and profession of men to the test; and they often excite a spirit of emulation, which, though not unmixed with evil, is the means of extensive benefit to others. It is worthy of observation that all attempts to produce uniformity, have either been defeated; or have occasioned fresh divisions. Under the appearance of outward unity, the greatest diversity of opinion generally prevails. And genuine religion flourishes most amidst what is commonly denounced as the contentions of rival sects. The soil whose rankness sends forth an abundant crop of weeds, will produce, if cultivated, a still more luxuriant harvest of corn. If the times of Baxter were fruitful of sects, and some of them wild and monstrous, they were still more fruitful in the number of genuine, holy, and devoted Christians. It was not an age of fanaticism only, but of pure and undefiled religion.

:

CHAPTER V.

1646-1660.

Baxter resumes his Labours at Kidderminster-His account of Public Affairs
till the Death of Charles I.-His conduct while in Kidderminster towards
Parliament-Towards the Royal Party-His Ministry at Kidderminster-His
Employments-His Success-His Advantages-Remarks on the Style of his
Preaching-His public and private exertions-Their lasting effects.

In the fourth chapter, a full account is given of the views and
conduct of Baxter while he was connected with the victorious
army of the Commonwealth. His exertions to promote its
spiritual interests, were indefatigable and disinterested. With
the most patriotic principles and aims, he devoted himself to
counteract, what he considered the factious and sectarian dis-
positions of the soldiers and their leaders; while he experienced
nothing but sorrow and disappointment as the fruit of his
labours. His bodily health, always feeble and broken, at length
sunk under the pressure of his circumstances, and he was com-
pelled reluctantly to retire from the stormy atmosphere of a
camp to the calmer region of a pastoral cure.

The preceding chapter details the origin, character, and influence, of the principal and the minor religious parties which made a figure during the civil wars, or enjoyed an ephemeral notoriety during the Commonwealth. To all that concerned both the civil and religious interests of his country, Baxter was powerfully alive. He had the soul of a patriot as well as of a Christian; and often was he ready to weep tears of blood over the civil confusion and the religious distractions of his country. Yet were these halcyon days, in regard to the enjoyment of re

ligious privileges, compared with those which preceded and followed them.

After various digressions he thus resumes his personal narative: "I have related how after my bleeding a gallon of blood by the nose, that I was left weak at Sir Thomas Rous's house, at Rous→ Lench, where I was taken up with daily medicines to prevent a dropsy: and being conscious that my time had not been improved to the service of God as I desired it had been, I put up many an earnest prayer, that God would restore me, and use me more successfully in his work. Blessed be that mercy which heard my groans in the day of my distress; which wrought my deliverance when men and means failed, and gave me opportunity to celebrate his praise!

"Whilst I continued there, weak and unable to preach, the people of Kidderminster had again renewed their articles against their old vicar and his curate. Upon trial of the cause, the committee sequestered the place, but put no one into it; and placed the profits in the hands of divers of the inhabitants, to pay a preacher till it were disposed of. These persons sent to me and desired me to take it, in case I were again enabled to preach ; which I flatly refused, and told them I would take only the lecture which, by the vicar's own consent and bond, I held before. Hereupon they sought Mr. Brumskill and others to accept the place, but could not meet with any one to their minds: they, therefore, chose Mr. Richard Serjeant to officiate, reserving the vicarage for some one that was fitter.

"When I was able, after about five months' confinement, to go abroad, I went to Kidderminster, where I found only Mr. Serjeant in possession; and the people again vehemently urged me to take the vicarage. This I declined; but got the magistrates and burgesses together into the town-hall, and told them, that though I had been offered many hundred pounds per annum elsewhere, I was willing to continue with them in my old lec

turer's place, which I had before the wars, expecting they would make the maintenance a hundred pounds a year, and a house; and if they would promise to submit to that doctrine of Christ which as his minister I should deliver to them, I would not leave them. That this maintenance should neither come out of their own purses, nor any more of it out of the tithes, save the sixty pounds which the vicar had before bound himself to pay, I undertook to procure an augmentation for Milton (a chapel in the parish) of forty pounds per annum. This I afterwards did;

and so the sixty pounds and that forty pounds were to be my part, and the rest I should have nothing to do with. The covenant was drawn up between us in articles, and subscribed; in which I disclaimed the vicarage and pastoral charge of the parish, and only undertook the lecture.

"Thus the sequestration continued in the hands of the townsmen, as aforesaid, who gathered the tithes and paid me (not a hundred as they promised) but eighty pounds per annum, or ninety at most, and house-rent for a few rooms at the top of another man's house, which was all I had at Kidderminster. The rest they gave to Mr. Serjeant, and about forty pounds per annum to the old vicar; six pounds per annum to the king and lord for rents, and a few other charges.

"Beside this ignorant vicar, there was a chapel in the parish, where was an old curate as ignorant as he, that had long lived upon ten pounds a year and the fees of celebrating unlawful marriages. He was also a drunkard and a railer, and the scorn of the country. I knew not how to keep him from reading, though I judged it a sin to tolerate him in any sacred office. I got an augmentation for the place, and an honest preacher to instruct them, and let this scandalous fellow keep his former stipend of ten pounds for nothing; yet could never keep him from forcing himself upon the people to read, nor from celebrating unlawful marriages, till a little before death did call him

to his account. I have examined him about the familiar points of religion, and he could not say half so much to me as I have

heard a child say.

"These two in this parish were not all in one of the next parishes called 'The Rock,' there were two chapels, where the poor ignorant curate of one got his living by cutting faggots, and the other by making ropes. Their abilities being answerable to their studies and employments."s

Such were the circumstances in which Baxter resumed his labours in Kidderminster. He was the man of the people's choice, and might have enjoyed his right to the vicarage of the parish, had he been disposed to avail himself of it by the sequestration of the parliamentary commissioners. It is true he had no legal episcopal title; and of this his enemies took advantage an other day; but it is very certain he had no hand in ejecting the former incompetent incumbent, or in forcing himself upon the people as his successor. The appointment of the existing Government therefore, or of a body acting under its sanction, was sufficient authority to justify his taking possession of the and to support his complaint of unjust treatment when subsequently refused liberty to preach in the parish by Bishop Morley. That money was not Baxter's object, is evident from the nature of his engagement; and from his afterwards offering to continue his labours gratis, if he might only be permitted to preach and live among the people, no doubt can be entertained. of his disinterested love to the work of Christ.

cure,

Before proceeding to state the nature and results of his ministry in the place where he was honoured by God to effect so much good, it will be proper, for the sake of connecting the public events of the times, to advert to some important occurrences which took place immediately after he left the army, and dur ing the earlier period of his second residence in Kidderminster.

Life, part i. pp. 79, 80.