Part IV. to feek him early and he will be a good portion, and fee well to you; your bread fhall be given, your watter fhall be fure; neceffaries you fhall have,janda bleffing; tho' you have not many blood relations, ye fhall not want a friend every where,and that a steadable friend, I leave you, my dear family, upon the mercies of God in Chrift, and recommend, him and the word of his grace to you, and you to him, and to the word of his grace. Be obedient and comfortable to your mother, as ye would have God's bleffing: She deferves this at your hand, and will need that comfort. : I leave this one advice more to my family, that whereas we have a profpect of divided times, and different apprehenfions and practises among ministers and people particularly about this oath of abjuration, beware of intereffing yourselves in that difference, or entertaining prejudices against minifters upon the one hand or the other; there will be faithful ministers on both fides, and on either hand they will act according to their light fincerely; whoever fhall have an acceffion to the weak'ning any of their hands, will find no peace in it, in the clofe of the day; beware of a religion that's most taken up about public matters. The fum of the gofpel is Chrift crucified. Seek where this is purely preached; beware of an itch after pulpit-debates; walk humbly with God, fear always; hold at a diftance from appearances of evil; follow peace, truth, holinefs, This in ftead of legacies I leave unto you, as my last will, never to be revoked. As for my body, I commit it to the duft, under the care of the keeper of Ifrael, expecting and hoping, that that quickning fpirit, that is, the fpirit of the head, and actuates all the members of his myftical body, will in due time quicken my mortal body; and for my spirit, I commend it unto the Lord Jefus Chrift, Chrift, with him I have intrufted it long ago: And Thereafter, to fome prefent, he faid, Profeffors, I have this to say to day about religion, we have a double call to give a teftimony to it, Atheism and Profannefs are coming in like a flood. We shall all be martyrs. Bleffings to his name to get leave to ly on this bed, to testify againgst Profannefs and Atheilm. But, faid he 'tis very painful to be lying here when all is ready, I mean, when there is a habitation, a better house to be dwelling in than this. I'm loofed from my enjoyments, my deareft wife and bairns, I have given up with them, and my heart is difingaged; but I put them in a good hand, I have put them in the Lord's hand. I do confefs, God has been beating me in a mortar this long time, and I fee he has been doing some work; I was made like a wean ed child, I durft not repine: Then he cried, when wilt thou come? Come Lord Jefus. Iwait for the Lord. Thereafter, when fome people came in to fee him, he faid, these fourteen or fifteen years I have been studying the promises; but I have feen more of the book of God this night, than all that time. O the wifdom that's laid up in the book of God, that's to be found only there! Then he said, I know a great deal from a dying man will go for canting and roving; but I blefs God, he has fo kept the little judge. ment I had, that I've been capable to reflect with compofure on his dealing with me. I'm fober and compofed if ever I was fober. And whether men will forbear, or whether they will hear, this is a teftimony. The operation of the spirit of God are malign'd this day; but if we take away the opporations and influences of the spirit of God in religion, I know no what's left. He promised the spirit to lead us in all truth: O that this generation would awaken, to feek after quickning influences of the fpirit. O for a day of the down-pouring of the spirit from on high, in a work of a conversion, for such a day as that, when the fpirit of God effectually reached our fathers, and brought forth great men, and made others to be conquered by them. The refidue of the spirit is with him, To a minifter, he faid, I'm won now, I fay, I'm won, brother, longing for the falvation of God, and for the day when I fhall fee his appearance; but I muft keep my post, and good reason, if he fend me but fresh fupplies, as much as help me, till I come home, that I may not difhonour him by begging at anothers door; I'm that proud I would take all from him, and not to beg from other Lords. Our master gives his fervants a very honourable allowance. * Then to the phyfician he faid, doctor, 'tis great bravery to face death on a fick bed. The heathens of old, whenever they turned impatient, they ran away to kill themselves, and made an end of themselves, they dought not bide it. It is no more courage, and a nobler fpirit, that the Lord allows even the weak, the timorous, the faintish, a power whereby they can lie under ficknefs and pain, and brave the ftouteft enemy, by a patience of fpirit? i.e. they could not bear it. After a pause he said, I think we shall lofs the very thew of religion. Our gentry and nobility, I think, if the Lord do not reclaim them, they are like all to turn heathens, drunkards, fwearers, &c. Among other things, I rejoice in it, that the Lord is taking me away in my younger years, that I'll be free of the tranfgreffion of the wicked; and it has many a year grieved my foul to fee it. After a little he faid, there's a fweet composure on my spirit. The beams of the house are, as it were, crack cracking. I'm laying down my tabernacle to build again. O to get grace to be faithful to the death: For after we have gone thro' many things, yet we have need ftill to wait on God till the laft: For 'tis he that endures to the end that shall be faved. Am not I a man wonderfully upheld by God under affliction and death? The death of the faints is made a derrifion in our day; but if they laugh at me, I can laugh at them, and I think I haye better reafon; let them come to my pass, and they dare not; and I'll rejoice in my God, and joy in the God of my falvation, tho the fig-tree fhould not bloffom, and there should be no fruit in the vine, and the labour of the olive should fall. But, faid he, bleft be God, I am provided; God is a good portion, I want death to compleat my happiness. After a little ftop, he faid, I was feared this day in the morning, that want of reft might have difcompos'd me, I would fain have reft for fear of my head, The Lord has been very kind to me, in giving me compofure and exercise of my judgment after I had a gay diftracting trouble in the beginning of his death-bed fickness. Then he faid, but being laid here, I must speak; 'tis the last fervice the Lord Jefus calls for at my hand: And I owe him fo much, that I cannot but commend him. As far as my word will go, I muft proclaim it, he's the beft mafter that ever I faw. Then to the phyfician he said, I fancy my feet are growing cold, doctor; yea, yea, all the parts of this body are going to ruin. You may faid he, believe a man venturing on eternity. I am not acting as a fool, but I have weighted eternity this last night. I have looked on death as a ftript of all things pleafant to nature; I have confidered the spade and grave, and every circumstance in it that is terrible to nature; and under the view of all thefe, I found, that in the way of God, that gave fatisfaction, not only a rational jatisfaction, but a heart-engaging power attending it, that makes me rejoice. The doctor faid, you fpeak beyond your strength; 'tis a wonder to fee you hold out fo, He answered, I cannot beftow my ftrength better, doctor; And I owe him much more. I have narrow thoughts; I am like to be overwhelmed, and I know not where I am, when I think on what I am to be, and what I am to fee, I have long defired and prayed for it; bleffed be God, I am richely furnished. I had as much the day after my fifter died. To his fon he said, O man, if I had as many fons as there are hairs in your head I would bestow them all on God. David, these are honest folk, (meaning the ministers) mind their advice; the curfe of God will overtake you, if you follow it not. Beware of ill company; read the bible. I pray you may be an encouragement to your mother. He was much concerned about his two nephews abroad on which he dictated a letter for them, which is as follows. Dear Nephew, THE ter " HE words of your dying Uncle, the last Let from him, fhould have fome weight; "and my earnest defire that it may have weight in "order to your eternal falvation, is the reafon of my " employing fome of my last minutes, by a borrow"ed hand, to commend unto you to make earnest of "religion, and not to reft content with a dead, dry, "barren profeffion. I can tell you, fince I came to "this bed of languifhing, I have found a full proof, "that Religion is a real, ufeful, noble, and profi"table thing. I have been helped through the mer cy of God, during my lying here, to rejoice in the "goodnefs of God, and ly compofedly and pleafant ly; nothing but religion, nothing, nothing but the |