Sathan who was never suffered to tempt me in that kind afterwards God bruised Sathan under my feet and my Lord Jesus Christ made a conquest of him and gave me the Vâ—ctory and helped me to give him the Glory of it The next Year after this I Married a Wife with whom I lived 40 years by whom I had Issue 7 Sons and 3 Daughters who was a Holy Discreet Woman and a meet Help for me in the ways of her Houshold and also in the way of Holiness who was my companion in all my Sufferings Travels and Hardships that we endured for the Gospel She departed this Life the 30th of April 1671. in full Assurance of Eternal Life and Salvation Presently after I was Married I was convinced of some things about the Worship of God which I had conformed unto to be sinful to wit the Surplice the Cross in Baptism and admitting wicked persons to the Lords Supper whereupon I resigned my Living to the Bishop who offered me a better Living I told him I could not conform any longer and would do nothing but preach which he connived at for two or three Years Shortly after I was convinced that my Ordination received from the Bishop was not right and thô I had preached some years by Virtue of that Ordination I had not received any Seal from Christ of my Ministry for thô many had been reformed and moralized yet I knew not that I had been Instrumental to convert any Souls to God And thereupon I renounced that Ordination and silenced my self resolving not to preach any more untill I had a clear Call and Commission from Christ to preach the Gospel And to that end I gave my self to Prayer day and night for several weeks together and at last being at Prayer in a Wood at Woodenderby in Lincoln-shire where I had preached before and prayed with loud cries and tears that Christ would count me worthy and put me into the Ministry and shew me how to glorifie God in the Ministry and thô I was much melted and enlarged in Prayer at that time yet I had no answer from the Lord After Prayer I walked and meditated under the Wood-side till Sun-set and then went homeward resolved not to preach till the Lord made my call to that great Work of preaching the Gospel clear to me And as I was going home an answer of my Prayers was given to me in these words Go to Mr. Wheelwright and he shall tell thee and shew thee how to glorifie God in the Ministry but I heard no voice nor did I see any Vision only those words were plainly and articulately spoken into my Ears and Understanding At which I was astonished and said Lord let me not be deluded nor deceived then was brought to my mind that passage of Cornelius sent to Peter who should tell him what he should do whereupon I was fully perswaded it was an answer of my Prayets from the Lord and I was filled with such joy that I went on my way rejoycing leaping and praising God The next Morning going to seek out Mr. Wheelwright who was a silenced Minister whom I had heard of by some Christians that he had been Instrumental to convert many Souls but I knew him not nor did I know where he was but I was resolved to find him out for I had heard that he was near Lincoln about 25 miles from me where he lived privately And as I was getting up on Horseback one of my Neighbours coming by asked me whither I was riding to whom I said I did not certainly know I was going to Mr. Wheelwright who was as I heard about Lincoln No sald he Mr. Wheelwhright and his Family came to dwell at a Village which was but three miles from my house for said he I saw him come thither but three nights since with his Family and houshold goods in a Coach and a Wagon Thither I rid presently and found it so and I told Mr. Wheelwright that yesternight I was praying as before and was sent unto him by the Lord c. And after he had asked me many things about the Work of God upon my Soul and I had told him he said I could not glorifie God neither in the Ministry nor in any other way or Work for I was building my Soul upon a Covenant of Works and was a stranger to the Covenant of Grace At which I was startled troubled and somewhat amazed but I told him I was assured God had sent me to him and by his mouth I should be instructed how to glorifie God in the Ministry of the Gospel and I did earnestly intreat and beseech him to apply himself to give me his Counsel and directions touching that Matter Then Mr. Wheelwright opened to me the Nature of the Covenant of Free Grace which I confessed to him I was a stranger to in a great measure having bin only under legal Convictions and a Spirit of Bondage and tho' I had some discoveries of my want of Christ yet I had sought Righteousness as it were by the Works of the Law and got my peace by performing duties and rested on them Mr. Wheelwright desired me to consider what he had said to me and to come to him 2 or 3 days after So I left him at that time and went home