A choice drop of honey from the rock, Christ, or, A short word of advice to all saints and sinners

by Thomas Wilcox

CRAWFORD’S TRACTS.

No. 7.

---

---

A CHOICE

DROP OF HONEY,

FROM THE

ROCK, CHRIST.

OR,

A SHORT WORD OF ADVICE

TO

ALL SAINTS AND SINNERS.

---

BY THOMAS WILCOCKS.

---

KILMARNOCK;

Printed by H. Crawford, Bookseller,

1831.

CHOICE DROP OF HONEY,

 

FROM THE

 

Rock, Christ.

 

---

 

A WORD of Advice to my own heart and thine. Thou art a professor, and partakest of all ordinances, thou dost well, they are glorious privileges. But if thou hast not the blood of Christ at the root of thy profession, it will wither and prove but painted pageantry to go to hell in.

If thou retain guilt, self-righteousness under it, those vipers will eat out all the vitals of it at length. Try and examine with the greatest strictness every day, what bottom thy profession and hope of thy glory is built upon, whether it was laid by the hand of Christ; if not, it will never be able to endure the storm that must come against it, Satan will throw it all down, and great will be the fall thereof, Matth. vii. 27.

Glorious professor, thou shalt be winnowed; every vein of thy profession will be tried to purpose. It is terrible to have it all come tumbling down, and to find nothing but it to bottom upon.

Soaring professor, see to thy waxen wings betimes, which will melt with the heat of temptations. What a misery is it to trade much, and break at length, and have no stock, no foundation laid for eternity in thy soul!

Gifted professor, look there be not a worm at the root that will spoil all thy fine ground, and make it die about thee, in a day of scorching. Look over thy soul daily and ask where is the blood of Christ to be seen upon my soul? What righteousness is that I stand upon to be saved? Have I got off all my self-righteousness? Many eminent professors have come at length to cry out, in the sight of the ruin of all their duties, Undone, undone to all eternity!

Consider, the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties, and the greatest errors. See the wound that sin hath made thy soul be perfectly cured by the blood of Christ; not skinned over with duties humblings, enlargements, &c. Apply what thou wilt besides the blood of Christ, it will ⟨poison⟩ the sore. Thou wilt find that sin was never mortified truly; that thou hast not seen Christ bleeding for thee upon the cross; nothing can kill it, but the ⟨beholding⟩ of Christ’s righteousness.

Nature can afford no balsam fit for soul-⟨cure⟩. Healing from duty, and not from Christ, is the most desperate disease. Poor ragged nature with all its highest improvements, cannot spin a garment fine enough (without spot) to cover the soul’s nakedness. Nothing can fit the soul for that use; but Christ’s perfect righteousness.

Whatsoever is of nature’s spinning, must be all unravelled, before the righteousness of Christ can be put on; whatsoever is of nature’s putting on, Satan will come and plunder it every rag away, and leave the soul naked and open to the wrath of God. All that nature can do, will never make up the least dram of grace that can mortify sin, or look Christ in the face one day.

Thou art a professor, goest on hearing praying and receiving, yet miserable mayes thou be. Look about thee; didst thou eve yet see Christ to this day, in distinction from all other excellencies and righteousness in the world, and all these falling before the majesty of his love and grace, Isa: ii. 17.

If thou hast seen Christ truly, thou has seen pure grace, pure righteousness in him every way infinite, far exceeding all sin an misery? It thou hast seen Christ, tho canst trample upon all righteousness of me and angels, so as to bring thee into acceptation with God. If thou hast seen ⟨Christ⟩ thou wouldst not do a duty without ⟨him⟩ for ten thousand worlds, 1 Cor. ii. 2.

ever thou sawest Christ, thou sawest him a rock, higher than self-righteousness, Satan and sin, Psalm lxi. 2. and this rock doth follow thee, 1 Cor. x. 4. and there will be continual dropping of honey and grace out of this rock to satisfy thee, Psalm lxxxi. 16. Examine if ever thou hast beheld Christ as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, John i. 14, 16, 17. Be sure thou art come to Christ, that thou standest upon the rock of ages, hast answered to his call to thy soul, and hast closed with him for your justification and salvation.

