T H E LIFE O F T H E R E V E R E N D Mr. RichardBaxter. LIB.I. PART L 4 Y Father's Name was Richard (the Son of Richard) Baxter: His Habitation andEffate at a Village called Eaton-Con flan- rine, a mile from the Wrekin-Hill, and above half a mile fromSevern River, and five miles from Shrewsbury inShrop- (hire : A Village molt pleafantly and healthfully fituare. My Mother'sName was Beatrice the Daughter of Richard Adeney of Rawton,a Village near High-Ercall,the Lord New- port's Seat, in the fame County : There I was born A. D. i6r g. on the rash of November, being the Lord'sDay, in the Morning at the time of Divine Worthip ; and Baptized at High-Ercall the 19th day following : And there I lived from my Parents with my Grandfather till I was near Ten years of Age, and then was taken home. My Father had only the Competent Hate of a Freeholder,free from theTemp- tations of Poverty andRiches : But havingbeen addi&ed to Gaming in his Youth, and his Father before him, it was fo entangled by Debts, that it occafioned Tome excefi of worldly Caresbefore it was freed. We lived in a Country that had but little Preaching at all : In the Village where I was born therewas four Readers fucceflively in Six years time, ignorant Men, and two of them immoral in their lives ; who wereall my School-mailers. In the Village where my Father lived, there was a Reader of about Eighty years of Age that never preached, and had two Churches about Twenty miles diftant : HisEye fight failing him, he faid Common-Prayer without Book but for the Readingof the Pfalms and Chapters, he got aCommon Threfher and Day - Labourer one year, and a Taylor another year : (for the Clerk couldnot readwell) : And at lad he had a Kinfman of his own, ( the excellenteff Stage-player in all the Country, and a good Gamefterand good Fellow) that got Orders and fupplied one of his Places ! After hint anotheryounger Kinfman,that could write and read, got Orders : And at the fame time another Neighbour's Son that had been a while at School turn'd Miniller, and who would needs go further than the reif, ventur'd to preach (and after got a Living in Sraffordfhire,) and when he had been a Preacher about Twelve or Sixteen years, he was fain to give over, it being difcovered that his Orders were forged by the firft ingenious Stage- Player. After him another Neighbour's Son took Orders, when he had been a while an Attorney's Clerk,and a common Drun- kard, and tipled himfelf into fo great Poverty that he had no other way to live: It B was
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