LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. 185 . the disease of this furious age, in which each man is ready to de- vour others because they do not know themselves." 47. " Baxter's Account to the . Inhabitants of Kidderminster of the Reasons of his being forbid to preach among them:" 4to. pub- lished in 1662. 48. "A Saint or a Brute: The certain Necessity and Excel- lency ofHoliness soplainly proved, andurgently applied, as by the Blessing ofGod may convince and save the miserable, impenitent, ungodly Sensualists, if they will not let the Devil hinder them from a sober and serious reading and considering. To be Commu- nicated by the charitable, that desire the Conversion and Salvation of Souls, while the Patience of God, and the Day of Grace and Hope continue." 4tó. published in 1662. This is a work of sev- eral hundred pages. 49. "Now or Never : The holy, serious, diligent Believer, justi- fied, encouraged, excited, and directed; 'and the Opposers and Neglecters convinced, by the Light of Scripture and Reason." Published in 1663. 50. "Fair Warning; or Twenty-five Reasons against the Tole- ration of Popery." 8vo. published in 1663. There seems to be some doubt whether this pamphlet ought to be numbered among the writings. ofBaxter. 51. " The Divine Life, in threeTreatises ; the first of the Knowl- edge of God; the second of walking withGod; the third of con- versing with God in Solitude." 4to. published in 1664. This work was occasioned by a request of the countess of Balcarras. She was about returning to Scotland; after a résidenceofsome time in England, and, having been much profited by Baxter's writings and by his preaching, desired him to preach thelast sermon which she was to hear from him, on these words ofChrist, ' Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every manto his own, and shall leave me alone; and yet I am notalone; because the Father is with me.' The sermon thus preached'is the third part of the work ; he says he prefixed the other two treatises to make it more considerable. He apologizes for the work, in his Life, bysaying that it was "but popular sermons, preached in the midst of diverting business, accusations, and malicious clamors." How much freedom of the press the nonconformists enjoyed ap- pears from an incident which he records respecting this book. " When I offered it to the press, I was fain to leave out the quanti- ty of one sermon in the end of the second treatise, (that God took Enoch,) wherein I showed what a mercy it is to one that walked with God, to be taken to himfrom this world; because it. is a dark, wicked, malicious, incapable, treacherous, deceitful world, Bic. All VOL. i. 24
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