injuries in both directions. The speeches of Falkland, Digby, Grimstone, Pym, and Fiennes were printed and greedily purchased throughout the country. The clergy, and the bishops in particular, were the objects of loudvoiced indignation. A special committee of Parliament sat to receive complaints and petitions against them; and the chairman, Mr John White, published, as a specimen of the reports made to it, One Century of Scandalous Ministeres, showing a picture of "ignorance, insufficiency, drunkenness, filthiness, &c.," such as all good men were ashamed of.

Baxter viewed all this commotion with sympathy, and yet without any cordial or partisan interest. He nowhere shows any warm feeling on the Parliamentary side. There is now and at all times a lack of political heartiness in him. He speaks of the great movement as from a distance, as if he were an outside spectator of it, and held his mind in a fair and critical balance between the parties. This gives a certain value to his statements; but we could have wished that he had shown a warmer tinge of enthusiasm, and expressed his mind more fully regarding the great public events of his day.*

The ecclesiastical changes arising out of the Parliamentary investigation soon affected his position. The town of Kidderminster, with many other towns, sent up a petition against their vicar, as unlearned and quite unfit for the ministry. It stated that he preached

*He implies, indeed, that he was more zealous and decided at the time than the line of his remarks and reflections long afterwards might lead us to suppose he was. "Herein," he says, "I was then so zealous, that I thought it was a great sin for men who were able to defend their country to be useless. And I have been tempted since to think that I was a more competent judge upon the place, where all things were before our eyes, than I am in the review of those days and actions so many years after, when distance disadvantageth the reflection."

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only once a quarter, and that "so weakly as to expose himself to the laughter of the congregation; that he, moreover, frequented ale-houses, while his curate, in this respect, was worse than himself, being a 'common tippler and drunkard,' and an ignorant insufficient man,' who understood not the common points in the children's Catechism. The vicar, with a conscious feeling of incompetency, sought to compound the business with the petitioners. He offered to withdraw his present curate, and make a respectable allowance for a preacher or lecturer, to be chosen by a committee of the people. The inhabitants agreed to this, and after trial of another person, at length selected Baxter to the office. He himself was inclined to the place, and after preaching one day, he was chosen, as he says, "nemine contradicente. And thus I was brought by His gracious providence to that place which had the chiefest of my labours, and yielded me the greatest fruits of comfort. And I noted the mercy of God in this, that I never went to any place among all my life, in all my changes, which I had before desired, designed, or thought of (much less sought), but only to those that I never thought of, till the sudden invitation did surprise me."

Kidderminster attracted Baxter from the large field of usefulness that it opened to him. There was a full congregation and "most convenient temple;" and, although the people, for the greater part, were ignorant, rude, and riotous, like those at Bridgenorth, there were among them a small company of converts -humble and godly folks of good conversation, who were a sort of leaven among the rest of the community. He was encouraged also by the fact that there had never been any "lively serious" preaching

in the place, for his experience at Bridgenorth had made him resolve that he would never go among a people who had been "hardened in unprofitableness under an awakening ministry." His ultimate success corresponded to the heartiness of his zeal and the affection and earnestness with which he entered upon his duties. It is not till his second settlement at Kidderminster, however, that we are invited to consider his pastoral relations there. He had to submit to a temporary exile from it, and during this period we are carried with him into the midst of more exciting scenes.

The immediate cause of Baxter's retirement from Kidderminster was the extreme hostility between the Royalist and Parliamentary parties in the town. order had been received from the Parliament to demolish all statues and images in the churches and churchyard; he approved of the order, but did not interfere, he says, in the execution of it. The multitude, however, fixed the blame upon him, and he only escaped from assault by being absent from the town at the time. When the excitement was beginning to quiet, it was renewed by the reading of the King's declaration and the preparations for war. The mob of the town was strongly Royalist; they had got the cry, "Down with the Roundheads!" which they vociferated whenever any stranger appeared in the streets with "short hair and a civil habit," and followed up their insolence by personal violence. Baxter was advised to withdraw till the excitement died down. He proceeded to Gloucester, where he remained a month, and where he made acquaintance with the new forms of religious zeal which were everywhere springing up in the country. A small party of Anabaptists were

labouring with great keenness in this city to promote their views; while the minister, a hot and impatient man, tended, by his opposition, to harden, rather than convince them. Other sects were likewise spreading, and Baxter gazed with amazement on the dogmatic conflicts that surrounded him. After a short residence here, he returned to Kidderminster, and made an effort to settle once more among his people; but the contentions continued so violent that he was under the necessity of again withdrawing; the fury of faction was such in the town and neighbourhood as to interrupt all useful discharge of his duties.

This was in October 1642, on the eve of the battle of Edgehill. He had retired to Alcester, and, while preaching there for his friend Mr Samuel Clark, on the morning of the 23d, "the people heard the cannon play." He has given a graphic description of what he heard and saw. "When the sermon was done in the afternoon the report was more audible, which made us all long to hear of the success. About sunsetting many troops fled through the town, and told us that all was lost on the Parliament side, and that the carriages were taken, and the waggons plundered, before he came away. The townsmen sent a message to Stratford-on-Avon to know the truth. About four o'clock in the morning he returned, and told us that Prince Rupert wholly routed the left wing of the Earl of Essex's army; but while his men were plundering the waggons, the main body and the right wing routed the rest of the King's army, took his standard, but lost it again; killed General the Earl of Lindsay, and took his son prisoner; that few persons of quality on the side of the army were lost; that the loss of the left wing happened through the treachery

of Sir Faithful Fortescue, Major to Lord Fielding's regiment of horse, who turned to the King when he should have charged; and that the victory was obtained principally by Colonel Hollis's regiment of red-coats, and the Earl of Essex's own regiment and life-guard, where Sir Philip Stapleton, Sir Arthur Haselriggs, and Colonel Urrey, did much." Next morning Baxter visited the battle-field, while the two armies still remained facing one another "about a mile off." There were about a thousand dead bodies in the field between them; and many, he supposes, had been already buried.

His plans were now very uncertain. He was unable to live at Kidderminster, with soldiers of the one side or the other constantly among the people stirring up tumult, and the city exposed to the fury of the contending parties. He had neither money nor friends, and he knew not where to turn. At length he was induced to go to Coventry, where he had an old acquaintance, and here he proposed to stay till one of the parties had obtained the victory, and the war was ended, which, he thought, must happen within a few days or weeks, in the event of another battle. This idea of the speedy termination of the war was a prevailing one at its commencement. In this expectation, however, he was soon undeceived; and when he was thinking anew what he should do, he received. very opportunely an offer from the Governor of Coventry to take up his abode with him and preach to the soldiers. He embraced the offer, but refused to receive any commission as a chaplain in the army. He continued during a year to discharge this duty, preaching once a-week to the soldiers, and once on the Lord's day to the people. He then removed to Shrop