LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. ÌJ puted against them from morning until almost night; for I knew their trick, that if I had but gone out first, they would have prated what boasting words they listed when I was gone, and made the people believe that theyhad baffled me, or got the best ; therefore I stayed it out till they first rose ánd went away." " Some of the sober people of Agmondesham gave me abundance of thanks for that day's work, which they said would never be there forgotten ; I heard also that the sectaries were so discouraged that they never met there any more." "The,great impediments to the success of my endeavors, I found, were only two; the discountenanceofCromwell and the chiefoffi- cers ofhis mind, which kept me a stranger from their meetings and councils ; and my incapacity of speaking to many, as soldiers quar- ters are scattered far from one another, and I could be but in one place at once. So that one troop at a time, ordinarily, and some few more extraordinarily, was all thatl could speak to. Themost of the service I did beyond Whalley's regiment was, by the help of Captain Lawrence,,with some of the general's regiment, and some- times I had converse with Major Harrison and a few others ; but I found that if the army had only had ministers enough, who would have done but such a little as .I did, all their plot must have been broken, and king, and parliament, and religion, might have been preserved. Therefore I sent abroad to get some more ministers among them, but I could get none. Saltmarsh and Dell were the two great preachers atthe head-quarters; but honest and judicious Mr. Edward Bowles kept still with the general: At last I got Mr. Cook, of Roxhall, to come to assist me ; and the soberer part of theofficers and soldiers of Whalley's regiment were willing to pay him out oftheir own.pay. A month or two he staid and assisted me ; but was quickly weary, and left them again. He was a very worthy, humble, laborious man, unwearied in preaching, but weary when he had not an opportunity to preach, and weary ofthe spirits he had to deal with. "All this while, though I came not near Cromwell, his designs were visible, and I saw him continually acting. his part. The lord general suffered him to govern and to do all, and to choose almost all the officers of the army.. He first made Ireton commissary-gen- eral ; and when any troop or company was to be disposed of, or any considerable officer's placewas void, he was sure toput a sec- tary in the place ; and when the brunt of the war was over, he looked not so much at their valor as their opinions; so that, by de- grees, he had headed the greatest part of the army with Anabap- tists, Antinomians, Seekers, or Separatists at best. All these he . tied together by the point of liberty of conscience, which was the common interest in which they did unite. Yet all the sober party
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=