Men talk bravely of believing, whilst whole and sound, few know any thing of it. Christ is the mystery of the scriptures: Grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world! Put any thing of thine own to it, and thou spoilest it: Christ will not so much as look as it for believing. When thou believest and comest to Christ, thou must leave behind thee thy own righteousness, and bring nothing but thy sin, (O that is hard!) leave behind thy holiness, sanctification, duties, humblings, &c. and bring nothing but thy wants and miseries, else Christ’s is not fit for thee, nor thou for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer and Mediator, and thou must be an undone sinner, or Christ and thou wilt never agree. It is the hardest thing in the world to take Christ alone for righteousness; that is to acknowledge him Christ. Join any thing to him of thy own, and thou un-Christ him.

Whatever comes in when thou goest to God for acceptation, besides Christ, call it Antichrist, bid it begone; make Christ’s righteousness only triumphant: all, besides that is Babylon, which must fall, if Christ stand; and thou shalt rejoice in the day of the fall thereof, Isa. i. 10, 11, 12. Christ alone did tread the wine-press, and there was none with him, Isa. Ixiii. 3. If thou join any thing to Christ, Christ will trample upon it in fury and anger, and stain his raiment with the blood thereof. Thou thinkest it easy to believe; Was ever thy faith tried with an hour of temptation, and thorough sight of sin? Was it ever put to grapple with Satan, and the wrath of God lying upon the conscience? When thou wast in the mouth of hell and the grave, then did God shew thee Christ, a ransom, a righteousness, &c. Then couldst thou say, Oh! I see enough of grace in Christ. Thou mayest say that which is the greatest word in the world, Thou believest. Untried faith is uncertain faith.

To believing, there must go a clear conviction of sin, and the meits of the blood of Christ, and of Christ’s willingness to save upon this consideration merely. That thou art a sinner; things all harder than to make a world. All the power in nature cannot get up so high in a storm of sin and guilt, really to believe, there is any grace, any willingness in Christ to save. When Satan charged sin upon the conscience, then for the soul to charge it upon Christ, that is gospel-like. That is to make him Christ, he serves for that use. To accept Christ’s righteousness alone, his blood alone for salvation, that is the sum of the gospel. When the soul, in all duties and distresses, can say, Nothing but Christ, Christ alone, for righteousness, justification, and redemption, 1 Cor. i. 30, not humblings, not duties, not graces, &c. that soul hath got above the reach of the billows, even to the haven of rest.

All temptations, Satan’s advantages our complainings, are laid in self-righteousness, and self-excellency: God pursueth these, by setting Satan upon thee, as Laban did Jacob for his images: these must be torn from thee, be as unwilling as thou wilt; these hinder Christ from coming in, and till Christ come in, guilt will not go out; and where guilt is, there is hardness of heart: and therefore much guilt argues little, if any thing, of Christ.

When guilt is raised up, take heed of getting it allayed any way but by Christ’s blood, that will tend to hardening, make Christ thy peace, Eph. ii. 14, not thy duties, thy tears, &c. Christ thy righteousness, not thy graces &c. Thou mayest destroy Christ by duties, as well as by sins. Look at Christ, and do as much as thou wilt. Stand with all thy weight upon Christ’s righteousness; take heed of having one foot on thy own righteousness; and another on Christ’s. Till Christ come and sit on high upon a throne of grace in the conscience, there is nothing but guilt, terrors, secret suspicions, the soul hanging between hope and fear, which is an ungospel like state.

He that fears to see sin’s utmost vileness, the utmost hell of his own heart, he suspects the merits of Christ. Be thou never such a great sinner, 1 John ii. 3, try Christ, to make him the advocate, and thou shalt find him Jesus Christ the righteous. In all doubtings, fears, storms of conscience, look at Christ continually, do not argue it with Satan, he desires no better; bid him go to Christ, and he will answer him. It is his office to be our advocate, 1 John ii.1, his office to answer law as our surety, Heb. vii. 22, his office to answer justice as our Mediator, Gal. iii. 29. 1. Tim. ii. 5, and he is sworn to that office, Heb vii 20, 21. Put Christ upon it. If thou wilt do any thing thyself, as to satisfaction for sin, thou renounceth Christ the righteous, who was made sin for thee, 2 Cor. v. 22.

