A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

REV. ROBERT BOLTON.xxxixthe excellency of Christ, he would now describe tothem for their encouragement what comforts he foundin trusting to the Redeemer. " Alas!" said he, " doyou look for that of me now, that want breath andpower to speak. I have told you enough in my lifetime: but to give you satisfaction, I am by the wonderfulmercies of God as full of comfort as my heartcan hold, and feel nothing in my soul but Christ, withwhom I heartily desire to be."The night before he died, he was informed that someof his dearest friends were around him to take their lastfarewell :he rose up in his bed, and shaking them all bythe hand, prayed heartily for them, and desired them tomake sure of heaven ; to bear in mind what he had toldthem in his ministry, and assured them that the doctrinewhich he had preached to them by the space of twentyyears was the truth of God. Desiring to be laid downagain he spoke no more till the next morning, when hetook the last leave of his wife and children, and blessedthem all ; and that day in the afternoon about fiveo'clock, the 17th day of December 1631, in the sixtiethyear of his age, he entered into his heavenly rest.Thus terminated the career of this truly valuableman. It seems to have been his happiness to pass histime in rest and quietness, although England generallywas the scene of religious contention. This exemptionfrom annoyance and reproach he owed not to a neutralitywhich complies with, or to a timidity whichevades commotions. He sustained a prominent anddecided part in the contentions of his times, but passedthrough them invulnerable to the attacks of calumny,owing to the eminent pureness of his motives, and thedirection of all his conduct by a sanctified and enligh-