befides a very ftrong propenfity to undertake the minifterial function, he returned to his father's, and refumed his ftudies with fresh vigor, till Mr. Richard Foley of Stourbridge fixed him as mafter of the free-school at Dudley, with an ufher under him. In the time he taught school there, he read feveral practical treatifes, whereby he was brought to a due and deep fenfe of religion, his progrefs therein being not a little quickened by his great bodily weakness and ill ftate of health, which inclined him to think he should fcarce furvive above a year. We are told by Dr. Calamy, that, from the age of twenty-one to twenty-three, he lived conftantly as it were in the fhadow of death; and, finding his own foul under serious apprehenfions of the matters of another world, he was very defirous to communicate thofe apprehenfions to fuch ignorant, carelefs, prefumptuous finners, as the world. abounds with. Although therefore he had his discouragements, through his fenfe of the greatnefs and awfulness of the work of the miniftry, and his fear of expofing himfelf to the cenfure of many, on the account of his wanting academical education, honors, and dignities; yet, expecting to be fo quickly in another world, the great concernments of miferable fouls prevailed with him to engage in it; and finding in himself a thirty defire of men's converfion and falvation, and a competent perfuading faculty of expreffion, which fervent affections might help to actuate, he concluded, that if but one or two fouls might by his means be won to GOD, it would easily recompenfe any treatment he might meet with in the world. However, having ftill an earneft defire to the ministry, he in 1638 addreffed himself to Dr. Thornborough, bishop of Winchester, for holy orders, which after examination he received, having at that time no fcruples of confcience which hindered from conforming to the church of England.

We have a very diftinct detail of the means by which he first came to alter his opinions in these matters; and it will be very proper to take notice of them here, because they will ferve to let the reader into the character of the man. ·Being fettled at Dudley, he fell into the acquaintance of feveral nonconformists, whom, though he judged fevere and fplenetic, yet he found to be both godly and honest men. They fupplied him with feveral writings on their own fide, and amongst the reft, with Ames's Fresh Suit against Ceremonies, which he read over very diftinctly, comparing it with Dr. Burgefs's 'Rejoynder.' And, upon the whole, he at that time came to thefe conclufions. Kneeling he VOL. IV.

thought

thought lawful, and all mere circumftances determined by the magistrate, which GOD in nature or fcripture hath determined on, only in the general. The furplice he more doubted of, but was inclined to think it lawful: And though he intended to forbear it till under neceffity, yet he could not fee how he could have juftified the forfaking his miniftry merely on that account, though he never actually wore it. About the ring in marriage he had no fcruple. The crofs in baptifm he thought Dr. Ames had proved unlawful; and though he was not without fome doubting in the point, yet becaufe he most inclined to judge it unlawful, he never once ufed it. A form of prayer and liturgy he judged to be lawful, and in fome cafes lawfully impofed. The old English liturgy in particular, he judged to have much diforder and defectiveness in it, but nothing which fhould make the use of it in the ordinary public worfhip to be unlawful to them who could not do better. He fought for discipline in the church, and faw the fad effects of its neglect; but he was not then fo perfuaded as afterwards, that the very frame of diocefan prelacy excluded it, but thought it had been chargeable only on the perfonal neglects of the bifhops. Subfcription he began to think unlawful, and repented his rafhness in yielding to it fo haftily. For though he could use the common prayer, and was not yet against diocefans, yet to fubfcribe ex animo, that there was nothing in the three books contrary to the word of GOD, was that which he durft not do, had it been to be done again. So that fubfcription, and the crofs in baptifm, and the promiscuous giving the Lord's fupper to all comers, though ever fo unqualified, if they were not excommunicated by a bishop or chancellor who knows nothing of them, were the only things in which he as yet in his judgement inclined to nonconformity: And yet, even as to these things, he kept his thoughts to himself. He continued to argue with the nonconformists about the points they differed in, and particularly kneeling at the facrament; about which he managed a difpute with fome of them in writing, till they did not think fit to purfue it any farther: He freely reproved them for the bitterness of their language against the bifhops and their adherents, and exhorted them to endeavor for patience and charity, but found their fpirits fo exafperated by the hard measure they had met with, 'that they were deaf to his admonitions. Being fettled at Dudley, he preached frequently in that town, and in the neighbouring villages, with the approbation of all his