Satan may alledge, and corrupt Scripture, but he cannot answer Scripture. It is Christ’s word of mighty authority.— Christ foiled Satan with it, Matth. iv. 10. In all the Scripture there is not an ill word against a poor sinner, stripped of self-righteousness: Nay, it plainly points out this man to be the subject of the grace of the gospel, and none else. Believe but Christ’s willingness, and that will make thee willing. If thou findest thou canst not believe, remember it is Christ’s work to make thee believe; put him upon it, he works to will and to do of his good pleasure, Phil. ii. 13. Mourn for thy unbelief, which is a setting up of guilt in the conscience above Christ, an undervaluing the merits of Christ, accounting his blood an unholy, a common, and an unsatisfying thing.

Thou complainest much of thyself. Doth thy sin make thee look more at Christ, and less at thyself? That is right, otherwise complaining is but thy hypocrisy. To be looking at graces, duties, enlargements, when thou shouldest be looking at Christ, that is pitiful. Looking at them will but make thee proud, and looking at Christ’s grace will but make thee humble. By grace you are saved, Eph. ii. 5. In all thy temptations, be not discouraged, James i.

2. Those scourges may be, not to break thee, but to heave thee off thyself, on the rock Christ.

Thou mayest be brought low, even to the brink of hell, ready to tumble in; thou canst not be brought lower than the belly of hell; many saints have been there, even dowsed in hell; Yet, there thou mayest cry, there thou mayest look towards his holy temple, Jonah ii. 4. Into that temple none might enter but purified ones, and with an offering too, Acts xvi. 26. But now Christ is our temple, sacrifice, altar, and high priest, to whom none must come but sinners, and that without any offering, but his own blood once offered, Heb.vii. 27.

Remember all the patterns of grace that are in heaven. Thou thinkest, Oh! what a monument of grace wouldst thou be! There are many thousands as rich monuments as thou canst be. The greatest sinner did never pass the grace of Christ. Do not despair: Hope still; when the clouds are blackest, even then look toward Christ, the standing pillar of the Father’s love and grace set up in heaven for all sinners to gaze upon continually. Whatsoever Satan or conscience say, do not conclude against thyself, Christ shall have the last word. He is Judge of quick and dead, and shall pronounce the final sentence. His blood speaks reconciliation, Colos. i. 20. Cleansing, 1 John i. 17. Purchase, Acts xx. 28. Redemption, 1 Peter i. 19. Purging, Heb. ix. 13, 15. Remission, verse 22. Liberty, Heb. X. 19. Justification, Rom. v. 9, Nighness to God, Eph. ii. 13. Not a drop of this blood shall be lost. Stand and hearken to what God will say; for he will speak peace to his people, that they return no more to folly, Psalm lxxxv. 8. He speaks grace, mercy, and peace, 2 Tim. i.

2. That is the language of the Father and of Christ. Wait for Christ’s appearing as the morning star, Rev. xxii. 19. He shall come as certainly as the morning, as refreshingly as the rain, Hos. vi. 3.

The sun may as well be hindered from rising, as Christ the Sun of righteousness, Mal. iv. 2. Look not a moment off Christ, Look not upon sin, but look upon Christ first: when thou mournest for sin, if thou dost not see Christ first, then away with ⟨it⟩, Zech. ii. 16. In every duty look at Christ, before duty to pardon, in duty to assist, and after duty to accept. Without this, it is the carnal, careless duty. Do not legalize the gospel, as if part did remain for thee to do and suffer, and Christ were but an half Mediator, and thou must bear part of thy own sin, make part satisfaction, Let sin break thy heart, but not thy hope in the gospel,

Look more at justification than sanctification. In the highest commands, consider Christ, not as an exactor, to require, but a debtor, and an undertaker, to work. If thou hast looked at workings, duties, qualifications, &c. more than at the merits of Christ, it will cost thee dear: No wonder thou goest complaining. Graces may be evidences, the merits of Christ alone, without them, must be the foundation of thy hope to bottom on. Christ only can be the hope of glory, Col. i. 27.

When we come to God, we must bring nothing but Christ with us. Any ingredients, or any previous qualifications of our own, will poison and corrupt faith. He that builds upon duties, graces, &c. knows not the merits of Christ. This makes believing so hard, so far above nature; if thou believest, thou must every day renounce, as dung and dross, Phil. in. 7,8, thy privileges, thy obedience, thy baptism, thy sanctification, thy duties, thy graces, thy tears, thy meltings, and thy humblings, and nothing but Christ must be held up; every day thy workings and thy self-sufficiency must be destroyed. Thou must take all out of God’s hand. Christ is the gift of God, John iv. 10. Faith is the gift of God, Eph. ii. 8. Pardon is a free gift, Rom. v. 16. Ah, how nature storms, frets, and rageth at this, that all is of gift, and it can purchase nothing with its actings, and duties; that all workings are excluded, and of no value in heaven; that all must be of sovereign grace and unmerited free love and favour!

