was so favourable to the darling vice of the Stuart familythe exercise of arbitrary power; the alliances of the reigning monarch, were chiefly with the catholic princes of the continent; and these considerations, during the reign of Charles, aided by the weakness and wanton impiety of the king, had excited a just alarm for the safety of the reformation. It was no secret that measures had been in active preparation to effect its overthrow; the jesuits openly avowed the design; and the sovereign pontiff, as if sure of his prize, was calculating upon a favourable opportunity, to receive the Anglican church again into his fold. These signs of the times led to various controversies on the principles of the catholic faith; and the nonconformists, harassed as they were by the exist ing establishment, ranged themselves with its dignitaries as champions in one common cause. It has indeed been stated, that their animosity to churchmen led them to be inactive in the struggle, and indifferent as to its issue; but no insinuation can be more ungenerous, no statement in point of fact more incorrect.* Deprived as they were of their livings,

Baxter's prayer gives us a curious illustration of his zeal against popery: "From such a worldly and fleshly-sacred generation, as take gain for godliness, make their worldly carnal interest the standard of their religion, and their proud domination to pass for the kingdom of Christ; from an usurping vice-Christ, whose ambition is so boundless as to extend to the prophetical, priestly, and kingly headship, over all the earth, even to the antipodes, and to that which is proper to God himself and our Redeemer; from a leprous sect, which condemneth the far greatest part of all Christ's church on earth, and separateth from them, calling itself the whole and only church; from that church, which decreeth destruction to all that renounce not all human sense, by believing that bread is not bread, nor that wine is wine, but Christ's very flesh and blood, who now hath properly no flesh and blood, but a spiritual body; that decreeth the excommunication, deposition, and damnation of all princes, who will not exterminate all such, and absolveth their subjects from their oaths of allegiance; from that beast whose mark is per, perjury, perfidiousness, and persecution, and that thinketh it doeth God acceptable service, by killing his servants or tormenting them; from that religion which feedeth on Christ's flesh, by sacrificing those that he calleth his flesh and bones; from the infernal dragon, the father of lies, malice, and murder, and all his ministers, and kingdom of darkness - Good Lord, make haste to deliver thy flock; confirm their faith, hope, patience, and their joyful desire of the great, true, final, glorious deliverance. Amen, Amen, Amen!"

The Protestant Religion truly Stated and Justified.

banished as it was the lot of many from their homes and families, and having no access to their books,* the same exertions could not reasonably be expected from them, as from the prelates of a wealthy hierarchy in the enjoyment of every literary facility; but notwithstanding these disadvantages, most of their eminent ministers stood forwards foremost in the contest. The harsh treatment which they had received from the prelatists, was afterwards regretted as a question of policy by many of their persecutors; its natural tendency was to sour the minds and embitter the spirit of those who came under its infliction; and though in some instances such effects might be produced, yet the preceding letter exhibits the sentiments and feelings of the great majority, when the vital truths of religion were threatened by the mistresses of a profligate monarch and the priestly myrmidons of antichrist.†

Mr. Watts was upwards of two years an exile from his family; and probably returned to Southampton in the year 1687, when James sought to bring the dissenters over to his views, by publishing his first declaration for liberty of con

In a touching letter to Lord Lauderdale, Baxter remarks: "I would request that I might be allowed to live quietly, to follow my private studies, and might once again have the use of my books, which I have not seen these ten years. I pay for a room for their standing in at Kidderminster, where they are eaten by worms and rats; having no security for my quiet abode in any place, to encourage me to send for them. I would also ask, that I might have the liberty every beggar hath, to travel from town to town." Orme's Life, i. 357.

