were any hope, by contradicting 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 accordingly I did.

"From Worcester I went to London to Sir Theodore Mayern, 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 Ashbyde-la-Zouch, in a cold and snowy season: and the cold, together with other things coincident, set my nose on bleeding. When I had bled about a quart or two, I opened four veins, but that did no good. I used divers other remedies, for several days, to little purpose: at last I gave myself a purge, which stopped it. This so much weakened me, and altered my complexion, 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.

"Thus God unavoidably prevented all the effect of my purposes 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, first to take off that regiment 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 Nottingham, where, as I have credibly heard, they first began to open their purpose and act their part; and, presently after, they entered into their engagement at Triploe Heath. As I perceived it was the will of God to permit then 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 Melbourn, 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 Leicestershire, 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. ness, thither I made shift to get, where I the greatest care and tenderness, while I means for my recovery: and when I had of a year, I returned to Kidderminster.” "

So, in great weakwas entertained with continued the use of been there a quarter

Thus terminated Baxter's connection with the army. In reviewing his account of it, we cannot help admiring the disinterestedness 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 produced by his labors than the circumstances warranted. These high-minded soldiers, accustomed to dispute as well as to fight, and who were no less confident of victory in the polemic arena than of triumph in the field of battle, were not to be put down by the controversial 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. Movement, 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. Cromwell and his officers had no objection to an occasional theological contest among the soldiers, or, even to engage in one themselves. It relieved the tug of war: it operated as a divertisement from

other subjects on which their minds would have been less profitably employed; while it often excited that very ardor of soul, on which the success of the army of the Commonwealth 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 personal danger, for they could have little to fear of this nature. In 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 regardlessness of consequences. His love of disputation, his qualifications 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 circumstances, find scope or employment. By advising him, 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 retirement and safety themselves, they showed either their love of ease, or that they had little confidence in the wisdom or success of Baxter's attempt to save his country, 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 labored indefatigably, and persevered amidst all discouragements. He failed in his main object; but he succeeded in repressing evil, and in encouraging much that was good. He acquired considerable additions to his stock of experience, and his knowledge of men, and has left us some important 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 laid aside by severe illness, he wrote, though they were not then published, his 'Aphorisms of Justification,' and his 'Saint's Rest.' The last work chiefly occupied his thoughts and his pen, though the other appeared first. His disputes with the antinomian soldiers led to his 'Aphorisms,' while his labors and afflictions produced his meditations on "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 even 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.

CHAPTER IV. 1646-1656.

The Religious Parties of the Period-The Westminster Assembly-Character of the Erastians Episcopalians-Presbyterians-Independents-Baptists-State of Religion in these Parties-Minor Sects-Vanists-Seekers--Ranters-Quakers--Behminists-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.

"This Synod was not a convocation, according to the diocesan way of government; nor was it called by the votes of the ministers, 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. Holdsworth, Dr. Hammond, Dr. Wincop, Bishops Westfield and Prideaux, and many more; but they would not

come, because the king declared himself against it. Dr. Featly, 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 eminent 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 judge 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 honor 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 more skilful hand, had done more than was done to heal our breaches, and had hit upon the right way, either to unite with the Episcopalians 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." a

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 former, by his monarchical and episcopal predilections; the latter, by his republicanism. Clarendon hated presbyterianism, 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-born 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 favor; 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 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."

(a) Life, part i. p. 93.

(b) Lord Clarendon's account of the Assembly is as follows;-"And now the parliament showed what consultation they meant to have with godly and learned divínes,