curing his liberty. Baxter appears to have had some suspicion, either of the man, or of his design; whose object at last appeared to be to get money, as he afterwards made a demand of 381. for his trouble. Baxter resisted this demand, and applied to Lord Powis to know what influence he had in procuring his release. His lordship declared solemnly, as in the presence of God, he had had no influence whatever, and deserved no reward. Lord Powis, however, appears to have been the person who managed this affair, and obtained Baxter's deliverance from prison, though not his release from the bond of his good behaviour. It is probable that Baxter owed the favour he experienced to the change in the disposition of the court towards the dissenters generally at this time, owing to the difficulties experienced from the opposition to Popery on the part of the church, and the hope that by courting the dissenters, their fears might be quieted, and the object more easily secured.

On the 24th of November, 1686, Sir Samuel Astrey sent his warrant to the keeper of the King's Bench prison, to discharge him. He gave sureties, however, for his good behaviour, his majesty declaring for his satisfaction, that it should not be interpreted a breach of good behaviour for him to reside in London, which was not consistent with the Oxford act. After this release, he continued to live some time within the rules of the Bench; till, on the 28th of February, 1687, he removed to his house in the Charter-house-yard; and again, as far as his health would permit, assisted Mr. Sylvester in his public labours.d

Baxter's MSS.

d Calamy, vol. i. p. 375.

CHAPTER XIII.

1687-1691.

Baxter's Review of his own Life and Opinions, and Account of his matured Sentiments and Feelings-Remarks on that Review--The Public Events of his last Years-The Revolution-The Act of Toleration-Baxter's sense of the Articles required to be subscribed by this Act-Agreement of the Presbyterian and Independent Ministers of London-Last Years of Baxter-Preaches for Sylvester-His Writings-Visited by Dr. CalamyAccount of his last Sickness and Death, by Bates and Sylvester-Calumnious Report respecting the State of his Mind-Vindicated by SylvesterBuried in Christ-church-His Will-William Baxter-Funeral Sermons by Sylvester and Bates-Sketch of his Character by the latter-Concluding Observations on the Characteristic Piety of Baxter.

HAVING brought down the narrative of this venerable man's life and times nearly to the close of his active career, I apprehend this is the proper place to introduce his own review of the progress of his mind and character. He who was so attentive to others, and who drew the character of many, was not indifferent about himself, and exercised a much more rigid scrutiny into his own principles and conduct than he ever employed on those of his fellow men. He strongly recommended self-examination and self-judgment; it will now appear how conscientiously he practised them. The virtue of candour he ever enforced, with all the energy and eloquence of which he was master; and in the development, which he furnishes of the state of his own mind, and of his most secret thoughts, he shows how he was trained to practise it.

In his case, we have an advantage which is not frequently enjoyed in writing the lives of distinguished individuals. We

are furnished with his own views at length, not merely of his life and labours, but of the gradual and successive changes of his mind. Had this been the production of a weak, self-conceited man, or of one little accustomed to trace the workings of his intellectual and moral principles, it would have been worth very little; but being the work of a man of deep piety, unfeigned humility, and of the most discriminating powers of mind; of one who studied himself, as well as others, with the profoundest attention, and who was more ready to disclose his own failures and imperfections, than to speak of his own virtues, it is exceedingly valuable. As he has left it with the express view of enabling posterity to form a correct idea of himself; of a man who was warmly applauded by one party, and not less maligned by another, it would be altogether wrong to withhold it, or to give it in any other words than his own. It was written towards the latter part of his life, and comprises an extensive review of his experience, opinions, and writings. I omit only what I conceive to be extraneous or now unnecessary, and reserve his opinion of his writings, with a few other passages for the second part of this work. If the reader make a little allowance for a slight appearance of egotism and garrulity, he will probably find this among the most instructive parts of the life of Baxter. It is the summary of his matured views, after a long and busy career, in which he had seen much both of the world and of the church.

"Because it is soul experience which those who urge me to this kind of writing expect, that I should, especially, communicate to others; and I have said little of God's dealings with my soul since the time of my younger years, I shall only give the reader so much satisfaction as to acquaint him truly what change God hath made upon my mind and heart since those unriper times, and wherein I now differ in judgment and disposition from myself. For any more particular account of heart occurrences, and God's operations on me, I think it somewhat

unsavoury to recite them, seeing God's dealings are much the same with all his servants in the main, and points wherein he varieth, are usually so small, that I think such not fit to be re⚫peated. Nor have I any thing extraordinary to glory in, which is not common to the rest of my brethren, who have the same spirit, and are servants of the same Lord. The true reasons why I do adventure so far upon the censure of the world as to tell them wherein the case is altered with me, is, that I may take off young inexperienced Christians from over-confidence in their first apprehensions, or overvaluing their first degrees of grace, or too much applauding and following unfurnished, inexperienced men; and that they may be directed what mind and course of life to prefer, by the judgment of one that hath tried both before them.

"The temper of my mind hath somewhat altered with the temper of my body. When I was young I was more vigorous, affectionate, and fervent, in preaching, conference, and prayer, than, ordinarily, I can be now. My style was more extemporate and lax, but, by the advantage of warmth, and a very familiar moving voice and utterance, my preaching then did more affect the auditory, than it did many of the last years before I gave over preaching. But what I delivered then was much more raw, and had more passages that would not bear the trial of accurate judgments; and my discourses had both less substance and less judgment than of late.

"My understanding was then quicker, and could more easily manage any thing that was newly presented to it upon a sudden; but it is since better furnished, and acquainted with the ways of truth and error, and with a multitude of particular mistakes of the world, which then I was the more in danger of, because I had only the faculty of knowing them, but did not actually know them. I was then like a man of a quick understanding, that was to travel a way which he never went before, or to cast up an account which he never laboured in before, or to play on

an instrument of music which he never saw before. I am now like one of somewhat a slower understanding, who is travelling a way which he hath often gone, and is casting up an account which he hath ready at hand, and that is playing on an instrument which he hath frequently used: so that I can very confidently say, my judgment is much sounder and firmer now than it was then for though I am now as competent a judge of the actings of my own understanding as then, I can judge better of the effects. When I peruse the writings which I wrote in my younger years, I can find the footsteps of my unfurnished mind, and of my emptiness and insufficiency: so that the man that followed my judgment then, was likelier to have been misled by me than he that should follow it now.

“In my younger years, my trouble for sin was most about my actual failings; but now I am much more troubled for inward defects and omissions, for want of the vital duties or graces of the soul. My daily trouble is so much for my ignorance of God, weakness of belief, want of greater love to God, strangeness to him and to the life to come, and for want of a greater willingness to die, and more longing to be with God in heaven, that I take not some immoralities, though very great, to be in themselves so great and odious sins, if they could be found separate from these. Had I all the riches of the world, how gladly should I give them for a fuller knowledge, belief, and love, of God and everlasting glory! These wants are the greatest burden of my life, which oft maketh my life itself a burden. I cannot find any hope of reaching so high in these enjoyments, while I am in the flesh, as I once hoped before this time to have attained; which maketh me the wearier of this sinful world, that is honoured with so little of the knowledge of God.

"Heretofore, I placed much of my religion in tenderness of heart, grieving for sin, and penitential tears; and less of it in the love of God, in studying his goodness, and engaging in his joyful praises, than now I do. Then I was little sensible of the