1 It was the saying of an ancient philosopher, Whosoever sinneth, doth in that decline from his purposed end, and is certainly deceived.
2 Hark, scholar, eaid the harlot to Apuleius, it is but a bitter-sweet that you are so fond of. Ah ! your scoffing and mocking will prove but a bitter-sweet at last.
3 Constantino the Great's symbol [Qu. 'saying'? — G.] was immedicabile vulnus ense rescindendam est, when there is no hope of curing, men must fall a-cutting ; and so will God deal with sinners' souls. Therefore, look about you, sinners.
4 Said Caligula, speaking to the consuls, to think that I can kill you with a nod of my head ; and can't God do it with as much ease ?
lviil APPENDIX TO MEMOIR.
hominem odit, he hateth God that hateth man. I must love men, but hate their vice. It is said of Ephesus, that they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans ; their errors, not their persons. So Jacob cursed the wrath of his sons, but blessed their persons. So Paul, 1 Cor. iv. 15, and so do I, through free mercy.1
| 4. | You may be confident that I don't refuse the baptizing of your children, and the giving you the sacrament, &c., out of pride or envy, or upon any carnal account in the world, but only upon the grounds that I have before laid down. I take the Searcher of all hearts to witness, that I should much rejoice and bless the Lord if he would be pleased to work such a thorough work of grace upon all your hearts as that I might without sin dispense all the precious things of Christ to you. Ah ! it is not a joy, but a real grief to my soul, that others have not that right, and can't come to those ordinances which God hath made so sweet and advantageous to me, and many others of the sons of Zion.
Oh ! how willing should I be, and those that walk with me, to give you the right hand of fellowship, if we could but see that the Lord has taken you into fellowship with his blessed self, that so the ordi- nance might be a cordial, and not poison to you.2
I do profess before the Lord, that I do from my soul forgive you the wrong and injuries that you have done me, or attempted to do. God has been good to me, notwithstanding my failing towards him and my sins against him ; and the sense of his love and rich goodness makes my bowels to yearn towards you.
Oh ! it is a mercy more worth than a world to me that God hath given me such a frame of spirit as that I can pray for your souls, and weep over your sins, and that I am ready to serve you in all those ways wherein I may further the eternal welfare of your souls, &c. Make use of me in anything wherein I may serve you without sin ; and see whether I shall not be willing to act for your good, notwithstand- ing all provocations to the contrary.3
[5.] For a close, — because I would not be over-tedious, I shall draw many things within a narrow compass, — you may be confident that my end in writing is your due conviction and satisfaction, that you may weigh my arguments, and clearly see that it is not will, nor humour, &c, but conscience, reason, and religion that acts me. If, notwithstanding what I have said, you shall continue in your malice, envy, hatred, &c, I shall have comfort in this, that I have in all faith- fulness freed myself from being guilty of the blood of your souls ; and
1 Rom. xiv. 19 ; Heb. xii. 14. Luther said, that in the cause of God he was content, totius mundi odium et impetum sustinere, to undergo the hatred and violence of the whole world. The heathen orator could say, A recta conscientia ne latum quidem unguem disceden- dum, a man may not depart an hair's-breadth all his life long from the dictates of a good conscience.
' Cant. viii. 1 ; Ps. lxiii. 1-3; Rom. xiv. 1, and xv. 1 ; 1 John i. 3, 4; Luke xxiii. 24 ; Acts vii. 39, GO ; Mat. vi. 12-15. Tully said of Caesar, Nihil oblivisci soles, nisi injuria*, that lie forgat nothing but injuries.
3 Lilmod lelammed, we therefore learn, tbat we may teach, is a proverb among the Rabbins. I could havo dealt with you in another way, bad 1 not intended the good of your souls. Jer. xliv. 16, et seq ; Acts xx. 26, 27 Ezek. iii. 17-19 ; 1 Cor. ix. 20-22 ; John xii. 48; 2 Cor. v. 10; Rom. viii. 28; Micah vii. 8-10; Jer. xx. 9-12; Mai. iii. 17, 18; Isa. xlix. 4, 5.
APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. lix
in that I have declared to all the world my willingness to serve the interest of your souls in all things wherein I may without sin. And most confident I am. that if what I have written do not better you, it will be a witness against you when you and I shall meet before Christ's judgment-seat. And confident I am, that God will bring much good to me out of all the plots, designs, and actings that have been, or that shall be, by vain men against me. And confident I am, that the more you stir in any way of baseness or wickedness, the more the Lord wiil make you to stink, and the more contempt he will pour upon you, and the more bright he will cause my innocency to shine, and the more weighty shall be my crown in the day of Christ.
My desires for you before the Lord are these, that you may have such a sight of your sins as may work you to ' kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish when his wrath is kindled but a little ;' and that you may not trifle away the day of grace, and ' the things that belong to your eternal peace/ ' lest God should swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his rest/1 Oh ! that in the lio-ht of the Spirit you may see Christ to be the greatest good, the most desirable good, the most necessary good, the most suitable good, to be a total good, an only good, and an eternal good ; that so your souls may in good earnest fall in love with Christ, and may cry out with that martyr, ' None but Christ, none but Christ/ Oh ! none but Christ to save us, and none but Christ to rule us ! none but Christ to justify us, and none but Christ to command us I Oh ! that you may cease from doing evil, and learn to do well ; that so you may be happy in life, blessed in death, and glorious in the morning of the resurrection, Isa. i. 16, 17.
B. — Close of Farewell Sermon ; see page ante xxxi. From the Collection of 1662 (4to). The text is not given, nor the body of the Sermon, but only what follows : —
All that I shall do shall be to answer two or three queries, and then I shall leave a few legacies with you, that may speak when I am not advantaged to speak to you.
The first query is this, What should be the reason that men make such opposition against the gospel, against the plain, powerful, con- scientious preaching of it \ This is not the principal thing that I in- tend, and therefore I shall only touch upon the reason of it.
1. Men's hatred and opposition ariseth against the gospel because it doth discover their hidden works of darkness : John iii., ' They hate the light, lest their deeds should be reproved.' The gospel brings their deeds of darkness to light, and this stirs up a spirit of hatred and op- position against the gospel.