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 ardour 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 em

ployment. 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 laboured 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 labours 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 erudeness; 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-BaptistsState of Religion in these Parties-Minor Sects-Vanists-Seekers-Ranters -Quakers-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.

"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. 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 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 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 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 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.

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."

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 divines, and what reformation they intended, by appointing the knights and burgesses to bring in the names of such divines for the several counties, as they thought fit to constitute an assembly for the framing a new model for the government of the church, which was done accordingly; those who were true sons of the church, not so much as endeavouring the nomination 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 known as Magna Charta: and if any well-affected member, not enough considering the scandal and the consequence of that violation, did name an orthodox and well-reputed divine to assist in that assembly, it was argument enough against him, that he was nominated by a person in whom they had no confidence; and they only had reputation enough to commend to this consultation those who were known to desire the utter demolishing of the whole fabric of the church so that of about one hundred and twenty of which that assembly was to consist, though by the recommendation of two or three members of the Commons, whom they were not willing to displease, and by the authority of the Lords, who added a small number to those named by the House of Commons, 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 them of very mean parts in learning, 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 might not then reasonably have been expected from it.”—Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. i. pp. 530, 531. Edit. 1720.

The charges contained in the latter part of this paragraph, are utterly unfounded. The members of the Assembly were, in general, respectable for their talents and learning; and all of them were highly respectable in point of character. It is equally untrue that all, or even any considerable number of them, were 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. "And if the state were in this plight, religion was not in much better; to reform which, a certain number of divines were called, neither chosen by 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 fancy, thought fit, so elected one by one. The most part of them were such as bad preached and cried down, with great show of zeal, the 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 these conscientious men (ere any part of the work was done for which they came together, and that on the public salary) wanted not boldness, to the ignominy and scandal of their pastor-like profession, and especially of their boasted reformation, to seize into their hands, or not unwillingly to accept, (besides one, sometimes two or more, of the best livings) collegiate masterships in the University, rich lectures in the city; setting sail to all winds that might blow gain into their covetous bosoms: by which means these great rebukers of non-residence, among so many distant cures, were not ashamed to be seen so