160 BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. healthypersons have been taken awaybydeath, Whilst I have been upheld under all this weakness ! Many a time have I cried to the Lord in my trouble, andhe hath delivered me out ofmy distress. I have had fifty years added to my days since I would have been full glad of Hezekiah's promise of fifteen. Since the day that I first preached his gospel, I expected- not, of long time, to live above a year; and I have lived since them fifty years. When my own prayers were cold and unbelieving, how many hundreds have prayed for met And what strange deliverances, encouraging fast- ing and prayer, have I oft had, upon their importunate requests ! My' friends have been faithful, and the few that provedunfaithful have profitably taught mè to placeno confidence in man, and not to be inordinately affebted to any thing on earth ;' for I was for- saken by none of them, but those few that I excessively valued and overloved. My relations have been confortable to me, con- trary to my deserts, and much beyond my expectations. My servants have been faithful: my neighbors have been kind my enemies have been impotent, harmless, or profitable : my superi- ors have honored the by their respectful words -; and while they have afflicted me, as supposing me a remora to their designs, they have not destroyed' but protected me. To my inferiors,God hath made me, in my low capacity, somewhat helpful. I have been protected in ordinary health and safety,'when the raging pestilence came near my habitation, and consumed a hundred thousand citi- zens: toy dwelling bath been safe when I have seen the glory of the land in flames, and after beheld the dismal ruins. When vio- lence separated me from my too much beloved library, and drove me into a poor and smokyhouse, I neverhad more help of God, nor did more difficult work than there. What pleasant retirements and quietness in the country have. been the fruits ofpersecuting wrath ! And I must not forget, when I had more public liberty, how he sav- ed me and all my hearers, even by a wonder, from being buried in the ruins of the fabric where we were ; and others, from the calam- ities, scandal, and lamentations, which would else have followed ; and it is not a mercy to be extenuated, that when the tonguesand pens of all sects among us, and of proud self-exalters, and of some worthy, pious, differing brethren, have been long an vehemently bent against me ; when my infamy bath been endeavored, by abundance of volumes, by the backbiting of angry dividers of all sorts, and by the calumniatingaccusations of some that were too high to be gainsayed, and would not endure me to answer them, and vindicate my innocency; yet all these together were never able to fasten their accusations, and procure any common belief, nor to bring me under the designed contempt, much less to break my comforts, encouragements, or labors.
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