was discovered by a letter to his wife which Cromwell intercepted. Upon this discovery, Cromwell informed the king's most intimate attendant that he would have no more to do with a man so unworthy of his confidence, and would no longer be responsible, as he had been, for his personal safety. The unhappy monarch, without seeming to have formed any definite plan of escape, fled from Hampton Court, and a few hours afterwards found himself, he hardly knew how, a prisoner in the Isle of Wight.

Here he was soon visited by commissioners from parliament, offering him certain proposals to which his assent was required as preliminary to any further negotiation. It was very distinctly intimated that if he rejected these propositions, they would proceed to settle the nation without him. The preliminaries now proposed, were not materially different from the terms which he had formerly rejected. He now declined them once more, having already entered on a secret treaty with the Scottish commissioners, which was signed three days afterwards. In this treaty, the king on the one hand promised that the covenant should be confirmed by act of parliament; that the presbyterian discipline should be established in England for three years, and afterwards such a system as should be agreed on in the mean time, the king and his household having the privilege of using those forms of worship to which they had been accustomed; and that an effectual course should be taken to suppress all heresy and schism. The Scots on the other hand, who had long been dissatisfied with their English friends as wanting in zeal for the covenant, and who had become finally disgusted on witnessing the predominant influence of the military sectarians, promised to raise an army which should deliver the king from his imprisonment and restore him to his authority. This treaty was signed near the close of the year 1647.

Early in the following year, the nation was again involved in war. The Scots, in compliance with their new treaty, invaded England under the banner of the covenant; the king's old friends rising simultaneously, wherever they were numerous enough to show themselves. The army which had overawed the parliament by being quartered about London, was now drawn off to meet the common enemy; and the presbyterian party immediately regained its old

ascendency in the city. A new treaty was set on foot with the king, and though long delayed by the efforts of the minority in parliament, was at last on the point of being concluded and carried into execution; when the army, having once more crushed all armed opposition, suddenly marched to London, and all was reversed. Military usurpation became the order of the day. A great number of presbyterians were forcibly expelled from the house of commons. The lords, refusing to concur with the acts of the lower house thus mutilated, were no longer acknowledged as a branch of the legislature. A high court of justice was erected by the commons for the trial of "Charles Stuart king of England;" and by the sentence of that court after a public trial, the king was beheaded on the thirtieth of January, 1649.

The Rump, for that was the name which the people in derision applied to the remnant of the parliament, consisted chiefly of zealous republicans, and was therefore resolved on the establishment of a commonwealth which might surpass in renown the classic republics of antiquity. But, as the republicans were in fact only a minority in the nation, it was felt that the people could not be trusted with this favorite project. Therefore the existing members of parliament must still retain the power in their own hands; though they made many fair promises that as soon as peace and order should be established, they would resign their power, and give the people an opportunity to elect new rulers. Meanwhile for the security of the infant commonwealth, all the subjects were called on to profess allegiance to its government. This promise was styled the "engagement," and was thus expressed, "I do promise to be true and faithful to the commonwealth, as it is now established, without a king or house of lords."

In Scotland, Charles II. was proclaimed king, and was invited to come over from Holland where he had found refuge, and to receive his crown, on condition of his taking the covenant and submitting to many additional restrictions and engagements. The Rump, seeing no immediate danger likely to arise from that quarter, left the Scots to settle their own government in their own way. Cromwell was sent to command in Ireland, where after a bloody war of nine months, he established beyond resistance or dispute, the authority of the commonwealth.

433936

and

In the meantime Charles II. despairing of any other relief, had accepted the proposals of the Scots and had come over into that kingdom. With a hypocrisy which has few parallels even in the history of his own faithless family, he solemnly swore to the covenant. He published a formal declaration, setting forth his humiliation and grief for the wickedness of his father and the idolatry of his mother, as well as for his own sins; professing his detestation of all popery, superstition, prelacy, heresy, schism, and profaneness; and promising that he would never favor those who followed his interests, in preference to the interests of the gospel and of the kingdom of Christ. Those who ruled in England, saw that this attempted reconciliation between Charles and the Scots, if attended with any measure of success, must imply some invasion of their peace power; and they resolved to be before-hand with the young king and his new subjects. War was determined on; and Fairfax having resigned his command, out of his presbyterian regard to the covenant, Cromwell was made captain-general of all the forces. With characteristic promptness he invaded Scotland, and soon reduced the king to desperate circumstances. By a bold movement suited to such circumstances, Charles with the main body of the Scottish army marched into England, hoping that his friends there, and the many others who were dissatisfied with the existing government, would instantly rally around him. In this he was disappointed; Cromwell having left a detachment to complete the subjugation of Scotland, followed hard after him, and at Worcester his army was annihilated, and he himself putting on the disguise of a servant with great difficulty escaped out of the kingdom. This battle, which Cromwell called his "crowning mercy," was fought on the third of September 1651.

