158 LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. might be at liberty to use this if they pleased, insteadof the other. Ín reading these devout, scriptural and impressive forms, I cannot but acknowledge that I have felt with how much more effect the causeof prescribed forms of public devotion might have been argued at this day, had the " ReformedLiturgy " then been allowed in the established church of England. When Baxter, having done his part of the work, came back to his brethren, he found them only beginning their, exceptions. At his suggestion, they agreed to- present to the bishops, with their other papers, a petition for peace, beseeching them to make every concession which they could without doing violence to their own consciences, for the sake of promoting the peace of the church and the conversion and salvation of souls. The result,.however, was, as the Presbyterians had feared, and as the bishops had predeter- mined. Not the least point or particle was yielded by the domi- nant party for the sake of accommodation. - The time within which the cgntmission was limited, was'nearly, exhausted in this sort of controversy, when, about ten days before the expiration of their commission, the bishops still insisting that there should be, no alteration of the liturgy butin those points in which it should be proved by regular scholastic disputation to be unlawful, the Presbyterians reluctantly yielded, to their demand for such a disputation. 't We were, left" says Baxter, " in a very great strait. If we should 'enter upon dispute with them, we gave up the end and hope of our endeavors. If we refused it, we knew that they would boast that, when ifcame to the setting to, we -would not 'so much as attempt to prove any thing"unlawful in the liturgy, nor durst dispute it with them. " Mr. Calemy, with. some others of our brethren, would have had us refuse the motion of disputing, as not tending to fulfill the king's commands. We told the bishops, over and over, that they could not choose but know that, before we could end one argument in a dispute, our time would be expired ; and that it could not pos- sibly tend to any accommodation ; and that to keep off from per- sonal conference, till within a few days of the expiration of the commission, and then. resolve tò do nothing but wrangle out- the time in a dispute, as if we were between. jest and earnest in the schools, was too visibly, in the sight of all the world, to defeat the king's commission, and the expectation of many thousands, who longed for our unity and peace. But we spoke to the deaf; they had other ends, and were other men, and had the art to suit the means unto their ends. For my part, when I saw that they would do nothing else, I persuaded our brethren to yield to a disputation with them, and let them understand that we were far from fearing it, seeing they would give us no hopes of concord ; but, withal,
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