LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. which, the bishop's chaplain must have expunged, because ànen would think it was . all spoken of them. And so the world 'Íath got a prote4on against the force of our baptismal vow." 52. In 1aä5 he published only three single sheets; two, design- ed "for the use of poor families, that cannot buy greater books, or will not read them ;" and the third published at the time of the plague, entitled, "Directions for the Sick." Among his earliest employments at Acton must have been the preparation ofhis Narrative of his own life, the first part of which was:writtenmostly in 3664, and the second part in 1665. At the conclusion of the second part of this Narrative, he writes thus, "And now,.after all the breaches on the churches, the ejection of the ministers, and impenitency under all, wars and plague and danger of famine began at once on us. War with the Hollanders, which yet continueth'; and the dryest winter,.spring, and summer, that ever man alive knew, .or our, forefathers mention of late ages ; so that the grounds were burnt like the highways, where the cattle should have fed. The meadow grounds where I lived bare but four loads of hay, which before bare 'forty. The plague bath seized on the famousest and most excellent city of Christendom, and at this time nearly 8,300 die of all diseases in a week. It bath scattered and consumed the inhabitants multitudes being dead and fled. The calamities and cries of the diseased and im- poverished, are not to be conceived by those that are alïsent from them. Every man is a terror to his neighbor and himself; and God, for our sins, is a terror to us all. O ! how is London, the place. which God hath 'honored with his gospel above all places of the, earth; laid low in horrors, and wasted almost to desolation by the wrath of that God, whom England hath contemned! A God- hating generation are consumed in their sins, and the righteousare also taken away as from greater evilsyet to come." "Yet, under all these desolations, the wicked are hardened, and cast all on.the fanatics;the true, dividing fanatics and sectaries are not yet hum- bled for former miscarriages, but cast all on the prelates and im- posers; and the ignorant vulgar are stupid, and know not what use to make of any thing they feel. But thousands of the sober, pru- dent, faithful servants of the Lord are mourning in secret, and wait- ing for his salvation; in humility and hope they are staying them- selves on God, and expecting what he will do with them. From London the plague is spread through many counties, especially next London, where few places, especially, corporations, are free; which .makes.me oft groan, and wish that London, and all the cor- porations of England, would review the Corporation Act, and their oivn acts, and speedily repent.
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