was a contemptuous and reproachful term. Certain
of the bishops rose into popularity by repressing too
strict notions of morality, and by openly countenan-
cing the Book of Sports. While extending their
favour to the exhilarating pastime of Sabbath games,
these ecclesiastics despised the monotony of after-
noon lectures. When we analyse the constituent



278 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

parts of the forces arrayed on the Boyalist side, our
admiration strengthens for those who discerned the
signs of the times, and risked life, property, and all
dear to them as freemen of England, rather than
succumb to the humiliation of seeing the iniquitous
cause of the King triumphant. In the City of London
men took their plate, and women their trinkets, to
the common treasury of the Parliament at Guildhall.
As a keen observer of his kind, Baxter noticed well
the elements which made up the contending parties.
The partisans of Charles were the upper classes and
their tenants ; the defenders of the Parliament in-
cluded the smaller gentry, with such as more highly
valued religion and morality. In the main, Baxter
himself sided with the Parliament ; but the town
and vicinity of Kidderminster adhered to the Eoyalist
standard. Some adventures, encountered about this
time, are illustrative of the state of English society
in that era of ceaseless commotion. Once, while
riding through the city of Worcester, his grave-look-
ing mien and closely-cropped hair were noted by
certain passengers, who raised the usual cry of
" Down with the Roundheads ! " but his fleet and
faithful steed helped Baxter out of this dilemma.
At Gloucester he enjoyed immunity from peril
because the town had gone over to the Parliament,
on which account, by contrasting with some neigh-
bouring places, it appeared like another sphere. In
those eventful days our author's unsettled mode of
life was sufficiently diversified. At one time, while



LITTLE CARTER LANE, 279

the battle of Edgehill was raging, we find him
preaching at Alcester, the church being shaken by
the vibration of distant artillery. In the midst of
such alarms he likewise preached a sermon at Bridg-
north on the death of Madstard, his former colleague.
He boldly reproved the townspeople for so little pro-
fiting by their pastor's ministrations, on which
account some judgment would surely visit their
homesteads. This prophecy was strangely verified.
Soon after, the forces of the King relentlessly de-
stroyed both church and town, and by retiring
behind the castle ramparts, they were enabled to
defy their Parliamentary opponents. On peace
being restored, and the town rebuilt, Baxter, on a
memorable occasion, addressed the inhabitants, but
the emotion affecting both hearers and preacher
made the progress of the service a matter of diffi-
culty.

Kidderminster was roughly shaken by the war, so
that the pastor and a large portion of his flock were
constrained to take refuge at Coventry. Among ,
congenial society at Coventry, Baxter, who stayed
about a year, and acted in the capacity of garrison
chaplain, was lodged as a guest of Simon King, an
hospitable burgher.

In the estimation of Eoyalist generals. Puritanism

r ^ ^^

was the offence of offences, arid the troopers, when
able, were allowed to take sanguinary vengeance on
such districts as sheltered so obnoxious a system 01
religion and morality. Thus, in common with



280 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

others, the house of the elder Baxter was cleared of
its goods, being left with " almost nothing but
lumber." Numerous families left their Kidder-
minster homes to live a life of temporary exile,
having for their chief means of support what
movable property they could carry away. If too
poor to command such a subsistence, the fugitives
earned their bread by taking arms, choosing rather
to serve as soldiers among freemen than to retain
their hearths by violating conscience ill obeying the
call of a law-breaking monarch.

We can see something of Coventry as it really
was during that year of tumult, 1643. England
was shaken by civil and military discord, but
Coventry was tranquil. News of Edgehill fight,
of Cromwell's marches and manoeuvres, or of
Hainpden's death, was peacefully carried into that
quiet city, which is represented as having resembled
a dry house unharmed by distant storms. This
exemption from action, however, bred polemical con-
tention ; for the Presbyterians, headed by Baxter,
gave particular heed to " An Anabaptist taylor," the
result being a sharp controversy of small credit to
. the combatants. The Baptists put on a very deter-
mined front by sending to Bedford for Benjamin
Cox, a renowned champion of their denomination,
and known to his contemporaries as "An old Ana-
baptist minister, a bishop's son, and no mean
scholar." Other matters, nevertheless, demanded
Baxter's attention. He travelled with a regiment to



LITTLE CARTER LANE. 28 L

Wem, a short distance from Shrewsbury, and was.
there made the happy instrument of releasing his,
father from prison. After living for two months in
the society of former friends and amid old associa-
tions, the pastor returned to Coventry. Such minutiae
may be accounted as trifles ; but let it be remembered
that, they are trifles in the life of Baxter.

