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for the kingdom of the Saints, and the Fifth Monarchy now risen, and their sun never to set again. Others, as to my knowledge, the Protector, Lord President Lawrence, and others at helm, with Sir Henry Vane, (retired into Lincolnshire, yet daily missed and courted for his assistance,) are not so full of that faith of miracles, but still imagine changes and persecutions and the very slaughter of the witnesses, before that glorious morning, so much desired of a worldly kingdom, if ever such a kingdom (as literally it is by so many expounded) be to arise in this present world and dispensation."* General Harrison was naturally of an ardent temperament; "of such vivacity," says Baxter, "hilarity and alacrity, as another hath when he hath drunken a cup too much." And though it might be supposed that his favorite theory would commend itself to such a glowing spirit as that of Roger Williams, yet it is pleasing to see that the latter, in all his reasonings, seemed to act under a deep impression of that saying of Christ, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, for the kingdom of God is within you."

A close view of the condition of England in that day, will convince us that the sentiments of the Baptists must have been long and deeply at

* Knowles's Memoir, p. 263.

work there, for as soon as the pressure of a persecuting government was removed, they rose up a great multitude which astonished every beholder. Dr. Featley, their great and bitter opponent, says of their spreading sentiments, "this fire in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James, and our gracious sovereign, (Charles I,) till now was covered in England under the ashes; or if it broke out at any time, by the care of the ecclesiastical and civil magistrates, it was soon put out. But of late, since the unhappy distractions which our sins have brought upon us, the temporal sword being otherwise employed, and the spiritual locked up fast in the scabbard, this sect among others has so far presumed upon the patience of the state, that it hath held weekly conventicles, rebaptized hundreds of men and women together in the twilight, in rivulets and some arms of the Thames. It hath printed divers pamphlets in defence of their heresy, yea, and challenged some of our preachers to disputation."* Baxter also says, that those who at first were but a few in the city and the army, had within two or three years, grown into a multitude, and were beginning to expect some of them that the baptized saints would judge the world.†

*Featley's Dippers dipt,-Prefaratory Epistle.

+ Works XX, 297.

He wrote much against them, but in the spirit of christian candor he says, "upon a review of my arguments with Mr. Tombes upon the controversy about infant baptism, I find I have used too many provoking words, for which I am heartily sorry, and desire pardon both of God and of him."* "And for the anabaptists," he says again, "though I have written and said so much against them, as I found that most of them were persons of zeal in religion, so many of them were sober, godly people, and differed from others, but in the point of infant baptism; or at most, but in the points of predestination, free-will and perseverance."+ Considering the character of controversy in those times, such a testimony as this reflects as much honor on Baxter himself, as it gives to the Baptists of that age.

Undoubtedly their increasing influence must have been a subject of wonder, since Baxter found occasion to say, that many joined them for the sake of preferment. Baillie, a high Presbyterian, and a commissioner from Scotland to the Westminster Assembly, complained that they were growing more rapidly than any other

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sect in the land.* Indeed they numbered among them, men of the highest talents both in the church and the state. In the first, were Tombes, Jessey, and Dyke, Gosnold, Knollys and Denne,† who had held priestly orders in the Established Church; the three first of whom were under Cromwell's comprehensive policy, appointed among the Triers of all candidates for the parish ministry of England, and the fourth was a popular preacher of London, having a congregation of three thousand persons. There were also Collins, a pupil of Busby; De Veil, a convert from Judaism, who in the Romish church of France, and in the established church of England, was much respected; Dell, a chaplain of Lord Fairfax, and till the Restoration, head of one of the Colleges in the University of Cambridge; and Vavasor Powell, a celebrated Evangelist of Wales, who was as devoted to the spread of the gospel in that principality, as were afterwards, Thomas Delaune, Benjamin Keach, and John Bunyan, in England.

Well known among them too, were Overton,‡ a friend of Milton, who in 1651 was second in command under Cromwell in Scotland, Admi

* Baillie's Letters, I, p. 408. See Appendix, A.

+ See Appendix, B.

Godwin's Commonwealth, vol. IV, p. 71. Lond. ed. 1828.

ral Penn, of the English navy, father of the American Colonist, Fleetwood, Cromwell's sonin-law, General Ludlow, a friend of Harrison, who endeavored to convince him of his error touching the Fifth Monarchy, and also the Chancellor of Ireland. They abounded in Cromwell's army, and were at one time his best friends, and at another, his most dreaded foes; for in a letter addressed by Captain Deane, to Dr. Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, it is stated that "what occasioned Oliver Cromwell, after he usurped the government of Lord Protector, to discharge at once, all the principal officers of his own regiments, upon other pretences, was, for that they were all Anabaptists."* These, while they disapproved the execution of Charles I, were equally opposed to the usurpation of Cromwell.

It would be improper to mention so many names of that day, without giving place to those of Colonel and Mrs. Hutchinson, who were distinguished for intellectual greatness, urbanity of manners and lofty piety. A manuscript on baptism, accidently found in the room of a soldier, met the eye of Mrs. Hutchinson. It led her to search the Scriptures on that subject, and then to embrace the sentiments of the Baptists;

* Quoted by Crosby, vol. II, p. 5.

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