LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. 171 the pulpit, seeing andpitying their vain distemper, and as soon as I could be heard, I entreated their silence, and went on The peo- ple were no sooner quieted andgot in again, and the auditory com- posed, but some that stood upon a wainscot -bench, near the com- munion table, brake thebench with their weight, so that the noise renewed the fear again, and they were worse disordered than be- fore. One old ,woman was heard at the church door asking for- giveness of God for not taking the first warning, and promising, if God would deliver her this once, she would take heed of coming hither again.. When they were again quieted, I went on -; but the church having before an ill name as very old, rotten and danger- ous, this put tho parish upon a resolution to pull down all the roof, and build it better, which they have done with so great reparation of the walls and steeple, that it is now like a newchurch, and much more commodious for the hearers. "* Dr. Bates, in his sermon on occasion of Baxter's funeral, de- seribes this incident as "an instance of his firm faith in the divine providence, and his fortitude." "Mr. Baxter, without visible dis- turbance, sat down in the pulpit. After the hurry was over, he resumed his discourse, and said, to compose their minds, ' We are in the service of God to prepare ourselves,' that we may be fearless at the great noise ofthe dissolving world, when the hèavens shall pass away, and the elements melt in fervent heat; the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up.' ".t "Upon this reparation of Dunstan's church, I preached out my quarter at Bride's church, in the other end of Fleet Street ; where the common prayer being used by the curate before sermon, I oc- casioned abundance to be at common prayer, who before avoided it ; and yet my accusations still continued. Ori the week days, Mr. Ashurst, with about twenty more citizens, desired me topreach a lecture in Milk Street; for which they allowed me forty pounds per annum, which I continued near ayear, till we were all silenc- ed. At the same time I preached once every Lord's day at Black.. friars, where Mr. Gibbons, a judicious man, was minister. In Milk Street, I took money, because it came not from the parishioners, but from strangers, and so was no wrong to the minister, Mr. Vin- cent, avery holy, blameless man. But at Blackfriars 1 never took a penny, because it wasthe parishioners who called me, who would else be less able and ready to help their worthy pastor, who went to Godby a consumption, a little after he was silenced and put out. At these two churches I ended the course of my public ministry, unless God cause an undeserved resurrection. "$ Narrative, Part II. pp. 301, 302. i Narrative, Part II. pp. 301, 302, t Bates's Works, Vol. IV. p. 329.
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