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opposition. It was widely understood that he was in favor of a new and free parliament; though all his public declarations were full of fidelity to the parliament then existing. When he had arrived within twenty or thirty miles of London, he sent a message to the parliament requesting that the regiments then quartered about the city might be withdrawn, lest there should fall out some collision between them and his troops. With this request they were constrained to comply; and on the third of February 1660, Monk, at the head of his army entered the metropolis as in triumph, and quartered with his troops in Westminster.

After a few days of indecision, the general declared himself openly for the presbyterian interest, and for a commonwealth in which there should be neither king nor protector, nor house of lords; and supported by his authority, those members who were excluded in 1648, again took their seats in parliament. The majority of the house were now presbyterians; and as presbyterians, they began to take measures which looked toward the restoration of the monarchy, on such terms and with such limitations as should be agreeable to their party. They appointed a new council of state for the temporary administration of the government; and on the seventeenth of March, having provided for the election of a new parliament to meet on the twenty-fifth of the ensuing month, they passed the act of their own dissolution.

The act for the election of the new parliament, had directed that none who had been in arms against the Long Parliament should be elected. Having put up this defence against the cavaliers, the presbyterians used their diligence to prevent the election of men of republican principles. This diligence of theirs was ill-timed; it amalgamated them for the moment with their oldest, bitterest and most irreconcilable enemies; their own voices were drowned in the clamor which themselves had begua for the king and against the commonwealth; and the result was that in many places the loyalty of the people broke over the barrier of the disabling clause, and elected old cavaliers to negotiate with the king about his restoration and their own, and in many other places the members elected were equally unworthy to be trusted with the liberties of the nation.

When Monk saw that the tide of popular feeling was turned for

the king, he fell in with the current, and commenced a secret correspondence with Charles, advising him to be in readiness for an immediate return.

As soon as the new parliament came together, it was no longer doubtful that all things were ripe for restoration, and for a complete triumph of the old royalists. In a word, the king was recalled without any condition, and without any security for that civil and religious liberty which the people had wrested from his father in a painful conflict. A strange infatuation seized upon the nation; and if Charles had been restored by the bayonets of the French and Spanish monarchies, he could not have come in on terms more favorable to himself and his partisans. He arrived at London on the 29th of May, 1660.

Baxter came from Kidderminster to London, in April, just before the assembling of the parliament. What his business was in coming to the metropolis at that time, he does not inform us. We may safely suppose, however, that he came to be present with his presbyterian friends, and to aid by his counsels and activity in the great matter of the restoration. That the king should be restored, the presbyterians were all agreed; and their vain hope was that by their forwardness in bringing him back, they might secure the establishment of their ecclesiastical system, or at least of something so much like it that they could live under it in peace. This exceeding forwardness of theirs, defeated, as we have already seen, its own object, and gave their bitterest enemies the greatest possible advantage over them. Many of them trembled at the turn which affairs were taking, and at the part which they themselves were acting; but others, in the fever of their loyalty, hoped much from the gratitude of Charles, and trusted to the notion of his having learned wisdom from the fate of his father, and suffered themselves to be duped by the letters which his courtiers procured to be written from France and Holland commending his devotion and his zeal for the protestant religion.

"When I was at London," says Baxter, "the new parliament being called, they presently appointed a day of fasting and prayer for themselves. The House of Commons chose Mr. Calamy, Dr. Gauden, and myself, to preach and pray with them at St. MarVOL. I.

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garet's, Westminster. In that sermon, I uttered some passages which were afterwards matter of some discourse. Speaking of our differences and the way to heal them, I told them that, whether we should be loyal to our king was none of our differences. In that, we were all agreed; it being not possible that a man should be true to the protestant principles and not be loyal; as it was impossible to be true to the Papist principles, and to be loyal. for the concord now wished in matters of church government, I told them it was easy for moderate men to come to a fair agreement, and that the late reverend Primate of Ireland and myself had agreed in half an hour. I remember not the very words, but you may read them in the sermon, which was printed by order of the House of Commons.” "The next morning after this day of fasting, the parliament unanimously voted home the king."

