"All these assistances were at hand before I came to the immediate evidences of credibility in the sacred oracles themselves. And when I set myself to search for those, I found more in the doctrine, the predictions, the miracles, than I ever before took notice of, which I shall not here so far digress as to set down, having partly done it in several treatises."

"From this assault, I was forced to take notice that it is our belief of the truth of the word of God and the life to come, which is the spring that sets all grace on work, and with which it rises or falls, flourishes or decays, is actuated or stands still; and that there is more of this secret unbelief at the root, than most of us are aware of; and that our love of the world, our boldness with sin, our neglect of duty, are caused hence. I observed easily in myself that if at any time Satan did, more than at other times, weaken my belief of scripture and the life to come, my zeal in religious duty abated with it, and I grew more indifferent in religion than before; I was more inclined to conformity in those points which I had taken to be sinful, and was ready to think, why should I be singular and offend the bishops and my superiors, and make myself contemptible in the world, and expose myself to censures, scorns and sufferings, and all for such little things as these, when the foundations have so great difficulties as I am unable to overcome? But when faith revived, then none of the parts or concernments of religion seemed small, and then man seemed nothing, and the world a shadow, and God was all.

"In the beginning, I doubted not of the truth of the holy scriptures or of the life to come, because I saw not the difficultes which might cause doubting. After that, I saw them, and I doubted because I saw not that which should satisfy the mind against them. Since that, having seen both difficulties and evidences, though I am not so unmolested as at first, yet is my faith, I hope, much stronger, and far better able to repel the temptations of Satan and the sophisms of infidels than before. But yet it is my daily prayer, that God would increase my faith, and give my soul a clear sight of the evidences of his truth, and of himself, and of the invisible world."*

* Narrative, Part 1. pp. 21, 24.

It was a little more than a year after Baxter's coming to Kidderminister, when the war between the king and the parliament was fairly begun. In his own narrative, he describes much at length, the causes of the war, the character of the parties into which the nation was divided, and the progress of events. He was himself the sworn partizan of neither side; his views were much more favorable to the doctrine of non-resistance, than were those of his friends; and he ascribes the blame of the war to both parties. On the side of the parliament, he blames, first, the indiscretion and tumultuous proceedings of the people who adhered to them, particularly in London, where their zeal broke out in acts of violence. This, he attributes in a great measure to the bitter and angry spirit of a few, who were yet "enough to stir up the younger and unexperienced sort of religious people to speak too vehemently and intemperately against the bishops and the ceremonies, and to jeer and deride at the common prayer and all that was against their minds. For the young and raw sort of christians are usually prone to this kind of sin; to be self-conceited, petulant, wilful, censorious, and injudicious in all their management of their differences in religion, and in all their attempts of reformation. Scorning and clamoring at that which they think evil, they usually judge a warrantable course. And it is hard finding any sort of people in the world, where many of the most unexperienced are not indiscreet, and proud, and passionate." This spirit among the people, he says, occasioned the riotous proceedings referred to; and every such popular movement widened the breach and made the quarrel more desperate. "Thus rash attempts of headstrong people, do work against the good ends which they themselves intend; and the zeal which hath censorious strife and envy, doth tend to confusion and every evil work: and overdoing is the oRDINARY WAY

Another thing on the side of the parliament, which hastened the war, and made it inevitable and irreconcilable, was the revolutionary spirit of some of the active members, who encouraged the disorders before mentioned, and were unwilling to rest at any point

*Narrative, Part I. pp. 26, 27.

short of the reduction of the whole system of church and state to their notions.

To these causes he adds another, "the great distrust which the parliament had of the king;" but though he mentions this in the catalogue of those particulars in which the parliament was blameworthy, he neglects to show how the blame of this distrust could be imputed either to the parliament or to the people. "They were confident," he says, and evidently they had good reason to be confident," that the king was unmovable as to his judgment and affections; and that whatever he granted them, was but in design to get his advantage utterly to destroy them; and that he did but watch for such an opportunity. They supposed that he utterly abhorred the parliament and their actions; and therefore whatever he promised them, they believed him not, nor durst take his word; which they were hardened in by those former actions of his, which they called, the breach of his former promises."*