Mutual dissatisfaction still existed between the parliament and the army. Peace was now established; the three kingdoms were consolidated into one commonwealth; and the parliament were loudly reminded of the promises which they had made to abdicate their power. Still they were unwilling to trust the people, and they resolved on continuing their own authority. At this crisis, Cromwell, having surrounded the house with soldiers, rose up in his place, and declaring that God had called him to dissolve that

assembly, told them they were no longer a parliament and bid them begone. Thus ended the Long Parliament, in 1653, and the only government of the nation was in the hands of the general and his council of officers.

By these men, after one short experiment of a parliament chosen by themselves, a new constitution was imposed on the nation. Cromwell was invested with the power of a limited monarch, under the title of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth; and provision was made for triennial parliaments, to be elected by the people. Under this government, though royalists and republicans, prelatists and presbyterians, papists and fanatics, united in hating it, the people enjoyed order and prosperity till the death of the Protector.

We now return to Baxter's personal history, to the elucidation of which this survey of public events seemed necessary.

"I have related how after my bleeding a gallon of blood, by the nose, that I was left weak at Sir Thomas Rouse's house, at Rous Lench, where I was taken up with daily medicines to prevent a dropsy; and being conscious that my time had not been improved to the service of God as I desired it had been, I put up many an earnest prayer, that God would restore me, and use me more successfully in his work. Blessed be that mercy which heard my groans in the day of my distress; and gratified my desires and wrought my deliverance when men and means failed, and gave me opportunity to celebrate his praise.

"Whilst I there continued, weak and unable to preach, the people of Kidderminster had again renewed their articles against their old vicar and his curate. Upon trial of the cause, the committee sequestered the place, but put no one into it; but put the profits in the hands of divers of the inhabitants, to pay a preacher till it were disposed of. They sent to me and desired me to take it, in case I were again enabled to preach; which I flatly refused, and told them I would take only the lecture, which, by his own consent and bond, I held before. Hereupon they sought Mr. Brumskill and others to accept the place, but could not meet with any one to their minds; therefore, they chose one Mr Richard Serjeant to officiate, rescrving the vicarage for some one that was fitter.

"When I was able, after about five months, to go abroad, I went to Kidderminster, where I found only Mr. Serjeant in possession; and the people again vehemently urged me to take the vicarage; which I denied, and got the magistrates and burgesses together into the townhall, and told them, that though I had been offered many hundred pounds per annum elsewhere, I was willing to continue with them in my old lecturer's place, which I had before the wars, expecting they would make the maintenance a hundred pounds a year, and a house; and if they would pro:nise to submit to that doctrine of Christ, which as his minister, I should deliver to them, proved by the holy scriptures, I would not leave them. And that this maintenance should neither come out of their own purses, nor any more of it out of the tithes, save the sixty pounds which the vicar had before bound himself to pay me, I undertook to procure an augmentation for Mitton (a chapel in the parish) of forty ponnds per annum, which I did; and so the sixty pounds and that forty were to be my part, and the rest I was to have nothing to do with. This covenant was drawn up between us in articles, and subscribed; in which I disclaimed the vicarage and pastoral charge of the parish, and only undertook the lecture.

"Thus the sequestration continued in the hands of the townsmen, as aforesaid, who gathered the tithes and paid me (not a hundred as they promised) but eighty pounds per annum, or ninety at most, and house-rent for a few rooms in the top of another man's house, which is all I had at Kidderminster. The rest they gave to Mr. Sergeant, and about forty pounds per annum to the old vicar; six pounds per annum to the king and lord for rents, and a few other charges."

"Besides this ignorant vicar, there was a chapel in the parish, where was an old curate as ignorant as he, that had long lived upon ten pounds a year and unlawful marriages, and was a drunkard and a railer, and the scorn of the country. I knew not how to keep him from reading, for I judged it a sin to tolerate him in any sacred office. I got an augmentation for the place, and an honest preacher to instruct them, and let this scandalous fellow keep his former stipend of ten pounds for nothing; and yet could never keep him from forcing himself upon the people to read, nor from unlawful