The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan.
VI. Caroline Divines.
§ 6. The sermons at Paul’s cross.
| Baxter’s fame rests on other and better work than that of the pulpit; but it must not be thought that the influence of the preacher had ceased. It had its fluctuations, but it was still important so long as Charles I was on the throne. While sermons still stood midway between the learned world and the mob, and it was hoped that what suited the one would attract, instruct, or even amaze, the other into goodness and obedience to the ordered system of the national church, the pulpit in St. Paul’s churchyard managed to hold something of its old position. “In an age when men read few books and had no newspapers, the sermon at Paul’s cross or the Spital was the most exciting event of the week.” 4 Times were changing: books were multiplied, there was a large manufacture of pamphlets to catch the popular ear and newspapers were just beginning, with a supply of suitable, selected or invented facts; but the sermon, spoken not read, died hard, and there was always an audience till men began to turn their ploughshares into swords. |
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