Partial as he was to a studious retirement, and
loving as he did the functions of his sacred calling,
Baxter's aversion to party politics and the excitement,
of war, would have prevented his enrolment among
the army chaplains had not the higher consideration
of duty overcome objections. He consented to travel *
with the forces, and his adventures included a wit-
nessing of the siege of Worcester, also that of Ban-
bury Castle, and the important capture of Bridgwater.
As we, at this distance of time, quietly note the
action of men who won freedom for themselves and
posterity, it strikes us as strange that such heroes,
could, in religious controversy, drown the terrors of
war. The soldiers, by their interminable wranglings
concerning doctrine and practice, occasioned their
chaplain serious inconvenience, for he would some-
times spend an entire day in promoting an amicable
settlement of a vexed dispute. The truth is, in those
early years of the war the sects in general engrossed
too much of Baxter's attention. A well-meant oppo-
sition to Seekers, Banters, and Quakers who, he-
said, were " Ranters reversed " occupied hours
which he might have more profitably employed. But



282 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

the middle of the seventeenth century, it is only fair
to remember, was emphatically an age of disagree-
ment, and of an undue prominence being awarded to
minor matters. To illustrate this proposition, and
show with what zest the populace divided into parties,
it will be sufficient to mention that, on one memor-
able day, and before a crowded audience, Baxter and
Toombs argued the baptismal controversy from nine
in the morning till five in the evening. The decision
of character shown by the former was not less
apparent in politics than in religion. While strenu-
ously opposing the policy of the Court, he could yet
exert his great influence against the Covenant ; and
lie prevented that famous instrument from being
subscribed both in the town of Kidderminster and in
the county of Worcester.

Although Baxter and others declined subscribing
the Covenant, they refused in after times to pray for
the success of Cromwell's Scottish campaign. In-
deed, these Presbyterian divines acted unfairly in
regard to Cromwell; for while benefiting by his
wholesome rule, they regarded him as a mere usurper.
We are, nevertheless, constrained to admire that
straightforward honesty with which such men, under
all skies and circumstances, uttered their sentiments.
Thus, while preaching before the Protector and his
retinue, Baxter denounced the sins of politicians who
sought to promote their individual profit by taking
advantage of the public distractions. On another
occasion, he explained to Cromwell his political views



LITTLE CARTER LANE. 283

in a conference of five hours' duration, and the pur-
port of those views was, that Englishmen still
prized their ancient monarchy. Like his too san-
guine compeers, Baxter hailed the Restoration with
many joyful anticipations, and, on the day pre-
ceding the King's recall April 30th, 1660
preached before the Parliament.

At length the long-wished-for Restoration was
consummated. The rude rejoicings of 1660 soon
proved themselves the precursors of national trouble
and of national humiliation. Baxter was speedily
superseded by the sequestered vicar, and by the
vigilence of his enemy, Sir Ralph Clare, was expelled
the pulpit, notwithstanding that in the capacity of
curate he would gladly have laboured unremunerated.
By excluding Baxter from his diocese the Bishop of
Worcester earned the censure of posterity. The
parishioners of Kidderminster were not slow at ex-
pressing an admiration for their late pastor, and a
corresponding disgust at the action of their diocesan.
By violent invective from the parish pulpit, a trial
was made to teach the people a more prelatical be-
haviour ; but these spasmodic reformers could only
evoke the derision of the townsmen. The people
stayed away from their parish church a procedure
which prompted the rising party to resort to perse-
cution. Recusants, on refusing to conform, fared
very roughly ; for while some were despoiled of their
goods, others languished in the pestilent cells of the
county gaol. The tactics of the episcopal party



284 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

were characterised by neither principle nor honour.
Imaginary plots were concocted to implicate the
more conspicuous Dissenters. Thus letters would
be forged purporting to be addressed by Baxter to
certain others, specifying that arms would be pro-
vided at a given time and place. On such trumped-
up charges many worthy citizens were imprisoned.

