to court to pay their duty to the king, were received but coldly; some were reproached, and others denied access, especially those who had distinguished themselves for the bill of exclusion.* In the election of a new parliament all methods of corruption and violence were used to get such members returned as might be supple to the king's arbitrary designs. When the houses met, May 22, the king repeated what he had declared in council, that he would pre

His first education was at Merchant-Taylor's school; from whence he removed to Cambridge. When he left that university he gained orders. in the church of England, and after having officiated for a time as curate to his father, he held a vicarage first in Kent and then in Sussex. But previously to this, he was, in his youth, a member of a baptist church in Virginia-street, Ratcliffe-Highway. In 1877 he reconciled himself to the church of Rome, and is reported to have entered into the society of Jesuits. After having left the whole body of dissenters for thirty years, he applied to be again admitted into the communion of the baptists, having first returned to the church of England, and continued in it about sixteen years. The baptists, through a prudent jealousy of him, spent almost three years in trial of his sincerity, before they received him again: so that he complained it was keeping him on the rack; it was worse than death in his circumstances to be so long delayed." He was restored to their communion in 1698 or 1699, but in less than a year was again excluded as a disorderly person and a hypocrite. He then became a conformist again. "He was a man of some cunning," says Granger," mere effrontery, and the most consummate falsehood." At one time he was a frequent auditor of Mr. Alsop at Westminster, after the revolution: and moved for leave to come to the Lord's table, but was refused on account of his character. Crosby has detailed a long story of a villainous transaction, to ruin a gentleman, to which he was instigated by the spirit of revenge. Dr. Calamy says, "that he was but a very sorry foul-mouthed wretch, I myself can attest from what I once heard from him, when I was in his company.” The parliament after the revolution, left him under a brand, and incapacitated him for being a witness in future. But a pension of 4001. a year was given him by King William. "The æra of Oates's plot," remarks Mr. Granger," was the grand æra of whig and tory." Whatever infamy rests upon his name, he was, observes Dr. Calamy, the instrument of providence of good to this nation by awakening it out of sleep, and giving a turn to the national affairs after a lethargy of some years. Calamy's Histor. Account of his own life, vol. i. p. 98, 99.Granger's History of England, vol. iv. p. 201, 349; and Crosby's History of the Baptists, vol. iii. p. 166-182. Ed.

* Burnet, vol. iii. p. 12, 13, Edin. edition.

+ Dr. Grey quotes here Eachard and Carte, to prove that the new parliament consisted of as many worthy and great, rich and wise men, as ever sat in the house. Ed.

serve the government in church and state as by law established. Which, Rapin says, he never intended; for he insiuuated in his speech, that he would not depend on the precarious aids of parliament, nor meet them often, if they did not use him well. But the parliament unanimously settled all the revenues of his late majesty upon the king for life, which amounted to more than two millions a year;‡ and presented an address May 27, to desire him to issue forth his royal proclamation, to cause the penal laws to be put in execution against dissenters from the church of England.

This brought down the storm, and revived the persecution, which had slackened a little upon the late king's death. His majesty was now encouraged to pursue his brother's measures. The tories, who adhered firmly to the prerogative, were gratified with full license to distress the dissenters, who were to be sacrificed over again to a bigotted clergy, and an incensed king, zealous for their destruction, (says bishop Kennet) in order to unite and increase the strength of popery, which he favored without reserve.Upon this, all meeting-houses of protestant dissenters were shut up, the old trade of informing revived and flourished; the spiritual courts were crowded with business; private conventicles were disturbed in all parts of the city and country. If they surprised the minister, he was pulled out of his pulpit by constables or soldiers, and, together with his people, carried before a confiding justice of peace, who obliged them to pay their fines, or dragged them to prison. If the minister escaped, they ransacked the house from top to bottom; tore down hangings, broke open chambers and closets; entered the rooms of those who were sick; and offered all kinds of rudeness and incivilities to the family, though they met with no manner of opposition

† Gazette, No. 2036.

The commons, charmed with these promises, and bigotted as much to their principles of government as the king was to his religion, in about two hours voted him suck an immense revenue for life. as enabled him to maintain a fleet and army without the aid of parliament, and consequently to subdue those who should dare to oppose his will. In this manner, and without any further ceremony, did this house of commons deliver up the liberties of the nation to a popish arbitrary prince."Warner's Eccles. History, vol. ii. p. 631. Ed.

VOL. V.

19

or resistance. Shopkeepers were separated from their trades and business; and sometimes wives from their husbands and children; several families were obliged to remove to distant places, to avoid the direful effects of an excommunication from the commons; and great sums of money were levied as forfeitures, which bad been earned by honest labor. Dissenting ministers could neither travel the road, nor appear in public but in disguise; nay, they were afraid to be seen in the houses of their friends, pursuivants from the spiritual courts being always abroad upon the watch.

One of the first who came into trouble was the reverend Mr. Baxter, who was committed to the King's bench prison February 28, for some exceptionable passages in bis paraphrase on the new testament, reflecting on the order of diocesan bishops, and the lawfulness of resistance in some possible cases. The passages were in his paraphrase on Matth. v. 19. Mark ix. 39. Mark xi. 31. xii. 38, 39, 40, Luke x. 2. John xi. 57. and Acts xv. 2. They were collected by sir Roger l' Estrange; and a certain eminent clergyman, reported to be Dr. Sh-ck, put into the hands of his enemies, some accusations from Rom. xiii. that might touch his life, but no use was made of them.Mr. Baxter being ill, moved by his council for time; but Jefferies said, he would not give him a minute's time to save his life. Yonder stands Oates in the pillory, (says he) and if Mr. Baxter stood on the other side, I would say, two of the greatest rogues in England stood there. He was brought to his trial May 30, but the chief justice would not admit his council to plead for their client. When Mr. Baxter offered to speak for himself, Jefferies called him a snivelling, canting presbyterian, and said, "Richard, Richard, don't thou think we will hear thee poison the court. Richard, thou art an old fellow, and an old knave ; thou hast written books enough to load a cart, every one as full of sedition, I might say of treason, as an egg is full of meat: hadst thou been whipt out of thy writing trade forty years ago, it had been happy. Thou pretendest to be a preacher of the gospel of peace; as thou hast one foot in the grave 'tis time for thee to begin to think what account thou intendest to give; but leave thee to thyself, and

