And truly, I must say, that though God had visibly cloathed him with
a divine preference and authority, and indeed his very presence
expressed a religious majesty, yet he never abused it, but held his
place in the church of God with great meekness, and a most engaging
humility and moderation. For upon all occasions, like his blessed
Master, he was a servant to all, holding and exercising his eldership
in the invisible power that had gathered them, with reverence to the
head and care over the body, and was received only in that spirit and
power of Christ, as the first and chief elder in this age; who as he
was therefore worthy of double honour, so for the same reason it was
given by the faithful of this day; because his authority was inward
and not outward, and that he got it and kept it by the love of God
and power of an endless life. I write my knowledge and not report,
and my witness is true, having been with him for weeks and months
together on divers occasions, and those of the nearest and most
exercising nature, and that by night and by day, by sea and by land,
in this and in foreign countries: and I can say I never saw him out
of his place, or not a match for every service or occasion.
For in all things he acquitted himself like a man, yea a strong man,
a new and heavenly-minded man. A divine, and a naturalist, and all
of God Almighty's making. I have been surprised at his questions and
answers in natural things, that whilst he was ignorant of useless
and sophistical science, he had in him the foundation of useful and
commendable knowledge, and cherished it everywhere. Civil beyond all
forms of breeding in his behaviour; very temperate, eating little and
sleeping less, though a bulky person.
Thus he lived and sojourned among us, and as he lived so he died,
feeling the same eternal power that had raised and preserved him
in his last moments. So full of assurance was he that he triumphed
over death; and so even to the last, as if death were hardly worth
notice or a mention: recommending to some with him the dispatch and
dispersion of an epistle, just before written to the churches of
Christ, throughout the world, and his own books; but above all,
friends, and of all friends those in Ireland and America, twice over:
saying, Mind poor friends in Ireland and America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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