duty, and to dissuade them from fighting against their brethren and fellow-subjects. After this, when Cromwell assumed the supreme power, he was not afraid to express his disaffection to his tyranny, though he did not think himself obliged to preach politics from the

*To enter into all the gross things that have been said of Mr. Baxter by his enemies, would take up more room than we have employed in writing his life. It is sufficient to note their names, and the pieces they have wrote, viz. Mr. Crandon in his book against Mr. Baxter's Aphorisms; Mr. Young's Vindicia Anti-Baxterianæ, 1696, 12mo; Mr. Long's Review of Mr. Baxter's Life, 1697, 8vo. adding, as a specimen, the following speech put into the mouth of President Bradshaw in hell, who, in deciding on the merits of Mr. Hobbs, Mr. Nevill, and Mr. Baxter, is made to speak of the last thus: "If he, whose faith is faction, whose religion is rebellion, whose prayers are spells, whose piety is magic, whose purity is the gall of bitterness, who ⚫ can cant and recant, and cant again; who can transform himself, into as many shapes as Lucifer, (who is never more a devil than when an angel of light) and, like him, (who, proud of his perfections, first rebelled in heaven) proud of his imaginary graces, pretends to rule and govern, and consequently rebel on earth, be the greatest politi cian; then make room for Mr. Baxter: Let him come in, and be ' crowned with wreaths of serpents and chaplets of adders : Let his triumphant chariot be a pulpit drawn on the wheels of cannon, by a brace of wolves in sheeps' clothing: Let the ancient fathers of the church, whom out of ignorance he has vilified; the reverend and learned prelates, whom out of pride and malice he has abused, belied, and persecuted; the most righteous king, whose murder, (I speak my own ⚫ and his sense) contrary to the light of all religion, laws, reason, and ⚫ conscience, he has justified, then denied, then again and again justified: let them all be bound in chains, to attend his infernal triumph to his Saints' Everlasting Rest. Then make room, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, atheists, and politicians, for the greatest rebel on earth, and next to him that fell from heaven.' But, it is certain that no man made more warm pretensions to loyalty than Mr. Baxter did, who had the courage to tell the Protector, Cromwell, to his face, that the old English monarchy was a blessing. He was at the desire of King Charles II. appointed one of his chaplains, and had some share of royal favour as long as the king lived. But what seems to put this matter out of all question is this, that, after the severe treatment be met with in the reign of King James, which might easily have soured his spirit, and after the Revolution, when he was under no necessity of keeping terms, he disclaimed all such sentiments, declaring positively, that throughout the whole civil war he was always for the king and parlia ment, and never against the king's person, power, or prerogative.

but

the pulpit. Once indeed he preached before Cromwell, but neither did he in that sermon flatter, nor, in a conference he had with him afterwards, did he express either affection to his person, or submission to his power, quite the contrary.* He came to London a little before the deposition of Richard Cromwell. At that time Mr. Baxter was looked upon as a friend to monarchy, and with reason, for, being chosen to preach before the parliament on the 30th of April 1660, which was the day preceding that on which they voted the king's return, he maintained, that loyalty to their prince was a thing essential to all true protestants, of whatever persuasion. About the same time likewise he was chosen to preach a thanksgiving sermon at St. Paul's, for General Monk's success; and yet some have been so bold as to maintain, that he attempted to dissuade his excellency from concurring in, or rather from bringing about, that happy change.

*The Earl of Warwick and the Lord Broghill were the persons who drew him to preach before the Protector, and the words he made choice of were these: Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. He levelled his discourse against the divi sions and distractions of the church, shewing 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 offend them. A while after Cromwell sent to speak with him, and when he came he had only three of his chief men with him. He began a long and tedious speech to him 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 continued speaking thus about an hour, Mr. Baxter told him, it was too great condescension to acquaint him so fully with all those matters, which were above him; but that the honest people of the land took their ancient monarchy to be a blessing and not an evil, and humbly craved his patience, that he might ask him how they had forfeited that blessing, and unto whom this forfeiture was made? Upon that question he was awakened into some passion, and told him there was no forfeiture, but God had changed it as pleased him; and then he let fly at the parliament, which thwarted him, and especially, by name at four or five members, which were Mr. Baxter's chief acquaintance, whom he presumed to defend against the Protector's passion. And thus were four or five hours spent, though to little purpose. Some time afterwards the Protector sent for him again, under pretence of asking his judgment about liberty of conscience, at which time also he made a long tedious speech himself, which took up so much time, that Mr. Baxter desired to offer his seutiments in writing, which he did; but, he says, he questions whether Cromwell read them. We have also a character of Cromwell drawn by the pen of our Author, which, though too long to be inserted here, is one of the most just and impartial that we have of that very extraordinary man.

change. After the Restoration he became one of the King's chaplains in ordinary, preached before him once, and had frequent access to his royal person, and was always treated by him with peculiar respect. At the Savoy conferences, Mr. Baxter assisted as one of the commissioners, and then drew up the reformed liturgy. He was offered the bishopric of Hereford, by the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, which he refused to accept, for reasons which he rendered in a respectful letter to his Lordship. Yet even then he would willingly have returned to his beloved town of Kidderminster, and have preached in the low state of a curate. But this was then refused him, though the Lord Chancellor took pains to have him settled there as he desired.

