A26888:79
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
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.
IN the beginning of the late War, a Gentleman of that County being oppressed by the King's Party, took Arms under the Earl of Essex, and by his Valour obtained a good Repute in the Army; so that in a short time he got the Command of Lieutenant Colonel. But as soon as the heat of the War was abated, his Ease and Preferment led him to a careless and sensual Life; insomuch that the godly Commanders judged him unfit to continue in England, and thereupon sent him to Ireland, where he grew so vain and notional, that he was cashiered the Army; and being then at liberty to sin without any Restraint, he became an absolute Atheist, denying Heaven or Hell, ⟨p. 24⟩God or Devil, (acknowledging only a Power, as the ancient Heathens did Fate,) accounting Temporal Pleasures all his expected Heaven: So that, at last he became hateful, and hating all civil Society, and his nearest Relations.
IN the beginning of the late War, a Gentleman of that County being oppressed by the King's Party, took Arms under the Earl of Essex, and by his Valour obtained a good Repute in the Army; so that in a short time he got the Command of Lieutenant Colonel. But as soon as the heat of the War was abated, his Ease and Preferment led him to a careless and sensual Life; insomuch that the godly Commanders judged him unfit to continue in England, and thereupon sent him to Ireland, where he grew so vain and notional, that he was cashiered the Army; and being then at liberty to sin without any Restraint, he became an absolute Atheist, denying Heaven or Hell, ⟨p. 24⟩God or Devil, (acknowledging only a Power, as the antient Heathens did Fate,) accounting Temporal Pleasures all his expected Heaven: So that, at last he became hateful, and hating all civil Society, and his nearest Relations.
About December last, he being in Ireland, and his Wife (a Godly Gentlewoman, of a good Family, and concluded by all the Godly People that knew her, to be one of the most sincere and upright Christians in those Parts, as being for many Years under great Afflictions, and always bearing them with Christian-like Patience) living in his House in Glamorgan, was very much troubled one Night with a great Noise, much like the sound of Whirl-wind, and a violent beating of the Doors or Walls; as if the whole House were falling in pieces: And being in her Chamber, with most of her Family, after praying to the Lord, (accounting it sinful Incredulity to yield to Fear,) she went to bed; and suddenly after, there appeared unto her something like her Husband, and asked her whether he should come to Bed. She sitting up, and praying to the Lord, told him, he was not her Husband, and that he should not. He urged more earnestly: What! Not the Husband of thy Bosom? What! Not the Husband of thy Bosom? (Yet had no power to hurt her.) And she, together with some Godly People,