Baxter - BX5207 B3 A2 1696

p A T IL ReverendMr. Richard Baxter: 44i Preaching or Catechizing, and fpent the reit of the Day with my Family ( aid a few poor Neighbours that came in ) ; 1pending now and then a day in London, and the next year 1664. I had the Company of divers godly faithful Friends that Tabled with me in Summer, with whom I folaced my felt with much content. Having almoft finilhed a large Treatife, called , A Chriflian Direltorj, or Suns of Prattical Divinity , that I might knowwhether it would be Licepfed for the Prefs, I tried them with a fmall Treatife of The Charaíters of a Sound Cbriftian, as, diffe- renced from the Weal Cbriflian and the Hypocrite : I offered it Mr. Grsg the Bi- (hopof London's Chaplain, who had been a Non.conformift, and profeft an ex- traordinary refpe&-for me : But he durst not Licence it. Yet after , when the Plaguebegan 1 fent three ftngleSheets to the Archbilhop of Canterbury's Chap- lain ( without any Name that they might have pair unknown, but accidentally they knew them to be mine) and they were Licenfed: The one was Direllions for the Sick: The fecond was Direllions for the Cenverfionof the Ungodly; and the third was Inftrultions for a Holy Life : for the ufe of poor Families that cannot buy great- er Books, or will not read them. 44o. March26.. being the Lord's Day 1665. as I was preaching in a Private Houib, where we received the Lord's Supper, a Bullet carne in at the Window a mong us, and pall by me, and narrowly miff the Head of a Sifter-it-flaw of mine that wasthere, and hurt none of us ; and we could never difcover whence it came: § 441. In June following an ancient Gentlewoman with her Sons and Daughter, came four Miles in her Coach to hear me Preach in my Family, as out of Ipecial Refpe& to me: It fell out that ( contrar to ,our cuftom) we let her knock long at the Dbor, and did not open it ; and foa fecond time when the had gone away and came again; and the-third time fhe cante when we had ended : the was fo earneft to know when fhe might come again to hear me, that I appointed her a time : But before fhe came, I had fecret intelligence from one that was nigh her, that fhe came with a heart exceeding full of Malice, refolving , if potfible, to dome what Mifchief fhe could by Accufation : and fo that Danger was avoid- . ed. § 442. Before this, divers Forreign Divines had written to me , and expelled filch Correfpondence as Literate Perlons have with one another : But I knew fo wellwhat eyes were upon me,and how others had been ufed inforce filch accounts, that I durst not write one Letter to any beyond the Seas : By which Come were offended, as little knowing our Condition here : Among others ; Amyraldus fent one upon theoccafion of a word of honefk LuLn. Molin.eus, a Dr. of Phyfick, who hadfaid that he had heard that Amyrald had faid fomewhat as (lighting the Non-conformifls in England, and me in particular, which with what vehemency and great re(pe& he difowneth , his Letter following will thew. Another was from a Miniffer in Helvetia, who would have had my Advice about fatting up the Workof Minifterial Inftrudion of the Families and Perlons of their Charge par- ticularly, which I will alto add : but I fent him an Anfwer by his Friend by word of mouth only. And fo I refufed the anfweringof all others. L 11 Litéræ

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