the latter place, induced the King to return again to Oxford, where he assembled a Parliament on the 22d of January; which was prorogued from the 16th of April till the 8th of October. But the court continued at Oxford until the 7th of May 1645; and biographers have asserted, with great appearance of truth that, during these intervals of rest from warfare, Taylor, in concert with Usher " and Sheldon, was often summoned to preach before it.

On the 7th of May the King again took the field, and marched to relieve Chester; but afterwards diverted his course towards Leicester, and took it by storm on the 29th. Thence he advanced towards Daventry, with the intention of relieving Oxford, then threatened with

See Life of Usher, by John Aikin, M.D. 1812. p. 264. i At this time much of the worth and learning of the kingdom was concentrated in Oxford. Usher, driven from the primacy of Ireland, was there, residing in the house of his friend Dr. Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester; occupied in preparing an edition of the Epistles of Barnabas and Ignatius, and generally preaching every sabbath-day in some of the churches. Dr. Hammond also had sought an asylum in Magdalen-college, the seat of his earlier studies, and was employed in bringing before the world his Practical Catechism, and in publishing several other tracts upon subjects most perverted by the errors of the time.

a siege; but hearing that the parliamentary general had withdrawn his troops, he turned to Northampton.

On the 14th of June the King lost almost the whole of his forces, and his cabinet of papers and letters, at the battle of Naseby. So complete was the victory on that day in favour of the Parliament, that the King, with some scattered horse was compelled to fly from Leicester to Ashby-de-la-Zouch; thence to Lichfield, and, for a safer retreat, into Wales. And though he was sufficiently recruited to advance with a body of horse towards Lichfield in the beginning of August, yet there is reason to conclude that Taylor did not return with him.

If, indeed, he were still in attendance on the army, he must have accompanied it through the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Bedford, and arrived at Oxford on the 28th of August; two days after which the forces marched to Campden; and, having taken a fruitless route through the counties of Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester, Salop, and Chester, again returned to Oxford.

D

But the King's prospects were now enveloped in gloom; and to so low a state had he fallen on the 7th of April of the succeeding year, that he was compelled to quit Oxford at midnight, in disguise, accompanied only by Dr. Hudson and Mr. John Ashburnham, and to put himself under the protection of the Scots' army, then before Newark. From this day no chaplain was in attendance on his person. Though he wrote to the Parliament, desiring Dr. Sheldon and some other of his chaplains might be with him, he was refused; and it was not until the 16th of August of the year 1647, that we find them waiting upon him, which they then did at Hampton-court. But that Taylor was not of the number, appears from the publication of his "Liberty of Prophecying," which took place in this year; and was written, as he himself declares in his Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to that work, after his retreat into Wales.

The conclusion which is drawn from the facts produced is, that Taylor retired into Wales, either in the summer of the year 1645, or in the spring of the year succeeding.

CHAP. III.

FROM 1646 TO 1647.

AMONGST the many circumstances that

at once attract attention and excite surprise during the gloomy contest, which at that time distracted England, and drove her most religious inhabitants from their homes, to seek an asylum at a distance from the scene of discord, none more deeply impresses the mind, than the numerous and profound writings which were rapidly published and read with avidity, during such a season.

This may in some measure be accounted for, by the slight apprehension entertained by the people, of the fatal issue of the contest, in the murder of the sovereign; and least of all, by the King himself; who was known, even during his restraint, to be sufficiently tranquil, to investigate the profundity of Hooker and Hammond, and enjoy the imagin ation of Tasso and Ariosto.

1

A striking instance of abstraction of mind from passing events, is afforded during those years of the life of Taylor, which were spent either in the hurry of war, or the seclusion of a precarious retirement; the time of his life at which we are now arrived.

During this unsettled state of public affairs, though harassed by frequent change of situation, and distracted by the bustle of conflict, Taylor did not lose sight of that, which, in his estimation, was most valuable, namely, the Church of Christ as it had been established in England at the Reformation, though now abused and persecuted. "We have not only felt," he says, the evils of an intestine

"war, but God hath smitten us in our spirit. "But I delight not to observe the correspond"encies of such sad accidents, which, as they 66 may happen upon divers causes, or may be

forced violently by the strength of fancy, or "driven on by jealousy, and the too fond "opinings of troubled hearts and afflicted

spirits; so they do but help to vex the of "fending part, and relieve the afflicted but "with a phantastic and groundless comfort: "I will therefore deny leave to my own "affections, to ease themselves by complain