A26888:375
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls…
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadducees and infidels, by Richard Baxter.The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
Treatise › Chapter 10: Other Strange Providences observable.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
III. After long Pain and Weakness, reading a Latin Book of one Gerhard, a Foreign Physician, I found in him, that his own Father had been cured of some of my Distempers (as I then thought) by daily swallowing a Bullet of purest Gold: I got one of the weight of a Twenty-Shilling-piece, and swallowed it, but it remained in me; and hearing of a Gentleman within twelve Miles of me, that lately did the like, and it never passed from him, but he quickly died, made me take Clysters and Purges, but none of them stirred it. My poor praying Neighbours (not then fearing the Canon, which strictly forbiddeth it) set apart a Day, to fast and pray for my Deliverance; and that Morning it came away, after many Weeks abode, (three or four;) and they spent the rest of the Day in Thanksgiving.
III. After long Pain and Weakness, reading a Latin Book of one Gerhard, a Foreign Physician, I found in him, that his own Father had been cured of some of my Distempers (as I then thought) by daily swallowing a Bullet of purest Gold: I got one of the weight of a Twenty-Shilling-piece, and swallowed it, but it remained in me; and hearing of a Gentleman within twelve Miles of me, that lately did the like, and it never pass'd from him, but he quickly died, made me take Clysters and Purges, but none of them stirred it. My poor praying Neighbours (not then fearing the Canon, which strictly forbiddeth it) set apart a Day, to fast and pray for my Deliverance; and that Morning it came away, after many Weeks abode, (three or four;) and they spent the rest of the Day in Thanksgiving.
IV. In my Weakness, being under Physic with Dr. Wright, then living in Shrewsbury, there suddenly rose upon one of the Tonsils of my Throat a round Tumour, seeming to me as hard as a Bone, and about as big as a great Pease, or small Button, half out of the Flesh, and half in. I feared lest it would prove a Cancer; but the Doctor told me, he did not think so, but what it was he knew not; but persuaded (having first tried dissolving and dissipating Means ⟨p. 190⟩in vain) to quiet it only with Gargarisms of hot Milk: It increased but little, but no Means altered it, till (as I remember) about a quarter of a Year after, my Conscience reproved me, that having had so many great Mercies upon Prayer, I never gave God the Honour or Thanks of public mentioning them, for fear of seeming to seek some Glory to my self; being the next Morning to preach my Lecture, I obeyed my Conscience, and mentioned them in the Words since printed and published in the Second Part of my Saints Everlasting Rest, being then upon the proof of the Truth of the Scriptures: I had before constantly felt it, (and too oft looked at in the Glass.) As soon as I had preached and spoken those Words, I felt no more of it. As I came out of the Pulpit, I put my Finger in my Mouth to feel it, but could feel nothing: I hasted home to the Glass, and saw that there was neither Vola, vel Vestigium, vel Cicatrix; no Cavity, Tumour, Discolouring, nor any sign where-ever it was; and I am sure I neither spit it out, nor swallowed it; and to the last Hour it seemed as hard as a Bone.