exceeding sorrowful about my Souls Condition but I gave my self to Prayer and begged of God to teach me the Covenant of Grace and to that end I searched the Scriptures and I heard one Mr. How preach upon Gal. 2.20 I live by the Faith of the Son of God whereby I saw that I had lived a Life of Works and not of Faith Then I began to see a necessity of believing in Christ for pardon and Salvation and hearing the Minister say that Christ was the Author Root and only Foundation of Saving Faith and that God did give the Faith of Evidence Heb. 11.1 in some New Covenant Promise Gal. 3.14 and that those Promises were given of God 2 Pet. 1.4 I prayed that Night and next Morning and in the night season that God would give me such a promise The next day I locked my self in the Church and in the Chancel or Quire so called I prayed very earnestly mourning and bemoaning my self and my Souls Condition fearing and with great brokenness of Spirit and many tears expressed my fears that God would leave me and forsake me and then I should utterly perish for ever And then that promise Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee was given me which Promise stopt me a little in Prayer and I brake forth into this kind of Expostulation with God saying Lord who am I I am a vile sinful Sinner the chief of Sinners most unworthy of Pardon and Salvation How Lord never leave me nor forsake me O infinite Mercy Oh Free Grace who am I I have bin a graceless Soul a formal Professor a legal performer of Holy Duties and have gone about to establish mine own Righteousness
The true Effigies of the late Reverend Divine Mr. HANSERD KNOLLIS Aetatis suae 93. F. H. van Hove sculp 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. VVilliam Kiffin To which is added His last Legacy to the Church LONDON Printed for John Harris at the Harrow in the Poultrey 1692. 〈…〉 FUIMUS The Right honble Charles Viscount Bruce of Ampthill Son Heir Apparent of Thomas Earl of Ailesbury Baron Bruce of Whorleton THE EPISTLE TO THE READER IT was the special Charge God gave to his people of old that the many signal Provioences and Mercies that they had received from him should by them be recorded and left to their Childrens Children to that end that the memorial of his goodness might cause them to love and fear his Name and therefore they are required to bless the Lord from the Fountain of Israel from the very beginning of all his Favours towards them and it is no small favour the Servants of God are made partakers of that his people of old have left so many testimonies of the gracious goodness and Providences of God towards them they being a means to strengthen the Faith of his People in a dependency upon him in all those variety of dispensations that do attend them in this World that whatever troubles they meet withall in this Life they may know that God deals no otherwise with them than be hath done to those that formerly have feared his Name and may be comforted with the same comforts and supports which his Servants formerly have received from God The Author of these ensuing Experiences was that ancient and faithful Servant of God Mr. Hanserd Knollys who departed this Life in the 93d year of his Age having bin employed in the Works and Service of Christ as a faithful Minister for above 60 Years in which time he laboured without fainting under all the discouragements that attended him being contented in all conditions tho' never so poor in this World under all persecutions and sufferings so he might therein serve his blessed Lord and Saviour I have my self known him for above 54 years and can witness to the Truth of many things left by him under his own hand st is great pity that the last 20 years of his Life cannot be found amongst his Writings which to the knowledge of many were attended with the same fufferings as formerly and with the same holy Behaviours under them he in that time was a Prisoner in the New-Prison for the Truths sake many months where with great chearfulness he remained comforting and encouraging all that came to visit him with many blessed Exhortations to cleave to the Lord none were sent empty away without some spiritual Instructions and many of his Fellow-prisoners were greatly strengthened and comforted by that heavenly Counsel that dropped from his lsps spending much of his time there in Prayer and Study of the Word of God daily preaching to them the things that concern the Kingdom of God He was chosen an Elder to a Congregation in London with whom he laboured for near 50 years under many difficulties that dsd attend him but neither the poverty of the Church nor the Persecutions that attended him were any temptation to him to neglect his Duty towards them but was willing to be poor with them in their poverty and to suffer with them in their sufferings being willing