Indeed, he had

afraid of dying, but I am afraid of pain." a peculiar sensitiveness with regard to physical agony, which seems to have been constitutional. All but joy soon afterwards terminated, for, on the 2nd of April, 1705, his spirit entered those regions of repose which he had long so fervently desired to reach.

The passing away of the old Puritans could not but produce a great effect. When the last of the Apostles left the world, those who remained in the line of succession-so far as Apostles could have any proper successors—would fail to reach the level of experience, character, and influence which their predecessors occupied. And when the last of the Protestant Reformers died, there would be a falling off in the ardour and force which marked the religious leaders of the next generation. And so, without equalizing Apostles, Reformers, and Puritans, we may say of the last, that when they were all gone-though their cause remained in the hands of men who had learned their lessons-the fire no longer burned with the glowing heat it had done before. There might be more breadth of view, there might be advancement in some respects, but there remained not the same force which had operated so mightily at an earlier period. Puritanism, as a creed, as a discipline, as a form of worship, as a religious sentiment, remained; but much of its original inspiration passed away.

Another circumstance may be noticed. The Puritans of the Commonwealth had in early life mingled socially with Anglicans. They had sat on the same forms at school, had lived under the same college roof, had preached in the same places of worship. Owen, Baxter, and Howe had all shared more or less with Churchmen in the same modes of life before the severance of 1662. Those who followed them were for the

most part wholly separated from the Establishment, from its universities, its pulpits, its society, its courtesies, its atmosphere. Hence arose a personal estrangement between two great parties, in some respects more mischievous in its results than any of the controversies previously waged.

There have been influences at work in Society which rarely arrest the attention of historians, because hidden in the obscure depths of common life; and yet they have had a potency of effect, beyond even some prominent events which come out as landmarks in the past. I am inclined to ascribe to the social separation of Churchmen from Nonconformists, which opened in the middle of the seventeenth century, and gaped so wide at the closemuch of that mutual suspicion, and that tendency to attribute bad motives to those of a different opinion, which still prevent, more or less, a candid and charitable consideration of each others' arguments. Friendly intercourse is a moral discipline which affects our intellectual nature, and, by softening the asperities of temper, prepares a man to meet his fellow man with less of that prejudice so common to all, which blinds one person to phases of truth discerned by another.

THE

CHAPTER XXII.

HE Baptists multiplied after the Revolution, and continued what they had been before-often obscure, but always staunch supporters of independence and voluntarysim. In this respect they differed from Presbyterians, and often went beyond Independents. The representatives of more than one hundred churches met in London in the year 1689, and continued in conference a few days. They republished a Calvinistic confession of faith, adopted in the year 1677, but their business in the main was with practical matters and the religious improvement of their denomination. One doctrinal question which they discussed was whether believers were actually reconciled, justified, and adopted when Christ died; this they resolved by affirming that reconciliation and justification have been infallibly secured by the grace of God and the merit of Christ; but that their actual possession comes as the result of individual faith. They took a gloomy view of spiritual affairs, and, although looking at them from a very different point of view, reached conclusions resembling those of the Nonjurors. And this is noteworthy they referred to the Jews, and entreated their brethren to "put up earnest cries and supplications to the Lord for the lineal seed of Abraham." In further

ance of their objects they appointed a general fast, and

directed that the causes and reasons of it should be explained. With respect to government and discipline, they disclaimed authority, nor did they attempt to settle differences even in respect to communion. They projected a sustentation fund, in aid of churches, ministers, and students; at the same time they pronounced it expedient for small churches, in the same neighbourhood, to unite together for the support of the ministry. They ventured to commence an attack on the long periwigs of men, especially ministers, and the bravery, haughtiness, and pride of women, who walked "with stretched-out necks and wanton eyes, mincing as they went." They deplored worldly conformity, and though they did not deny that ornaments were allowable, they said every ornament which opens the mouths of the ungodly ought to be cast off. Baptists had been reproached as Trimmers under James II. for the sake of their own liberty; but the representatives on this occasion declared that, to their knowledge, not one congregation had ever countenanced. a power in the King to dispense with penal tests, and that William III. was a Divine instrument for the deliverance of England.1

A second assembly of the same nature met in London upon the 2nd of June, 1691, and another on the 3rd of May, 1692. They proposed to divide their annual assembly into two-one for the east in London, and the other for the west in Bristol, and they enjoined the making of quarterly collections for objects specified, at the same time expressly repudiating all idea of exercising synodical control.

Musical harmony had been a cause of discord: some of the Baptist celebrities, including Kiffin and Keach, had plunged into disputes on the subject, and

'Crosby's Hist. of Baptists, iii. 246-258.

it was alleged that facts had been misrepresented and unwarrantable reflections published to the world. The matter came under the notice of a committee, which appears to have given an impartial decision. They declared that both parties were in the wrong; that, granting some statements might be true, they had laid open one another's errors in an unbecoming spirit; that they ought to remember how Ham, for discovering the nakedness of Noah, was accursed of God, and how failings were forbidden to be told in Gath and Gilgal. They recommended that all the publications produced by the dispute should be called in and disposed of by the Assembly; and they finished their award by entreating, as upon their knees, that the brethren would keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.1

Kiffin and Keach were amongst the Baptist magnates at the end of the Revolution, and were far more influential than Bunyan. Of Kiffin I have had occasion to speak. It only remains to add, that he continued his ministry to old age, and that his latter days were adorned by an act of beneficence. After the French Protestants had been driven from their own land, he took under his protection and entirely supported a family of rank, nor would he when these refugees recovered a portion of their fortune, accept any return for past services. He died in 1701, leaving a reputation for piety, consistency, and theological knowledge, and also for moderation, together with firmness in the maintenance of Calvinistic and strict communion views.

Of Benjamin Keach I have also spoken. Although a good man, and of an ingenious turn, he must have been rather pugnacious, for his works are of a controversial stamp, relating to the seventh-day Sabbath and the ques

1 Crosby, iii. 259, 264-270.