I see thou wilt go on as thou hast begun, but by the grace of God, I will look after thee. I know thou hast a mighty party, and I see a great many of the brotherhood in corners, waiting to see what will become of their mighty don, and a doctor of the party [doctor Bates] at your elbow, but by the grace of Almighty God, I will crush you all." The chief justice having directed the jury, they found him guilty, without going from the bar, and fined him five hundred marks, to lay in prison till he paid it, and be bound to his good behavior for seven years. Mr. Baxter continued in prison* about two years, and when the court changed its measures, his fine was remitted, and he was released.

The rebellion of the duke of Monmouth furnished the court with a plausible handle to carry the prosecution of whigs and dissenters to a further extremity. There was a considerable number of English fugitives in Holland at this time, some on political accounts, and others on the score of religion. The king, being apprehensive of danger from thence, obliged the prince of Orange to dismiss the duke of Monmouth from his court, and to break all those

* Dr. Grey has given us, with apparent approbation, what he calls a characteristical Epitaph, drawn up for Mr. Baxter by the Rev. Thomas Long, prebendary of Exeter. It shews what different colours a character can receive according to the dispositions of those who draw the picture; and how obnoxious Mr. Baxter was to some, whose calumnies and censure the reader perhaps will think was true praise. It runs thus: "Hie jacet Richardus Baxter, theologus armatus, loiolita reformatus, heresiarcha æerianus, schismaticorum antesignanus: cujus pruritus disputandi peperit, scriptandi cacoethes nutrivit, prædicandi zelus intemperatus maturavit ecclesiæ scabiem. Qui dissentit ab i, quibuscum consentit maximo: tum sibi, cum aliis nonconformis præteritis, præsentibus et futuris: regum & episcoporum juratus hostis: ipsumq; rebellium solemne foœdus. Qui natus erat per septuaginta annos, et octoginta libros, ad perturbandas regni respublicas, et ad bis perdendam ecclesiam Anglicanam; magnis tamen exeidit ausis. Deo gratias." Grey's Examination, vol. ii. p. 281, note. Ed.

•« These words,” says the author of the article, Baxter, in the Biographia Britannica, " are an alJasion to sir Henry Wotton's monumental Inscription in Eton chapel. Hic jacet hujus sententine primus author, disputandi pruritus ecclesiarum scabies:" i. e. “Here lies the first author of this opinion; the itch of disputing is the leprosy of the churches." This writer has given the above epitaph in English, thus: "Here lies Richard Baxter, a militant divine, a reformed Jesuit, a brazen beresiarch, and the chief of schismatics, whose itch of disputing begat, whose humour of writing nourished, and whose intemperate zeal in preaching brought to its utmost height, the leprosy of the church: who dissented from those with whom he most agreed: from himself, as well as all other non-conformists, past, present, and to come; the sworn enemy of kings and bishops, and in himself the very bond of rebels : who was born, through seventy years and eighty books, to disturb the peace of the kingdom, and twice to attempt the ruin of the church of England: in the endeavor of which mighty mischiefs he fell short. For which thanks be to God." Biogr. Britan. vol. ii. p. 18, second edition. Ed.

officers who had waited upon him, and who were in his service; this precipitated the counsels of the malecontents, and made them resolve upon a rash and ill-concerted invasion, which proved their ruin. The earl of Argyle, imagining all the scots presbyterians would revolt, sailed to the north of Scotland with a very small force, and was defeated with the effusion of very little blood, before the declaration which he brought with him could have any effect. After him the duke of Monmouth, with the like precipitate rashness, landed June 11, with an inconsiderable force at Lyme in Dorsetshire; and though he was joined by great numbers in the West country, he was defeated by the king's forces, made prisoner, and executed on Towerhill; as was the earl of Argyle at Edinburgh.

Though the body of the dissenters were not concerned in either of these invasions, they suffered considerably on this occasion. Great numbers of their chief merchants and tradesmen in the city, being taken up by warrants, and secured in gaols, and in the public halls; as were many country whig gentlemen, in York castle, Hull, and the prisons in all parts of England, which had this good effect, that it kept them out of harm's way, while many of their friends were ruined by joining the duke; some from a persuasion that the late king was married to his mother; and others in hopes of a deliverance from popery and arbitrary

power.

The king, elated with success, resolved to let both whigs and dissenters feel the weight of the arm of a conqueror: his army lived upon free-quarters in the west, and treated all who were supposed to be disaffected, with great rude

* A full view of the assertions and purport of the duke of Monmouth's manifesto is given in my History of the Town of Taunton, p. 133-135. It was secretly printed in a private house hired for that purpose at Lambeth by W. C. a man of good sense and spirit, and a stationer in Pater-noster- row; who imported the paper. His assistant at the press was apprehended and suffered: he himself escaped into Holland, and absconded in Germany, 'till he came over with the prince of Orange, who, when he was settled on the throne, oppointed him his stationer. William Disney, Esq. was tried by a special commission upon an indictment of high treason, for printing and publishing this declaration, and was convicted, and sentenced to be drawn, hanged and quartered. Dr. Grey's Examination, vol. iii. p. 403-4. Ed.