Sermon 17

Genesis 28:12ff. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed. And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in you, and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places, where you go, and will bring you again into this land: for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you of.

The wise man observes, that in the multitude of dreams there is many vanities, being often the effects of a peculiar disorder of body, or owing to some disturbance of the mind. They whose nervous system has been long relaxed, who have had severe domestic trials, or have been greatly affected by extraordinary occurrences, know this to be true by their own experience; but however this may be, there have been, and possibly may be still, dreams that have no manner of dependence on the indisposition of the body, or other natural cause, but seem to bring a divine sanction with them, and make peculiar impressions on the party, though this was more frequent before the canon of scripture was closed, than now. God spoke to his people in a dream, in a vision of the night; witness, the subject of our present meditation, a dream of the patriarch Jacob's, when going forth as a poor pilgrim with a staff in his hand, from his father's house, deprived of his mother's company and instruction, persecuted by an elder brother, without attendants or necessaries, only leaning on an invisible power. I need not inform you in how extraordinary a way he got the blessing, which provoked his brother to such a degree, as determined him to be the death of Jacob, as soon as ever his aged father dropped: to what a height did this wicked man's envy rise when he said, the days of mourning for my father will soon come, and what then? Why, though I have some compassion for the old man, and therefore will not lay violent hands upon my brother while my father is alive, yet I am resolved to kill him before my father is cold in his grave. This is the very spirit of Cain, who talked to his brother, and then slew him: this coming to the ears of his mother, she tells the good old patriarch her husband, who loving peace and quietness, takes the good advice of the weaker vessel, and orders Jacob to go to his mother's brother, Laban, and stay a little while out of Esau's sight, (perhaps out of sight out of mind) and by and by probably, said he, you may come to your father and mother again in peace and safety. Jacob, though sure of the blessing in the end, by his father's confirmation of it, yet prudently makes use of proper means; therefore he obeyed his parents: and woe, woe to those who think a parent's blessing not worth their asking for! Having had his mother's blessing, as well as his father's, without saying, I will try it out with my brother, I will let him know that I am not afraid of him, he views it as the call of God, and like an honest, simple pilgrim, went out from Beersheba towards Haran. Was it not a little unkind in his parents not to furnish him with some necessaries and conveniences? When the servant was sent to fetch a wife for Isaac, he had a great deal of attendance, why should not Jacob have it now; his father might have sent him away with great parade: but I am apt to believe this did not suit Jacob's real, pilgrim spirit; he was a plain man, and dwelt in tents, when, perhaps, he might have dwelt under cedar roofs; he chose a pilgrim's life, and prudence directed him to go thus in a private manner, to prevent increasing Esau's envy, and giving the fatal blow.

Methinks, I see the young pilgrim weeping when he took his leave of his father and mother; he went on foot, and they that are acquainted with the geography of the place, say that the first day of his journey he walked not less than forty English miles; what exercise must he have had all that way; no wonder, therefore, that by the time the sun was going down, poor Jacob felt himself very weary, for we are told, verse 11, that he lighted on a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. There is a particular emphasis to be put upon this term, a certain place; he saw the sun going down, he was a stranger in a strange land. (You that are born in England can have very little idea of it, but persons that travel in the American woods can form a more proper idea, for you may there travel a hundred and a thousand miles, and go through one continued tract of tall green trees, like the tall cedars of Lebanon; and the gentlemen of America, from one end to the other, are of such a hospitable temper, as I have not only been told, but have found among them upwards of thirty years, that they would not let public houses be licensed, that they may have an opportunity of entertaining English friends: may God, of his infinite mercy, grant this union may never be dissolved.)

