prerogative and high-church claims, did not arise from the members being all of one mind on religious subjects. One party cared little for the alterations which had been made in the church; but said, if parliaments be once put down, and arbitrary government set up, every thing dear to Englishmen will be lost, Another party were better men, who were sensible of the value of civil liberty, but were most concerned for the interests of religion. Hence they inveighed chiefly against the innovations in the church, bowing to altars, Sunday sports, casting out ministers, high-commission courts, and other things of a similar nature. And because they agreed with the former party in assertng the people's rights and liberties, that party concurred with them in opposing the bishops and their ecclesiastical proceedings. When the spirit of the Parliament came to be understood, the people of the different counties poured in petitions full of complaints. The number of ministers who had been silenced by the bishops, and of individuals and families who had been banished on account of religion, was attempted to be ascertained. Some who had been condemned to perpetual imprisonment, after suffering the basest indignities, were released and brought home in triumph. Among these were, Mr. Peter Smart, Dr. Leighton, b b Mr. Smart, for preaching a sermon, in which he spoke very freely against the ceremonies of the church, was fined, excommunicated, degraded, deprived, and imprisoned nearly twelve years. The damage he sustained amounted to several thousand pounds, for which he afterwards received some compensation by order of Parliament. Laud and Cosins were his chief persecutors.-Fuller's Church Hist. b. xi. p. 173. "Leighton (says Heylin) was a Scot by birth, a doctor of physic by profession, a fiery Puritan in faction."-Life of Laud, p. 126. His crime consisted in the publication of Au Appeal to Parliament, or Sion's Plea against Prelacy.' For this offence he was condemned to suffer the loss of both ears, to have his nostrils slit, his forehead branded, to be publicly whipped, fined ten thousand pounds, and perpetually imprisoned! When this sentence was pronounced, Laud, it is said, took off his hat, and gave thanks to God. The sentence, in all its parts, was executed with shocking barbarity. At the end of his twelve years' imprisonment, when set at liberty by the Par e Mr. Henry Burton,d Dr. Bastwick, and Mr. Prynne; all of whom had been treated with the most wanton and unmerited cruelty. Acts were passed against the High-commission court, and the liament, he could neither see, hear, nor walk. Sion's Plea' is certainly written with much acerbity, and some parts of it are liable to misconstruction. When Heylin alleges that he incites Parliament "to kill all the bishops, and smite them under the fifth rib," he lies and defames. The last expression, indeed, occurs; but that it does not refer to the persons of the bishops, the following sentence from the conclusion of the appeal clearly shows"We fear they (the bishops) are like pleuritic patients, that cannot spit, whom nothing but incision will cure, we mean of their callings, not of their persons, to whom we have no quarrel, but wish them better than they either wish to us or to themselves." (p. 179.) Some of his language is certainly un.. guarded, but in moderate times would have been liable to no misinterpretation. The physician had, no doubt, more of asperity and vindictiveness in his temper than his son, the amiable, enlightened, and heavenly-minded Bishop of Dumblane. d Henry Burton was an Independent, and originally engaged about court, when Charles I. was Prince of Wales. To the loss of his place, Heylin, with his usual charity, ascribes his hostility to the hierarchy.-Life of Laud, p. 98. His own account is more deserving of credit. By several publications, he provoked the wrath of the High-commission court; but for one, 'For God and the King,' he was sentenced to be punished in a similar manner to Leighton, and suffered accordingly. A narrative of himself, which he published, and the substance of which was reprinted in the Cong. Mag.' for 1820, is uncommonly interesting. If I may judge from this memoir, and his "Vindication of the Churches commonly called Independent,' he was a man of piety, talents, and moderation. e Dr. Bastwick, a physician at Colchester, for publishing a Latin book which reflected on the bishops, and denying their superiority to presbyters, was excommunicated, debarred the exercise of his profession, fined one thousand pounds, and imprisoned till he should recant. For another book, supposed to be written by him while in prison, the same sentence was passed and executed on him as on Burton and Prynne. Dr. Bastwick, I doubt not, was a good man; but his spirit was very violent. His book, 'The Utter Routing of all the Independent Army,' in which his fellow-sufferer Burton is the chief object of attack, is shameful for a Christian to have written. f William Prynne, 66 a bencher, late of Lincoln's Inn," was the most extraordinary man of all the sufferers. His first crime consisted in writing the 'Histriomastix, or a treatise against plays, masquerades,' &c.; for this his ears were cropped, &c. His second crime was a libel against the bishops; for which he received sentence along with the other two. As his ears had formerly been cut off, the stumps were now literally sawed off, or in the words of a coarse humorous epitaph composed for him, " they fanged the remnant of his lugs." He wrote more books, and quoted more authorities, than any man of his time; and did much to expose the unconstitutional and lawless mea secular power of churchmen; and