"The city of London, about that time, was to keep a day of solemn thanksgiving for General Monk's success; and the lord mayor and aldermen desired me to preach before them at St. Paul's church; wherein I so endeavored 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 thanksgiving; and the diocesan party thought I did suppress their joy. The words may be seen in the sermon ordered to be printed.

"But the other words, about my agreement with Bishop Usher, in the sermon before the parliament, put me to most trouble. For presently many moderate episcopal divines came to me to know what those terms of our agreement were. And thinking verily that others of their party had been as moderate as themselves, they entered upon debates for our general concord; and we agreed as easily among ourselves in private, as if almost all our differences were at an end. Among others, I had speech about it with Dr. Gauden, who promised to bring Dr. Morley and many more of that party to meet with some of the other party at Dr. Bernard's lodgings. There came none on that side but Dr. Gauden and Dr. Bernard; and none of the other side But Dr. Manton and myself; and so little was done, but only desires of concord expressed." "Thus men were every day talking of concord, but to little purpose as appeared in the issue.”

"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 other; 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 London ministers in their places attended him with acclamations, and by the hands of old Mr. Arthur Jackson, presented him with a richly adorned Bible, which he received, and told them, it should be the rule of his actions."

For a while after the restoration it seemed necessary to cajole the presbyterians with the hope of an improved liturgy and of such changes in respect to episcopacy as would admit of their being included within the pale of the establishment. With this view ten or twelve of the leading presbyterian ministers were nominated to be the king's chaplains in ordinary. Mr. Calamy, and Dr. Reynolds, were first appointed; soon afterwards Mr. Ash, and Mr. Baxter; then Dr. Spurstow, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Bates and others. None of them however were ever called to preach at court except Calamy, Reynolds, Baxter, and Spurstow, each of them a single sermon. Baxter's sermon before the king was published, and was afterwards included in his work entitled the 'Life of Faith.' Not many kings, since King Agrippa, have had the advantage of hearing the word of God so plainly and powerfully preached, as Baxter preached it to King Charles II. on that occasion. The discourse was evidently written with more attention to style than the author ordinarily bestowed on such matters; yet in its bold and pungent exhibition of the truth, it is like all his other writings. The sermon contains no direct address to the king, nor even one distinct allusion to him. But there are many passages, pointed in that peculiar way which must have made them felt by the monarch and his profligate attendants. "Faith," said the preacher, "is the wisdom of the soul; and unbelief and sensuality are its blindness, folly and brutishness." "Will you persuade us that the man is wise, that can climb a little higher than his neighbors, that he may have the greater fall? That is attended in his way to hell with greater pomp and state than others? That can

sin more syllogistically and rhetorically than the vulgar; and more prudently and gravely run into damnation; and can learnedly defend his madness, and prove that he is safe at the brink of hell? Would you persuade us that he is wise, that contradicts the God and rule of wisdom, and that parts with heaven for a few merry hours, and hath not wit to save his soul? When they see the end, and are arrived at eternity, let them boast of their wisdom, as they find cause we will take them then for more competent judges. Let the eternal God be the portion of my soul; let heaven be my inheritance and hope; let Christ be my Head, and the promise my security, let faith be my wisdom, and love be my very heart and will, and patient, persevering obedience be my life; and then I can spare the wisdom of the world, because I can spare the trifles that it seeks, and all that they are like to get by it."

Not long after the king's return, Baxter, in an interview with Lord Broghill and the earl of Manchester, two noblemen who though known as presbyterians were men of some influence at court on account of their great services in promoting the restoration, spoke of the conversations which he had held with some episcopal divines, respecting union in the church; and urged the importance of a conference between the leading men of the two parties for the sake of finding on what terms a union might be effected. On this suggestion Broghill "proposed to the king a conference for an agreement ;" and within a few days Baxter and Calamy were informed that the king was pleased with that proposal, and was resolved to further it. This led to a personal interview between the king and his ten presbyterian chaplains, which took place about the middle of June at the earl of Manchester's lodgings. Of the part which Baxter acted in this interview, we have a full account from his own pen.

"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 they had of a cordial union among all dissenters by his means, I presumed to speak to him of the concernments of religion, and how far we were from desiring the continuance of any factions or parties in the church, and how much a happy union would conduce to the good of the land, and to his majesty's satisfaction; and though there

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