Well, Jacob got to a certain place, and perhaps he saw a good tree that would serve him for a canopy; however, this we are told, he tarried there all night because the sun was set, and he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillow, and laid down in that place to sleep; hard lodgings for him who was used to lie otherwise at home: I don't hear him say, I wish I was got back to my mother again, I wish I had not set out; but upon the hard ground and hard pillow he lies down; I believe never poor man slept sweeter in his life, for it is certainly sweet sleep when God is near us; he did not know but his brother might follow and kill him while he was asleep, or that the wild beasts might devour him; (in America, when they sleep in the woods, and I expect to have some such sleeping-times in them before twelve months is over, we are obliged to make a fire to keep the beasts from us: I have often said then, and I hope I shall never forget it, when I rise in the morning, this fire in the woods that keeps the wild beasts from hurting us, is like the fire of God's love that keeps the devil from hurting us:) thus weary and solitary he falls asleep, and sweetly dreams, and behold; I don't remember many passages of scripture where the word behold is repeated so many times in so short a space as in the passage before us, doubtless, the Lord would have us particularly take notice of it, even us upon whom the ends of the world are come: [reconstructed: Behold, a ladder] set upon the earth, and the top reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending upon it; and behold, the Lord stood above it; so here are three beholds in a very few lines. Was there any thing very extraordinary in that? Perhaps the Deists would say, your patriarch was tired, and dreamed among other things of a ladder; yes, he did, but this dream was of God, and how kind was he to meet him at the end of the first day's journey, to strengthen and animate him to go forward in this lonesome pilgrimage!

This ladder is reckoned by some to denote the providence of God: it was let down as it were from heaven, particularly at this time to poor Jacob, that he might know that however he was become a pilgrim, and left his all, all for God's glory, that God would take care for his comfort, and give his angels charge over him to keep him in all his ways, which was denoted by the angels ascending and descending upon the ladder. Some think that particular saints and countries have particular guardian angels, and therefore that the angels that ascended were those that had the particular charge of that place, so far as Jacob had come; that the angels that descended were another set of angels, sent down from heaven to guard him in his future journey; perhaps, this is more a fancy than the word of God. However, I very much like the observation of good Mr. Burket, Why should we dispute whether every individual believer has got a particular angel, when there is not one believer but has got guards of angels to attend him, which are a great deal better than a great many servants, that prove our plagues, and instead of waiting upon us make us wait upon them.

But, my dear hearers, I don't know one spiritual commentator, but agrees that this ladder was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ; and that as Jacob was now banished from his father's house, and while sleeping upon a hard, cold stone, God was pleased not only to give him an assurance that he would be with him in the way, but gave him a blessed sight of Jesus Christ, in whom Jacob believed.

A ladder you know is something by which we climb from one place to another; hence, in condescension to our weak capacities, God ordered a ladder to be let down, to show us that Christ is the way to heaven: I am the way, the truth, and the life: I am the door, says he; neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. The Deists, who own a God but deny his Son, dare go to a God out of Christ; but Jacob is here taught better: how soon does God reveal the gospel to him; here is a ladder, by which God preaches to us; if you have a mind to climb from earth to heaven, you must get up by the Son of God; no one ever pointed out a proper way to heaven for us but himself. When Adam and Eve fell from God, a flaming sword turned every way to keep them from the tree of life; but Jesus alone is a new and living way, not only to the Holy of Holies below, but into the immediate presence of God; and that we might know that he was a proper Savior, the top of it reached to heaven; if it had stopped short Jacob might have said, ah! the ladder is within a little way of heaven, but does not quite reach it; if I climb up to the top I shall not get there after all; but the top reached to heaven, to point out the divinity and exaltation of the Son of God; such a Savior became us who was God, God over all, blessed for evermore: and therefore the Arian scheme is most uncomfortable and destructive; to talk of Christ as a Savior that is not God, is no Christ at all. I would turn Deist tomorrow if I did not know that Christ was God; but cursed is the man that [reconstructed: builds] his faith upon an arm of flesh. If Christ is God, the Arians and Socinians, by their own principles, are undone for ever; but Jesus Christ is very God, and very man, begotten (and not made) of the Father: God, of his infinite mercy, write his divinity deep in our hearts!

The bottom of the ladder reached to the earth; this points out to us the humiliation of the blessed Lord: for us men he came down from heaven; we pray to and for a descending God. All the sufferings which our Lord voluntarily exposed himself to, were that he might become a ladder for you and I to climb up to heaven by. Come down from the cross, say they, and we will believe you; if he had, what would have become of us? Did they believe on him when he was dead, buried, and risen again? No. Some people say, if Christ was here, O dear we should love him; just as much as they did when he came down before. If he had come down from the cross, they would have hung him up again: O that you and I might make his cross a step to glory!

