A47565:53
The life and death of that old disciple of Jesus Christ and eminent minister…
The life and death of that old disciple of Jesus Christ and eminent minister of the Gospel Mr. Hanserd Knollys who dyed in the ninety third year of his age written with his own hand to the year 1672 ; and continued in general in an epistle by Mr. William Kiffin.
London: printed for John Harris, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Letter: Mr. Knollys's last Legacy to the Church, written a little before his Death.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Nevertheless, I must in Love and Faithfulness to your precious and gracious Souls, (holy and beloved,) tell you of some things, not to shame you, (for I my self am found guilty as well as you, and more than some of you,) but to warn you, and to counsel you, (as a Father doth his Children,) and they are these.
First, That several of us are fallen in some degree, from our first Love, cooled in our Spiritual Affections to Jesus Christ, and to the Saints. —Must not you and I confess, that it is not with us now, as it was in the day of our first Espousals? God the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit remembers it. Jer. 2.1, 2. And we should remember from whence we are fallen, and should say, I will go and return unto my first Husband, for then was it better with me, than now, Hos. 2.7. Rev. 2.4, 5.
Now the first part of my Counsel, which I desire to take and receive from Christ, and to give unto you, my dearly beloved Brethren and Sisters, who are convinced, and have confessed it before the Lord, on several days of Fasting and Prayer.