for the continuance of the parliament till it should dissolve itself. A committee was appointed to receive petitions and complaints against the clergy, which produced multitudes of petitions from all parts of the country. As a specimen of what was brought in, White, the chairman, published 'One Century of Scandalous Ministers,' in which a most dreadful exposure is made of the ignorance, immorality, and incompetency of many of the established teachers. The town of Kidderminster, amongst other places, prepared a petition against their minister, whose name was Dance. They represented him as an ignorant and weak man, who preached but once a quarter, was a frequenter of alehouses, and sometimes drunk, His curate was a common tippler and drunkard, a railler, and trader in unlawful marriages. The vicar knowing his incompetency, offered to compound the business with the town, Instead of his present curate, he offered to allow sixty pounds. per annum to a preacher whom a committee of fourteen of them should choose. This person he would permit to preach when he pleased; and he himself would read prayers, and do any other part of the parish routine. The town having agreed to this, withdrew their petition. After trying a Mr. Lapthorn, the committee of Kidderminster applied to Baxter to become their lecturer on the above terms. This invitation is dated the 9th of March, 1640. The legal instrument appointing him to the situation, bears the date of April 5th, 1641, and is signed by about thirty individuals. also received a very affectionate letter from a number of persons He sures which had been long pursued by the bishops and the court. He seems to have been an Erastian respecting church government. It is wonderful, that after having suffered so much from government interference in religion, he should have written a book to prove "that Christian Kings aud Magistrates have authority, under the Gospel, to punish idolatry, apostasy, heresy, blasphemy, and obstinate schism, with pecuniary, corporal, and in some cases, with capital punishments.”—Athen, Ox. ii. pp. 311–327, belonging to the congregation. With this invitation he was very willing to comply, as, on various accounts, he felt disposed to labour in that place. The congregation was large, and the church very convenient. The people were ignorant, rude, and loose in their manners; but had scarcely ever enjoyed any faithful, evangelical preaching. There was, at the same time, a small number of pious people among them, who were humble and holy, and fit to assist a minister in instructing the rest. The state of Bridgnorth had made him resolve never to settle among people who had been hardened under an awakening ministry; but that he would go either to those who never had enjoyed such a blessing, or to those who had profited by it. He accordingly repaired to the place, and, after preaching only one day, was chosen by the electors nemine contradicente. "Thus," says he, "I was brought, by the gracious providence of God, to that place which had the chiefest of my labours, and yielded me the greatest fruits of comfort; and I noted the mercy of God in this, that I never went to any place in my life which I had before desired, or thought of, much less sought, till the sudden invitation did surprise me." His attachment to Kidderminster remained through all the changes of his future life. Speaking of it many years after he had left it, he says, with much feeling and beauty, "But among all, none did so much abound With the most great and wonderful success."'h All these documents are still preserved among the Baxter MSS. in the library at Red-Cross-street. His removal to Kidderminster took place in 1640. His previous ministry had been spent, he tells us, under the infirmities already noticed, which made him live and preach in the constant prospect of death. This was attended with incalculable benefit to himself and others; it gave much of that earnestness and unction to his preaching for which it was so eminently distinguished, and without which no one will ever preach with much success. His afflictions greatly weakened his temptations, excited great contempt of the world, taught him the inestimable value of time, and "stirred up his sluggish heart to speak to sinners with some compassion, as a dying man to dying men." With these feelings he began his labours in the place which his name has immortalized. He continued in it about two years at first, till the civil wars drove him away; and after his return, at the distance of several years, he remained about fourteen more. During all this time he never occupied the vicarage-house, though authorised to do so by an order of parliament; but allowed the old vicar to live in it without molestation. He found the place like a piece of dry and barren earth, overrun with ignorance and vice; but by the blessing of God on his labours it ultimately became rich in all the fruits of righteousness. Opposition and ill-usage, to a considerable extent, he had to encounter at the beginning; but, by patient continuance in welldoing, he overcame all their prejudices, and produced universal love and veneration. At one time the ignorant rabble raged against him for preaching, as they supposed, that God hated all infants; because he had taught the doctrine of original sin. At another time they actually sought his life, and probably would have taken it, had they found him at the moment of their rage; because, by order of parliament, the churchwardens attempted to take down a crucifix which was in the church-yard. His character was slandered by a false report of a drunken beggar, which all who disliked him and his fidelity chose to believe and to |