As the top of the ladder pointed out his exaltation, the bottom his humiliation, the two sides of the ladder being joined together, point out the union of the Deity and manhood in the person of Christ; and that as this ladder had steps to it, so blessed be God, Jesus Christ has found out a way whereby we may go, step after step, to glory. The first step is the righteousness of Christ, the active and passive obedience of the Redeemer; no setting one foot upon this ladder without coming out of ourselves, and relying wholly upon a better righteousness than our own. Again, all the other steps are the graces of the blessed Spirit; therefore, you need not be afraid of our destroying inward holiness, by preaching the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness, that one is the foundation, the other the superstructure; to talk of my having the righteousness of Christ imputed to my soul, without my having the holiness of Christ imparted to it, and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit as an evidence of it, is only deceiving ourselves. I would never preach upon imputed righteousness, without speaking of inward holiness, for if you don't take a great deal of care, you will unawares, under a pretence of exalting Christ, run into Antinomianism, depths that Calvin never went into; probably, you will embitter others' spirits that don't agree with you, and at the same time hurt the fruits of the Spirit: may God give you clear heads, and at the same time warm hearts.

On the ladder Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and descending; what is that for? To show that they are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation; therefore we find them attending upon Christ. We do not hear much of them after the canon of scripture was closed, but as soon as ever Christ was born, the angels sang, till then we never hear of their singing below, as far as I can judge, since the creation; then the sons of God shouted for joy; but when Eve reached out her hand to pluck the fatal apple, and gave to Adam, earth groaned, and the angels hung, as it were, their harps upon the willows; but when Christ, the second Adam, was born, the angels sang at midnight, Glory to God in the highest. I pray to God we may all die singing that anthem, and sing it to all eternity. After his temptations, they came and ministered to him, as some think, food for his body, and wished him joy and comfort in his soul; and in his agonies in the garden, an angel strengthened him. After his resurrection two appeared again, one at the head and another at the foot of his sepulcher, to let those that looked into the sepulcher know, that they would not only wait upon the head but the foot; and the angels are glad to wait upon the meanest of the children of God. When our Lord departed, a cloud received him out of their sight, which probably was a cloud of angels: having led his disciples out of the city, he blessed them, and then away he went to heaven: may that blessing rest upon you and your children! This intimates that God makes use of angels to attend his people, especially when they are departing into eternity: perhaps, part of our entertainment in heaven will be, to hear the angels declare how many millions of times they have assisted and helped us. Our Lord says, angels do there behold the face of the Father of his little ones; and therefore I love to talk to the lambs of the flock, and why should I not talk to them whom angels think it their honor to guard; and if it was not for this, how would any children escape the dangers they are exposed to in their tender age? It is owing to the particular providence of God, that any one child is brought to manhood; therefore I can't help admiring that part of the Litany, in which we pray, that God would take care not only of the grown people, but of children also: God take care of yours both in body and soul.

But what gave the greatest comfort to Jacob was, that the Lord was on the top of the ladder, which I do not know whether it would have been so, if Jacob had not seen God there. It comforts me, I assure you, to think, that whenever God shall call for me, I shall be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom; and I have often thought that whenever that time comes, that blessed, long longed-for moment comes, as soon as ever they have called upon me, my first question will be to them, where is my dear master? Where is Jesus? Where is that dear Emanuel, who has loved me with an everlasting love, and has called me by his grace, and have sent you to fetch me home to see his face? But I believe you and I shall have no occasion to ask where he is, for he will come to meet us, he will stand at the top of his ladder to take his pilgrims in; so God was at the top of the ladder, pray mind that. He appears not sitting, as he is often represented in heaven, but standing; as much as to say, here, here, Jacob, your brother wants to kill you; here you are come out without a servant, are lying upon a hard bed, but here I am ready in order to preserve you; I stand above, and I see your weariness, I see the fatigue and hardships you have yet to undergo, though you do not see it yourself; you have thrown yourself upon my providence and protection, and I will give you the word of a God that I will stand by you; the Lord stood above: if he had said nothing, that would have been enough to have shown his readiness to help.