When he found himself thus disappointed, he preached occasionally about the city of London, sometimes for Dr. Bates at St. Dunstan's in the West, and sometimes in other places, having a licence from Bishop Sheldon, upon his subscribing a promise, not to preach any thing against the doctrine or ceremonies of the church. The last time he preached in public was on the 15th day of May 1662, a farewell sermon at Blackfriars. He afterwards retired to Acton in Middlesex, where he went every Lord's day to the public church, and spent the rest of the day with his family, and a few poor neighbours that came in to him. In 1665, when the plague raged, he went to Richard Hampden's, Esq. in Buckinghamshire, and returned to Acton when it was over. He staid there as long as the act against conventicles continued in force, and when that was expired, he had so many auditors that he wanted room. Hereupon, by a warrant signed by two justices, he was committed for six months to New Prison jail, but got an habeas corpus, and was released and removed to Totteridge near Barnet.* At this place he lived quietly and with

out

In this affair, as Mr. Baxter met with some hardship in the commitment, so he experienced the sincerity of many of his best friends, who on this occasion stuck by him very steadily. As he was carried to prison, he called upon Serjeant Fountain to ask his advice, who, when he had perused the mittimus, gave it as his opinion, that he might be discharged from his imprisonment by law. The Earl of Orrery, the Earl of Manchester, the Earl of Arlington, and the Duke of Buckingham, mentioned the affair to the King, who was pleased to send Sir John Baber to him, to let him know, that though his majesty was not willing to relax the law, yet he would not be offended, if by any application to the courts in Westminster Hall he could procure his liberty; upon this a habeas corpus was demanded at the bar of the common-pleas, and granted. The judges were clear in their opinion, that the mittimus was insufficient, and thereupon discharged him. This exasperated the

justices

out disturbance. The king was resolved to make some concessions to the dissenters in Scotland, and the Duke of Lauderdale, by his order, acquainted Mr. Baxter, that if he would take this opportunity of going into that kingdom, he should have what preferment he would there; which he declined on account of his own weakness and the circumstances of his family. His opinion however was taken on the scheme for settling church disputes in that country. In 1671, Mr. Baxter lost the greatest part of his fortune by the shutting up of the king's exchequer, in which he had a thousand pounds. After the indulgence in 1672, he returned into the city, and was one of the Tuesday lecturers at Pinner's Hall, and had a Friday lecture at Fetter Lane; but on the Lord's days, he for some time preached only occasionally, and afterwards more statedly in St. James's market-house, where in 1674 he had a wonderful deliverance, by almost a miracle, from a crack in the floor. He was apprehended as he was preaching his lecture at Mr. Turner's, but soon released, because the warrant was not, as it ought to have been, signed by a city justice. The times seeming to grow more favourable, he built a meeting-house in Oxendon Street, where he preached but once before a resolution was taken to surprise and send him to the county jail on the Oxford act, which misfortune he luckily escaped; but the person who preached for him was committed to the Gatehouse, and continued there three months, Having been kept out of his new meeting-house a whole year, he took another in Swallow Street, but was likewise prevented from using that, a guard being fixed there for many Sundays together, to hinder him from coming into it. On Mr. Wadsworth's dying, Mr. Baxter preached to his congregation in Southwark for many months. When Dr. Llyod succeeded Dr. Lamplugh in St. Martin's parish, Mr. Baxter made him an offer of the chapel he had built in Oxendon Street, for public worship, which was very kindly accepted. In 1682,

justices who committed him, and therefore they made a new mittimus, in order to have him sent to the county jail of Newgate, which he avoided by keeping out of the way. The whole of this persecution is said to have been owing to the particular pique of Dr. Bruno Rives, Dean of Windsor and of Wolverhampton, rector of Haselly and of Acton, and one of the King's chaplains in ordinary. The reason that he pushed this matter so far was, because Mr. Baxter had preached in his parish of Acton, which he fancied some way reflected upon him, because Mr. Baxter had always a large audience, though in truth this was in a great measure owing to the imprudence of the dean, whose curate was a weak man, and too great a frequenter of alehouses.

1682, he suffered more severely than he had ever done on account of his nonconformity. One day he was suddenly surprized in his house by many constables and officers, who apprehended him upon a warrant to seize his person, for coming within five miles of a corporation, producing at the same time five more warrants, to distrain for one hundred and ninety-five pounds for five sermons. Though he was much out of order, being but just risen from his bed, where he had been in extremity of pain, he was contentedly going with them to a justice, to be sent to jail, and left his house to their will. But Dr. Thomas Cox, meeting him as he was going, forced him again into his bed, and went to five justices and took his oath, that he could not go to prison without danger of death. Upon this the justices delayed till they had consulted the king, who consented that his imprisonment should be for that time forborne, that he might die at home. But they executed their warrants on the books and goods in the house, though he made it appear they were none of his, and they sold even the bed which he lay sick upon. Some friends paid them as much money as they were appraised at, and he repaid them. And all this was without Mr. Baxter's having the least notice of any accusation, or receiving any summons to appear and answer for himself, or ever seeing the justices or accusers; and afterwards he was in constant danger of new seizures, and thereupon he was forced to leave his house, and retire into private lodgings..

Things continued much in the same way during the year 1683, and Mr. Baxter remained in great obscurity, however, not without receiving a remarkable testimony of the sincere esteem, and great confidence, which a person of remarkable piety, though of another persuasion, had towards him: The Rev. Mr. Thomas Mayot, a beneficed clergyman in the church of England, who had devoted his estate to charitable uses, gave by his last will £600 to be distributed by Mr. Baxter to sixty poor ejected ministers, adding, that he did it not because they were nonconformists, but because many such were poor and pious. But the king's attorney, Sir Robert Sawyer, sued for it in the chancery, and the Lord-keeper, North, gave it all to the king. It was paid into the chancery by order, and, as Providence directed it, there kept safe, till King William the Third ascended the throne, when the commissioners of the great seal restored it to the use for which it was intended by the deceased, and Mr. Baxter disposed of it accordingly. In the following year, 1684, Mr. Baxter

fell