JRENIC MOVEMENTS 1 26 



1 by the Episcopalian party, and their 



:nr of a Btifl I the 



whole unad . ! liturgy, which has 



itchword of the Church of 



;• since, was buttressed by 



A'-i of Uniformity, and tb holy 



and . the i bnrch of 



Christ in England — Baxter among them 



— were thrown out of their parishes, and 



many of them left to perish in hunger, in 



exile, or in prison. 



Some years before this, in 1653, how- 

 ever, Baxter had formed the W 

 Association as a practical exhibition of 

 union. He describes it himself : — 



" The main body of our Association were 

 men that thought the Episcopal Presby- 

 terians and Independents had each of them 

 some good in which they excelled the other 

 two parties, and each of them some mistakes ; 

 and that to select out of all three the best 

 part, and leave the worst, was the most desir- 

 able (and ancient) form of government." * 



We may close our account of Baxter's 

 contribution to this history by his ringing 



1 Church Concord, Preface, London, 1691, quoted by 

 Briggs, Barriers to Christian Union, in Preab. Rev. 

 viii. 452. 