But God speaks, behold: well might this be ushered in with the word behold; a ladder set on the earth, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it; and, above all, behold God speaking from it! What does he say? I am the Lord God of Abraham your father. Oh! happy they that can say, the Lord God of my father; happy you that have got fathers and mothers in heaven. I remember, about twenty-five years ago as I was travelling from Bristol, I met with a man on the road, and being desirous to know whether he was serious or not, I began to put in a word for Christ, (and God forbid I should travel with anyone a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to them) he told me what a wicked creature he had been; but, sir, says he, in the midst of my wickedness people used to tell me, you have got a good many prayers upon the file for you, your godly father and mother have prayed very often for you; and it was the pleasure of God he was wrought upon, and brought to Christ. Lay in a good stock for your children, get a good many prayers in for them, they may be answered when you are dead and gone. I am the God of Abraham your father, not your grandfather; to put him in mind what an honor God would put upon him, to make him as it were the father of the church. Though you have many instructors, says Paul, you have but one Father: and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed. Amazing! amazing! you know very well when persons buy or come to an estate, they usually take possession of it by some ceremony, such as receiving or taking up a piece of dirt, or twig, in their hand, as a sign of their title. Now, says God, poor Jacob, you do little think that this very spot of ground that you lie on tonight, cold and stiff, I intend to give to you, and your posterity, for an inheritance. O my brothers, live all to God, and God will give all to you: who would have thought of this, probably Jacob did not: it is as if God took a pleasure in seeing his dear children lie on such hard ground; if he had been on a feather-bed, he might not have had such a visit: you shall have now a God to lean upon, to you will I give it, and to your seed, which shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in you, and in your seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Thus did heaven balance the loss of the comforts of his father's house, by the discovery of his and his offspring's prosperity, by an interest in the promised seed.

My particular circumstances call me to observe, and I believe God has done it on purpose, to encourage me, that faith, resting on the promise, is easily resigned to the loss of present good, whereas worldly hearts consider prosperity as a portion, they don't care if the devil takes them hereafter, so they have it now; and that makes carnal people wonder how we can give up things in this world, for the sake of those not yet born; but it is to glorify God, and lay a foundation for others' happiness. Here God gives Jacob to know, that hereafter his seed should spread on the east, west, north, and south, his branches should multiply, and at last from his loins should Jesus Christ come; what for? In whom all the families of the earth should be blessed: God Almighty grant we may be blessed in him.

Then if Jacob should say in his heart, do you have no promise for me? Here is another behold comes in; Behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go. What a word is this! You have nobody with you, nothing but a staff, (he could not carry much upon his back, like a poor soldier with a knapsack behind, and a little bread in his pocket) well, says God, I do not despise you because you are destitute, but I love you the better for it; your brother Esau longs to kill you, but if Esau stabs you he shall stab your God first; I will not only be with you now, but I will watch every step you take, I will be with you in all places where you go: as much as to say, Jacob, you are a pilgrim, your life is to be a moving life, I don't intend you shall settle and keep in one place; your life is to be a life of changes, you are to move from place to place, but I will be with you in all places where you go, and thereby it shall be known that I am Jacob's God, and also by my bringing you again into this land. He not only assures him of a successful journey, where he was now going, but promises to bring him back once more to see his dear father and mother, and relations again; I will bring you back to this land; and to confirm his faith and hope, the great God adds, I will not leave you till I have done that I have spoken to you of; that is, all the good he had just now promised. Some people promise, but they cannot do it today, and they will not do it tomorrow. I have known the world, and have rung the changes of it ever since I have been here; but, blessed be God, an unchangeable Christ having loved his own, he loved them to the end; I will not leave you till I have performed all things I have promised you: may this promise come upon you and your children, and all that God shall call.