The autumn of 1661 saw the Nonconformists in
a state of active vigilance. Venner's ill-timed and
ill-fated plot hatched at Limehouse, and acted out
in the city streets was yet affectionately remem-
bered by certain " phanatiques," who now systemati-
cally opposed the re-introduction of the Common
Prayer. The seamen of Plymouth " determined that
the Common Prayer shall not come into Mr. Hughes's
church ;" and this action, so the populace were made to
believe, originated with the Baptists and the Quakers.
The most sanguine of the disaffected, however,
entertained but a slender hope of securing toleration,
and so wisely provided a vessel for the common use
of such as preferred escaping to the Continent. By-
such means Hanserd Knollys retired into Holland,
to avoid that official vengeance from which the
Baptists so pre-eminently suffered. At a meeting in
Southwark, convened by the latter denomination, the
speakers referred to the King as " the beast ;" and so
aggrieved did the Government consider themselves,
that one of Cromwell's old lieutenants, of the name
of Carter, was gravely charged with being "An
Anabaptist costermonger." Intelligence reached



LITTLE CARTER LANE. 285

"Whitehall of a coalition of Presbyterians and Bap-
tists, who were fermenting sedition and preparing to
repress the Government by force of arms. In the \
spring of 1663, the iron rule imposed on the nation
began to bear its legitimate fruit, for many, who
were prisoners for conscience' sake, died of disease
and of suffocation in the overcrowded prisons. Thus,
on the liberation of two hundred Quakers, twenty
were missing ; that is to say, twenty lay dead in
their cells. The Presbyterians made some slight
show of conformity, but the spirit of resistance
animating the Quakers and Baptists was not to be
subdued by the most relentless cruelty. The .
majority of those by whom the ejected clergy were
superseded were quite unworthy of any sacred
trust, as their disorderly lives and literary incom-
petence abundantly proved. Meanwhile, a bad
government, weakly administered, was disastrously
affecting trade. The mercantile world had no con-
fidence in rulers, who simultaneously repressed Dis-
sent and encouraged Popery. Taking advantage of
the times, the Dutch used every art to allure the
best of our English populace away. As regarded
the ejected pastors, " Some teach in schools, some
get into families ; some cut tobacco and take up very
mean employments." Cornelius Burgess, a doctor
of divinity, whose income had been 1,000 a-year,
was among the number who begged their bread.

About this date Baxter and Calamy met with an
adventure which deserves recording. The two were



286 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

commanded to attend at Court. On proceeding to
Whitehall, they found the King in the best of
humours, and not inclined to spare his condolence.
With the true art of a royal dissembler, Charles
confessed his regret that such lights were not " pro-
testing against Popery." As the divines were passing
to the reception-room, many in assumed superiority
enquired, " What do these Presbyters here ?" When
the fact of the royal complaisance became known, how-
ever, this arrogance was superseded by " Your servant,
Dr. Calamy and Mr. Baxter." It is a curious dis-
covery that, the more superstitious Dissenters as-
cribed their troubles to the adverse action of the
stars. Such persons conversed in mysterious tones
about " a strange conjuncture of the planets called
Trigon," which occurred in December, 1662.*

Bigotry and intolerance bore their fruit in the Act
of Uniformity. Baxter preached his farewell ser-
mon in the Established Church on the last Sabbath
of May, 1662, and thus, for example's sake, adopted
the^ procedure of seceding three months prior to
Black Bartholomew. The Court seems to have been
really disturbed by the rumours of dissaffection
which the silencing of so great a number of faithful
ministers awakened among the religious sections.
When the coalition of the Presbyterians and other
Nonconformists was talked about, the City was re-

* See Calendars of State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles
II., 1662, &c.



LITTLE CARTER LANE. 287

presented as being the refuge of disloyalty. The
King's uneasiness was increased by the return to
London of disbanded troops, and by the " Multiplying
of public and private lectures." The Conventicle Act,
passed in the summer of 1663,'was partly the off-
spring of these misgivings. While thus depressed
on all hands, the Dissenters could not agree as to
the lawfulness of attending parish churches ; some
advocated an occasional siipport to the established
worship ; others, demanding an entire separation,
assumed a braver attitude.