If nature had been to contrive the way of salvation, it would rather have put it in the hands of saints or angels, to sell it, than of Christ (who gives freely) whom therefore it suspects; it would have a way set up to purchase by doing: Therefore it abominates the merits of Christ, as the most destructive thing to it. Nature would do any thing to be saved, rather than go to Christ, or close with him: Christ will have nothing; the soul will force somewhat of his own upon Christ. Here in that great controversy consider, didst thou ever yet see the merit’s of Christ, and the infinite satisfaction made by his death? Didst thou see this when the burthen of sin, are the wrath of God lay heavy on thy conscience? That is grace. The greatness of Christ’s merits is not known but to a poor soul as the ⟨greatest⟩ loss. Slight convictions will have ⟨slighty⟩ low prizings of Christ’s blood and merits.

Despairing sinner! thou lookest on thy right hand and on thy left, saying, Who will shew us any good? Thou art tumbling over all thy duties and professions to patch up a righteousness to save thee. Look at Christ now; Look to him and be saved all the ends of the earth, Isa. xlv. 22. There is none else. He is a Saviour, and there is none besides him. Look any where else, and thou art undone. God will look at nothing but Christ, and thou must look at nothing else. Christ is lifted up on high, (as the brazen serpent in the wilderness) that sinners at the ends of the earth, the greatest distance, may see him, and look towards him. The least sight of him will be saving, and the least touch healing to thee; and God intends, thon shouldst look on him, for he hath set him upon a high throne of glory, in the open view of all poor sinners. Thou hast infinite reason to look on him, but no reason at all to look off him; for he is meek and lowly of heart, Matth. xi. 29. He will do that himself which he requires of his creatures, viz. bear with infirmities, Rom. xv. 1. not pleasing himself, not standing upon points of law. He will restore with the spirit of meekness, and bear the burthens, Gal. vi. 1, 2. He will forgive, not only till seven times, but seventy times seven, Matth. xviii. 21, 22. It put the faith of the apostles to it to believe this, Luke xvii. 4,5. Because we are hard to forgive, we think Christ is hard.

We see sin great, we think Christ doth so; and measure infinite love with our line, infinite merits with our sins, which is the greatest pride and blasphemy, Psal. ciii. 11, 12. Isa. xl. 15. Hear what he saith, I have found a ransom, Job. xxxiii. 24. In him I am well pleased, Matth. iii. 17. God will have nothing else; nothing else will do thee good, or satisfy conscience, but Christ, who satisfied the Father. God doth all upon the account of Christ. Thy deserts are hell, wrath, and rejection. Christ’s deserts are life, pardon, and acceptation. He will not only shew the one, but he will give thee the other. It is Christ’s own glory and happiness to pardon. Consider whilst Christ was on the earth, he was more among publicans and sinners, than among Scribes and Pharisees, his professed adversaries, for they were righteous ones. It is not as thou imaginest, that his state in glory makes him neglectful of, or scornful to poor sinners; no, he hath the same heart now in heaven, he is God, and changeth not: He is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, John i. 29. He went through all thy temptations, dejections, sorrows, desertions, and rejections, Mat.iv. 3,—26. Mark xv. 24. Luke xxii. 44. Matth. xxxvi. 38; and hath drunk the bitterest of the cup, and left thee the sweet; the condemnation is out, Christ drank up all the Father’s wrath at one draught; and nothing but salvation is left to thee. Thou sayest thou canst not believe, thou canst not repent: the fitter for Christ, if thou hast nothing but sin and misery. Go to Christ with all thy impenitency and unbelief, to get faith and repentance from him; that is glorious! Tell Christ, Lord, I have brought no righteousness, no grace to be accepted in, or justified by: I am come for thine, and must have it. We would be bringing to Christ, and that must not be; not a penny of nature’s highest improvements will pass in heaven. Grace will not stand with works, Tit. in. 5. Rom. xi. 6. That is a terrible point to nature! which cannot think of being stript of all, not having a rag of duty or righteousness left to look at. Self righteousness and self-sufficiency are the darlings of nature, which she preserves as her life; that makes Christ seem ugly to nature, nature cannot desire him; he is just directly opposite to all nature’s glorious interests. Let nature but make a gospel, and it would make it quite contrary to Christ. It would be to the just, the innocent, the holy, &c. Christ made the gospel for thee, that is, for needy sinners, the ungodly, the unrighteous, and the accursed. Nature cannot endure to think the gospel is only for sinners; it will rather chuse to despair than to go to Christ, upon such terrible terms. When nature is but put to it by guilt or wrath, it will go to its old haunts of self-righteousness, self-goodness, &c. An infinite power must cast down these strong holds.