Thus spoke the great Jehovah to poor Jacob, just setting out to a strange land, knowing not where he went; but now God speaks not only to Jacob, but he speaks to you; and, blessed be the living God, he speaks to me also, less than the least of all; and as my design is (though I cannot tell but this may be the last opportunity) to speak something to you about my departure; yet, brethren, my grand design in preaching to you is, to recommend the Lord Jesus Christ to your souls; and, before I go, to make a particular, personal application. Give me leave, therefore, to ask you, it may be the last time I may ask many of you, whether you have ever set your foot upon this blessed ladder, the son of God? I ask you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, did you ever set your foot, I say, upon this ladder? That is, did you ever yet believe on Jesus Christ, and come to him as poor lost sinners, relying upon no other righteousness than that of the Son of God? Perhaps, if you were to speak, some of you would say, away with your ladder; and what will you do then? Why, say you, I will climb to heaven without it; what ladder will you climb upon? O, think to go to heaven because I have been baptized, that ladder will break under you; what, a ladder made of water, what are you dreaming of? No; O, I think I shall go to heaven because I have done nobody any harm; what, a ladder made of negative goodness, no; I think to go, you'll say, by good works; a ladder made of good works, that has not Christ for its bottom, what is that? I think, say you, to go to heaven by my prayers and fastings; all these are good in their place: but, my brethren, don't think to climb to heaven by these ropes of sand. If you never before set your foot on Christ, this blessed ladder, God grant this may be the happy time.

I have been praying before most of you were up I believe, that God would give me a parting blessing. I remember, soon after I left England last, that a dear Christian friend told me, that there was one woman, who came only out of curiosity, that dated her conversion from hearing my last sermon; and, I bless God, I never once left England, but some poor soul has dated their conversion from my last sermon. When I put on my surplice, to come out to read the second service, I thought it was just like a person's being decently dressed to go out to be executed; I would rather, was it the will of God, it should be so, than to feel what I do in parting from you, then death would put an end to all; but I am to be executed again and again, and nothing will support me under the torture, but the consideration of God's blessing me to some poor souls. Do pray for me, you children of God, that God would give us a parting blessing. God help you, young people, to put your foot on this ladder; don't climb wrong: the devil has got a ladder, but it reaches down to hell; all the devil's children go down, not up; the bottom of the devil's ladder reaches to the depths of the damned, the top of it reaches to the earth: and when death comes, then up comes the devil's ladder to let you down; for God's sake come away from the devil's ladder; climb, climb, dear young men. O it delighted me on Friday night at the Tabernacle, when we had a melting parting sacrament; and it delighted me this morning to see so many young men at the table; God add to the blessed number! Young women, put your feet upon this ladder; God lets one ladder down from heaven, and the devil brings another up from hell. O, say you, I would climb up God's ladder, I think it is right, but I shall be laughed at; do you think to go to heaven without being laughed at? The Lord Jesus Christ help you to climb to heaven; come, climb till you get out of the hearing of their laughter. O trust not to your own righteousness, your vows, and good resolutions.

Some of you, blessed be God, have climbed up this ladder, at least are climbing; well, I wish you joy, God be praised for setting your feet on this ladder, God be praised for letting down this ladder: I have only one word to say to you, for Jesus Christ's sake, and your own too, climb a little faster; take care the world does not get hold of your heels. It is a shame the children of God don't climb faster; you may talk what you please, but God's people's lukewarmness is more provoking to him than all the sins of the nation. We cry out against the sins of the land, would to God we did cry out more of the sins of the saints; I will spew you out of my mouth, because you are lukewarm, says Christ; and if any of you say you cannot climb because you are lame-footed, look to Jesus Christ, my dear friends, and your afflictions shall make you climb; and if any of you are coming down the ladder again, the Lord Jesus Christ bless the foolishness of preaching to help you up again. O, say you, I am giddy, I shall fall; here, I will give you a rope, so God lets down a promise: climb, climb then, till you have got higher into a better climate, and God shall put his hand out by and by when you get to the top of the ladder to receive you to himself. Blessed be the living God, I hope and believe I shall meet many of you by and by.