What the social and political condition of the
Dissenters actually was, immediately after Black
Bartholomew, may be inferred from contemporary-
letters and documents among the State Papers.
The Act of Uniformity was very rigorously enforced.
Cared for by Providence and approved by conscience,
still the excluded ministers, in their daily wanderings,
were constrained to act with extreme caution, even
in life's commonest affairs. Great numbers of pastors
were crowded into the too narrow gaols; and, through
being closely huddled together with common criminals,
many were stifled by the pestilential atmosphere, or |
wasted by the ravages of prison fever. As before /"
observed, the most determined stand taken against j
the intolerance of the ascendant party was that as- \
'sumed by the Baptists and Quakers. It were idle
to deny that, the ranks of Nonconformity in those
days included many fanatics ; but to assume that
they differed in this respect from their opponents is



288 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

an ungenerous, because an unfair assumption. Ac-
counts are extant of the rumours which the oppressed
people industriously circulated ; e.g., Providence was
appearing ; was even then avenging the wrongs of
the elect. A certain clergyman had been smitten
by death after "Yielding to put on a surplice."
Another, while on his way to conform, had fallen
from his horse and died. Such occurrences as these
were construed into the judgments of Heaven upon
faithless Amalekites. On the other hand, the popu-
lace, intoxicated by loyalty, showed a supreme indif-
ference to all religion ; and churches attached to
extensive cures only attracted from ten to forty
communicants. In. numberless instances, the clergy
were not only disgraced to their high profession, but
were a scandal to humanity. Because they only
gave a desultory attention to their duties, such men
were unheeded by the vulgar, and despised by the
discerning. Bands of devoted ones were found,
however, to perpetuate the principles and worship of
the Church. Such, indeed, often took advantage
of the gloom of night ; and became indebted to damp
cellars in obscure thoroughfares, or to the rural seclu-
sion of suburban barns ; but amid such adverse sur-
roundings, they strengthened one another in Christ ;
and while dispensing the commemorative Cup and the
Broken Bread, adjured their fellows to be faithful
unto death. To the Papists a far milder treatment
was meted out ; for they scarcely provoked any legal
interference. When it actually occurred, the arrest



LITTLE CARTER LANE. 289

of Eomanists was a mere subterfuge ; and they were
commonly released without further trouble. As
had long been the case, the bishops were the uncom-
promising opponents of a tolerant policy. In the
spring of 1663, for example, politicians were broach-
ing the subject of relaxing the persecuting laws ;
but the prelates at once communicated with the
commoners in the rural districts, and urged them to
defeat so pernicious a measure. Their excessive
grievances drove great numbers of Dissenters out of
England ; and their country's loss was the lasting
gain of Holland and America.

It will scarcely amount to a digression, if, for
insertion here, we select some particulars of the
amiable Margaret Charlton, who eventually became
Mistress Baxter. With exquisite gracefulness, her
husband has delineated her character : and his picture
is not tinted with overdrawn panegyric. The Charltons
ranked among the county families of Worcestershire ;
and Margaret's father, who did not marry till his
locks were grey, held the office of Justice of the
Peace. On the breaking out of the civil war, the
family became politically divided; Mrs. Charlton
fortifying her mansion for the King, while her
brother-in-law fought on the Parliamentary side. As
will be imagined, feelings of ill-will and jealousy
sprang up in the family ; and these were aggravated
by the fact, that Eobert Charlton was next heir-at-
law to the widow's only son. By connivance of the
former, his sister's seat was stormed and taken by

19



290 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

the popular party. After her son had settled in life,
Mrs. Charlton removed with her only daughter to
Kidderminster, the latter then being a handsome
maiden of the age of seventeen. These ladies, by
their kindness and charity, soon won the esteem of
their neighbours the weavers; for by what Baxter
calls a " Manly patience," the matron subdued her
constitutional infirmity of temper.

During the summer of 1662 Baxter was the sub-
ject of some curious enquiry and witty comment.
Like certain others of his class, he had, in an un-
guarded hour, extolled celibacy as a more convenient
state for Christian ministers than wedlock ; and like
those others, whose experience was identical, his
unnatural arguments were the prelude to taking a
wife. The story is a pretty one ; and its beautiful
sequel pleasingly instructive.

