44 OUR HYMNS I
came into operation he retired to Acton, near London, where he held service in his house, and continued to produce his voluminous works. His preaching at Acton led to his suffering six months imprisonment at Clerkenwell. It grieved him to be thus pre vented from any longer ministering to the people who came to him at Acton, and also to be separated from his neighbour and com panion, Lord Chief Justice Hale. But his imprisonment was not accompanied with hardship, and it was cheered by the society of his wife, whom he had married a few months before. She proved to be then and always a true helpmeet for him.
Afterwards, having taken a licence as a Nonconformist minis ter, Baxter began, in 1673, to give lectures on Tuesdays and Fridays in London ; and he continued to produce useful books for different classes. He had written his " Reformed Pastor" for ministers. He now wrote for the labouring classes " The rod- Man s Family Book." Subsequently Baxter built a chapel in Blooms- bury, but not permitted to occupy it, preached in Swallow- street.
Baxter was often harassed by threats and fines, and, at length, in 1685, he was brought to trial before the notorious Jefferies for his Paraphi-ase on the New Testament;" and after much brow-beating, and the mere form of a trial, without justice, he was condemned to pay 500 marks.
Being unable to pay this sum he remained in prison, but no longer solaced by the society of his beloved wife, for she had died four years before. Yet he was not without human sympathy. Matthew Henry, and other eminent friends, Onesiphorus-like, sought out, and found this " prisoner of the Lord."
After this imprisonment, Baxter assisted Mr. Sylvester in the ministry for four years and a half; and when he could no longer preach he still laboured with his pen. Nearly all his life he suffered from a complication of disorders, yet his written works form a library, and his other labours were most abundant and successful.
Baxter held a conspicuous and honourable position in the age in which he lived. In his intercourse with Cromwell and Charles
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