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

When the Earl of Lauderdaile (his near Kinsman and great Friend) was Prisoner in Portsmouth and Windsor-Castle, he fell into acquaintance with my Books, and so valued them that he read them all, and took Notes of them, and earnestly commended them to the Earl of Balcarres (with the King). The Earl of Balcarres met at the first sight with some Passages where he thought I spake too favourably of the Papists, and differed from many other Protestants, and so cast them by, and sent the reason of his distaste to the Earl of Lauderdaile: who pressed him but to read one of the Books over; which he did; and so read them all (as I have seen many of them marked with his hand); and was drawn to over-value them more than the Earl of Lauderdaile.

When the Earl of Lauderdaile (his near Kinsman and great Friend) was Prisoner in Portsmouth and Windsor-Castle, he fell into acquaintance with my Books, and so valued them that he read them all, and took Notes of them, and earnestly commended them to the Earl of Balcarres (with the King). The Earl of Balcarres met at the first sight with some Passages where he thought I spake too favourably of the Papists, and differed from many other Protestants, and so cast them by, and sent the reason of his distaste to the Earl of Lauderdaile: who prest him but to read one of the Books over; which he did; and so read them all (as I have seen many of them marked with his hand); and was drawn to over-value them more than the Earl of Lauderdaile.

Hereupon his Lady reading them also, and being a Woman of very strong Love and Friendship, with extraordinary Entireness swallowed up in her Husband's Love, for the Books sake and her Husband's sake, she became a most affectionate Friend to me, before she ever saw me. While she was in France, being zealous for the King's Restoration (for whose Cause her Husband had pawned and ruined his Estate), by the Earl of Lauderdaile's direction, she with Sir Robert Murray, got divers Letters from the Pastors and others there, to bear witness of the King's sincerity in the Protestant Religion (among which there is one to me from Mr. Gaches). Her great Wisdom, Modesty, Piety and Sincerity, made her accounted the Saint at the Court. When she came over with the King, her extraordinary Respects obliged me to be so often with her, as gave me Acquaintance with her Eminency in all the foresaid Virtues: She is of solid Understanding in Religion, for her Sex; and of Prudence much more than ordinary; and of great Integrity and Constancy in her Religion, and a great Hater of Hypocrisy, and faithful to Christ in an unfaithful World; and she is somewhat over-much affectionate to her Friend; which hath cost her a great deal of Sorrow,