On the other side the quarrel was aggravated, and the war hastened, first by a plot, in which the king was involved, to bring the northern army to London, and thus to overawe and subdue the parliament; then by his undertaking to provide a guard, ostensibly for the protection, but really for the restraint, of the house of commons; next by the king's coming in person to the house, followed by an armed retinue, with the design of seizing five members whom he had accused of treason; afterwards by the rash movements of some of the king's friends; and more than all the rest, by the supposed connection between the court and the rebellion of the papists in Ireland, who had murdered two hundred thousand protestants in that kingdom, and to whom the English catholics, favored by the king, and known to be his zealous partizans in his whole controversy with the parliament, were looking with undisguised sympathy and with ardent hopes for their success,

These, Baxter regarded as the causes of mutual irritation, to which the commencement of hostilities might be directly ascribed. In this contest, the great body of the nobility were on the king's side, especially after the war had actually begun. Not a few

Narrative Part I. p. 27.

members of the house of cominons left their seats when they saw that the ancient constitution of the kingdom was to be subverted. A great party of the knights and men of family, the extensive and hereditary landed proprietors, were with the king from the beginning; and they with their tenantry constituted the strength of his cause. To these were added most of the lowest and poorest class of the people, the ignorant and vicious rabble every where. On the side of the parliament, were a few of the nobility, some in the highest rank; and a very respectable minority of the country knights and gentlemen. But the chief strength of the parliament was in the middling classes, among the great body of the freeholders, and manufacturers, and merchants, the classes which since the era of the reformation had acquired wealth and intelligence, and a new importance in the nation.

In respect to religious principles and character, the parties differed more widely, and the line of division was more distinctly drawn, than in respect to rank. For "though the public safety and liberty wrought very much with most, especially with the nobility and gentry, who adhered to the parliament, it was principally the differences about religious matters that filled up the parliament's armies, and put the resolution and valor into their soldiers, which carried them on in another manner than mercenary soldiers are carried on. Not that the matter of bishops or no bishops, was the main thing, for thousands that wished for good bishops were on the parliament's side." "But the generality of the people through the land, who were then called Puritans, Precisians, Religious persons, that used to talk of God, and heaven, and scripture, and holiness, and to follow sermons, and read books of devotion, and pray in their families, and spend the Lord's day in religious exercises, and plead for mortification, and serious devotion, and strict obedience to God, and speak against swearing, cursing, drunkenness, profaneness, &c. ; I say the main body of this sort of men, both preachers and people, adhered to the parliament. And on the other side, the gentry that were not so precise and strict against an oath, or gaming, or plays, or drinking; nor troubled themselves so much about the matters of God and the world to

come; and the ministers and people that were for the king's book,* for dancing and recreations on the Lord's days; and those that made not so great a matter of every sin, but went to church and heard common prayer, and were glad to hear a sermon which lashed the puritans; and who ordinarily spoke against this strictness and preciseness in religion, and this strict observation of the Lord's day, and following sermons, and praying extempore, and talking so much of scripture and the matters of salvation; and those that hated and derided them that take these courses;-the main body of these were against the parliament. Not but that some such, for money, or a landlord's pleasure, served them; as some few of the stricter sort were against them, or not for them; but I speak of the notable division through the land.

"If you ask how this came to pass, it requireth a longer answer than I think fit here to give. But briefly; actions spring from natural dispositions and interest. There is somewhat in the nature of all worldly men which makes them earnestly desirous of riches and honors in the world. They that value these things most will seek them; and they that seek them are more likely to find them than those that despise them. He who takes the world and preferment for his interest, will estimate and choose all means accordingly; and, where the world predominates, gain goes for godliness, and serious religion which would mortify their sin, is their

* The "book of sports," frequently spoken of in the history of those times, was a royal proclamation, first drawn up by bishop Morton, and published by James I. in the year 1618, and afterwards at the instigation of arch-bishop Laud republished by Charles I. in the year 1633. The design of this proclamation was to express his majesty's pleasure that after the end of divine service his good people should not be disturbed, letted or discouraged from any lawful recreations, such as dancing, either of men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any such harmless recreations, nor from having may-games, whitson-ales, or morrice-dances, or setting up of may-poles, or other sports therewith used, so as the same may be had in due and convenient time without impediment or let of divine service." When this proclamation was renewed by King Charles, it was ordered to be read in all the churches. Many of the ministers refused to comply with this order, some of whom were suspended for their disobedience. Others, after publishing the king's decree, immediately read the fourth commandment, adding This is the law of God, the other the injunction of man.