Baxter - BX5207 B3 A2 1696

PART I. Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter. --__ here, but was a meer putrilage fine fibrin , like thin Ink or Saw-pit Water. To keep this Blood in the relaxed Veffels was now all my Cares, which daily bed abroad upon my Eyes, and Teeth, and Jaws, andJoynts, fo that I had fcarce reft night or day : ( of Come of the Effeóts, and my Remedy which God bleffed to my cafe, I !hall fpeak more afterward). With filch Blood , Ina kind of Atro- phie, which bathcaufed a very troublefome Drowfinefsto feize upon and follow me, I have lived now thefe many years, and wrote all the Books that ever I wrote, and done the greateft partof nay Service: My chiefeft Remedies are, t. Temperance as to quantity and quality of Food : for every bit or fpoonful too much, and all that is not exceeding eafie of digeftion, and all that is flatulent, do turnall to Wind, and diforder my Head. 2. Exercife till I fweat : For if I walk not hard with almoft all my ftrength, an hour beforeDinner, and an hour before Supper, till I fweat well, I am not able to digeh two Meals ; and cannot exiled to live when I am difabled for Exercife, being prefently overwhelmed withchillinefs, flatulency, and ferofity. 3. A conftant Extrinfick Heat, by a great Fire, which may keep me hill near to a Sweat, if not in it: ( for I am feldom well at cafe but in a Sweat). q.. Beer as hot as my Throat will endure, drunk all at once , to make me Swear. Thefe are the Means which God bath ufedto draw out my days, and give ,me eafe ( with one Herb inwardly taken ) ; which I write for the fake of any Stu- dents that may benear the fame Diftempers ; but almoft all Phyfrck did me harm : And no Aromatical Thing now can I talle, but it fetteth my Nofe a bleeding , though finte I bled a Gallon I am not fo prone to it as before. I havecalf in all this here together, that the Reader may better underhand other things, andmay not too oft be troubled with fisch Matters. But now at the Age ofnear Seventy years, what Changesand fad Days and Nights I undergo, I after tell. § Io. Aboutthe Eighteenth year of my Age Mr. Wickftead, with whom I had livedat Ludlow, had ahnoft perfwaded me to lay by all my Preparations for the Miniftry, and to go toLondar3,and get acquaintance at Court, and get forre Office, as being the only riling. way. I had nomind ofhis Counfel who had helped me nobetter before; yet becaufe that they knew that he loved me, and they had no great inclination tomy being a Mil-lifter , my Parents accepted of his Motion : He told them that if 1would goup and live a while with Sir Henry Herbert, then Maher of the Revels,he would quickly let rise in a riling way. I would not be difobedient, but wentup, and hayed at Whitehall with Sir H. H. about a month : But I had quickly enough of the Court ; when I faw a Stage- . Play inheadof a Sermon on the Lord's-days in the Afternoon, and faw what Courfe was therein fafhion, and heard little Preaching,but what was as to one part .againft the Puritans, I was glad to be gone : And 'at the fame time it pleafed God that my Mother fell Fick, and defired my return ; and fo I refòlved to bid farewel to thofe kindof Employments and Expectations. While I was in London Ifell into Acquaintance with a fober, godly, underhand - ing Apprentice of Mr. Philemon Stephensthe Bookfeller , whofe Name was Ham- pbrey Blanden (who is fence turned anextraordinary Chymifl r and got Jacob Behan his Books rrantlated and printed), whom I very much loved, and who by his Con - folatory Letters and Dire &ions for Books, did afterwards do me the Offices of an ufeful Friend. § ea. When I was going home again into the Country about Chrifèmae-day, the greateft Snow began that bath been in this Age, which continued thence till Ea- 451.5614 fter, at which fome places had it many yardsdeep -; and before it was a very hard Froh, which necefCtated me to Froh-nail my Horfe twice or thrice a day. On the Road I met a Waggon loaded, where I had no paffage by, but on the fide of a bank , which as I paffed over, all my Horfes feet hipt from under him, and all the Girths brake, and. fo I was cult jufl before the Waggon Wheel , whichhad gone over me, but that ifpleafedGod, that fuddenly the Horfes Ropy without any dif- cernable caufe, till I wasrecovered : which commandedme to obferve the Mercy of myProteetor. . 4 a2. This mindethmeof fame other Dangers and Deliverances which I pall over. At Seventeenyearsof Age, as I rodeout on a great unruly Horfè for plea- fare, which was wont on a fudden toget the Bitt in his Teeth, andfet on running ; as I was in a Field of high Ground, there being on theother fide a Quick-fet Hedge, a very deep narrów Lane, abouta Stories height below me ; fuddenly the Horfe C 2 got

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