to labour for his own and his Families Bread by keeping a School when they were not able to supply his wants altho he wanted not opportunity to have advanced himself in the World if he would have accepted of them but like a faithful Pastor he chose rather to be poor and suffer affliction than to leave the Duty and Work he was called unto in which he was employed untill he arrived to the age of above Ninety years and when he found weaknesses attend him his love and affection to that poor Church was such that he was daily exercising his thoughts to have an able Minister for them in his room declaring to several of his Friends what great satisfaction it would be to him to see one settled amongst them and that he would be willing to part with something of that little which he had if there was need for his Maintenance of the Church towards the supply of him And it pleased God to provide one for them to his great satisfaction and rejoycing And so great was his natural affection and tender care for his Daughter and Grand-children who he knew were like to come to some distress that he did accordingly at that great Age again undertake the Teaching of a School that he might do to the uttermost of his ability to provide for them And having finished his Work he fell asleep in the Lord the 19th of September 1691. That these Experiences may be of use to all those that read the same is the Desire and Prayer of Thine in the Lord William Kiffin THE LIFE and DEATH OF Mr. Hanserd Knollys I Hanserd Knollys was Born at Calkwell near Loweth in Lincoln-shire and was removed thence with my Parents to Schartho near Market Grymsby in the same County About the sixth Year of my Age I fell into a great Pond and was preserved from being drowned by the water bearing up my Coats till my Father came leaped in and pulled me out About the tenth Year of my Age I having construed the 35th chap. of Jeremiah in my Latin Bible to my Father he took occasion to disswade me from the love and use of strong Drink and said he would give me 20 l. if I would drink water but withall told me he would not have me do it to the prejudice of my Health and charged me to make no Vow to God so to do for I did not understand how Sacred a thing a Vow is and how it did bind the Soul and it would be Sin not to perform my Vow whereupon I drunk water eleven years and never in all that time drank any Wine nor strong Drink About that time my Father kept a Tutor in his House to teach me and my Brother who was a godly and conscientious Young Man He gave us good Instructions for our Souls and convinced us of the Sin of Sabbath-breaking and of Disobedience to our Parents After my Father had preferred our Tutor to a place of greater Profit we went a little while to Grymsby Free-School till my Father got another Tutor for us into his House and one day going to the Free-School we fell out and fought upon which I was much convinced that we had sinned against God and against our Father who had often told us we were Brethren and ought not to Fall out by the way And I said Brother we have sinned come let us be Friends
Bodies of several persons who were suddainly restored to health immediately in time of Prayer with them or by and through Faith in Jesus Christ especially in this City of London and of the Sickness called the Plague both in former years and in the year 1665. Not to me but to God be given Glory and praise for in his Name through Faith in his Name they were healed 3. By inabling me standing by me and strengthning me by his Holy Spirit and sanctifying Grace to preach the Gospel in season and out of season with all boldness neither being ashamed nor afraid to bear my Testimony for Christ his Gospel Churches Ministry Worship and Ordinances against the Antichristian Powers Ministers Worshippers and Traditions of the Beast the great mystical Whore and the false Prophet Nor have I been terrified by the Adversary By virtue of the Acts of Parliament touching private Meetings and Conventicles Commencing May the 10th 1670. I was taken at a Meeting in George-yard and the then Lord Mayor committed me to the Compter in Bishops gate for preaching there but having Favour in the Eyes of the Keepers I had liberty to preach to the Prisoners there twice every day of the Week in the common Hall where most of the Prisoners came and heard me and some of them blessed God that ever I came to that Prison Soon after I was set at Liberty at the Sessions in Old-Baily God made me his Prisoner by a sharp and painful Distemper in my Bowels called the griping of the Guts and he brought me near to the Grave But in time of my greatest Extremity God remembred Mercy forgave mine Iniquity healed my Disease and restored my Life from Death No Tongue can express my pains yet God gave me much patience wherein I possessed my Soul I had 1. A