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against the mittimus, without any word of disparagement to the main cause, and so did Judge Tyrell after him. Judge Vaughan concluded in the same manner, but with these two singularities above the rest. He made it an error in the mittimus, that the witnesses were not named, seeing that the Oxford act giving the justices so great a power if the witnesses be unknown, any innocent person may be laid in prison, and shall never know where, or against whom, to seek remedy, which was a matter of great

moment.

"When he had done with the cause, he made a speech to the people, and told them that by their appearance, he perceived that this was an affair of as great expectation as had been before them. It being usual with the people to carry away things by halves, and as their misreports might mislead others, he therefore acquainted them, that though he understood that Mr. Baxter was a man of great learning and of a good life, yet he having this singularity, that he was a conventicler, and as the law was against conventicles, it was only upon the error of the warrant that he was released. That the judges were accustomed, in their charges at assizes, to inquire after conventicles, which are against the law; so that, if they that made the mittimus, had but known how to make it, they could not have delivered him, nor can do it for him, or any that shall so transgress the law.

"This was supposed to be that which was resolved on at Whitehall, by the way. But he had never heard what I had to say in the main cause, to prove myself no transgressor of the law; nor did he at all tell them how to know what a conventicle is, which the common law is so much against.

"Being discharged from my imprisonment, my sufferings be gan; for I had there better health than I had for a long time before or after. I had now more exasperated the authors of my imprisonment. I was not at all acquitted as to the main cause. They might amend their mittimus, and lay me up again. I knew no way how to bring my main cause, whether they had power to put the Oxford oath on me to a legal trial, and my counsellors advised me not to do it, much less to question the judges for false imprisonment, lest I were borne down by power. I had now a house of great rent on my hands, which I must not come to, and had no other house to dwell in. I knew not what to do with all my goods and family. I must go out of Middlesex; I must not come within five miles of a city, corpo

ration, &c. Where to find such a place, and therein a house, and how to remove my goods thither, and what to do with my house till my time expired, were more trouble than my quiet prison by far, and the consequents yet worse.

"Gratitude commandeth me to tell the world who were my benefactors in my imprisonment, and calumny as much obligeth me, because it is said among some that I was enriched by it. Serjeant Fountain's general counsel ruled me. Mr. Wallop and Mr. Offley lent me their counsel, and would take nothing. Of four serjeants that pleaded my cause, two of them, Serjeant Windham, afterwards baron of the Exchequer, and Serjeant Sise, would take nothing. Sir John Bernard, a person I never saw but once, sent me no less than twenty pieces; the Countess of Exeter, ten pounds; and Alderman Bard, five. I received no more, but I confess more was offered me, which I refused; and more would have been given, but that they knew I needed it not: and this much defrayed my law and prison charges.

"When the same justices saw that I was thus discharged, they were not satisfied to have driven me from Acton, but they made a new mittimus by counsel, as for the same supposed fault, naming the fourth of June as the day on which I preached; and yet not naming any witness, though the act against conventicles was expired long before. This mittimus they put into an officer's hands, in London, to bring me, not to Clerkenwell, but among the thieves and murderers, to the common jail at Newgate, which was, since the fire which burnt down all the better rooms, the most noisome place that I have heard of, of any prison in the land, except the Tower dungeon.

"The next habitation which God's providence chose for me, was at Totteridge, near Barnet, where, for a year, I was fain with part of my family separated from the rest, to take a few mean rooms, which were so extremely smoky, and the place withal so cold, that I spent the winter in great pain; one quarter of a year by a sore sciatica, and seldom free from much anguish."e

Between the years 1665 and 1670, Baxter laboured diligently on some of his most important works. It was during this period he produced his 'Reasons of the Christian Religion,' and his' Directions to weak Christians how to grow in Grace.' He finished, though he did not then print, his Christian Directory.' He enlarged his sermon before the king into a quarto volume,

* Life, part iii, pp. 50-60.

on the Life of Faith ;' beside some minor pieces, such as his 'Cure of Church Divisions.' He wrote also his Apology for the Nonconformists,' and a great part of his 'Methodus,' though it was not published till some time afterwards.

