: he had been called to mourn. His instructions are as applicable now as ever, when so niany are injured by want of sobriety of mind, and are ready to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine; when Christianity has come to be regarded as a new discovery, which nobody has understood till lately; and the Bible considered as a book of enigmas, capable of the wildest solutions, and the most fanciful combinations. To follow truth wherever it may lead is the duty of all Christians : to have the fortitude to stop where its evidence ceases; not to substitute our own fancies in the place of the revelation of God; to be ready to receive from all, and to refuse to submit to the dictation of any, ought no less to be our study and our aim. The love of controversy is hateful, the fear of it pusillanimous. Both ought to be avoided by every rightly constituted mind. No man of his age engaged more in it than Baxter, and yet no man spoke more against it. In both he was sincere. He loved not controversy for its own sake, but he was frequently impelled by a love of truth, or that which he considered as truth, to engage in what was most unpleasant to Christian feelings. He sometimes erred in his judgment in these matters, but never was influenced by unworthy motives, or guilty of disingenuous conduct. He loved peace and he loved his friends; but he loved truth more. It is instructive to observe the deep humility of his mind, and the tenderness of his conscience. As he approached the world of glory and appeared to others, to be eminently fitted for its enjoyments, the contemplation of its light and splendour only made his darkness and pollution more apparent to himself. The increasing clearness of his perceptious had not only a direct, but a reflex operation. If it increased his knowledge of heaven, and inflamed his desire of its blessedness, it also filled him with a deeper consciousness of his own unmeetness for its pure and perfect felicity. He rejoiced, he also trembled; he exulted in hope, but he also feared as a sinner. While the Divine character attracted him by its infinite love and compassion, it awed him by the majesty of its holiness, and its peerless glory. The importance which he attached to the enjoyment of God, as the main spring and principle of genuine religion, and the degree in which he appears to have experienced it, are delightful proofs of the ripeness of his own soul for that blessedness for which he so earnestly panted. The expansion of his love to God increased his love to men ; led him to bear with their infirmities, to mourn over their evils, and to pity their miseries. As he approached nearer to heaven, he seemed to breathe niore of this spirit, and to carry its very atmosphere, an atmosphere of holy love, about him. He felt he had little more to do upon earth than to pray for its guilty inhabitants, and supplicate God to establish his own kingdom. Thus did he continue to bless that world in which he had experienced so much ingratitude and affliction, and prepare for the mansions in his Father's house, in which he is, no doubt, now: enjoying a distinguished place. CHAPTER XII. His dying exercises-concluding remarks. DURING the reign of James II. Baxter seems to have mingled but little in public affairs. His bodily afflictions were great, and he was cruelly persecuted, the greater part of the time. What his opinion was of the revolution, we have no opportunity of knowing. When the prince of Orange arrived in London, the dissenting ministers to the number of ninety, waited on him with a congratulatory address; but it is probable Baxter was mot of the number. His age and infirmities disqualified him for such a service. When the act of toleration was passed and a qualified subscription to the articles of religion, required of all who would avail themselves of the privilege which this law conferred, Baxter drew up a long paper of explanations and exceptions, in which he explicitly declared in what sense he received the articles, and expressing his dissent from other constructions which might be put upon them. Eighty of the dissenting ministers of London concurred with him in his explanations and objections; and upon these principles they were contented to subscribe. The affair of the agreement of the London Presbyterian and Independent ministers, must have interested Baxter much, as union was always dear to his heart; and every scheme for promoting it, would meet with his cordial concurrence, as long as he was capable of writing or speaking. These articles of agreement were adopted before Baxter's death, although they were not published till 1692. From the time of his release from imprisonment, Baxter lived in Charter-house square, near the meeting-house then occupied by his friend Sylvester; for whom he preached gratuitously on the Lord's day morniugs, and every alternate Thursday morning, as long as his strength permitted. When he had assisted his friend in this manner for four years and a half, he was no longer able to go on with public preaching ; but during the residue of his life he opened the doors of his own house twice every day, to all that would come to join him in family worship, to whom he read the Holy Scriptures, from whence he preached the kingdom of God, and taught those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbiddiug him,' even as one greater than himself had done before him. But at last his growing infirmities took him off from this also ; confining him first to his chamber and then |