hearers

he was removed to

hearers. In three quarters of a year Bridgenorth, where he officiated as affiftant to Mr. William Madftard, then minister of that place, who treated him with great kindness and refpect, and did not put him upon many things which he then began to fcruple doing. When the et cætera oath came to be impofed, Mr. Baxter applied himself to ftudy the cafe of epifcopacy, and it fared with him as with fome others, the thing which was intended to fix them to the hierarchy, drove them into a diflike of it. In order to have a juft idea of this matter, it is neceffary to tranfcribe this famous oath at large; whence it will appear why fome very honeft men fcrupled it, and why fome as honeft men took it without fcruple.

It runs thus: I A. B. do fwear, that I do approve the 'doctrine and difcipline, or government established in the church of England, as containing all things neceffary to falvation: And that I will not endeavor by myfelf or any other, directly or indirectly, to bring in any 'popish doctrine, contrary to that which is fo established; nor will I ever give my confent to alter the government ' of the church, by archbishops, bifhops, deans, and archdeacons, &c. as it ftands now established, and as by right it ought to ftand, nor yet ever to fubject it to the ufurpation and fuperftitions of the fee of Rome. And all these things I do plainly and fincerely acknow'ledge and fwear, according to the plain and common fenfe and understanding of the fame words, without any equivocation or mental evafion, or fecret refervation whatsoever. And this I do heartily, willingly and truly, upon the faith of a Chriftian. So help me GOD, in Jefus Chrift?

Men of tender confciences thought it hard to fwear to the continuance of a church government, which many of them difliked; and yet these men for the church's quiet would willingly have concealed their thoughts, had not this oath, impofed under the penalty of expulfion, compelled them to speak. Others complained of the et cætera, which, they faid, contained they knew not what, and might be extended to they knew not whom, but in all probability to the officers of ecclefiaftical courts; and to fwear to them they thought not only a little extraordinary, but very far from being lawful. Mr. Baxter feems to have understood the oath to be a direct declaration in favor of the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction of prelates as then established, which, though it might be fubmitted to with little, he apprehended could not be fworn

to without much, confideration. This put him upon ftudying the best books he could meet with on this fubject; the confequence of which was, that he utterly disliked the oath, a thing which fell out to many others befides him, who, but for this accident, had never disturbed themselves about fo knotty a queftion. In the year 1640 he was invited to Kidderminster by the bailiff and feoffees, to preach there for an allowance of fixty pounds a year, which he accepted; and applied himfelf with fuch diligence to his facred calling, as had a very great effect, in a fhort time, upon a very diffolute people. He continued there about two years before the civil war broke out, and fourteen afterwards with fome interruption. He fided with the parliament, and recommended the protestation they directed to be taken, to the people. This exposed him to fome inconveniences, which obliged him to retire to Gloucester, but he was foon invited back to Kidderminfler, whither he returned. His ftay there was not long, but beginning to confider with himself where he might remain in fafety, he fixed upon Coventry, and accordingly went thither. There he lived peaceably and comfortably, preached once every Lord's day to the garrifon, and once to the town's people, for which he took nothing but his diet. After Nafeby fight, when all things feemed to favor the parliament; he, by advice of the minifters at Coventry, became chaplain to Colonel Whalley's regiment, and in this quality he was prefent at feveral fieges, but never in any engagement, fo that there was not the leaft grounds for that scandalous ftory, invented and trumpeted about by his enemies, viz. that he killed a man in cold blood, and robbed him of a medal. He took all imaginable pains to hinder the progrefs of the fectaries, and to keep men firm in juft notions of religion and government, never deviating from what he judged in his confcience to be right, for the fake of making court to any, or from baser motives of fear. But he was feparated from the army in the beginning of the year 1657, in a very critical juncture, juft when they fell off from the parliament, Mr. Baxter being at that time feized with a bleeding at the nofe, in fo violent a manner, that he loft the quantity of a gallon at once, which obliged him to retire to Sir Thomas Roufe's, where he continued for a long time in a very languishing ftate of health, which hindered him from doing that fervice to his country, that otherwife, from a man of his principles and moderation, might have been expected.

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