+Tong's Defence of Henry's Notion of Schism, contains a full answer to this calumny. p. 154, 155. Mr. Neal observes, upon the authority of Dr. Calamy, Baxter, and others, that some of the dissenters' tracts against popery being thought too warm, were refused to be licensed. Mr. Jonathan Hanmer, ejected from Bishop's Tawton in Devonshire, was refused a license for one of his discourses. Mr. Henry Pendlebury met with a like denial. Dr. Jane, the Bishop of London's chaplain, denied his sanction to one of Baxter's pieces. Dr. Grey, however, cites four letters from Dr. Isham, Dr. Alston, Dr. Batteley, and Mr. Needham, licensers of the press, in which they positively declare, that they never refused to license a book, on account of its being written by a dissenter. With reference to Baxter, Dr. Isham remarks, that "if he had prepared anything against the common enemy, without striking obliquely at our church, I would certainly have forwarded them from the press." The books referred to, to which licenses were refused, were probably laid before Dr. Jane and other licensers.

science. His prudence and integrity secured to him the esteem of his townsmen; and many persons were accustomed to consult him in cases of emergency. Mr. Parker, who was Dr. Watts's amanuensis, has related the following anecdote: -A person in Southampton, who was a stonemason, and who had purchased an old building for its materials, previous to his pulling it down came to Mr. Watts, under some uneasiness, in consequence of a dream, viz. that a large stone in the centre of an arch fell upon him, and killed him. Upon asking Mr. Watts his opinion, he answered, "I am not for paying any great regard to dreams, nor yet for utterly slighting them. If there is such a stone in the building as you saw in your dream" (which he told him there really was), "my advice to you is, that you take great care in taking down the building to keep far enough off from it." The mason resolved to act upon his opinion; but in an unfortunate moment he forgot his dream, went under the arch, and the stone fell upon him, and crushed him to death.

Of this good and singularly devoted man, it may truly be said, that his "latter end" was "blessed more than the beginning;" for he lived long enough to witness the triumph of religious liberty under the princes of the house of Hanover, and to enjoy the exquisite gratification of beholding the son who had been nursed at his prison-door, in the full career of his usefulness and fame. He partook of his taste for poetry, and in the decline of life, at the advanced age of eighty-five, penned the following simple and pious effusions:

"THE SOUL'S DESIRE OF REMOVE.

I.

"Long have I sojourn'd in this weary land,

Where sins and sorrows everywhere abound;
Soul-threatening dangers, see how thick they stand!

Snares and temptations compass me around.

"Worn with the toils of fourscore years and five,

A weary pilgrim, Lord, to thee I come;

To beg supporting grace, till I arrive

At heaven, thy promis'd rest, my wish'd-for home.

"Here's nothing to invite my longer stay,
Among the darksome melancholy cells;
When shall I leave this tenement of clay?
Fain would I be where my Redeemer dwells.

"Oh! had I but some generous seraph's wing,
There's nothing should prevail to keep me here;
But with the morning lark I'd mount and sing,
Till I had left earth's gloomy atmosphere.

"My soul directly rising upward still,

Till I should reach the glorious courts above,
Where endless pleasure my desires shall fill,
And solac'd be with my dear Jesu's love.

With sweet refreshment, on such things as these My serious thoughts have often been employ'd; But how much more will happiness increase When more than can be thought will be enjoy'd."

The first of these poems was given to Dr. Gibbons, by Mrs. Jane Rolleston, a lady of Southampton, and a member of the dissenting congregation there. In the surreptitious publication referred to in the preface, entitled the "Posthumous Works of Dr. Watts," the careless compiler has twice inserted it; at the commencement of the volume as the composition of the father, and at the close as the production of the son.* It must undoubtedly be assigned to Mr. Watts, senior. From the compilation in question, which we have good reason to believe contains the father's manuscript poems, which the doctor entrusted to the care of his sister, Mrs. Sarah Brackstone, a few more extracts may be made, as the work is little known, illustrative of the piety and talent of the writer. In the following, though destitute of poetical merit, the principles of the nonconformist are prominently developed:

1.

"ON CEREMONIES.

"Why do our churchmen with such zeal contend
For what the scriptures nowhere recommend?
Those ceremonies, which they doat upon,
Were unto Christians heretofore unknown.
In ancient times God's worship did accord,
Not with traditions, but the written word;
Himself has told us how he'll be ador'd.

""Tis true, that, in the legal dispensation,
Which only did concern the Jewish nation,
Religious rites were constantly maintain'd,
But such, and only such, as Heaven ordain'd;
By special warrant and command exprest,
The mitre and the ephod, with the rest

Of all those robes wherewith the priest was drest.

*See p. p. 28, 167. In this collection there are several poems inserted as sonnets; one consisting of eight verses of four lines each, and none of the others possess the requisite quantity.