not then so sensible as afterwards, that the very frame of diocesan prelacy excluded it, but thought it had been chargeable only on the personal neglects of the bishops. Subscription he began to think unlawful, and repented his rashness in yielding to it so hastily. For though he could use the Common-prayer, and was not yet against diocesans, yet to subscribe ex animo, that there is nothing in the three books contrary to the word of God, was that which he durst not do, had it been to be done again. So that subscription and the cross in baptism, and the promiscuous giving the Lord's supper to all comers, though ever so unqualified, if they were not excommunicated by a bishop or chancellor who knows nothing of them, were the only things in which as yet he inclined to nonconformity, and even in these he kept his thoughts to himself. He continued to argue with the nonconformists, about the points they differed in, and particularly kneeling at the Sacrament, about which he had a controversy with some of them, which they did not think it proper to continue any farther. He also, with equal candour and spirit, reproved them for the bitterness of their language against the bishops and churchmen, and exhorted them to patience and charity."

In 1640, he was invited to be minister at Kidderminster, which he accepted; and had been here two years when the civil war broke out. He was a favourer of the parliament, which exposed him to some inconveniences, and obliged him to retire to Gloucester; but being strongly solicited, he returned to Kidderminster. However, not finding himself safe in this place, he again quitted it, and took up his residence at Coventry, where he lived in perfect quiet, preaching once every Sunday to the garrison, and once to the town's people, and contending warmly against the Anabaptists. After Naseby fight, he was appointed chaplain to colonel Whalley's regiment, and was present at several sieges, but was never in any engagement, although a story was afterwards raised that he had killed a man in cool blood, and robbed him of a medal. This was first told by Dr. Boreman of Trinity college, Cambridge, and became very current until Mr. Baxter refuted it in his "Catholic Communion," 1684. In 1647 he was obliged to leave the army, by a sudden illness, and retired to sir Thomas Rouse's, where he continued a long time in a languishing state of health. He afterwards returned to Kid

derminster, where he continued to preach with great success. He is said to have impeded, as far as was in his power, the taking of the covenant, and what was called the engagement, and both spoke and wrote against the army marching to Scotland to oppose Charles II. And when Cromwell gained the superiority, Mr. Baxter expressed his dissatisfaction to his measures, but did not think proper to preach against him from the pulpit: once indeed he preached before the protector, and made use of the following text: "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 amongst you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." He levelled his discourse against the divisions and distractions of the church. A while after Cromwell sent to speak with him: when he began a long and serious 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. Mr. Baxter told him, "It was too great condescension to acquaint him so fully with all these 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 that forfeiture was made?" Upon this question Cromwell became angry, and told him, "There was no forfeiture, but God had changed it as pleased him ;" and then he reviled the parliament, which thwarted him, and especially by name four or five members, Mr. Baxter's particular acquaintances, whom he presumed to defend against the protector's passion. A few days after he sent for him again, under pretence of asking him his opinion about liberty of conscience; at which time also he made a long tedious speech, which took up so much time, that Mr. Baxter desired to offer his sentiments in writing, which he did, but says, he questions whether Cromwell read them.

Mr. Baxter came to London a little before the deposition of Richard Cromwell, and preached before the parliament the day preceding that on which they voted the king's reHe preached likewise before the lord mayor at St. Paul's a thanksgiving sermon for general Monk's success. Upon the king's restoration he was appointed one of his VOL. IV.

turn.

chaplains in ordinary, preached once before him, had frequent access to his majesty, and was always treated by him with peculiar respect. He assisted at the conference at the Savoy, as one of the commissioners, and drew up a reformed Liturgy, which Dr. Johnson pronounced " one of the finest compositions of the ritual kind he had ever seen." He was offered the bishopric of Hereford by the lord chancellor Clarendon, which he refused, and gave his lordship his reasons for not accepting of it, in a letter; he required no favour but that of being permitted to continue minister at Kidderminster, but could not obtain it. Being thus disappointed, he preached occasionally about the city of London, having a licence from bishop Sheldon, upon his subscribing a promise not to preach any thing against the doctrine or ceremonies of the church. May 15, 1662, he preached his farewell sermon at Blackfriars, and afterwards retired to Acton in Middlesex. In 1665, during the plague, he went to Richard Hampden's, esq. in Buckinghamshire; and when it ceased, returned to Acton. He continued here as long as the act against conventicles was in force, and, when that was expired, had so many auditors that he wanted room: but, while thus employed, by a warrant signed by two justices, he was committed for six months to New Prison gaol; having, however, procured an habeas corpus, he was discharged, and removed to Totteridge near Barnet. In this affair, he experienced the sincerity of many of his best friends. As he was going to prison, he called upon serjeant Fountain for his advice, who, after perusing the mittimus, said, 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 an 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 who committed him; and therefore they made a new mittimus in order to have sent him to the county-gaol of Newgate, which he avoided by keeping out of the way. After the indulgence in 1672, he returned to London, and

preached on week-days at Pinner's hall, at a meeting in Fetter-lane, and in St. James's market house; and the times appearing more favourable about two years after, he built a meeting-house in Oxenden-street, where he had preached but once, when a resolution was formed to take him by surprise, and send him to the county gaol, on the Oxford act; which misfortune he escaped, but the person who happened to preach for him was sent to the Gate-house, where he was confined three months. After having been three years kept out of his meeting-house, he took another in Swallow-street, but was likewise prevented from preaching there, a guard having been placed for many Sundays to hinder his entrance. Upon the death of Mr. Wadsworth, he preached to his congregation in Southwark.

In 1682, he was seized by a warrant, for coming within five miles of a corporation; and five more warrants were served upon him to distrain for 1957. as a penalty for five sermons he had preached, so that his books and goods were sold. He was not, however, imprisoned on this occasion, which was owing to Dr. Thomas Cox, who went to five justices of the peace, before whom he swore that Mr. Baxter was in such a bad state of health, that he could not go to prison without danger of death. In the beginning of 1685, he was committed to the king's bench prison, by a warrant from the lord chief justice Jefferies, for his paraphrase on the New Testament; and on May 18, of the same year, he was tried in the court of king's bench, and found guilty. He was condemned to prison for two years; but, in 1686, king James, by the mediation of the lord Powis, granted him a pardon; and on Nov. 24, he was discharged out of the king's bench*. After which he retired

* As this trial was the most remarkable transaction in Mr. Baxter's life, and one of the most characteristic of Jefferies's arbitrary disposition, we are persuaded our readers will not complain of the length of this note. On the 6th of May, Mr. Baxter appeared in the court of king's bench, and Mr. Attorney declared he would file an information against him. On the 14th, the defendent pleaded not guilty, and on the 18th, Mr. Baxter being much indisposed, and desiring further time than to the 30th, the day appointed for the trial, he moved by his counsel that it might be put off; on which the chief justice answered, "I will not

give him a minute's more time to save his life. We have had to do with other sorts of persons, but now we have a saint to dealt with, and I know how to deal with saints as well as sinners. Yonder stands Oates in the pillory (as he actually did in the New Palace yard), and he says, he suffers for the truth, and so does Baxter ; but if Baxter did but stand on the other side of the pil lory with him, I would say two of the greatest rogues and rascals in the kingdom stood there." On the 30th of May, in the afternoon, he was brought to his trial before the lord chief justice Jefferies at Guildhall. Sir Henry Ashurst, who could not forsake his own

to a house in Charterhouse-yard, where he assisted Mr. Sylvester every Sunday morning, and preached a lecture every Thursday.