And now, my brethren, it is time for me to preach my own funeral sermon; and I would humbly hope that, as a poor sinner, I may put in my claim for what God promised Jacob; and I do put in, with full assurance of faith that God will be with me. I am now going, for the thirteenth time, to cross the Atlantic: when I came from America last, I took my leave of all the continent; from the one end of the provinces to the other, except some places which we had not then taken; I took my leave for life, without the least design of returning there again, my health was so bad; and the prospect of getting the orphan-house into other hands made me say when I first came over, I have no other river to go over than the river Jordan. I thought then of retiring, for I did not choose to appear when my nerves were so relaxed that I could not serve God as I could wish to do; but as it has pleased God to restore my health much, and has so ordered it by his providence, that I intend to give up the orphan-house, and all the land adjoining, for a public college. I wished to have had a public sanction, but his grace the late archbishop of Canterbury put a stop to it; they would give me a charter, which was all I desired, but they insisted upon, at least his grace and another did, that I should confine it totally to the church of England, and that no extempore prayer should be used in a public way in that house, though Dissenters, and all sorts of people, had contributed to it: I would sooner cut my head off than betray my trust, by confining it to a narrow bottom; I always meant it should be kept upon a broad bottom, for people of all denominations, that their children might be brought up in the fear of God; by this means the orphan-house reverted into my hands; I have once more, as my health was restored, determined to pursue the plan I had fixed on; and through the tender mercies of God, Georgia, (which about thirty-two years ago was a total desolate place; and when the land, as it was given me by the House of Commons, would have been totally deserted, and the colony have quite ceased, had it not been for the money I have laid out for the orphan-house, to keep the poor people together) that colony is arising to an amazing height, by the schemes now going on, public buildings are erecting. I had news last week of the great prosperity of the negroes; and I hope by the twenty-fifth of March, which is the day, the anniversary day, I laid the first brick, in the year 1739; I say, I hope by that time all things will be finished, and a blessed provision will be made for orphans and poor students that will be brought up there; it will be a blessed source of provision for the children of God in another part of the world. This is the grand design I am going upon; this is my visible cause; but I never yet went to them, but God has been pleased to bless my ministration among them; and therefore after I have finished the orphan-house affair, I intend to go all along the continent by land, (which will keep me all the winter and spring) and when I come to the end of it, which will be Canada and New-England, then I hope to return again to this place; for let people say what they will, I have not so much as a single thought of settling abroad on this side eternity; and I am going in no public capacity, I shall set out like a poor pilgrim, at my own expense, trusting upon God to take care of me, and to bear my charges; and I call God to witness, and I must be a cursed devil and hypocrite, to stand here in the pulpit and provoke God to strike me dead for lying, I never had the love of the world, nor never felt it one quarter of an hour in my heart, since I was twenty years old. I might have been rich: but though the Chapel is built, and I have a comfortable room to lie in, I assure you I built it at my own expense, it cost nobody but myself any thing. I have a watchcoat made me, and in that I shall lie every night on the ground, and may Jacob's God bless me. I will not say much of myself, but when I have been preaching, I have read and thought of those words with pleasure, Surely this is the house of God. And I will bring you again to this land. Whether that will be my experience or not, blessed be God, I have a better land in view; and, my dear brethren, I do not look upon myself at home till I land in my Father's kingdom; and if I am to die in the way, if I am to die in the ship, it comforts me that I know I am as clear as the sun, that I go by the will of God; and though people may say, will you leave the world? Will you leave the Chapel? O, I am astonished that we cannot leave every thing for Christ; my greatest trial is, to part with those who are as dear to me as my own soul; and however others may forget me, as thousands have, and do forget me, yet I cannot forget them: and now may Jacob's God be with you; O keep close to God, my dear London friends; I do not bid you keep close to Chapel, you have done so always: I shall endeavor to keep up the word of God among you in my absence; I shall have the same persons that managed for me when I was out last, and they sent me word again and again, by letter, that it was remarkable, that the Tottenham-court people were always present when ordinances were there.

You see I went upon a fair bottom; I might have had a thousand a year out of this place if I had chosen it; when I am gone to heaven you will see what I have got on earth; I do not like to speak now, because it may be thought boasting; but I am sure there are numbers of people here, if they knew what I have, would love me as much as they now hate me. When we come before the great Judge of quick and dead, while I stand before him, God grant you may not part with me then, it will be a dreadful parting then, it will be worse then to go into the fire, to be among the devil and his angels; God forbid it! God forbid it! God forbid it! O remember that my last words were, come, come to Christ; the Lord help you to come to Christ; come to Christ, come to Jacob's God; God give you faith like Jacob's faith.

You that have been kind to me, that have helped me when I was sick, some of whom are here that have been very kind to me; may God reward you, my friends, and God forgive my enemies; God, of his infinite mercy, bless you all; you will be amply provided for, I believe, here: may God spread the gospel everywhere; and may God never leave you, nor forsake you. Even so, Lord Jesus. Amen and Amen.