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

Once one of the drunken Beggars of the Town raised a slander of me, That I was under a Tree with a Woman (an ill-famed Beggar of the Town): All the Drunkards had got it in their mouths, before I could find out the Original. I got three or four of them bound to the Good Behaviour, and the Sot himself that raised the Slander, confessed before the Court that he saw me in a rainy day on Horseback stand under an Oak which grew in a thick Hedge, and the Woman aforesaid standing for shelter on the other side the Hedge under the same Tree, and that he believed that we saw not one another; but he spake it as a Jest, and the Company were glad of the occasion to feed their Malice. So they all asked me forgiveness, and I desired the Magistrate immediately to release them all.

Once one of the drunken Beggers of the Town raised a slander of me, That I was under a Tree with a Woman (an ill-fam'd Beggar of the Town): All the Drunkards had got it in their mouths, before I could find out the Original. I got three or four of them bound to the Good Behaviour, and the Sot himself that raised the Slander, confessed before the Court that he saw me in a rainy day on Horseback stand under an Oak which grew in a thick Hedge, and the Woman aforesaid standing for shelter on the other side the Hedge under the same Tree, and that he believed that we saw not one another; but he spake it as a Jest, and the Company were glad of the occasion to feed their Malice. So they all askt me forgiveness, and I desired the Magistrate immediately to release them all.

There lived at Kinver an ancient, prudent, Reverend Divine, Mr. John Cross, (who died since, Pastor of Matthews Friday-street in London): This godly Man had been the chief means of the good which was done in Kidderminster before my coming thither; when I came, I got him to take every second day in a Weekly Lecture. It came to pass once, that a Woman defamed him at Kidderminster openly, and told the People that he would have ravished her. Mr. Cross being a wise Man, sent one before to desire the Bailiff and Justice to call her to Examination, and he came after and sate in a common dark coloured Coat, among many others, in the Bailiff's Parlour, as if he had been one of the Magistrates. The Bailiff called her in, and she stood impudently to the Accusation: The Bailiff asked her whether she knew the Man if she saw him; which she confidently affirmed. He asked her, Is it this Man, or that Man, or the other Man, or any there? And she said, O no, God forbid that she should accuse any of them. Mr. Cross said, Am not I the Man; and she said, No, she knew the Man well enough. And when they had told her that this was Mr. Cross, she fell down on her knees, and asked him forgiveness, and confessed that one of his Neighbours (who was his great Accuser at the Bishops Courts) had hired her to report it. But the Good Man forgave them all.