None but the self justified stands excluded from the gospel; Christ will look at the most abominable sinner before him, because to such an one Christ cannot be made justification; he is no sinner. To say in compliment, I am a sinner, is easy; but to pray with the publican, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner, is indeed the hardest prayer in the world. It is easy to say, I believe in Christ; but to see Christ full of grace and truth, out of whose fulness thou mayest receive grace for grace; that is, saying, It is easy to profess Christ with the mouth; but to confess him with the heart, as Peter, (to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, the alone Mediator,) that is above flesh and blood. Many call Christ a Saviour; few know him so. To see grace and salvation in Christ, is the greatest sight in the world; none can do that, but at the same time they shall see that glory and salvation to be theirs.

Sights will cause applications. I may be ashamed to think, in the midst of so much profession, that I have known little of the blood of Christ, which is the main thing of the gospel. A Christless, formal profession will be the blackest sight, next to hell, that can be. Thou mayest have many good things, and yet one thing may be a-wanting, that may make thee go away sorrowful from Christ. Thou hast never sold all thou hast, never parted with all thine own righteousness, &c. Thou mayest be high in duty, and yet a perfect enemy and adversary to Christ, in every prayer, and in every ordinance. Labour after sanctification to thy utmost; but make not a Christ of it to save thee; if so, it must come down one way or other. Christ’s infinite satisfaction, not thy sanctification, must be thy justification before God. When the Lord shall appear terrible out of his holy place, fire shall consume that as hay and stubble.

This will be sound religion, only to bottom all upon the everlasting mountains of God’s love and grace in Christ, to live continually in the sight of Christ’s infinite righteousness aud merits, (they are sanctifying, and without them the heart is carnal) and in those sights to see the full vileness, yet littleness of sin, and to see all pardoned; in those sights to pray, hear, &c. seeing thy polluted self, and all thy weak performances accepted continually; in those sights to trample upon all thy self glories, righteousness and privileges, as abominable, and be found continually in the righteousness of Christ only rejoicing in the ruins of thy own righteousness, the spoiling of all thy own excellencies, that Christ alone, as Mediator, may be exalted in his throne, mourning over all thy duties (how glorious soever) that thou hast not performed in the sight and sense of Christ’s love. Without the blood of Christ on the conscience, all is but a dead service, Heb. xi.14.

That opinion of free-will, so cried up, will be easily confuted (as it is in the Scripture) in the heart, by those who have had any spiritual dealing with Jesus Christ, as to the application of his merits, and subjection to his righteousness. Christ is every way too magnificent a person for a poor nature to close withal, or to apprehend. Christ is so infinitely holy, nature durst never believe him to be snch, when it lies under full sight of sin. Christ is too high and glorious for nature so much as to touch. There must be a divine nature first put into the soul, to make it lay hold on him, he lies so infinitely beyond the sight or reach of corrupt nature.

That Christ which natural free-will can apprehend, is but a natural Christ of man’s own making, not the Father’s Christ, nor Jesus the son of the living God, to whom nonc can come without the Father’s drawing, John vi. 44, 46.

Finally, Search the Scriptures daily, as mines of gold, wherein the heart of Christ is laid. Watch against constitutional sins; see them in their vileness, and they shall never break out into act. Keep always an humble, empty, and broken frame of heart, sensible of any spiritual miscarriage observant of all inwards workings, and fit for the highest communications. Keep not guilt in the conscience, but apply the blood of Christ immediately. God chargeth sin and guilt upon thee, to make thee look to Christ the brazen serpent.

Judge not Christ’s love by providences, but by promises. Bless God for shaking off false foundations, and for any way whereby he keeps the soul awakened and looking after Christ; better sickness and temptations, than security and slightness.

