JAMBS THE SECOND.

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Some divines of great fame were in prison. Among these was CI ’ AP -Richard Baxter. Others, who had, during a quarter of a i 6 s 5 .century, borne up against oppression, now lost heart, andquitted the kingdom. Among these was John Howe. Greatnumbers of persons who had been accustomed to frequentconventicles repaired to the parish churches. It was remarkedthat the schematics who had been terrified into this show ofconformity might easily' be distinguished by the difficultywhich they had in finding out the collect, and by the awkwardmanner in which they bowed at the name of Jesus. *

Through many years the autumn of 1685 was rememberedby the Nonconformists as a time of misery and terror. Yet inthat autumn might be discerned the first faint indications ofa great turn of fortune; and before eighteen months hadelapsed, the intolerant King and the intolerant Church wereeagerly bidding against each other for the support of the partywhich both had so deeply injured.

* Neal’s History of the Puritans, Calamy’s Account of the ejectedMinisters, and the Nonconformist Memorial, contain abundant proofsof the severity of this persecution, llowe’s farewell letter to his flockwill be found in the interesting life of that great man, by Mr. Rogers.Howe complains that he could not venture to show himself in the streetsof London, and that his health had suffered from want of air and exer-cise. But the most vivid picture of the distress of the Nonconformists isfurnished by their deadly enemy, Lestrange, in the Observators of Sep-tember and October, 1G85.