482 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 134. 



them, reserving to myself the first editions of the 

 choicest of his practical writings. The folio 

 edition of his works contains only his practical 

 treatises. One of the most remarkable facts con- 

 nected with the history of Baxter, is the prodigious 

 amount of mechanical drudgery to which he must 

 have patiently submitted in the production of his 

 . varied publications. He had a very delicate 

 frame : he was continually unwell, and often 

 greatly afflicted. To this constant ailment of 

 body he refers in a very affecting note in his 

 Paraphrase on the New Testament under the fifth 

 verse in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. 

 The reference is to the impotent man at the pool 

 of. Bethesda, who had an infirmity thirty and 

 eight years. 



Note. " How great a mercy is it, to live eight and 

 thirty years under God's wholesome discipline ? How 

 inexcusable was this man, if he had been proud, or 

 worldly, or careless of his everliisting state? O my God! 

 I thank thee for the like discipline of eight and fifty 

 years. How safe a life is this, in comparison of full 

 prosperity and pleasure." 



His ministerial duties were of an arduous na- 

 ture, and yet he found time to write largely on 

 theological subjects, and to plunge perpetually 

 into theological controversy. The Saint's Rest, 

 by which his fame will ever be perpetuated, was 

 published in 1619, 41 o. It is in four parts, and 

 •dedicated respectively to the inhabitants of Kid- 

 derminster, Bridgenoith, Coventry, and Shrews- 

 bury. It was the first book he wrote, and the 

 second he published (^The Aphorisms of Justifica- 

 tion being the first published) : it was written 

 under the daily expectation of dying. The names 

 of Brook, Hampden, and Pym, which have a place 

 in the first edition, are, singularly enough, omitted 

 in the later ones. Fifty years after the appear- 

 ance of the Sainfs Rest, and a few months only 

 before his death, he published the strangest of all 

 his productions ; it is — 



" The Certainty of the World of Spirits, fully evinced 

 by xniquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witch- 

 crafts, Operations, Voices, &c. Proving the Immor- 

 tality of Souls, the Malice and Misery of Devils and 

 the Damned, and the Blessedness of the Justified. 

 Written for the Conviction of Sadducees and Infidels." 

 12mo. 1691. 



His ReliquicB Baxteriance, folio, 1686, is the text- 

 book for the actual every-day life of this eminent 

 divine. H. M. Bealbt. 



North Brixton. 



LATIN SONG BY ANDEEW BOORDE. 



The life of this " progenitor of Merry Andrew," 

 as he is termed, would, if minutely examined, 

 doubtless prove a curious piece of biography. 

 Wood furnishes many particulars, but some of 



his statements want confirmation. He tells us 

 that Boorde was borne at Pevensey in Sussex ; 

 but Hearne corrects him, and says it was at 

 Bounds Hill in the same county. It then becomes 

 a question whether he was educated at Winchester 

 school. Certain it is that he was of Oxford, 

 although he left without taking a degree, and 

 became a brother of the Carthusian order in 

 London. We next find him studying physic in 

 his old university, and subsequently travelling 

 through most parts of Europe, and even of Africa. 

 On his return to England, he settled at Win- 

 chester, and practised as a physician. Afterwards 

 we find him in London occupying a tenement in 

 the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. This appears 

 to have been the period when, in his professional 

 capacity, King Henry VIII. is said to have con- 

 sulted him. How long he remained in London is 

 uncertain, but in 1541 he was living at Mont- 

 pelier in France, where he is supposed to have 

 taken the degree of doctor in physic, in which he 

 was afterwards incorporated at Oxford. He sub- 

 sequently lived at Pevensey, and again at Win- 

 chester. At last we find him a prisoner in the 

 Fleet — the cause has yet to be learned, — at 

 which place he died in April, 1549. The follow- 

 ing curious relic is transcribed from the flyleaf of 

 a copy of The Breviary of Health, 4to., London, 

 1547. It is signed "Andrew Boord," and if not 

 the handwriting of the facetious author himself, 

 is certainly that of some one of his cotemporaries : 



" Nos vagabunduli, 

 Laeti, jucunduli, 



Tara, tantara telno. 

 Edimus libere, 

 Canimus lepide, 



Tara, &c. 

 Risu dissolvimur, 

 Pannis obvolvimur, 



Tara, &c. 

 Multum in joculis, 

 Crebro in poculis, 



Tara, &c. 

 Dolo consuimus, 

 Nihil metuimus, *' 



Tara, &c. 

 Pennus non deficit, 

 Prseda nos reficit, 



Tara, &c. 

 Frater Catholice, ^ 

 Vir apostolice, 



Tara, &c. 

 Die qu£E volueris 

 Fient qu» jusseris, 



Tara, &c. 

 Omnes metuite 

 Partes gramaticse, 



Tara, &c. 

 Quadruplex nehulo . 

 Adest, et spolio, 



Tara, &c. 



