Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

§ 8. At that time also God was pleased much to comfort and settle me by the acquaintance of some Reverend peaceable Divines; Mr. Garbet (aforesaid) and Mr. George Baxter of Little Wenlock, (very holy men and peaceable, who laboured faithfully with little success till they were above fourscore years of Age apiece;) especially old Mr. Samuel Smith, sometime of Prittlewell in Essex, but then of Cressage in Shropshire (who hath written on the 6th of Hosea, the first Psalm, the 23d Psalm, the 51st Psalm, the 90th Psalm, the Eunuch's Conversion, Noah's Dove, the Great Assize, and other Books:) This good Man was one of my most familiar Friends, in whose Converse I took very much delight; who was buried but this Winter 1664. at his Native place at Dudley in Worcestershire.

§ 9. And because the Case of my Body had a great Operation upon my Soul, and the History of it is somewhat necessary to the right understanding of the rest, and yet it is not a Matter worthy to be oft mentioned, I shall here together give you a brief Account of the most of my Afflictions of that kind, reserving the mention of some particular Deliverances to the proper place.

I was naturally of a sound Constitution, but very thin and lean and weak, and especially of a great debility of the Nerves. At seven years old I had the Measles, and at fourteen the Small-pox: I too soon after them went into the cold, and after (in a Looseness) went into a River or Brook to wash me; and I eat raw Apples and Pears and Plumbs in great quantities for many years: All which together brought me into a violent Catarrh and Cough, which would not let me sleep quietly in the Night. When this had continued about two years, my Body being very thin, and Consumptions then common in the Country, I was much afraid of a Consumption: And first I did eat great store of raw Garlic, which took off some part of my Cough, but put an Acrimony into my Blood, which naturally was acrimonious.