LIFE OF RICHARD BAXTER. 77 that military life he was under the necessity of doing, during a cold and snowy season, had almost proved fatal to him. He was at- tacked with a violent bleeding at the nose, which continued till his strength and almost his life was exhausted. "And thus," he says, " God unavoidably prevented all the effect of my purposes in my last and chiefest opposition of the army; and took me off at the very time when my attempt should have begun. My purpose was to have done my best, first, to take off that regiment which.I was with; and then with Capt. Law- rence, to have tried upon the generals, in which too was Crom- well's chief confidence ; and then to have joined with others of the same mind; for the other regiments were much less corrupted. But the determination of God against it was most observable ; for the very time. that I was bleeding, the council of war sat at Not- tingham, where, as I have credibly heard, they first began to open their purposes, and act their part ; and, presently after, they enter- ed into their engagement at Triploe Heath. And as I perèeived it was the will of God to permit them to go on, so I afterwards found that this great affliction was a mercy to myself; for they were so strong, and active, that I had been likely to have had small sucrRess in the attempt, and to have lost my life among them in their fury. And thus I was finally separated from the army. "When I had staid at Melbourn, in my chamber, three weeks, being among strangers, and not knowing how to get home, I went to Mr. Nowell's house, at Kirby-Mallory, in Leicestershire, where, with great kindness, I was entertained three weeks. By that time, the tidingsof my weakness came to the Lady Rous, in Worces- tershire, who sent her servant to seek me out; and when he re- turned, and told her I was afar off, and he could not find me, she sent him again to find me, and bring me thither, if I were able to travel. So, in great weakness, thither I made shift to get, where I was entertained with the greatest care and tenderness, while I continued the use of means for my recovery; and when I had been there a quarter of a year, I returned to Kidderminster. "* . It was during this long sickness, and while he was anticipating a speedy departure, that he employed himself in writing that work on the " Saint's Everlasting Rest," which has made his name dear to the friends of serious and practical religion through the world. This was the first written of all his published compositions. A much smaller work, entitled "Aphorisms of Justification," design- ed to refute some of the Antinomian errors which he had been combating in the army, was commenced while the " Saint's Rest " was still unfinished, and was published in 1649, two years often his * Narrative, l'art I. pp. 58, 59.
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