During this period also, he had a long discussion in person, and in writing, with Dr. Owen, about the terms of agreement among Christians of all parties. It was not productive of any practical effect at the time; and the blame of its failure Baxter lays upon Owen. The correspondence he has published, from which it is not difficult to account for the failure, without attaching blame to either party. The views of these two distinguished individuals differed, not, indeed, in any essential points, but on various subordinate matters affecting systematic union and co-operation. They differed also in their dispositions and anticipations. Owen was calm, dignified, and firm, but respectful and courteous. Baxter was sharp and cutting in his reproofs, sanguine in his expectations of success; and, confident of his own guileless simplicity, disposed to push matters further than the circumstances of the times admitted. Though not superior in the substantial attainments of the Christian character, the deportment of Owen was bland and conciliating, compared with that of Baxter. Hence, Owen frequently made friends of enemies, while Baxter often made enemies of friends. The one expected to unite all hearts, by attacking all understandings; the other trusted more to the gradual operation of Christian feeling, by which alone he believed that extended unity would finally be effected. The issue has proved that, in this case, Owen had made the wiser calculation.

CHAPTER X.

1670-1676.

Conventicle Act renewed-Lord Lauderdale-Fears of the Bishops about the increase of Popery-Bishop Ward-Grove-Serjeant Fountain-Judge Vaughan-The King connives at the Toleration of the NonconformistsShuts up the Exchequer The Dispensing Declaration-License applied for on Baxter's behalf-Pinner's Hall Lecture-Baxter Preaches at different places-The King's Declaration voted illegal by Parliament-The Test Act-Baxter desired by the Earl of Orrery to draw up new Terms of Agreement-Healing Measure proposed in the House of Commons, which fails-Conduct of some of the Conformists-Baxter's Afflictions-Preaches at St. James's Market-House-Licenses recalled-Baxter employs an Assistant-Apprehended by a Warrant-Escapes being Imprisoned-Another Scheme of Comprehension-Informers-City Magistrates—Parliament falls on Lauderdale and others-The Bishops' Test Act-Baxter's Goods distrained—Various Ministerial Labours and Sufferings-Controversy with Penn-Baxter's Danger-His Writings during this period.

In the year 1670, the act against conventicles was renewed, and made more severe than ever, several new clauses being inserted, which Baxter believed to have a particular reference to his own case. It was declared, for instance, contrary to all justice, that the faults of the mittimus should not vitiate it, and that all doubtful clauses should be interpreted in the sense most unfavourable to conventicles. It seemed as if the intention of the court had been to extirpate the Nonconformists root and branch; for the act was enforced with the utmost rigour against the most respectable persons among them. The meetings in London were continually disturbed by bands of soldiers. Dr.

f Sheldon again addressed the bishops of the province of Canterbury, urging them to promote, by every means in their power, "so blessed a work as the preventing and suppressing of conventicles," which the king and parliament, “out of their pious care for the welfare of the church and kingdom," had endeavoured to accomplish in the late act.-Calamy's Abridgment, i. 328-331. Harris also, in his Life of Charles II.,' has given the letter entire, vol, ii. pp. 106, 107. Bishop Wilkins opposed the above act in the House of Lords, notwithstanding the king's request that he would at least be silent.

Manton, though his friends were numerous and powerful, was sent six months to the Gate-house prison for preaching in his own house, in the parish of which he had formerly been minister.

While Baxter remained quiet at Totteridge, he was sent for to Barnet, by the Earl of Lauderdale, who was then proceeding to Scotland with a project of making some alterations in the state of ecclesiastical affairs in that country. By the king's permission, he consulted Baxter, and offered him, if he would go to Scotland, a church, or a bishoprick, or the management of some of the colleges. Baxter was not to be taken in such a trap, for such in all probability it was; as Lauderdale no sooner went into Scotland, than he became one of the greatest persecutors of the Presbyterian church. In answer to his requests and offers, Baxter, on the 24th of June, 1670, wrote him the following admirable letter, which illustrates his character as a minister, his courtesy as a gentleman, and supplies some particulars respecting his family.

"My Lord,

Being deeply sensible of your lordship's favours, and especially for your liberal offers for my entertainment in Scotland, I humbly return you my very hearty thanks; but the following considerations forbid me to entertain any hopes, or further thoughts of such a removal :

"The experience of my great weakness and decay of strength, and particularly of this last winter's pain, and how much worse I am in winter than in summer, fully persuade me that I should live but a little while in Scotland, and that in a disabled, useless condition, rather keeping my bed than the pulpit.

r

"I am engaged in writing a book, which, if I could hope to live to finish, is almost all the service I expect to do God and his church more in the world-a Latin Methodus Theologiæ. Indeed I can hardly hope to live so long, as it requires yet nearly a year's labour more. Now, if I should spend that half year, or year, which should finish this work, in travel, and the trouble of such a removal, and then leave it undone, it would disappoint me of the ends of my life. I live only for work, and therefore should remove only for work, and not for wealth and honours, if ever I remove.

"If I were there, all that I could hope for, were liberty to preach the Gospel of salvation, and especially in some university among young scholars. But I hear that you have enough already for this work, who are likely to do it better than I can.

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