LIFE OF RI6HAnn HATER. 211 signs of the court and. the Catholics,'bore hard on the interests of Protestant dissenters.. Yet this act, the dissenters, in their.zeal againstthe common enemy, heartily promoted ;trusting that thepar- liament would .immediately honor their integrity, and relieve their burthens, A bill for their relief was brought into the house of commons ; but was defeated by the unitedmanagement ofthecourt and the bishops. The court, seeing that the Puritans were not to be enticed into a conspiracy against the constitution, now let loose upon them the whole packof informers, and determined to make them feel the weight of the law. A number of infamous persons in London and elsewhere followed the trade, of informers, and shared with justices of the same stamp the 'fines imposed on dissenters of the exercise of their worship. By such informers and magistrates, Baxter váas persecuted above most of his brethren. He had now relinquished all preaching, except one sermon each week, in a hall over St. James's Market. "Most of the congregation there," he says, "were young men of the mostcapable age, who heard with very great attention, and many, that had not come to church of many years, received so much, and manifested so great a change (some Papists and others returning public thanks to God for their con- version) as made all my charge and trouble easy to me: Among all the Popish, rude and ignorant people, who were inl><abitants in those parts, we had scarce any that opened their mouths against us, and that did not speakwell of the preaching of the word among them ; though when I first came thither, some ofthe same persons wishedmy death. Among the ruder sort, a common reformation was noticed in the place."' While laboring in this humble sphere, he was a mark for the malice of low informers and persecuting justices. Prosecution was heaped on prosecution ; btit he escaped imprisonment, and while he was permitted to go at large, he was resolved to pursue his work of preaching. At lasthe says, I was so long wearied with keeping my doors shut againstthem that came to distrain on my goads for preaching, that I was fain to go from my house, and to sell all my goods, and to hide my library first, and afterwards to sell it; so that if books had been my treasure, (and I valued little more on earth,) I hadnow beenwithout a treas- ure. For about Twelve years, I was, driven a hundred miles from them ; and when Ihad paid dear for the carriage, after two or three years, I was forced to sell them. The prelates, to hinder me from preaching, deprived me also of these private comforts ; but God saw that they were my snare. We brought nothing into this world, and we must carry nothing out. The loss is very tol- erable." In this way he lived for several years, driven from one refuge
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