very clear Discovery from the Lord of the Cause why he so contended with me one was the meritorious Cause of some former Visitations and especially of this sore Disease 2. I saw the Sin of my sinful Nature which was not so Crucified as that it was destroyed but I found some motions of it of late stirring in my sinful heart The Sence of this was a very sore burden and trouble to my Soul in this day of my Calamity for which I mourned in secret before the Lord and lay at the Throne of Grace loathing my self and begging that God would kill that Sin and destroy it and all the rest of my Sins And received this answer his Grace was sufficient for me he had pardoned and he would subdue and destroy that and all other mine Iniquities according to his everlasting Covenant of free Grace Satan was sometimes very busy during this time of Sickness and tempted me sorely in the Night season sometimes suggesting to me that I was but an Hypocrite at other times that my Evidences for Heaven were not good whom God helped me to resist steadfastly in the Faith and he fled away Another cause why the Lord now contended with me was for the Tryal and Exercise of my Graces which he had given me It was the Tryal of my Faith and the exercise of my Patience and that I might be to his praise and an example unto weak Believers whose Eyes were upon me and were observing and hearkning how I did behave my self under all the great Rebukes and Chastisements of the Lord upon me For they had heard that God had taken one Grand-Child away by Death and Visited another who was above 16 years old with the Small-pox and she was likely to die and one Son died and was Buried during my Sickness and mine Eldest Son was dead and Buried in the Country whereof I was told before I was Recovered my other Sons Wife had sore Labour a Dead-Man-Child and she likely to die And my dear loving Wife then began to be sorely afflicted with a pain and swelling in her Face of which she since Died. But God did give a proportionable measure of Faith and Patience to me his poor unworthy Servant under all this his fatherly Chastisements He did strengthen me with strength in my Soul and upheld me with the right hand of his Righteousness so that I fainted not nor was I weary His Rod and his Staff did comfort me He brought out my Will unto a free Submission Subjection and Resignation to his own most wise and holy Will Yea my Facher's Visitations did so preserve my Soul that I did sing and rejoyce under the sights and smiles of Christ even whilst I was sighing and sorrowing for my transgressions Two learned well practised and judicious Doctors of Physick had daily visited me and consulted my Cure sereral days together and I was fully perswaded that they did what possibly they could to effect a Cure And knew also that God did not succeed their honest and faithful Endeavours with his Blessing Although God had given a signal and singular Testimony of his special Blessing by each of them unto others of their Patients at least sixteen at the same time I resolved to take no more Physick but would apply to that holy Ordinance of God appointed by Jesus Christ the great Physician of value Jam. 5.14 15. And I got Mr. Kiffin Mr. Vavasor Powel who prayed over me and anointed me with Oyl in the Name of the Lord And the Lord did hear Prayer and heal me For there were very many godly Ministers and gracious Saints that prayed day and night for me with submission to the Will of God that the Lord would spare my life and heal me and make me more useful and serviceable to the Lord to the Church and to the Saints whose Prayers God heard and as an Answer of their Prayers I was perfectly healed but remained weak long after My dear Wife remained weak and full of pain and was very greatly afflicted with pain day and night but the Lord gave her a great measure of Faith and Patience even to the end She enjoyed the Light of Gods Countenance had full Assurance of Gods Love the Pardon of her Sins and of eternal Life And having patiently endured six months sore pains upon the thirtieth of the second month called April 1671. being the Lords Day about four or five a clock slept in Jesus I was doing my Masters Work at that time in the Congregation and toward the end of my Sermon had a strong impulse upon my Spirit That my dear Wife was departing and in my Prayer after Sermon was drawn forth by Faith to commend her to God that gave her me and blessed him for receiving her Soul into Abrahams bosom and placing her among the Spirits of just men made perfect in the Paradise of God Since the death of my dear Wife it hath pleased God to stretch forth his Hand upon my only Son then living and to afflict him with a deep Consumption occasioned as I judge by Grief for his dearly loving and beloved Mother for he drooped ever since she first was taken ill of