A slighty spirit will turn a profane spirit, and will sin and pray too. Slightness is the bane of profession, if it be not rooted out of the heart, by constant and serious dealings with, and beholdings of Christ in duties; it will grow more strong and more deadly, by being under church-ordinances.

Measure not thy grace by other attainments, but by Scripture-trials. Be serious and exact in duty, having the weight of it upon the heart; but be as much afraid of taking comfort from duties, as from sins. Comfort from any hand but Christ, is very deadly. Be much in prayer, or you will never keep up much communion with God. As you are in closet prayer so you will be in all other ordinances.

Reckon not duties by high expressions, but by low frames, and the beholdings of Christ. Tremble at duties and gifts. It was the saying of a great saint, that he was more afraid of his duties than his sins; the one often made him proud, the other always made him humble. Treasure up manifestations of Christ’s love; they make the heart low for Christ, too high for sin. Slight not the lowest, meanest evidences of grace: God may put thee to make use of the lowest as thou thinks, even that, I John iii. 14. that may be worth more than a thousand worlds to thee.

Be true to truth, but not turbulent and scornful; restore such as are fallen, help them up again with all the bowels of Christ. Set the broken disjointed bones with the grace of the gospel. High professor, despise not weak saints; thou mayest come to wish to be in the condition of the meanest of them. Overlook the infirmities of others, but be sensible of thy own. Visit sick beds and deserted souls much, they are excellent scholars in experience.

Abide in your calling, be dutiful to all relations as to the Lord. Be content with little of the world, little will serve. Think every little of the earth much, because unworthy the least. Think much of heaven not too little, because Christ is so rich and free. Think every thing better than thyself, and carry every self-loathing about thee, as one fit to be trampled upon by all saints. See the vanity of the world, and the consumption that is upon all things, and love nothing but Christ. Mourn to see so little of Christ in the world, so few needing him. Trifles please them better. To a secure soul Christ is but a fable, the Scriptures but a story. Mourn to think how many under baptism and church order, that are not under grace; looking much after duty and obedience, but little after Christ, little versed in grace. Prepare for the cross, welcome it, bear it triumphantly like Christ’s cross, whether scoffs, mockings, jeers, contempt and imprisonments, &c. but see that it be Christ’s cross.

Sin will hinder from glory in the cross of Christ; omitting little truths against light, may breed hell in the conscience; as well as committing the greatest sins against light. If thou hast been taken out of the belly of hell into Christ’s bosom, and made to sit among princes in the household of God. Oh, how shouldst thou live as a pattern of mercy, redeemed, restored soul! What infinite sums dost thou owe Christ! With what singular frames must thou walk, and do every duty! On Sabbaths, what praising days, singing of Hallelujahs, should they be to thee! Church fellowship, what a heaven, a being with Christ, and angels and saints communion! What a drowning the soul in eternal love, as a burial with Christ, dying to all things besides him. Every time thou thinkest of Christ, be astonished and wonder; and when thou seest sin, look at Christ’s grace, that did pardon it; and when thou art proud, look at Christ’s grace, that shall humble and strike thee down in the dust. If you would pray and cannot, and so are discouraged, see Christ praying for you, using his interest with the Father for you.

What can you want? (John xiv. 17. and chap. xvii.) If you be troubled, see Christ your peace, (Ephes. ii. 14.) leaving you peace when he went up to heaven, again and again charging you not to ⟨be⟩ troubled, no not in the least (sinfully troubled,) so as to obstruct thy ⟨comfort⟩ or thy believing, John xiv. 1, 27. He ⟨is⟩ now upon the throne, having spoiled upon his cross (in the lowest state of his humiliation) all whatsoever can hurt or annoy thee. He hath born all thy sins, sorrows troubles, temptations, &c. and is gone to prepare mansions for thee.

Thou who hast seen Christ all, and thy self absolutely nothing, who makest Christ all thy life, and art dead in all righteousness besides, thou art the Christian, one highly beloved, and who hath found favour with God, a favourite of heaven. Do Christ this one favour for all his love to thee, love all his poor saints and churches (the meanest, the weakest, notwithstanding any difference in judgement) they are engraven on his heart, as the names of the children of Israel on Aaron’s breast-plate, (Exod. xxvii 21.) let them be so on thine. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee, Psalm cxxi. 6.

FINIS.