Baxter may have been first drawn towards the
Charltons by their seconding his labours among the
parishioners of Kidderminster ; but in time, and bj r
almost imperceptible degrees, the sage found himself
in the power of a siren charmer, whose subtlety of
fascination he had hitherto little suspected. He
chid himself, it would seem, on account of his natural
weakness, and resolved to exercise in future a more
becoming circumspection. In such matters, as all
know, it is far easier to resolve than to act, espe-
cially when the fair object to be prudently avoided
appears week after week in the family pew with a
pensive pallor superseding her wonted rosiness. It



LITTLE CARTER LANE. 291

so happened with Baxter and Margaret Charlton, till
a mutual understanding was arranged which ended in
a life union. The provisions of the marriage contract
retained in her own power the whole of Margaret's
fortune, which her lover would not deign to touch
for fear men, by calling him a mercenary, should
bring dishonour on the Gospel. They were married
on September 10th, 1662, at St. Sennet-fink's
Church, London. The few spectators who con-
gregated on that autumn morning beheld a spectacle
unique of its kind. The bridegroom was a poor
clerk without a cure, with a prospect sufficiently
dismal stretching before him, although his path of
penury was a self-chosen path. The approval of
conscience was above money value ; and Margaret,
with maidenly enthusiasm, admired that exalted piety
and self-denial which had rejected the highest pre-
ferment for the sake of preserving an unsullied
rectitude ; and as a bride, was more than happy in -
possessing the means of succouring the man of her
choice and veneration. Their after life was a strange
experience of what may be termed joyous trouble.
They were compelled frequently to remove from one
situation to another, and on this account alone
suffered much inconvenience amounting to real
hardship. But wherever Margaret was there also
was that lightsome cheerfulness only springing from
unwavering faith. " I know not," says Baxter, "that
she ever came to any place where she did not extra-
ordinarily win the love of the inhabitants." Their

19*



292 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

first home was in Moorfields : thence they removed
to Acton, and there successively occupied several
houses. Margaret's chief temporal felicity consisted
in promoting the welfare of others. Her liberal
charities and gentle mien greatly endeared her to
her poorer neighbours. Indeed, she so won the
affection of the inhabitants that when she removed
to a station ten miles distant the people of Acton
attempted to restore their favourite by offering to
subscribe the rent of a house. The presence of such
a ministering angel lightened the heaviest burden:
" She cheerfully went with me to prison," says her
husband. " She brought her lest bed thither."

For a short time this happy couple lived at Tot-
teridge. "The coal smoke so filled the room that
we all day sat in that it was as a cloud " words
conveying a graphic insight into the everyday life
of an ejected minister. At first it was Margaret's
custom to dispense a tenth of her income to the
poor ; but at Baxter's suggestion the proportion was
largely augmented. An extraordinary zeal in
ministering to the poor occasionally exhausted her
resources ; but at such times she mortified her family
pride by accepting from others what was necessary
to sustain her beneficent action. She also derived
great pleasure from seeing youths in training for the
ministry, although none more heartily despised a
student lacking " Good wits and parts."

Margaret died in June, 1681, at " a pleasant and
convenient house in Southampton-square," a house



LITTLE CARTER LANE. 293

she herself selected in her tender regard for her hus-
band's health. On the departure into rest of this
estimable woman the poor of Saint James's and
Saint Martin's bewailed her loss as that of a guar-
dian angel. With many tears did Baxter deposit
her dear remains among the ruins of Christchurch ;
and probably he realised a keenness of suffering he
had little imagined possible when he found himself
separated for all time from the object of his purest
love. How did he carry with him to the grave
Margaret's dying words, " My mother is in heaven

and thou and I shall be in heaven." "The

Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away," exclaimed
the stricken husband ; "and he hath taken away, but
that upon my desert, which he had given me un-
deservedly near nineteen years. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. I am waiting to be next. The
door is open. Death will quickly draw the veil,
and make us see how near we were to God and
one another, and did not (sufficiently) know it.
Farewell, vain world, and welcome true everlasting
life."*

To return to our more immediate subject, we find
that Baxter on one occasion preached before Charles
the Second, in the capacity of chaplain-in-ordinary
and had conscience permitted, he might have trans-