P Aß r I. Reverend Mr. RichardBaxter. § 7. The Means by which Godwas pleated togive me fome Peace and Comfort, were, rThe Reading of many Confolatory Books. 2. The obfervation of other MensCondition : When I heard many make the very fame Complaints that I did, who were People of whom I had the heft effeem, for the uprightnefs and holinefs of their Lives, it much abated my fears and troubles. And inparticularit much comforted me, to read him whom I lo- ved as one of the holieft of all the Martyrs, Mr. John Bradford, fubfcribing him- felf fo often, [The bard-heartedfanner ; and the miferable hard-heartedlonger] even as I was ufed to do my felf. 3. And it much increafed my peace when God's Providence called me to the comfortingof many others that had thefame Complaints : While I anfwered their Doubts, L anfwered my own; and the Charity which I was conftrained to exer- cife for them redounded to my felf, and infenfiblyabated my Fears, and procured mean inereafe of quietnefs of Mind. And yet after all, I wasgladof Probabilities inftead of full undoubted Certainties; and to this very day, though I haveno fuch degreeof Doubtfulnefs as is any great An.1664 trouble tomy Soul, or procureth any great difquietingFears, yet cannot Ifay that I have fuch a certainty ofmy ownfincerity in Grace, as excludeth all Doubts and Fears of the contrary. § 8. At that time alfo God was pleafed much to comfort and fettle me by the acquaintance offome Reverend peaceable Divines ; Mr. Garber (aforeLid ) and Mr. George Baxter of Little Wenlock, (very holy men and peaceable, who laboured faithfully with little fuccefs till theywere above fourfcore years of Age apiece;) efpecially old Mr. Samuel Smstb, fometime of Prittlewell in Efféx, but, thenof Cref jPa e in Sbropfhire, ( who hath written ors the 6th of Hefea, the fìrft Pfalm , the 23d alm, the grft-Pjalm, the 9oth Pfalm, the Eunuch's Converfon, Noah's Dove, the Great Afz4andother Books:)Thisgood Man was one of my molt familiar Friends, in whole Convert I rook very much delight;whowas buried but this Winter x664. at hisNative place at Dudleey inWcrcefterfleise. 4 9. And becaufe the Cafe of my Body had a great Operation upon my Soul, and the Hittory ofit is fomewhacneceffary to the right underftandingof the refs, and yet it is not a Matter worthy to be oft mentioned, I.fhall here together give you a brief Account of the molt of my Aflliêions of that kind, referving the men- tion of fome particular Deliverances to the proper place. I was naturally of a found Conifitution, but very thin and lean and weak, and efpecially of a great debility of the Nerves. At fevers years old I had the Meafils, and at fourteen the Small-pox: I too loon after them went into the cold, and after (in a Loofnefs) went into a River or Brook to walls me ; and I eat raw Applesand Pears and Plumbs in great quantities for many years: All which together broughtme into a violent Catarrh and Cough, which would not let me Deep quietly in the Night. When this had continued about two years, my Body being very thin, and Confumptions then common in the Country, I was much afraid of a Confumption : And Drli I dideat great tore of raw Garlick, which took off fome part of my Cough, but put an Acrimony into my Blood,which na: turally was acrimonious. After this theSpitting of Blood increafed my fears : After that Sir Henry Herbert advifed me to take the Flower of Brimftone,, which I continned till I had taken feven Ounces ; which took off moll of the remainder ofmy Cough, but increa- fed the Acrimony of myBlood. Thenan unskilful Phyfician perfwaded me that I had a He,%ck, and to cure that I took much Milk from the Cow, and other pituitous cooling things , and conftantly anointed my Stomach and Reins with refrigerating Oils of Violets and Rofes ; and was utterly reftrained from my afoul Exercife ! By this time I had an extream chillinefs without, and yet atrange fcurf on my Tongue, with a con - Bant extream delire of Itretching, that I thought I could almoft have endured a Rack ; and an incredible flatulency` at the Stomach , and a bleeding at the Note. The next Phyfician (an Aged and Experinced Docttor) was confident the Scurvy was my chief Diftemper, and thereupon prefcribed me more Acrimonious Medicaments, Scurvy-grafs, IHorfe- radilh, Muftard, Wormwood, Vic. which a- bundantly increafed my bleeding at theNofe; infomuch as I bled many times half a Pint or a Pinta day, and it continuing long, I was much weakned : Yet under this fearof the Scurvy I continued two years taking exceffìve quantities of Acri- monious
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