XXXIII. Bulstrode Whitlock, has left his own character in his "Memoirs of English affairs;" a book that shows both his employments and greater abilities. He was almost ever a commissioner and companion with those great men that the lords and commons of England, at several times, appointed to treat with King Charles I. for a peace. He was commissioner of the great seal, ambassador to the crown of Sweden, and sometimes president to the council: a scholar, a lawyer, a statesman; in short, he was one of the most accomplished men of the age. Being with him sometimes at his own house in Berkshire, where he gave me that account I have related of chancellor Oxenstiern, amongst many serious things he spoke, this was very observable, "I have ever thought," said he, "there has been one true religion in the world, and that is the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts and souls of men. There have been indeed divers forms and shapes of things, through the many dispensations of God to men, answerable to his own wise ends, in reference to the low and uncertain state of man in the world; but the old world had the Spirit of God, for it strove with them; and the new world has had the Spirit of God, both Jew and Gentile, and it strives with all; and they that have been led by it, have been the good people in every dispensation of God to the world. And I myself must say, I have felt it from a child to convince me of my evil and vanity, and it has often given me a true measure of this poor world, and some taste of divine things; and it is my grief I did not more early apply my soul to it. For I can say, since my retirement from the greatness and hurries of the world, I have felt something of the work and comfort of it, and that it is both ready and able to instruct, and lead and preserve those that will humbly and sincerely hearken to it. So that my religion is the good Spirit of God in my heart; I mean, what that has wrought in me and for me." And after a meeting at his house, to which he gave an entire liberty for all that pleased to come, he was so deeply affected with the testimony of the light, spirit, and grace of Christ in man, as the gospel dispensation, that after the meeting closed in prayer, he rose up, and pulled off his hat, and said, "This is the everlasting gospel I have heard this day: and I humbly bless the name of God, that He has let me live to see this day, in which the ancient gospel is again preached to them that dwell upon the earth."