deſireth to rejoice in being brought into ⟨conformity⟩ with my bleſſed Head, and ſo bleſſed a company, in this thing; ſo I deſire and pray, that I may be ⟨to⟩ none of you to-day, upon this account, a ſtone of ſtumbling, or a rock of offence. Bleſſed is he that ſhall not be offended at Jeſus Chriſt, and his poor ſervants and members, becauſe of their being condemned as evil-doers by the world. God is my record, that in theſe things for which ſentence of death hath ⟨paſſed⟩ againſt me, I have a good conſcience. I bleſſ God, they are not matters of compliance with ſectaries or deſigns, or practices, againſt his majeſty’s perſon ⟨or⟩ government, or the perſon and government of his royal father; my heart, I bleſs God, is conſcious to no diſloyalty, nay, loyal I have been, and I commend it to you to be loyal, and obedient in the Lord. ⟨True⟩ piety is the foundation of true loyalty: a wicked man may be a flatterer, and a time-ſerver, but he will never be a loyal ſubject. But to return to my purpoſe the matters for which I am condemned, are ⟨matters⟩ belonging to my calling and function, as a miniſter of the goſpel, ſuch as the diſcovery and reproving of ſin, the preſſing and the holding faſt of the path of God in the covenant, and preſerving and carrying or the work of religion and reformation according thereto, and denying to acknowledge the civil magiſtrate as the proper competent immediate judge, in causes eccleſiaſtical: that in all theſe things, which God ſo ordering by his gracious providence, are the grounds of my indictment and death, I have a good conſcience as having walked therein according to the light and rule of God’s word, and as did become a miniſter of the goſpel.
I do alſo bleſs the Lord, that I do not die as one not deſired. I know, that by not a few, I neither have been, nor am deſired. It has been my lot to be a man of contention and ſorrow; but it is my comfort, that for my own things I have not contended but for the things of Jeſus Chriſt! for what relateth to his interest and work, and the well-being of his people.
